Tastemakers, Collectors, and Patrons: Collecting American Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

This volume focuses on the private motivations and shared beliefs that drove American patrons to assemble holdings of American art from the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth. The essays investigate the contributions of individual collectors and demonstrate how these leaders and the organizations that engaged them searched for national and cultural identity through art. Organized around three themes, the volume examines early patrons, collectors, and museum founders; the impact of sectionalism, Civil War, and reform on American collecting efforts; and American cosmopolitans, moderns, and artist entrepreneurs at the turn of the century. Each section foregrounds different issues, suggesting the complexity of the historical, cultural, and political environments in which collections of American art have been formed. Together, the essays trace the evolving taste for American art in the United States. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Lynne D. Ambrosini, Sarah Cash, Samantha Deutch, Julie McGinnis Flanagan, Ilene Susan Fort, Barbara Dayer Gallati, Lance Humphries, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Sophie Lynford, Kimberly Orcutt, and Richard Saunders.