Framing the Frontier:
A Day of Lectures in Honor of Alfred L. Bush

Princeton Library Conference to Focus on Photography and the American West

Saturday, April 29, 2006

The Friends of the Princeton University Library will host a day-long
academic conference entitled “Framing the Frontier: A Day of Lectures in
Honor of Alfred L. Bush” on Saturday, April 29, 2006. The conference will
focus on the early photography of the American West and contemporary
issues surrounding its collection, display, and ownership. In the first
panel, Picturing the West, the speakers will explore the place of
photography in early expeditions to the West, in the rise of the western
cityscape, and in Native American consciousness. The speakers in second
panel, Western Americana Photographs in the Archive, will focus on
collecting western photographs, their display in exhibitions, and the
ethics and politics of photographic images in the age of intellectual
property.

The conference will honor Alfred L. Bush, who retired as Curator of
Western Americana in December 2002. Bush voraciously collected photographs
of the American West during his 45-year tenure at Princeton, ultimately
collecting some five thousand photographs that have recently been
cataloged by Heather A. Shannon, who will curate an exhibition of these
photographs that opens on April 29 as well.

The conference program is as follows:

9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.: Ben Primer, Associate University Librarian for
Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library, opening
remarks

10:00 a.m. to noon: Panel I: Picturing the West

Ron Tyler, University of Texas (Austin), “Photography and Early Western
Expeditions: From Frémont to Simpson”

Jenny Watts, Huntington Library, “Camera Work: Photography and the Rise of
Los Angeles”

Mick Gidley, University of Leeds, “Native American Camera Consciousness:
Reading Photographs of American Indians”

Bill Deverell, University of California (Los Angeles), moderator

Noon to 1:00 p.m.: Lunch (a box lunch will be available for $10)

1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Panel II: Western Americana Photographs in the
Archive

George Miles, Yale University Library, "Looking Outside the Frame:
Documenting Photography in the American West"

Anton Treuer, Bemidji State University, “Authenticating Culture: An
Analysis of the Importance of Language in Tribal Exhibitions”

Michael F. Brown, Williams College, "Policing the Shadow Catchers: The
Ethics and Politics of Photographic Images in the Age of Intellectual
Property"

Anne McCauley, Princeton University, moderator

The conference will be followed by a lecture by Martha A. Sandweiss
(Amherst College) at 4:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, and the opening of
the exhibition “Framing the Frontier: Photographers & the American West,
1850-1920” at Firestone Library’s Main Gallery.

Please register for the conference and reserve a box lunch with Linda
Oliveira at (609) 258-3155 or loliveirprinceton.edu.

Heather A. Shannon
Cotsen Project Cataloger
Rare Books and Special Collections
Princeton University Library
1 Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Tel: +1-609-258-3223
hshannonprinceton.edu