The Art, Architecture, and Literature of the Gilded Age
The 13th Annual Salve Regina University Conference on Cultural and
Historic Preservation
October 15-17, 2009

The term "Gilded Age" is but one of many, such as the Age of Opulence,
Age of Energy, the Brown , Mauve and White decades, and the American
Renaissance, that attempts to characterize a particular period,
c1860-c1910, in American history. Fueled by the great prosperity after
the Civil War, artists, writers, designers, architects and patrons
looked both internally and abroad in an attempt to prove the United
States equal to the Old World. These efforts pervaded all forms of
artistic media, especially art, interior design, architecture,
sculpture, literature and photography. Artistic and literary sources
for the Gilded Age were wide ranging from the American Colonies to
European Renaissances to the orient, and resulted in multi-media
presentations of American supremacy.

Salve Regina University's 13th Annual Conference on Cultural and
Historic Preservation will explore the application of these ideas to the
art, architecture, interior design, decoration, and literature of Gilded
Age epoch. Proposals for papers or panels may examine such subjects as:
the interplay between architecture and literature; the Gilded Age
interior; the exotic and/or oriental interior; European architectural
models; technology and Gilded Age architecture; photography and its role
as a transmitter of architectural ideals; artistic and/or architectural
books; conspicuous consumption and the arts; the role of historic
American architecture in the Gilded Age; patronage; nationalism; and the
challenges in preserving Gilded Age arts, architecture and literature
today. In addition, as the Gilded Age was not everyone’s experience,
papers may also explore related period ideas, such as African-American
art, architecture and literature, immigrant artistic expressions and/or
the relationship between other ethnic or minority groups and the arts.

We welcome submissions from scholars of all academic disciplines, as
well as from younger scholars and graduate students. Proposals should
include 250-word abstracts and CVs. Please send proposals by March 15,
2009, to:

Catherine Zipf
Salve Regina University
100 Ochre Point Ave.
Newport, RI 02840
Catherine.Zipfsalve.edu.