An International Symposium Convened by the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship
of Scholars in Critical Bibliography. Co-sponsored by the Department of
Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, The Rare Book and
Manuscript Library at Columbia University, The Bibliographical Society
of America, and The American Printing History Association.

From current historical work on material and visual cultures, to
anthropological research on the social life of things and new approaches
to seeing and reading in historical scholarship, the study of the
physical evidence of culture has become a pressing issue. This
interdisciplinary symposium will bring together conservators, curators,
and scholars of art history, literary studies, book history and
bibliography to reflect on the historical relation between materials,
objects, and practices and different forms of visual and textual
production in nineteenth-century America.


PROGRAMS OF SESSIONS

Thursday April 9
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
(Butler Library, Room 523)

12:30 pm
Welcome and introductory remarks

12:45-2:30 pm
Session 1. Inter-Media Translations

Christopher Lukasik (Purdue University), "The Image in the Text"

Margit Peterfy (University of Heidelberg) "The Author's Carnival"

Jennifer Greenhill (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), "An
undictionarial reading of Mark Twain's materialities"

Paul Edwards (University of Paris Diderot), "A Persistent Novelty: The
Multiple Origins of the American Literary Photobook"

Chair: Marie-Stephanie Delamaire (Columbia University)


2:45pm-4:15pm
Session 2. Industrialization of Texts and Images

Michael Leja (University of Pennsylvania): "Almanacs and the ‘Image
Campaign' of 1840"

Todd Pattison (Northeast Document Conservation Center), "Outside
Information: Nineteenth-Century Bookbinding Mistakes"

David Jaffee (Bard Graduate Center), "New York and the Culture of
Capital in the Nineteenth Century"

Chair: Paul Erickson (American Antiquarian Society)

4:15 pm-5:00 pm
Coffee
Rare Book and Manuscript Library Hands-on Session


5:00pm
Keynote

Jennifer Roberts (Harvard University) "Wood-Work"

6:15pm
Reception (Stronach Center, Department of Art History and Archaeology.
Schermerhorn Hall, 8th Floor)

Friday April 10
Department of Art History and Archaeology
Schermerhorn Hall, Room 612

9:30am-10am: Coffee & Pastries

10am
Keynote

Phillip Round (University of Iowa): "Cultural Shorthand: Orthographies
and Sovereignty in Nineteenth-Century Native America"
Respondent: Elizabeth Hutchinson (Barnard College/Columbia University)

12:00-1:30pm
Lunch (on your own)


1:30-3:00pm
Session 3. African-American Book Cultures

Jonathan Senchyne (University of Wisconsin, Madison), "Typography of the
Oppressed: Slavery and Material Culture of Print"

Christopher J. Dingwall (University of Chicago), "Of Black Books and The
Soul of Black Folk: W. E. B. Du Bois, the Memory of Slavery, and the
Racial Commodity"

Dennis Williams "Portraiture and Text in African-American Illustrated
Biographical Dictionaries, 1865-1900"

Chair: Sarah Blackwood (Pace University)

3:00-3:30pm Coffee


3:30-5:00 pm
Session 4. Print in Motion

Layla A. Bermeo (Harvard University), "Borderlands Between Text and
Image: The United States, Mexico, and Mapmaking 1830-1861"

John Garcia (McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of
Pennsylvania) "The Industrial Book and the US Mexican War"

James Berkey (Duke University) "The Folds of War: Soldier Newspapers and
the Materiality of Print"

Chair: David Jaffee (Bard Graduate Center)


All events are free and open to public; please rsvp at:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/materialities-of-american-texts-and-visual-cultures-tickets-16083891352?aff=es2