After a long series of blockbuster and quasi-blockbuster exhibitions beginning with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Paradise (1987), now is the perfect time to take a fresh look at the history of the Hudson River School and its offshoots. This session provides an opportunity to assess what has been learned over the past three decades and to explore further the influence of new social formations, new cultural practices, and new technologies of vision on American landscape representation in the period 1800–80. The session welcomes papers on every aspect of the school and its history. Possible topics include but are not limited to the influence of new technologies of vision and representation; relevant cultural practices and discourses; the historiography of the Hudson River School; patronage and the rise of a patron class; and the scholarly debate over Luminism.

Please send a preliminary abstract (1-2 double spaced, typed pages), a Letter of Interest, and current CV to Alan Wallach, The College of William and Mary, axwallwm.edu