What Is The People In The Picture To Illustrate American History?

The best teachers of Western Civilization courses have long made use of the European fine arts—painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts—to bring the subject alive to their students. It is perhaps less well recognized that there are many wonderful works of art that can illustrate American history as well. The most rewarding paintings and prints not only make historical events visible but provide students with plenty to talk about. What does the picture tell us about people’s lives, customs, family relationships, and technology? What is the artist’s perspective on the people or actions in the picture? Which of the people in the picture does the artist sympathize with? What do you think the people shown in the painting are saying? Why are certain people in the center of the painting and others on the margin?
They provide us with contemporary images even for historical times before the invention of photography, with the added interest that the painter created the scene to depict people and objects exactly as he or she chose, so we can ask why these choices were made. Genre paintings are certainly not the only kind of paintings useful in studying history, but they have a particular interest for students and teachers, and in this essay I want to show how they can enhance our presentation of the American past. The paintings listed below were all part of the Metropolitan Museum’s