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150 Years
of Print Collecting at the Smithsonian
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American Images
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Distribution of the American Art-Union Prizes, 1847
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Snipe Shooting
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The Gates of the City
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Morning Shadows
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Woodcutters
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Illinois, Montana, New York
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Speakers Platform
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The Sad Flute Player
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Last Civil War Veteran
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Colonial Americans imported English prints, and early Yankee travelers acquired
European engravings while abroad. During the 19th century, as more Americans
became interested in art, more images became available on the American market.
Exhibitions in major east coast cities provided opportunities to view--and occasionally
to purchase--antique and modern paintings, prints and drawings, sculpture and
decorative arts. Publishers produced popular prints as premiums for periodical and
newspaper subscriptions, and a wide range of pictures entered American homes.
Americans purchased prints for collection and display as part of an increasingly
commercial culture characterized by conspicuous consumption. One of the most
popular publishers was the lithographic firm of Currier & Ives, begun by Nathaniel
Currier in 1835. Their "cheap, popular pictures" of animals, children, and idealized
scenes of everyday life were said to be represented on more American walls than those
of any other publisher.
Beyond an interest in historical Americana, 20th-century print collectors have sought
the works of living artists, images that reflect social issues, regionalism, realism, and
abstraction. The popularity of etchings increased dramatically during the 1880s and
again in the 1920s, and original prints came into many homes through collectors' club
exchanges and exhibitions. Literature for collectors appeared, including periodicals
designed to educate wider audiences. Organizations like the Associated American
Artists, founded in 1934, aggressively marketed current prints through department
stores, exhibitions, and gallery sales, and by mail order. Standard editions of 250
impressions sold for $5.00 each. These changes in production and marketing methods
indicate the 20th-century growth of art as an industry.
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