Margaret R. Laster – författare

Tastemakers, Collectors, and Patrons explores the dynamic landscape of American art collecting in the United States from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. The geographic range of collecting histories presented in this publication spans the country, including the Eastern Seaboard, the Old South, the Midwest, and the West Coast.In this volume, the contributing scholars investigate individual collectors and collectives whose missions to create regional and national collecting communities in the United States encouraged civic philanthropy in the fine arts. Key themes—such as the creation of an “American” school distinct from, yet rooted in, European tradition as well as the trials of forming publicly supported museums—reverberate throughout the publication. Essays examine early patrons, collectors, and museum founders; the impact of sectionalism, the Civil War, and reform on American collecting efforts; and the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of artists, collectors, and dealers at the turn of the century and beyond. Each section foregrounds different issues, underscoring the complexity of the historical, cultural, and political environments in which collections of American art were formed. Together, the volume traces the evolving taste and market for American art in the United States.In addition to the editors, the contributors include Lynne D. Ambrosini, Sarah Cash, Samantha Deutch, Julie McGinnis Flanagan, Ilene Susan Fort, Barbara Dayer Gallati, Lance Humphries, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Sophie Lynford, Kimberly Orcutt, and Richard Saunders.

Fueled by a flourishing capitalist economy, undergirded by advancements in architectural design and urban infrastructure, and patronized by growing bourgeois and elite classes, New York’s built environment was dramatically transformed in the 1870s and 1880s. This book argues that this constituted the formative period of New York’s modernization and cosmopolitanism—the product of a vital self-consciousness and a deliberate intent on the part of its elite citizenry to create a world-class cultural metropolis reflecting the city’s economic and political preeminence. The interdisciplinary essays in this book examine New York’s late nineteenth-century evolution not simply as a question of its physical layout but also in terms of its radically new social composition, comprising the individuals, institutions, and organizations that played determining roles in the city’s cultural ascendancy.

Fueled by a flourishing capitalist economy, undergirded by advancements in architectural design and urban infrastructure, and patronized by growing bourgeois and elite classes, New York’s built environment was dramatically transformed in the 1870s and 1880s. This book argues that this constituted the formative period of New York’s modernization and cosmopolitanism—the product of a vital self-consciousness and a deliberate intent on the part of its elite citizenry to create a world-class cultural metropolis reflecting the city’s economic and political preeminence. The interdisciplinary essays in this book examine New York’s late nineteenth-century evolution not simply as a question of its physical layout but also in terms of its radically new social composition, comprising the individuals, institutions, and organizations that played determining roles in the city’s cultural ascendancy.