All aboard: the railroad in American art, 1840-1955

Abstract

All Aboard is a ground-breaking book. Presented thematically the authors cover the environmental impact of the railroad both on the flora and fauna, and on the social landscape; the role of the railroad on the western expansion of the USA, and the lasting and hugely detrimental impact of this on Native American populations. A wide array of comparative images includes archival and historic views, other related artworks and ephemera, as well as a railroad map.0In the early years of the nineteenth century artists including Thomas Cole and George Inness, of the Hudson River School, feared the impact of the railroad on the natural landscape; later artists were inspired by the newly opened-up landscapes of the West, including Albert Bierstadt and Theodore Kaufmann; others like Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Reginald Marsh, George Bellows, and John Sloan, were fascinated by movement of freight and people across the railroad network. Ben Shahn, Tomas Hart Benton, and Joe Jones's portrayals of railroad workers become emblems of the very backbone of America on which the country's social and industrial expansion was built.0Such industrial expansion is captured in the dramatic views of Pittsburgh and mid-west industry in paintings by Otto Kuhler, George Luks, and Charles Sheeler. And finally, there are a raft of artists for whom the railroad was both at the heart of a great new machine age, celebrated in paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin, Joseph Stella, and Charles Goeller, but also the creator of a more lonely and alienated urban industrial world, most strongly captured in Edward Hopper's railroad landscapes.00In association with Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee.

Contents

Foreword and acknowledgement -- Smoke in the wilderness : American landscape painting and the railroad, 1840-1900 / Thomas Busciglio-Ritter -- Industry and urbanization : the railroad and American art in the Progressive Era and beyond / Julie Pierotti -- The lonely rail / Kevin Sharp -- Passengers all : people on the train in American art, 1900-1950 / Thomas Denenberg -- Exhibition checklist -- Bibliography -- Railroad chronology -- Index -- Photo credits.