The changing face of an expanding America: The City Beautiful Movement, the myth of the frontier, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.
Item
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Title
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The changing face of an expanding America: The City Beautiful Movement, the myth of the frontier, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.
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Identifier
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AAI9630483
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identifier
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9630483
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Creator
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Luftschein, Susan Elise.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Sally Webster
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Architecture | Art History | History, United States | American Studies
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Abstract
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The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in St. Louis from April 30 to December 1, 1904, was a celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, and of America's historical march westward. This dissertation explores two facets of the fair: the reliance on the ideals and practices of the City Beautiful Movement for the creation of its ground plan, and the mythology of the frontier as reflected in its sculptural program.;The ground plan of the exposition was unique; it utilized a fan-shaped plan, which was often referred to in the work of Charles Mulford Robinson, one of the earliest advocates of the City Beautiful Movement, as the ideal type of civic plan. The scale of the fair was also immense; indeed, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, covering 1,240 acres, was the largest world's fair ever held in the United States. That scale enabled the fair's planners to experiment with City Beautiful aesthetics. These experiments were furthered by an exhibit of municipal art held on the grounds, called the Model Street.;The sculptural program, supervised by Karl Bitter, was an integral part of the fair's demonstration of the importance of civic art and municipal planning, two very important aspects of the City Beautiful Movement. It was also a clear and unequivocal demonstration of the mythology surrounding the American frontier, which was perceived at the time to be rapidly disappearing. Many of the sculptors employed by Bitter were responding to two important cultural forces in late nineteenth-early twentieth century American life: historians Frederick Jackson Turner and Theodore Roosevelt. Turner and Roosevelt developed "frontier theses" which were equally responsible for American attitudes towards the West, and which informed the iconographic choices made by Bitter's team of sculptors.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
