OVERVIEW

My period of interest has always been the Revolutionary Era and long nineteenth century, from 1763 through 1919, and the cultural response to the onset of modernity. Through my opportunity as a fellow at the New York State Museum, my research and writing narrowed to my dissertation, titled “Nature is a Sovereign Remedy: Thomas Cole and the Transformation of Culture in the Early Republic,” which received an advance contract from SUNY Press. 

This work afforded an opportunity to consider broad issues in cultural and environmental history through the intimate perspective of the leading painter in the northern antebellum republic. From his youth in industrial Lancashire to his most remote wilderness travels, in the Adirondacks, Cole's life illustrates the intersection of Republican ideology, Romantic technique, and his belief that nature aesthetics must play an essential cultural role in fostering democratic society.