ARTH2205 · Fine Arts

Early American Art

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

In this course we will look at art and visual culture made in what is now the United States from ancient times to around 1800. We will consider visual material representing diverseexperiences, including Native American art before and after contact with Europeans; depictions of early European settlements; and art, architecture, and material culture from the colonial, Revolutionary, and early national periods. Throughout, we will ask what it means to be American both in the past and in our own time.As much as possible, both independently and as a group, we will study works of art in person at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Peabody Essex Museum, and elsewhere.