Author Archives: maplesms

“America” at the Digital Public Library

by Mallory Maples

First and foremost: while I actually enjoy browsing through historical works of art, fiction, and even things like legal documents, I couldn’t help but find myself feeling frustrated during this assignment. There is just so much that I could look for, so many topics and themes that I wanted to cover. 

 I typically use JSTOR for many of my other research-based assignments and have always struck gold there, but Artstor just didn’t really lend me the same success. With that in mind, I decided to check out the Digital Public Library of America; I had some better luck there, thankfully! I ended up not checking out the other databases suggested for this assignment, but since I feel I could benefit from them in the future, I’ve put the proverbial pin in them for further study. 

For this assignment, I was interested in looking into more artistic depictions of America, especially personified ones. We have discussed some American-centered art in the course on several occasions, which is what initially piqued my interest. The practice of personifying countries is endlessly fascinating to me, so I chose a “Lady America” type piece to write about (pictured above!) 

The artwork, and engraving, was created by Rudolph Ackermann in 1801, just at the turn of the century. The title is, aptly, “America,” and we see the subject in the center of a teal background: a pale woman, done in a Grecian style, garbed in the clothes of a Native American. Two cherubs are pictured, one attending the lady and placing a feathered crown on her head, the other hunter a moose in the background. 

The association of North America with the Native Americans has been such a recurring theme throughout world history. I mean, they were around before the Europeans, so of course they’d be correlated to their homeland. Aspects of cultural appropriation are seen even in 1800s. I’ve seen other pieces of art where Native American iconography is correlated with North America. 

Additionally, and on a lighter note: I found the fact that a moose was included amusing. Of all the animal imagery, I would not expect a moose. Of course, my first impression when it comes to American animals is always the eagle and the alligator. This was a unique detail, one that ingratiated the piece to me. 

When I’m analyzing imagery like this, I always think about how I could teach it. Since I’m studying to be an English teacher, I like to consider the value in history alongside literature (which is really just a form of art). Being able to analyze artwork like Ackermann’s, to identify themes and then make connections to society and literature, is a crucial practice that can help students understand the world. 

Charleston’s Old, but War is Older

By Mallory Maples!

On Friday, I decided to visit the Charleston Museum off of Meeting Street. I pass by this place every day on my commute to school, so I’d been wanting to go for a while; getting assigned to do this blog post only gave me a reason to visit sooner! I “dragged” my boyfriend along, but since he’s a nerd like me, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and made a date out of it. (Not pictured was the thirty-minute-long game of checkers we played in the kid’s exhibit.) 

The first thing that stood out to me was the fact that this is the country’s first museum! It was founded in 1773, which is right within the time period we’re studying and just before the Revolutionary War began. I love museums, so the fact that my city has the oldest one in the country is super cool to me. This museum, and some of its artifacts, have been in the Charleston Area two hundred-something years and seen both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It’s tough to even fathom that time span, and even tougher to conceptualize that some of the pottery, tobacco pipes, and weaponry I viewed were actually touched and used by people from a different time. 

I spent a lot of time checking out the weapons. I’m typically a blade girl, but there were so many old firearms that I couldn’t help but marvel at such works of destruction. I’ve always thought that conflict runs as deep in the human psyche as love does, and looking at Revolutionary-era weapons just reinforced this sentiment. No matter the time, people will always make things to defend themselves, to hunt prey, or just to cause pain.  

The old artillery (pictured above!) caught my attention most of all. The largest piece, at the far left of the closest row, was 320 pounds. Talk about haunting. I can hardly imagine what kind of havoc it could wreak; that thing could tear chunks out of the side of a battlement or send a platoon of soldiers scattering like bowling pins… And it probably did! Standing a foot away from it, at rest, was humbling.  

Today we think of war as technological, full of counterintelligence, surveillance equipment, and high-stealth aerial bombing runs. Horrible, and much more destructive thanks to technological advances. The American Revolution was a different type of war; in some ways, it was more brutal. People were getting limbs blown off by massive balls of iron and getting stabbed with bayonets, all for a chance to live outside the rule of an oppressive mother-state, on sovereign soil. Preserving mementos from the actual war, the war that earned America her independence from Great Britain, is important because it is, though a chilling one, a reminder of our country’s roots. 

Those pieces of artillery were found throughout the Lowcountry area, on the Charleston peninsula as well as Folly and James Islands. They’re local pieces of history! It would stand to reason they’d be preserved. Charleston sustained constant traffic during the war thanks to its prominent status as a port city, indicating that not only was it an important waypoint in maneuvering American forces, but a prime target for our British foes to assail. During the Revolutionary War, Charleston was a city that experienced many people passing through, and saw a lot of America’s war for freedom.