Author Archives: Michael

Blog post 2 – Early Revolution Judaism!

by Michael Stein

I used the Digital Public Library of America database, which was super easy to look through. I’m very interested in Judaism, especially in the early American South, and I wanted to look at the images about Judaism that would pop up. I found two that interested me specifically: 

“Gemaskerd bal, by gelegenheid van het Joodsche Purim-Feest,” in English “Masked ball, on the occasion of the Jewish Purim Festival,” which is a Dutch piece by Pieter Wagenaar, Jr., dated 1780. (left)

and 

“A Rabbi dressed for Prayers,” dated 1816, by a man named T. Hamilton, who was probably just the publisher. (right)

These were both engravings, but nearly forty years apart. I sort of assumed that the pictures I might find relating to Judaism would be negative and stereotypical, but it seemed like these pieces are just outsiders trying to understand the social practices and customs of Judaism. The first piece is relevant because it’s on Purim, which just happened this past week. It shows a beautiful scene of a magnificent party, men and women all dancing by candlelight. I will say that it looks a bit creepy, just because it’s in the dark and the way the dancing is drawn looks a bit unnatural, but it seems to be a relatively positive image, and I was surprised to see that they did not have any wildly stereotypical Jewish dress on or anything that labeled them as Jewish other than the title of the engraving.

The other piece I picked was about the Rabbi. This was a bit more interesting to me because I can relate it to myself. I’m what’s called a Reform Jew, meaning that we don’t do a lot of the practices that more conservative branches do, except that recently, I’ve begun to take on more and more of those conservative practices, specifically, wrapping tefillin, which is an everyday commandment. In this picture, we see a Jewish man wearing a tallis (tasseled prayer garment) and tefillin around his head and arms (phylacteries). Although the man looks a little bit cross eyed, it seems like again, this piece was used just as a sort of study and identification piece. 

Both of these pieces could be used to answer questions about religion in the United States in this period. The first piece could answer questions about social life – it’s always important to look at holidays and large scale gatherings like this one, because we want to see how people interact with each other. The second piece could answer questions about the typical dress of a group, which can help us understand how we look at stereotypes and discrimination in the United States today. 

I was expecting to find more anti-Semitic rhetoric in these pieces, but I guess a lot of those stereotypes either had not made it over from Europe yet, or we had a group of researchers who were devoted to telling scientific fact. It’s funny to see how not that much has changed. Just last week, there was a Purim Festival over at the Charleston Aquarium, where we all got together and danced!

Washington and the Gibbes Museum

by Michael Stein:

*The picture on the right I don’t mention at all, but it was about a Black man who was killed in the Boston Massacre. This was pretty much swept under the rug.

Hi everyone! I went to the Gibbes Museum, and the item that I chose was a bust of George Washington. It sounds like it’s not really anything interesting at all, just another picture of one of the Founding Fathers. But there was a reason why I picked it out of many other incredible items (I told them I was there for a project and they had a lady come give me the whole spiel [and the third floor was awesome Black art and Great Depression art]) — Washington was depicted in Roman outfit, with short curled hair like a soldier’s. 

First off, I’m noting that this was an interesting time period where pretty much all the best sculptors were studying in Italy, not America. So, Ceracchi, the artist, had to come to America to make this piece. Its importance to Charleston comes from archaeologist John Middleton, who bought the bust around 1820. He’s apparently important (he has a wikipedia page, although it’s very short). His importance really comes from his family: his father was Continental Congressman Arthur Middleton (who signed the Declaration of Independence), and his older brother was the Governor of SC at one point.

But back to the bust itself: it’s a little weird to see Mr. Washington depicted in this way. I feel like I always see him in his Revolutionary War garb, perched majestically, or dressed in all black with his white hair. So, to see him in a style that, to me, since I’m uneducated in sculptures, reminded me of Caesar, was a bit weird. It reminded me of a very militaristic and strong person, especially someone who loves White western values. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, but I don’t necessary think of Washington as someone like Caesar, even though I guess in many ways they are. That’s really how this visit changed my thoughts. This connection showed me that maybe there’s more to think about when comparing the U.S. to Rome. Also, the poetry that we have been reading was really where this connection started for me. Phillis Wheatley’s “His Excellency General Washington” and Annis Boudinot Stockton’s “Addressed to General Washington” really were where this idea sort of began.

I would say that it’s quite clear why it’s been preserved and displayed — we can never get enough of GW. Concerning Charleston in the late eighteenth century, we can really tell that the wealthy were often still romanticizing the Revolution. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all, and I assume that honestly, most people in the United States were doing this. I don’t think it shows much that’s unique about Charleston — unless you look at this in a bad light. Instead of seeing Washington as we normally see him, we could see him as a power hungry general who pissed enough people off that he was assassinated. I think this is a totally interesting way to look at this piece. There really wasn’t much explanation as to why it was done in this manner, Washington in Roman outfit, but I think that this bad light was not intended.

But that’s just my thoughts. Let me know what you think. I had a great time at the Gibbes, and will definitely go back.