Possible Gift to the University of Tennessee
From: Jefferson Chapman
Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 9:52 AM
Subject: FW: Thank You
To: Graham Arader
As you can see below, we are moving forward with your dream.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Jefferson Chapman
Research Associate Professor
Director, Frank H. McClung Museum
Knoxville, TN
From: Lindsey Joanne Waugh
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 9:36 AM
To: Jefferson Chapman, University of TN
Subject: FW: Thank You
Hi Jeff,
Please see Mary Campbell’s comments below. During dinner last night, she expressed genuine excitement at teaching with the Audubon turkey, a sentiment repeated in her email here.
Cheers,
Lindsey
FORWARDED MESSAGE
From: Mary Campbell
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2014
To: Lindsey Joanne Waugh, Cat Schteynberg
Subject: Thank You
Dear Lindsey and Cat,
Thank you again for inviting me to Denise's lecture and dinner last night. I had a wonderful time. More than that, I'm very excited about all of these new connections that we're forging between my department and the McClung.
In that spirit, here's my latest version of the second part of my Charles Willson Peale lecture. I give versions of this lecture in my nineteenth-century American art class, our department's capstone art history seminar, the section of the American Studies capstone seminar that I teach, and my general survey of Western art history -- a class that satisfies one of the University's general education requirements and consequently seats 90 students at a time. I often have the students read a section of Paul Semonin's American Monster for this lecture. An analysis of, as Semonin writes, "the important role of myth and metaphor in framing our ideas of naturalistic knowledge," the book examines the American mastodon not simply as a paleontological find but instead as a potent symbol for emerging American identity. Working with the Semonin, I endeavor to show the students just how the Founding Fathers and their generation turned to natural history as a means of visualizing their collective national face. As such, my lecture moves from a discussion of the American turkey as a contender for national animal to Jefferson's obsession with the American moose as a physical refutation of Buffon's degeneracy theory to Peale's mastodon itself. (It is, for the record, one of my favorite classes. A real pleasure to teach.)
As you can see from my PowerPoint, my discussion of the turkey remains relatively rudimentary at the moment -- a brief nod, really, before I move on to prehistoric pachyderms and Jefferson's moose fetish. If I were able to show students that phenomenal turkey print that's currently on display at the McClung, however, I would flesh out this part of the discussion significantly. It would be a tremendous asset to so many of my courses to get the chance to show the students the actual physical print as a part of this lecture. I would also try to conscript our printmaking professor Beauvais Lyons to speak to my class about the printmaking process itself. As the world become increasingly abstract and my students increasingly assume that a high-quality digital copy can replace the object itself, this would be a pedagogical luxury of the highest order.
Best,
Mary
Mary Campbell
Assistant Professor
School of Art
University of Tennessee
1715 Volunteer Blvd.
Art & Architecture 242
Knoxville, TN 37920
Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 9:52 AM
Subject: FW: Thank You
To: Graham Arader
As you can see below, we are moving forward with your dream.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Jefferson Chapman
Research Associate Professor
Director, Frank H. McClung Museum
Knoxville, TN
From: Lindsey Joanne Waugh
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 9:36 AM
To: Jefferson Chapman, University of TN
Subject: FW: Thank You
Hi Jeff,
Please see Mary Campbell’s comments below. During dinner last night, she expressed genuine excitement at teaching with the Audubon turkey, a sentiment repeated in her email here.
Cheers,
Lindsey
FORWARDED MESSAGE
From: Mary Campbell
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2014
To: Lindsey Joanne Waugh, Cat Schteynberg
Subject: Thank You
Dear Lindsey and Cat,
Thank you again for inviting me to Denise's lecture and dinner last night. I had a wonderful time. More than that, I'm very excited about all of these new connections that we're forging between my department and the McClung.
In that spirit, here's my latest version of the second part of my Charles Willson Peale lecture. I give versions of this lecture in my nineteenth-century American art class, our department's capstone art history seminar, the section of the American Studies capstone seminar that I teach, and my general survey of Western art history -- a class that satisfies one of the University's general education requirements and consequently seats 90 students at a time. I often have the students read a section of Paul Semonin's American Monster for this lecture. An analysis of, as Semonin writes, "the important role of myth and metaphor in framing our ideas of naturalistic knowledge," the book examines the American mastodon not simply as a paleontological find but instead as a potent symbol for emerging American identity. Working with the Semonin, I endeavor to show the students just how the Founding Fathers and their generation turned to natural history as a means of visualizing their collective national face. As such, my lecture moves from a discussion of the American turkey as a contender for national animal to Jefferson's obsession with the American moose as a physical refutation of Buffon's degeneracy theory to Peale's mastodon itself. (It is, for the record, one of my favorite classes. A real pleasure to teach.)
As you can see from my PowerPoint, my discussion of the turkey remains relatively rudimentary at the moment -- a brief nod, really, before I move on to prehistoric pachyderms and Jefferson's moose fetish. If I were able to show students that phenomenal turkey print that's currently on display at the McClung, however, I would flesh out this part of the discussion significantly. It would be a tremendous asset to so many of my courses to get the chance to show the students the actual physical print as a part of this lecture. I would also try to conscript our printmaking professor Beauvais Lyons to speak to my class about the printmaking process itself. As the world become increasingly abstract and my students increasingly assume that a high-quality digital copy can replace the object itself, this would be a pedagogical luxury of the highest order.
Best,
Mary
Mary Campbell
Assistant Professor
School of Art
University of Tennessee
1715 Volunteer Blvd.
Art & Architecture 242
Knoxville, TN 37920
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