Chaos and clairvoyance : Apollo in Asia Minor and in the apocalypse

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Indian Warriors and Pioneer Mothers: American Identity and the Closing of the Frontier in Public Monuments, 1890-1930

At the end of the 19th century, Americans heralded the end of the westward march across the continent. The West had been won. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner put it best when in 1893 he proclaimed:"And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history."Long understood as a geographically remote wilderness where the epic struggle between "civilized" and "savage" would determine the fate of America's future, suddenly the frontier defined the nation's past. Previous scholars, in examining the work of artists, writers, entertainers, and others, have explored how certain individuals fashioned a nostalgic legacy of western expansion at this moment in the nation's history.My dissertation charts new territory in this field by exploring how Americans nationwide fashioned a legacy of western expansion in an assemblage of works of art neglected until now, sculptural monuments erected in public space. In so doing, it provides a fresh understanding of the nation's defining legend, the myth of the frontier, and how this myth corresponds to the history upon which it is based.By employing the Smithsonian Institution American Art Museum Inventory of American Sculpture to examine the entire range of public monuments commemorating western expansion from 1890-1930, my study provides an unprecedented synthesis on this topic. Inventory research revealed one striking pattern--monuments focused overwhelmingly on two figures, the Indian and the pioneer. It also led to one surprising finding--while represented as combatants in the battle for the continent in the 19th century, both figures would be remembered heroically in the wake of western expansion, each the foundation upon which citizens would construct American identities in the early-20th century.Thus, in a series of case studies complementing my Smithsonian Inventory research, my dissertation examines the life of two mythic American figures, the Indian and the pioneer, and how these figures were used to fashion a legacy of western expansion in a rich array of artifacts including public sculptures, minted coins, and memorial highways

A report on an internship with the National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana

From May 28, 2002 to August 20, 2002, I served as an intern in the collections department at The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. The National D-Day Museum (NDDM) is a 501(c) (3) history museum that specializes in the amphibious invasions of World War II. The institute is very new, opening in 2000, and has experienced an unpredictable amount of success and acclaim. This rapid success and growth has created unique challenges for the organization as it tries to develop. The following paper is broken into five chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 1 is an introduction to NDDM, including its history, mission, organizational structure, funding and programs. Chapter 2 is a description on my internship that includes tasks and responsibilities. Chapter 3 discusses the major problem that the collections department faces (lack of staff) and Chapter 4 gives a recommendation on how to solve this problem. Chapter S discusses my effect on the organization and the paper ends in a conclusion of the organization and my experiences

The BIM process for the architectural heritage: New communication tools based on AR/VR Case study: Palazzo di Città

The present study aims at presenting the application of the Building Information Modeling methodology to the case study of Palazzo di Città, the Turin City Hall, investigating the possibilities of integration of new technologies in Cultural Heritage preservation and valorization. From the survey phase to the communication of the CH to end-users, BIM methodology, combined with the latest digital innovations (AR, VR, 3d Laser Scanner and much more), allows a fast and highly communicative representation of buildings to both professionals and common visitors who interact with the building life-cycle. An important objective of this work is moreover to demonstrate the advantages of adopting and integrating this technologies in Real Estate Management at a national scale, fully testing the adaptability of parametric software and Virtual Reality modeling to complex and highly decorated buildings, confirming the potentiality of BIM software upon an uncommon field: the historic buildings. The case study is in fact Palazzo di Città, the baroque, seventieth century City Hall of Turin. The research fully meets the latest directives of European Union and other International Organizations in the field of digitization of archives and Public Property management, participating to the international community effort to overcome the contemporary deep Construction Field crisis. In particular, the methodology has been focused and adapted to the protection and management of our huge Heritage, founding its objectives on the quest of cost-saving processes and instruments, applied to the management of a CH. Through BIM it is in fact possible to increase the communication and cooperation among all the actors involved in the building life-cycle behaving as a common working platform. Draws, 3D model and database are shared by all the actors and integrated in the same digital structure, where control tools and cooperation can prevent the designers from errors, saving time and money in the construction phase. The particularity of the case study, Palazzo di Città, being contemporarily a CH, a public asset and a working space, allows a deep study of the possibilities of BIM applied to a complex building, touching very important aspects of a historic building management: digitization of the historic information, publication of modeling techniques of complex architectonical elements, transformations reconstruction, energy consumption control, Facility Management, dissemination, virtual reconstructions of the lost appearance and accessibility for people with sensory and motor impairments. Moreover, the last chapters of the study focus on the fruition of this paramount Turin CH, making available for all kind of people interesting and not well known aspects of the history of the building and of the city itself. This part of the research suggests a methodology to translate static 2d images and written descriptions of a CH into living and immersive VR environment, presenting in an interactive way the transformation of the Marble Hall, once called Aula Maior: the room where the Mayor meets his citizens. Besides the aspects related to the valorization and preservation of the CH, the study reserves considerable space to the deepening of technical aspects involving advanced parametric modeling techniques, use of BIM software and all the vital procedures necessary to the generation of an efficient management informative platform. The whole work is intended as a guide for future works, structuring a replicable protocol to achieve an efficient digitization of papery resources into a 3d virtual model

Mourning jewellery in England, c.1500-1800

PhD Thesis Images have been removed from electronic copy due to copyright issues. The images are included in the print version of this thesis which can be requested via the library catalogueThis thesis explores the historical importance and social function of memorial jewellery within the funerary and mourning cultures of early modern England. Mourning jewellery represented a particularly distinctive facet of mourning and funerary ritual and etiquette, and this study reveals the customary role which mourning jewellery grew to occupy, as a method for the memorialisation and commemoration of the dead, over the course of three centuries, c.1500- 1800. The thesis introduces and defines the broad parameters of the primary research, with a discussion of the source materials employed, including the creation of a database which analysed a large body of wills from Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey, as a means of understanding the place which mourning jewellery occupied within the funerary and remembrance strategies of early modern testators. Beginning with the material objects themselves, the following two chapters provide a chronological overview of the jewellery itself, looking at what kinds of pieces were actually being produced and utilised, introducing form and fashions, and detailing evolving stylistic modes, conventions, and decorative motifs. Placing these material markers within their proper social, cultural, and economic contexts offers a greater understanding of the customary function of mourning jewellery as a whole and the ways in which it was bequeathed and utilised as a means of mourning and commemorating the dead. The fourth chapter offers an insight into the types of people who were typically giving and receiving mourning jewellery, and how the processes, functions, and relationships, which lay behind these exchanges, actually worked in practice. The fifth chapter assesses the overall significance and widespread popular impact of mourning jewellery as a whole, both socially and over time, within the funerary provisions and customary remembrance strategies of testators and the bereaved. The role, significance, and import of mourning jewellery fluctuated according to its employment; it lay within an intricate web of attachments and obligations, ritual and observance, mourning and memory. The final part of the thesis ends by providing some insight into this process, looking at the ways in which mourning jewellery was used in practice and the prospective lifecycle of such objects. It also deals with thornier issues surrounding contemporary emotional responses towards death and loss, observing how mourning jewellery operated, why it was used, and whether it could provide any comfort for the bereaved.AHR

The Spatial Agency of the Catacombs: An Analysis of the Interventions of Damasus I (305-384)

Damasus I (305-384) ascended to the office of the Bishop of Rome after a bitter and bloody battle with Ursinus in 366 CE. The violence was a culmination of doctrinal squabbles and power contests which erupted in the Roman church over the course of the fourth century. Damasus engaged in a substantial program of physical renovation and enlargement of martyr sites and personally penned numerous epigrams both extolling the virtue of the honored dead and the patronage of the bishopric. Scholarship related to Damasus and his works is typically narrowly focused, considering motive(s) for his actions, his use of specific architecture and/or materials, the content of his epigrams, etc. This dissertation expands the analysis to synthesize elements of space and architectural theory, sensory theory, and anthropological issues to fully explore the impact of his works related to martyr sites on the minds and bodies of pilgrims visiting such sites during martyr festival. The bishop’s interventions at the catacomb of Callistus serve as a prime example of his use of architectural features, materials, decoration, and rhetoric to forge a distinct collective memory for visitors to the space – memory that was both manifestly Christian and manifestly Roman. Damasus’ use of materials and architectural features redefined the catacomb as monumental space. His proscription of physical movement and the stunning impact of the performance of his epigrams, combined with the sights, sounds, and smells within the space engaged the visitors’ senses to incite synesthesia and visceral seeing toward an encounter with the divine. These elements--catacomb-as-monument and synesthesia--provided visitors a shared visceral experience, which cemented a message of unity and a distinct collective identity for the fracturing Roman Christian community