15.1 Literature, Art, and Science pp. 474-479

Objectives: Discuss the style of American writers and artists. Identify the scientific achievements of Americans.

A. Creating an American Style (p. 474-475) The earliest American writers and artists copied European themes, characters, and settings. But when Andrew Jackson declared himself champion of the “common people” in the 1820s, more American writers and artists turned away from European characters and used American types in their work.

B. American Literature [Tree Map] Antebellum Authors Early Writers Later Writers Women Writers Washington Irving—Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow James Fenimore Cooper-- The Last of the Mohicans Nathaniel Hawthorne-- The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville— Moby Dick Edgar Allan Poe—The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart Margaret Fuller— Women in the Nineteenth Century Catharine Sedgwick, Fanny Fern— “domestic novels” Textbook pages 475-476

Edgar Allen Poe

C. Poets Sing of America (p. 476) The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow created a sense of identity for Americans with the poem Paul Revere’s Ride. New Yorker Walt Whitman attempted to speak for all Americans with his collection of poems called Leaves of Grass. New England’s eccentric Emily Dickinson, who lived in seclusion, was never fully appreciated until after her death, when most of her poetry was discovered.

D. The Influence of Emerson (p. 477) Boston’s Ralph Waldo Emerson declared Americans ready for intellectual independence. Influenced by Emerson, Henry David Thoreau moved to a small cabin where he wrote about nature in a book called Walden. In his essay “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau encouraged people to disobey unjust laws.

E. New American Painters (p. 478) Around 1825 a group of artists called the Hudson River School began specializing in the painting of American landscapes. Other painters, like George Caleb Bingham, were known as genre artists because they depicted everyday American subjects. Pennsylvania’s George Catlin set out to paint every group of Native Americans in North America.

George Catlin’s Art

F. Scientific Advances (p. 478) Maria Mitchell taught herself astronomy and discovered a comet in 1847. Joseph Henry invented an electromagnetic motor and aided in the research of accurate weather predictions. Matthew Maury developed ways to predict winds and ocean tides. Dr. Crawford Long and Dr. William Morton developed a method for using ether as an anesthetic during surgery.

Review: How did American art and literature change after the 1820s? List some important writers of the first half of the 1800s. Who declared Americans ready for intellectual independence? What did Henry David Thoreau stress in his essay “Civil Disobedience”?