This lecture follows the
development of transportation from the pre-industrial period to the
introduction of the combustion engine in the early twentieth century. The
Transportation Revolution, as it is sometimes called, encompassed a wide range
of successes and failures, and goes well beyond the introduction of steam
power.
The talk begins with the era of canal building in New York and continues
through to the rise of the railroad all the way to the automobile. The
presentation encompasses an examination of the technological innovations and
ideological shifts that changed transportation and transformed the United
States into a world power. It will also address the central role played by New
York City in this process.
J. Ward Regan has a
Ph.D. in Labor and Cultural History from SUNY Stony Brook. He teaches history
and philosophy at New York University, and has also taught at Pratt Institute
of Art and Design and Bard College. He has been part of the New York Council for
the Humanities Speakers in the Humanities Program since 2003. He has recently
been added as a speaker for the National Endowment for the Humanities on the
Road exhibition Going Places. Additionally, he has worked in off-Broadway
theater and independent film in New York for over fifteen years, and currently
speaks and performs in and around NYC. His one-man show, "A Paranoid’s
Guide to History," recently concluded a successful run off-Broadway.
The American Arts and
Crafts Movement, or "mission," gained popularity as a decorative
style beginning in 1900, and by 1920 had gone out of style. Arts and Crafts,
however, was more than simply a decorative style: it was also a philosophy, an
ethos, a way of living, and significantly, an enormous business. Artists and
manufacturers of objects in the Arts and Crafts style - furniture, ceramics,
metal, lighting, textiles, jewelry - found like-minded creators in a few U.S.
locations. Among the most significant centers of creativity for Arts and Crafts
was New York State.
Gustav and L & JG Stickley in Syracuse, Roycroft in East Aurora, Charles
Stickley in Binghamton, Frederick Walrath and Harvey Ellis in Buffalo, the
Byrdcliffe colony in Woodstock - all produced superb examples (as well as a few
"clinkers") of Arts and Crafts objects, all exemplified the
Movement's philosophy, and at least a few proved to be successful in business.
This presentation, accompanied by slides, affords listeners an opportunity to
gain awareness and knowledge of the Movement, its philosophy and creative
product, and focuses in on the unique contributions of Arts and Crafts creators
from New York State.
Dr. Austin is
Chairman and Professor of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology.
He served as organizer and curator for the exhibition "The Arts and Crafts
Movement in Western New York: 1900 - 1920." He writes often and for a
variety of publications about the Arts and Crafts Movement.