United States Art History
Art History of Each
State within the United States of America
with an emphasis on representational art
(above: Barry Faulkner, Opening
of the Cheshire Railroad in Keene New Hampshire on May 16, 1848, Photograph
of mural. Keene Public Library. Public domain, via Wikimedia
Commons*)
Our methods of research
recurring inquiries:
United States Art History was initiated in 2008 by Traditional
Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Ongoing research for each state includes:
- 1. Analysis of information provided through operations
of Resource Library and updates
of America's Distinguished Artists
(1)
-
- 2. Searching the TFAO Author
index plus Catalogues for relevant information
-
- 3. Contacting libraries, museums, art history professors,
historical societies and independent scholars. Where appropriate, TFAO
requests that officials place inquiries to staff and other individuals
with a passion for an individual state's art history.
-
- 4. Google searches using keyword phrases such
as "historical (state name) artists," "historical (state
name) painters," "historical (state name) sculptors," "biographies
of historic (state name) artists," "gallery specializing in historic
(state name) artist" and "early painters of (state name)"
for online and paper-printed resources. (1)
-
- 5. Google Books and Amazon.com book searches for
paper-printed books. Google Books
searches are made with the phrases such as "art in [state name]"
When a book reference says "Original from..." followed by the
name of a university, followed by "Digitized..." it means that
Google Books has placed the entire contents of the book into its servers.
When the term Full View" appears it means that the entire text of
the book may be read free online or be downloaded for future reading. Amazon.com books searches were made with
the phrases "[state name] artists" and "[state name] art"
non-recurring inquiries:
- 1. Review of books identified by TFAO via a Google
books search project as having been published by art museums within
the state. Please click here to
view a list of these museums.
-
- 2. Analysis of books listed in Smithsonian American
Art Museum REGIONAL ARTIST BIBLIOGRAPHY and OUTDOOR SCULPTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY
(Link found expired as of 4/24/09 audit. Source site may contain
this content via a revised URL)
-
- 3. Analysis of reference books listed in Art Across
America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. by
Gerdts, William H. Three Volumes: The East and the Mid-Atlantic, The South
and the Midwest, The Plains States and the West. 1213 pages. Publisher:
Abbeville Press (October 15, 1990). ISBN-10: 1558590331. ISBN-13: 978-1558590335.
Library Journal says of these books: "...These volumes are
not dictionaries, but rather geographically arranged, more selective, narratives.
(The author specifically excludes artists chiefly active in New York, Boston,
and Philadelphia.) There are very brief introductions to regions and illuminating
summaries about art institutions and art activities embedded in the various
state-by-state essays; coverage varies according to material, from four
pages (Nevada) to 120 (northern and southern California). Gerdts provides
no overarching conclusions but rather vast amounts of distilled information
on even the smallest art centers. The extensive bibliographies, also geographically
arranged, will be an aid to further research. Some 900 of the 1000 artists
discussed are illustrated." Quoted text is courtesy of Amazon
Books. Color emphasis by TFAO. ["The East and the Mid-Atlantic"
references have been reviewed by TFAO. The other two volumes will be reviewed
at a later date.]
-
- 4. TFAO's Educational
Progress Award Program, offered for a limited time a way for individuals
to enable cash gifts to be provided to selected museums. Information on
a related project is here.
Notes:
1. We use two methods for keyword searches.
Method one:
Before entering a state name in a basic Google search, enter site:tfaoi.org.
See Indexes and information retrieval for
more information.
Method two:
Conduct keyword searches within TFAO's Resource
Library and other parts of TFAO's website using the advanced search
feature of:
After entering keywords, select tfaoi.org as the sole domain to be searched.
Since TFAO's website contains a through collection of content focusing
on American representational art within
a single domain, keyword searches within it can produce amazing results.
All of our research is provided by volunteers.
Return to United States Art History site guide
*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:
TFAO catalogues:
Links to sources of information outside
of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration.
Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained
in these and all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be
inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced
organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes
no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other
sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information
on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General
Resources section in Online
Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.
Search Resource Library
Copyright 2022 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.