Reframing the Republic: Images and Art in Post-Revolutionary America

Lauren Lyons, University at Albany, State University of New York

NOTE: This record is now permanently available at https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_history/10/

Abstract

NOTE: This record is now permanently available at https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_history/10/

Following the American Revolution, the United States had to prove they deserved to be a player on the European world stage. Images were one method the infant nation used to make this claim and gain recognition from European powers. By examining early American portraits, eighteenth and nineteenth century plays, and American and European propaganda this paper will argue that images were used to show the United States as a world power. This argument will be presented with a particular emphasis on classic motifs and Republican imagery. By evoking the Golden Age of both Rome and Greece the United States was declaring it would be a new republic worthy of regard and a role in an Atlantic World. Customarily this topic is examined through politics, diplomacy, or treaties, this paper takes a more cultural approach.