Laura Auricchio’s article, “Two Versions of General Washington’s Resignation: Politics, Commerce, and Visual Culture in 1790s Philadelphia,” was published in the most recent issue of Eighteenth-Century Studies, the official publication of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, the journal is dedicated to presenting the best writing on all subjects of eighteenth-century culture.
Read the following abstract for more information about Professor Auricchio’s article:
In a span of less than two years, two versions of John James Barralet’s General Washington’s Resignation appeared in Philadelphia: a transparency, now lost, that anchored the meaning of a celebratory dinner (1797); and an engraving employed as the frontispiece to a partisan, Federalist magazine (1799). Drawing on the era’s burgeoning periodical culture, this essay follows the image through a web of politics and commerce, analyzes the alterations that accompanied its change of medium and venue, and examines some of the contests that swirled around the figure of Washington as his image became synonymous with the well-being of the nation.
Please click here to read the article in its entirety.
Image courtesy of New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery.
