Adam Arenson, Director, Urban Studies Program, Manhattan College

Proposal Type: Panel

Seeking: Additional Presenters, Specific Expertise, General Feedback and Interest

Abstract: A presentation considering the way in which historical subjects presented in mosaics on the front of Home Savings and Loan buildings, from California to Ohio to Texas to Missouri feed the historical knowledge of local residents in the post-WWII era.

Seeking: This paper considers the subject matter in the artwork created by the Millard Sheets Studio for Home Savings and Loan’s branches, 1957-1991–mosaics, stained glass, and sculptures for roughly 100 branches mostly in California but also in Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, and New York. It describes the evolution in subjects from universal family scenes to hyper-local community history and festivals, and the process of using popular histories, postcards, and local promotional brochures to choose the subject. It produced what might be termed vernacular history—the work of enthusiasts, not academics, to create a useable, idealized past. The paper considers what historical events receive prominence and why they are considered unifying, as well as who is depicted (Native Americans, Spanish-speaking Californios, and whites) and who is excluded (African Americans and Asian Americans, with a few notable exceptions).

This work is drawn from a nearly-completed book project, linked to a planned exhibition on the art, architecture, and urban context of the Millard Sheets Studio work for Home Savings. Other chapters considers the precedents for this work, the process of its creation, the politics of siting the branches, the managing of public reception and zoning commissions, and finally the legacies of this artwork, and the need to fight for its preservation after the sale of Home Savings in 1998. It draws on site visits, Huntington and Smithsonian archives, interviews with more than 75 studio and finance participants, and the children of the primary artists, and material presented on my research blog, http://adamarenson.com/homesavingsbankart

I seek feedback on the paper, and ideas for an appropriate panel for this research at NCPH, a new venue for me.

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Adam Arenson,adam.arenson[at]gmail.com

If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.

All feedback, and offers of assistance, should be submitted by July 3, 2015.

Related Topics: Memory, Place, Preservation

 

 

 

Discussion

3 comments
  1. Mattea Sanders says:

    Hi Adam,

    I am very interested in your panel and I think it could be a good opportunity to have a panel on visual and material culture that has surprisingly not been featured at NCPH in recent years. I am actually wondering if it could be part of a larger panel on representations of history in different media forms that is then consumed by the public. I am in the field of American Indian history and I know that this has been a topic in my field especially with the mascot and appopriation battles. I think this would be really interesting if you had a panelist discussing Mad Men and representations of historical events in that show.
    -Mattea

  2. Adam Arenson says:

    Thanks! Shall you and I seek out a third person? This is very much a corporately sponsored historical narrative, and so it could fit easily with looks at commercial or political symbolism — anyone out there with a symbols of the Confederacy idea, especially given the aftermath of the Charleston SC shooting?

  3. Courtney Hoboson says:

    Hi Adam,

    I think it might be worthwhile to reach out to someone in the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation or the Baltimore Public Art Commission. In light of the defacing of a Confederate Monument in the city, the mayor has called for a special commission to review the city’s Confederate Monument. This might add an interesting element to this conversation.

    http://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2015-06-30-mayor-rawlings-blake-announces-review-baltimore%E2%80%99s-confederate-statues

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