[DOC] My First Christmas Carols (My First...) by Gayle Kowalchyk; E. L. Lancaster in Arts-Photography

Description

Collecting Mexico centers on the ways in which aesthetics and commercialism intersected in officially sanctioned public collections and displays in late nineteenth-century Mexico. Shelley E. Garrigan approaches questions of origin; citizenry; membership; and difference by reconstructing the lineage of institutionally collected objects around which a modern Mexican identity was negotiated. In doing so; she arrives at a deeper understanding of the ways in which displayed objects become linked with nationalistic meaning and why they exert such persuasive force.Spanning the Porfiriato period from 1867 to 1910; Collecting Mexico illuminates the creation and institutionalization of a Mexican cultural inheritance. Employing a wide range of examplesmdash;including the erection of public monuments; the culture of fine arts; and the representation of Mexico at the Paris Worldrsquo;s Fair of 1889mdash;Garrigan pursues two strands of thought that weave together in surprising ways: national heritage as a transcendental value and patrimony as potential commercial interest.Collecting Mexico shows that the patterns of institutional collecting reveal how Mexican public collections engendered social meaning. Using extensive archival materials; Garriganrsquo;s close readings of the processes of collection building offer a new vantage point for viewing larger issues of identity; social position; and cultural/capital exchange.