Huntington Library Quarterly
Dear members,
The Huntington Library Quarterly announces the publication of a special issue: “Paintings, Peepshows, and Porcupines: Exhibitions in London, 1763–1851,” edited by Jordan Bear and Catherine Roach.
From the introduction:
“The essays in this issue offer a history of exhibitions before the Great Exhibition. Held in London in 1851, this international gathering of industry and design under a single, if gigantic, roof is often taken as the starting point for modern histories of display. Instead, each contribution here begins earlier in time and works across multiple sites, revealing startling juxtapositions and ruling passions in the process. Putting art exhibitions into their original context illuminates the centrality of empire even in metropolitan events that were not explicitly imperialist but nonetheless were enabled by its processes and shaped by its constructs of difference. It also illuminates how exhibitions elided perceptions of the categories ‘high’ and ‘low,’ both affirming the existence of cultural hierarchies and leveraging their ambiguities to productive ends.”
The journal also welcomes submissions of articles on the long nineteenth century.