Field to Factory: Picturing America and the Changing Face of the American Landscape

FAIN: AP-50085-11

Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL 35203)
Suzy Harris (Project Director: October 2010 to April 2016)

A two-day conference in Birmingham for fifty K-12 teachers to study America's transition from an agricultural to an industrial society as reflected in American art.

The proposed conference, Field to Factory: The Changing Face of the American Landscape, will closely explore the United States' gradual shift from an agrarian to industrial society, and how that change is reflected in American Art. The subject matter will have particular resonance in our state and community, as Birmingham rapidly became a major center of iron and steel production after the Civil War. Using images from the Picturing America program, as well works in the Museum's permanent collection, we will examine this shift first on a national, then on a local level, discussing its social, economic, and cultural impact. The goal of this conference is to enable Alabama educators to incorporate the Picturing America resources into their curricula for teaching both United States and Alabama History.