Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction. Museums and Society
Chapter 1. Progressive Connoisseurs: The Intellectual Origins of Education Reform in Museums
Chapter 2. The De Forest Faction's Progressive Museum Agenda
Chapter 3. The Educational Value of American Things: Balancing Usefulness and Connoisseurship
Chapter 4. The Arts of Peace: World War I and Cultural Nationalism
Chapter 5. The Art of Living: The American Wing and Public History
Chapter 6. Americanism in Design: Industrial Arts and Museums
Epilogue. Depression Modern: Institutional Sponsors and Progressive Legacies

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

About the Author

Jeffrey Trask teaches history at Georgia State University.

Reviews

"In its revealing and canny glimpse of the convergence of money, stuff, intelligence, and social zeal in one institution at one critical time, Trask's work would constitute a worthy success."—American Historical Review

"Jeffrey Trask's well-researched and engagingly written history of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the expanding educational role of museums during the Progressive Era. . . . Trask successfully establishes the Met's efforts at cultural democracy and their unintended consequences."—Journal of American History

"Things American gives us, at last, a history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on genuine archival materials. Moreover, it reorients our thinking about art museums in the United States, demonstrating that there were important democratic, utilitarian, and civic impulses at work behind them. The book also broadens our thinking about progressivism, reminding us how it shaped art museums and how those museum-related programs it spawned continued beyond World War I."—Steven Conn, author of Do Museums Still Need Objects?