John White Alexander and the Construction of National Identity: Cosmopolitan American Art, 1880-1915

During the years that this book followed the path from research notes to present form, I have benefited from the advice, encouragement, and support of many individuals and institutions whom I acknowledge here with gratitude. It is a pleasure to thank first those who taught me to think about American art and issues of national identity— H. Barbara Weinberg and William H. Gerdts. I am indebted to their spirited counsel and lucid criticism during my years at the CUNY Graduate Center and to their example of creative and rigorous scholarship. Patricia Mainardi’s inquiries into institutional history continue to inform my own and her generous guidance regarding the potential pitfalls of research in Paris made my own journeys into the many libraries and archives in Paris all the more profitable and pleasurable.

The resources of numerous libraries and institutions have been consulted in the course of my research including: the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York; Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, New York and Washington, D.C.; Archives Nationale, Paris; Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archaéologie, Fondation Jacques Doucet, Paris; Bibliothèque Fornay, Paris; Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris and Versailles; British Museum Library, London; Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée de la Légion d’Honneur, Paris; Musée d’Orsay, Centre du Documentation, Paris; National Academy of Design, New York; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; New York Public Library; New York; New York Historical Society, New York; Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence; Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago; and University of Arizona Library and Special Collections, Tucson. Among those who have kindly encouraged me along the way and aided my research I sincerely thank many colleagues and friends including: Terry Carbone, Margi Conrads, David Dearinger, Linda Docherty, Erika Doss, Betsy Fahlman, Diane Fischer, the late Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, Paul Ivey, Gary Keller, Joni Kinsey, David Morgan, Joyce Robinson, Jennifer Wagelie, Sally Webster, and Stacie Widdifield. To Bryan Zygmont, my former student and research assistant, I am particularly grateful for his tireless efforts and willingness to dig up even the most arcane reference at a moment’s notice. Generous travel and research grants from my home institution, the University of Arizona, have been critical for the timely completion of this project. To the editors and outside readers at the University of Delaware and the Associated University Presses, I am indebted to their critical readings of the manuscript and attention to detail.

A version of chapters 3 and 5 was originally published in, respectively, The Legacy of the Mexican and Spanish-American Wars: Legal, Literary, and Historical Perspectives, Gary D. Keller and Cordelia Candelaria, eds., (Tempe, Arizona: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue, 2000); and Rave Reviews: American Art and Its Critics, 1826–1925, David B. Dearinger, ed., (New York: National Academy of Design, 2000). The author thanks the editors for their kind permission to reproduce the essays here in a revised and expanded form.

Finally, a personal and deeply felt thank you to my parents, Juliette and Robert Bacon, and my sister, Marily Scanlon, whose genuine support and spirited interest have sustained me over many years. To my husband, René Verdugo, whose love and kindnesses cannot be measured, and to our daughters, Gabriella and Francesca, who cheerfully allowed my research notes to share the table with their crayons and glitter glue, I dedicate this work.

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