The Rape of the West

In this lecture, Parker presented a series of 19th century landscape paintings and photographs of the American West. The images were projected twice: the first time with artists, places, and dates given, and on the second viewing, the images were accompanied by a series of readings in which Parker wove a rich tapestry of material noted art historians writing on 19th century landscape painting and photography, the strange amalgam of ideas underlying the project to document the American West based in a religious rejection of Darwin, the darker aspects of masculine consciousness responsible for Manifest Destiny, including the movement encouraging young men to refrain from masturbation, with more than few of the individuals leading the charge to the aforementioned ideas and practices to join in for the famous "golden spike" photograph taken at Promontory Point, Utah, to commemorate the completion of the transcontinental railroad.


University of Chicago, 1978 (click for PDF)