Whether based on myth or fact, the American collective identity has long been tied to colonial era roots. Ideals of independence, resourcefulness, frontier character, religious individuality and virtue are still today considered to have come from our colonial forefathers.

In addition to providing a basis for serious scholarship, photographs of the colonial world also have been instrumental in the 20th century popularization of colonial history. School history textbooks, illustrated postcards and calendars, and countless vacation snapshots of historic sites have all etched the colonial world into our American identity.

What we believe to be colonial ideals and values are expressed in the 20th century with the popularization of colonial-style furniture and vernacular architecture. Williamsburg, Southern Plantation, Dutch Colonial, and Spanish Mission style houses, gas stations, and banks now appear coast to coast. The prevalence of photographic images has played a key role in this cultural transfer, in addition to providing a resource for the serious study of the colonial world.

"Nor can I think of a worthier aim, during the summer vacations of professional men, than to return to their native places, and gather up the memorials of past days, and in the lives, customs, and familiar events of the past and passing generations, furnish materials for history. Why should not all the old mansions and farm-houses be secured by daguerreotype, before they crumble?" —Henry Ward Beecher in New England Graveyards, New York Independent August 1853. Reprinted in Star Papers; or, Experiences of Art and Nature. New York: J.C. Derby, 1855, 122. Quoted from The Photogram. Vol. 33, No. 1. Michigan Photographic Historical Society, Birmingham, Michigan.

 

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