D.C. Mondays: Illustrated Magazines and the Managerial Eye in Washington

Illustrated magazines became an inescapable part of modern life in the United States during the mid-19th century. Illustrators developed a visual vocabulary for representing technological innovations, capitalism and “American” identities. Focusing on images of D.C.’s urban fabric and industries, professor Vanessa Meikle Schulman will discuss how such illustrations taught viewers to think like managers.

About Vanessa Meikle Schulman

Vanessa Meikle Schulman is associate professor of art history in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. She is the author of Work Sights: The Visual Culture of Industry in Nineteenth-Century America (2015) and Art During Wartime: Painting Everyday Life in the Civil War North (2024), both published by the University of Massachusetts Press. She is currently developing a book project on the Ashcan artists and urban ecology in turn-of-the-century New York.

How to Participate

This program will take place on Zoom. To participate, please register online, and we will email you a link and instructions for joining. Simply follow that link at the time the program starts (12 p.m. EDT / 9 a.m. PDT). When you register, you can also request to receive a reminder email one day before the program with the link included.

About the D.C. Mondays Series

Join authors, researchers and community members online for lively discussions about Washington, D.C.’s history, politics, culture and more. Browse upcoming programs