MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

When the American Art Union was established in New York in 1839, European models in London, Switzerland, and Germany had been in existence since the early 1800s. Subscription-based trusts prevailing in popularity during the mid-19th century, the unions formed by either businessmen art enthusiasts or artists sought to cultivate mass accessibility to and appreciation for the arts. In support of this didactic mission, the trusts opened galleries free to members, annually provided them with a print after an original art work, and held art lotteries. A small number of city-based American art unions soon followed, including the Art Union of Philadelphia in 1848. Lauded as “[having] more effect in producing the growing taste for beauty in forms and colors, among all classes, than all others combined,” the unions also proved controversial for their lottery practices likened to gambling.

Concurrently, a cohort of Philadelphia frame makers also picture dealers worked in concert and in congenial competition with the unions to promote prints as both cultural and commercial commodities. Sustained by similar motives yet disparate goals, the tradesmen and the organizations both distributed prints and maintained galleries. How did frame makers facilitate Unions and vice versa in the formation of a democratic art market? How did each affect the cultural evolution of a realization of prints as art? This paper examines the interrelationships between these hybrid tradesmen, Unions, and their patrons in the construction of the popular print market. In our continuing understanding of the commerce of popular prints, we have much to learn from how Philadelphia frame makers (in relation to the Unions) represented themselves, marketed their material, and in turn defined and mirrored the visual consumer.