WSU Lectures Will Explore America’s Wild Cultural Beginnings

OGDEN, Utah – Two cultural historians from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present lectures at Weber State University exploring aspects of American culture, arts and entertainment.

American Technology and Art

John Kasson, professor emeritus, will discuss “The Forging of American Technology and Art: Artists and Inventors from the American Revolution to Henry Ford’s Assembly Line,” Jan. 24 at 12:30 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room 321.

“The relation of technology to art has a long and contentious history in America,” he said.

This lecture will draw on lithographs, paintings and film clips to trace changes in American technology from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

Trials of Civility

Kasson’s second lecture, “Trials of Civility in the 19th-Century American City,” will be held Jan. 25 at noon in the Shepherd Union Wildcat Theater, as part of WSU’s Engaged Learning Series. He will discuss the challenges of navigating the snares of swindlers, counterfeiters, prostitutes and pickpockets in the boom-and-bust economy of the 19th century city.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

In a third lecture, Joy Kasson, professor emerita, will kick off the Weber Historical Society 2018 Spring Lecture Series Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Hurst Center Dumke Legacy Hall.

Her presentation, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: How Mass Entertainment Came to Shape Our Perceptions of History,” will use visual images and film clips to disentangle fact from fiction in the stirring story of the American West as it was told by William F. Cody and his famous Wild West Show.

 “A hundred years after Cody’s death, we realize that entertainment and media have shaped our understanding of reality even more than was true in his day,” Kasson said.  “How do we evaluate competing versions of the American dream? How do we form our ideas about American values?”

All three lectures are free and open to the public. They are presented by the WSU Alumni Association, the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, the Department of History, Stewart Library, Weber Historical Society and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Visit weber.edu/History/historicalsociety.html for more information about the Weber Historical Society lecture series.

For images, visit the following links:

photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2018-photos/January-2018/i-3qtz77p/0/10c253b9/X2/kasson%20book-X2.jpg
photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2018-photos/January-2018/i-bmJ4SVH/0/f2a49faa/X2/kasson_joy_12_030-X2.jpg
photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2018-photos/January-2018/i-DJDn7GS/0/276d25e1/XL/John%20portrait%202009%2003-XL.jpg

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

Author:

Allison Barlow Hess, public relations director
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu

Contact:

Eric Swedin, history professor and event organizer
801-395-3553 • eswedin@weber.edu

Susan Matt, history professor
801-626-7325 • smatt@weber.edu