Every Monday for the past nine years, speakers whose research is based around the "History of the Material Text" have gathered at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies to discuss their work.
Yesterday was no different, despite the inclement weather that might have kept some people away.
This time, the topic was "The Emergence of Portraits of Living American Women Writers," and the speaker was Constance King, reference librarian with The Library Company of Philadelphia.
King -- who has been working on the project for "about a year" and is "particularly interested in the ... portraits of living American women writers in print" -- spoke to an audience of approximately 20 people about the importance and meaning of such portraits.
History graduate student Kyle Roberts noted that the great thing about the lecture series, including this particular lecture, was the fact that the speakers not only share the results of their research but also the process by which they arrived at their conclusions.
King found that though a few portraits of living female writers were published prior to the 1850s, it was after this point that they began appearing on a more frequent basis. However, no more than 35 were ever published in any given year.
One of the authors King focused on was Phillis Wheatley, a slave whose portrait was included alongside the publication of her poems in London in the 18th century.
Other authors included Sofia Johnson, who fought in the War of 1812 disguised as a man, and Frances Osgood, who is said to have had an affair with Edgar Allan Poe.
In her talk, King stressed that how the viewer sees and interprets each portrait "is largely determined by cultural baggage and assumptions."
She also pointed out that researchers "look at things very differently" from the way an 18th century audience would and that the challenge lies in trying to understand what the portraits mean.
Penn English professor Peter Stallybrass hosted the event and noted that the graphs King used to display her findings were "really useful to have," and that the way the writers were presented was "very interesting."
