Author to discuss vintage photographs of people with their dogs

2 BusterE“Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves,” an illustrated talk by Ann-Janine Morey, will be held at 4:00 p.m., on Monday, March 2, 2015, in the Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

Morey is the author of “Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves. American Vintage Photographs,” published in 2014 by the Penn State University Press as part of the series Animalibus: Of Animals and Culture. The talk will be followed by a book sale and signing.

Dogs are as ubiquitous in American culture as white picket fences and apple pie, embracing all the meanings of wholesome domestic life—family, fidelity, comfort, protection, nurturance and love—as well as symbolizing some of the less palatable connotations of home and family, including domination, subservience and violence. In her book Morey presents a collection of vintage photographs of dogs and their owners that reveal a richly textured visual history of the relationship between Americans and their dogs, including cultural expressions of race, class and gender. Her talk will draw from her own collection of hundreds of postcards, early 19th-century photographs, childhood snapshots, posed studio portraits and images of hunting and many other settings in photographs created from 1860 to 1950.

Morey is associate vice provost for Cross Disciplinary Studies at James Madison University. Her visit is sponsored by the Penn State University Press, the Krumrine Family Libraries Endowment and the Eberly Family Special Collections Library.

An exhibition on the same theme of people and their dogs is on display in the B. & H. Henisch Photo-History Collection Exhibition Room, located in 201B Pattee Library, through March 31, 2015. The display draws from 19th-century photographs found in the B. & H. Henisch Photo-History Collection and the William C. Darrah Collection of Cartes-de-visite, 1860-1900, both among the holdings of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library.

For more information or for questions about physical access or special accommodations needed, contact Sandra Stelts sks5@psu.edu or 814-863-5388.