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During the 1840s a new system of private-sector surveillance emerged in the United States that rivaled any such system then operated by nation-states in Europe or North America. This system, the commercial credit reporting agency, or “mercantile agency,” brought thousands of American citizens—merchants, traders, manufacturers, and artisans—into a massive network of social monitoring designed to facilitate safe business relationships in a world increasingly inhabited by strangers. The history of contemporary surveillance technologies, especially in the U.S., would be incomplete without drawing closer attention to its development. This is the case for several reasons. First, the mercantile agency is a direct descendant of the modern consumer credit bureau, an institution that functions with remarkable autonomy and influence in contemporary American society. Second, as purveyors of information commodities, nineteenth-century credit reporting agencies struggled with issues of information control and dissemination that, upon reflection, appear quite modern. These struggles also involved privacy debates that are relevant in light of more recent concerns over computerized consumer surveillance. And finally, this networked system of centralized information processing, which might be viewed as a type of proto-database, was instrumental in transforming embodied social relationships into textualized and increasingly abstract and impersonal data profiles. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early nineteenth century a curious passion for autograph collecting swept through the United States. American antiquarians of all stripes sought out the signatures of noted figures, from literary celebrities to generals and clergymen. However, autographs belonging to the “signers” of the Declaration of Independence—and collections bringing together the signatures of all fifty-six—soon emerged as the most rarified in the pantheon of American collecting. This “autographmania,” and the importance of the Signers in particular, raises interesting questions about the nature of the autograph as a material artifact and social mnemonic in the popular imagination. What is the special significance of the handwritten signature? How do autographs embody and evoke the presence of the past? Or, drawing upon a concept introduced by Pierre Nora, how do autographs exist as “sites of memory”? The intersection of autograph collecting and the Declaration of Independence provides fertile terrain for exploring the memorial dimension of the signature and its role in the construction of popular memory. The Declaration is perhaps the most conspicuous display of signatory power in American history and the “cult of the Signers,” as it emerged during the 1820s, reflected mounting popular interest in documenting and preserving the nation’s originary past in its most “real” and authentic state. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the socially constructed nature of money and its function as a medium of mass communication. A paper which examines the imagery and symbolism of U.S. paper currency before and after its nationalization in 1861 is presented. The evolution of U.S. national currency from 1861 forward is characterized by three major developments: an increasing standardization, a reduced repertoire of portraits and imagery, and an overall reduction of different types of issues.

Marx introduced the concept of alienation to describe the objectification of labor in the production of commodities, a conversion that he claimed estranged individuals from the work process, the objects of their labor, and other human beings. Marx posited this concept in response to the production-oriented economy of his milieu, but the subsequent shift to consumer- and information-oriented economies places this concept in a new light. In particular, the development of consumer surveillance and consumer data profiles calls into question the extent to which individuals "produce" an information commodity, either passively or actively, through the act of consumption itself. Such proprietary information commodities are regularly constructed (and sold) by credit bureaus and marketers to identify and classify individuals. The extent to which such "data doubles" exist beyond the control of individuals is demonstrated in the recent phenomenon of so-called "identity theft." This conflation of personal identity and financial identity suggests a new and perhaps more insidious form of alienation, whereby the labor of consumption and self-making is recast as an "alien and hostile" information commodity with far-reaching social and personal economic consequences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]