The Return of the Eighteenth Century.

This article presents information on the study of American art during the nineteenth century. Within the past decade, the pace of scholarship has quickened in all areas of early American visual studies. In addition to monographic and single-picture studies, genres that have long characterized American art history, scholars are pursuing ideas across matrixes of artists, artifacts, and cultural practices. In addition to the strides taken within art history, innovative work on early American visual and material culture is being done in American history, literature, cultural history, and American studies. The Worcester Art Museum, for instance, maintains an educational website documenting its important collection of early American paintings.