Drawing on America's past

Virginia Tuttle Clayton, Elizabeth Stillinger, Erika Doss, Deborah Chotner

"This illustrated book commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the National Gallery of Art's acquisition of the Index of American Design. Widely regarded as one of the New Deal's most important art projects, the Index began in 1935 as a unit of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Its aim was to compile and eventually publish a visual archive of American folk, popular, and decorative art from the time of settlement to about 1900. The approximately one thousand artists involved in the project created more than eighteen thousand meticulous watercolor portraits of America." "The book displays eighty-two of the finest watercolor renderings along with a selection of the artifacts they represent. The original objects range from quilts, weather vanes, and hand-carved toys to carousel animals, stoneware, and cigar-store figures. Three essays explore the history,...

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