Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves: Vintage American Photographs
by: Ann-Janine Morey

Hardcover. University Park PA, Penn State Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Hardcover. 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 Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves, Ann-Janine Morey presents a collection of antique photographs of dogs and their owners in order to investigate the meanings associated with the canine body. Included are reproductions of 115 postcards, cabinet cards, and cartes de visite that feature dogs in family and childhood snapshots, images of hunting, posed studio portraits, and many other settings between 1860 and 1950. These photographs offer poignant testimony to the American romance with dogs and show how the dog has become part of cultural expressions of race, class, and gender. Still in publisher's shrink wrap.