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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Sharer, Jean. "Hildreth Meiere, American Muralist," University of New Mexico, August 2001.
Hildreth Meiere (1892-1961) was a mural artist of some renown during her lifetime. A large body of her work remains in public view on and in buildings such as the Nebraska state capitol in Lincoln, the St. Louis Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan. Meiere’s designs, ranging from traditional historical realism to Art Deco, reflected many of the tensions that surface in mid-twentieth century American culture, as a modernism accommodated the wishes of Americans in positions of power. Issues of class, patronage, religion, and partitions provided the framework for Meiere’s life and art, as well as a specific picture of public art in mid-twentieth century America. Designing for mosaic, ceramics, metal, stained glass, and frescos, she was commissioned by mainstream architects for projects on buildings associated with the East Coast upper-middle class. At the same time she worked in harmony with artisans and craftspeople to see her designs through to execution. Practical and efficient, neither avant-garde nor consistently conservative, Meiere’s murals, numbering well over a hundred, often represented the middle ground of American modern style in architectural projects, from churches to World’s Fairs to public buildings to skyscrapers. Meiere believed that being labeled a woman artist trivialized her work, a view shared by her contemporary Georgia O’Keeffe. She disliked political feminism, yet lived an independent life as a successful artist and single parent. Meiere’s relationship to her clients represents less familiar areas of women’s cultural and social history. Her career fleshes out the story of American women in art and the broader history of upper middle class, conservative American society during the mid-twentieth century.
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