Arts and Literature of 1800s America

TranscendentalismThe ideas of the transcendentalists still are very

evident in society today.

Letting nature fuel us and that it is vital to lifeBelieve in yourself and be confidentBe a free thinker, explore knowledge and ask

questionsSelf reliance and responsibility for one's own

actionsBe yourself because no one can be YOU better

than YOU

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Wrote The American Scholar , Self-ReliancePart of the Transcendentalist movementHis philosophies helped to shape the mid-19th century New Thought MovementWas an abolitionistLived in Concord Mass

Henry David ThoreauRalph Waldo Emerson’s

GardenerWrote Civil Disobedience ,

WaldenFamously spent a night in

jail for refusing to pay his taxes

Is sometimes cited as an inspiration for anarchists

Conducted experiments in simple living

Part of the Transcendentalist movement

Other writes of the early 1800s America

Edgar Allan PoeWrote The Raven and

other stories and poems

Best known for intense, dark stories

Linked to Horror fiction, and Romanticism

Was partially inspired in his later writings after the death of his15-year-old wife

Nathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter , The

House of the Seven GablesPart of the (Dark)

Romantic MovementWrote mainly short storiesMany of his stories were

set in New England Puritan society

Though married to a Transcendentalist, later writings revealed criticisms of the movement

Arts in early 1800s AmericaLots of emphasis on the natural beauty of the United States

The Hudson River SchoolAn American art movementCreated by a group of

landscape paintersHeavily influenced by

Romantic styleWas not an actual school,

but a group of people with a common creative vision meant to inspire each other

Venerated in America’s natural beauty, along with contemporary American Writers

Most famous paintersThomas Cole-part of

Hudson River School-painted American landscapes

John James AudubonPainted mainly

birds and other American animals