VISUAL ACTIVITYThe Caverly Family at Home, 1836 Itinerant amateur artists journeyed the back roads of antebellum America, painting individuals and families in standard repetitive poses. This picture of a New Hampshire family lists the names and ages at the bottom: Azariah, 44; George, 3; Sarah Jane, 7 months; and Eliza, 24. READING THE IMAGE: What do you make of little George’s outfit? Are there clues within the picture that this is a male child? How are gender differences established in this image? What might the large age difference between husband and wife suggest? CONNECTIONS: How did the heightened attention to gender differences correlate with the changing economy and politics of Jacksonian America?
Gift of Stephen C. Clark. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Photograph by Richard Walker.