Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Morgan City, Louisiana
The book for the month of July is The American Monument by Lee Friedlander. Friedlander studied photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and in 1960 was awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to focus on his art career. Friedlander’s style focused on the “social landscape”, using detached images of urban life, store–front reflections, structures framed by fences, and posters and signs all combining to capture the look of modern life. The American Monument, published during the bicentennial year of the United States, is one of only 2000 copies printed at the Meriden Gravure Press. A beautiful production with 213 black and white photographs bound in green cloth with three bolts holding the sheets. The American Monument includes everything from Plymouth Rock to a plaque commemorating the Pony Express in Salt Lake City, treating them all with the same deliberate nonchalance.
~ Kyle Johnson, summer undergraduate student
To see this book, come to Special Collections on the second floor of the Glenn G. Bartle Library and ask for Special Collections Stacks (Double Oversize)(**) — E159 .F74
Gold Star Mothers, Union City, New Jersey
More images from The American Monument:
On the War Trail, Denver, Colorado
General George Rogers Clark, Louisville, Kentucky