Dickens and Massachusetts: A Tale of Power and Transformation
Dickens and Massachusetts: A Tale of Power and Transformation tells the story of a key moment in history, a moment of transformation for a man and for a nation.
To be held at the Boott Gallery in the Lowell National Historical Park, the interactive exhibition will open on March 30, 2012 and run through October 20, 2012. It will feature a rich collection of rare Dickens artifacts, on loan from the Charles Dickens Museum of London, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the American Antiquarian Society, the New York Public Library, the Fellman Collection at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Perkins School for the Blind and other institutions.
An iconic 1842 portrait of the young Dickens, painted by Boston artist Francis Alexander, will receive its first public display in over 30 years.
The exhibition is free to the public.
In 1842 when Charles Dickens and his wife, Catherine Hogarth Dickens, traveled to North America, he had already achieved immense fame. Blockbuster hits such as Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop had established the 29-year-old Dickens as the most popular writer of the era, and, in a new age of mass media culture, he was the first true celebrity.
After this trip we see a new vigor and complexity in his writing and a heightened social consciousness. America changed him. He began to see that his role as a pop culture hero came with great accountability. It is no coincidence that the year after he returned home, he published his iconic Christmas Carol, a tale of radical transformation and social responsibility.
The exhibition Dickens and Massachusetts: A Tale of Power and Transformation focuses on several pivotal moments from the 1842 and 1867-68 trips to America, exploring these themes:
- Dickens Finds His Power
- The Early Years and Literary Fame
- A Growing Family
- A Magnetic Personality: Mesmerism and Celebrity
- Bridging Two Worlds
- Departure from Liverpool
- The Passage over Stormy Seas
- Arrival in Boston: "Here we are!"
- Cross-Atlantic Letters
- Conscience and Controversy
- Harvard and the Unitarians
- Felton Friendship: "Our hearts are of the largest size"
- A Controversial Stand on Copyright
- Models for Reform
- Perkins School for the Blind
- Lowell Mills: "A large, populous, thriving place"
- Reading Dickens Reading America
- Capturing Dickens through Art and Phrenology
- Capturing America in a Travel Book : "slavery, spittoons, and senators"
- The Scourge of Slavery: Dickens, Channing, and Longfellow
- Dickens Returns
- Transformations: From 1842 to 1868
- Dickens on the Stage: The American Reading Tour
- The Great International Walking Match
- Farewell Friends
- Dickens Lives On
Dickens and Massachusetts: A Tale of Power and Transformation is co-curated by Diana Archibald, Associate Professor of English at UMass Lowell and director of the 2002 Dickens and America project in Lowell, and David Blackburn, Chief of Cultural Resources and Programs at Lowell National Historical Park.
Other contributing scholars include Joel Brattin, Professor of Humanities, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Natalie McKnight, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, and Professor of Humanities, Boston University; Lillian Nayder, Professor and Chair of English at Bates College; and Christie Jackson, the Ruby Winslow Linn Curator at the Old Colony Historical Society.
Dickens in Lowell is sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, in partnership with the Lowell National Historical Park, the Tsongas Industrial History Center, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Charles Dickens Museum London, and with generous support from the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and the University of Massachusetts President’s Office.