LH23-P SCIENCE, STAGE, AND SPECTACLE IN ANTEBELLUM PHILADELPHIA, 1820-1860

Between the War for Independence and the Civil War, the young United States forged a distinct cultural profile. In that same period, the human body came increasingly under scrutiny: science, social practice, political contests, and theatrical representations all grappled with the body’s forms, meaning, and expressivity. This research investigates the intricate braiding of political, scientific, and danced representations of the body, focusing particularly on blackface minstrelsy and on ballet in antebellum Philadelphia, a city both representative of national trends and also distinct in its cultural, historic, and geographic position.