Associate Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley spoke as a particpant in the Faculty Lecture Series, discussing "Banjo and Bicycles: 'The New Woman' as Viewed through the Stereograph," on Friday, April 9, in the Red Pit, Kirner Johnson.
Hamessley says, "In the 1890s, stereophotography was a popular venue for the dissemination of images of all kinds, some of which provide insights about the changing role of women in American culture. Many stereoviews feature the proto-feminist 'New Woman,' but with a surprising characteristic: this 'new woman' plays the banjo with the same gusto with which she smokes, plays cards, and rides bicycles. In this presentation, I examine the way that these views subvert the respectable image of the middle-class women who played the parlor banjo. It was precisely because proper bourgeois women played the banjo (though did not smoke, for instance) that the banjo in the hands of 'the new woman' became a humorous musical instrument and cautionary cultural icon in these comic stereoviews.
The presentation was illustrated with several examples of stereoviews from Hamessley's personal collection as well as musical examples of the parlor banjo style among others. The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculty.
