The “grain-fed prosperity” of the 1790s in the United States was a function of exchange with Europe in the exportation of goods to and an influx of economic refugees. The inexorable equation of the 1790s, then, became money plus talent equals intellectual production, and building a new nation as the title of the exhibit suggests, is presented as both an architectural enterprise and cultural praxis.

➜The Style of Power: Building a New Nation: A review of an exhibition at the University of Virginia’s Small Special Collections Library, Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture, Charlottesville. Published by CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship 4:1 (National Park Service), 2007.