The Art of Photography in College Teaching

The appearance in September, 1959, of the newly revised textbook, Art Through the Ages, marks the first time that a general art history survey text includes a separate chapter on the history of photography as an art. By applying art historical treatment to photography, the text makes the art history survey student more aware of the medium as an art form and thus more capable of greater understanding of the interrelationships between this nineteenth century manifestation of the industrial revolution and the other visual arts. It is true that the history of photography has been offered in advanced courses by Beaumont Newhall in the art departments of the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology and by Henry Smith in the Department of Fine Arts, Indiana University. These courses, however, have been directed to a small, rather specialized group of students. The inclusion of the photography chapter in the revision of Miss Gardner's text by Yale University's art history department, whic...