Evolution of a Canonical Art History Textbook

Abstract

The discipline of art history relies heavily upon the visual to convey significance. Textbooks provide a readily available and portable conveyance for introductory courses in the American higher education system. Nowhere is this more evident than in the survey texts that introduce and cover salient phenomena in art history. Among the major competing texts, Helen Gardner’s Art through the Ages emerges as the longest published, with many iterations. This article frames the significance of a canonical text vis-à-vis its enduring prominence among art history faculty by exploring various bibliographic elements through comparison of randomly selected editions over time. Chapters, paginations, length of appended bibliographies, as well as changes in visuals, including images, coloration, cartographies, and diagrammatic illustrations, present a shifting and adaptive publishing evolution responsive to changing markets for such texts as well as pedagogical and art historical disciplinary changes over time.