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Introduction

The telling of American history is often fictionalized, and in learning of the successes and triumphs of our nation, there has been a temptation to gloss over our copious indiscretions. In trying to conceal our mistakes, we have generated an optimistic mythology of our actions and intentions. When history is neglected (or rejected), it is more difficult to redress the errors of the past. The story of America is not always a story of progress, and to create a fantasy of consistent virtue and perfection is to impede real advancement. America has established itself as a myth-making machine, designed to excuse its injustices and its structural failures. This exhibition examines several aspects of American history which will be discussed using a multifaceted approach. The history of America has known daring explorations, triumphs of justice, advancements in industry, and great glory, but it has also seen devastating displacements, rampant discrimination, epidemics of poverty, and brutality in war. The exhibition offers a look into the negative and often veiled side of our nation’s proudest endeavors. It explores history from an intersectional perspective, that is, inclusive of race, gender, and socioeconomic status, and sheds light on some of the myths prevalent in American storytelling. In considering these contrasts, some may find a new way of looking at certain traditional narratives, and this can furnish a more complex view of history. Art and images which cut against the grain can tell stories that subvert easy ways of thinking about America. More than that, a new manner of thinking may more easily enable us to recognize new wrongs and prevent them from arising, effectively disrupting the mythology and lending greater veracity to America’s epithet, “the land of the free.”