Americans were initially distrustful of the growing supply of paper money because it encouraged speculative pursuits, which many believed to be predatory and intentionally deceitful. Peter John Brownlee outlined the process through which land speculators profited in his essay "Francis Edmonds and the Speculative Economy of Painting." He noted, "using inside information and ethically questionable tactics, they bought cheap land with inflated or near worthless paper money and sold it immediately for quick gain."¹ Thus, Brownlee deemed it "critical for a bank's notes to look as if they squared with the hard currency they so flimsily represented" in order to inspire confidence in the redeemable value of the currency and encourage continued circulation. banks achieved this end by decorating "notes with vignettes of workingmen, such as the cooper in the act of production, or of allegorical figures like Plenty, illustrated with a cornucopia, symbolizing wealth." They, moreover, added a sense of stability with "central images, ... flanked by a balancing arrangement of borders, words, numerals, and vignettes," achieving a balance and precision exclusive to legitimacy.²

Robert Peck and Eric Newman expand on this point in their article, "Discovered! The First Engraving of an Audobon Bird," in which they relayed that Audobon's engraving of a running grouse was deemed "too risky" to embellish a banknote because it portrayed an unusual bird in a skittish stance.³ They presented the contents of a sheet of images suitable for the decoration of banknotes from Fairman, Draper, Underwood & Co., including "classically draped figures, representing commerce, liberty, and the personification of America; small portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Sir Walter Raleigh; and a number of other allegorical vignettes."⁴ Audobon's engraving laid in stark contrast to the Fairman images, reflecting his inability to effectively capture American banks' desired public image.

Together, these articles succeeded in emphasizing the intent with which banknotes were produced in the free banking period. Banks feared that the projection of any image other than one of total sobriety and stability would result in a perception of insolvency, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Therefore, banks were forced to shape the public's perception with well-known images of strength, permanence and wealth. Brownlee could have furthered his analysis with the inclusion of descriptors of banknotes from fraudulent banks to provide a suitable contrast and allow the reader to determine the ways in which legitimate banks sought to set themselves apart. Similarly, Peck and Newman's analysis was limited in that it looked specifically at a single engraving. Their analysis would have gone further if it looked had looked at other Audobon engravings and determined their reception. It was valuable, however, because it provided the specific reason the unusual, unsettling image was not used.⁵

Though banks were forced to inspire confidence in their notes to achieve success, many saw opportunity to shape political discourse through the same means. At the time of westward expansion, the American population was growing increasingly divided on the young nation's ability to conquer its vast landscape. This debate came through most clearly as both sides employed the nation-as-body metaphor. As noted by Anne Baker in her book Heartless Immensity: Literature, Culture, and Geography in Antebellum America, anti-expansionist Caleb Cushing warned that "the nation has become a 'young giant' and that 'we ourselves are not sensible of the strength and vigor of the young giant's limbs.'"⁶ She noted that Thoreau used a similar metaphor in which he wrote "the gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them." These statements reflected the growing concern that the United States was outgrowing its capabilities, which could lead to its demise. Baker also relayed the expansionist view and its portrayal through the same metaphor, citing John L. Sullivan's declaration "that the United States 'has reached a period which, like the marked physical transition in the human frame from the age of childhood to the noble stature and vigor of young manhood, is stamped with the distinct features of expansion, change, development." Here, Sullivan downplayed the "problems associated with expansion by making it seem as natural and inevitable as adolescence."⁷ Baker presents one banknote engraving that chimed in on the issue with a scene of an unusually large western settler "who is entirely out of proportion to the trees, log cabin, and covered wagon in the background."⁸ This particular engraving suggested that the unusually strong American work ethic, depicted in the exaggerated embodiment of the settler, would allow successful settlement of the West despite its vast size.

While the engraving presented a clear effort to ease fears on expansion, Baker's analysis was limited in its application to banknotes specifically in that it only presented one example, and she failed to state whether or not the engraving was actually put into circulation. Uncovering similar engravings presented on circulated banknotes would further her analysis tremendously.

Slavery presented another highly divisive issue in which banks saw an opportunity to shape perception. Michael O'Malley touched on this issue in his book Face Value: The Entwined History of Money and Race in America. He claimed, "southern paper money frequently bore images of slaves," with some printers imply taking stock engravings of white farmers and converting them "into [images] of a happy slave by simply darkening the figure's skin and adding a patch to his shirt." He went on to describe Richard Doty's claim that "by the eve of the Civil War, Southern paper money tended to feature benign images of healthy slaves toiling in subservience: a proslavery message, Doty concludes that the circulating money carried with it as it traveled North."⁹ O'Malley's inclusion of Doty's analysis spoke for itself. It was limited, however, in its failure to provide the primary source banknotes to validate his claims.

Banknotes played a key role in widely circulating artistic works. Yet the engravings presented on the banknotes were not without bias. Brownlee, Peck and Newman helped to establish the significance of strategic design in giving legitimacy to the perceived value of banknotes. Furthermore, Baker and O'Malley described the ways in which banks used their ability to distribute notes to shape national opinions on hot-button political issues such as westward expansion and slavery, respectively. Their analyses have proven useful despite their failure to include multiple primary source examples to determine the extent to which these practices were used. Luckily, further research has yielded these results.

Begin this path: Historiography

1. Symbolism of Stability
2. Expansionist Symbolism
3. Pro-Slavery Symbolism
4. Works Cited

Comment on this page