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Dick and Jane: Illustrations of an American Education
11/15/1997 - 1/25/1998
The classic illustrated book series
Dick and Jane is the
subject of the exhibition Dick and Jane: Illustrations of an
American Education at the Norton Museum of Art from November 15,
1997 to January 25, 1998. The exhibition is organized by Lakeview
Museum, Peoria, Illinois.
Included in the exhibition are original editors' first drafts of
storylines, coupled with dozens of never-before-seen working
illustrations and sketches, vintage photographs of the children used
as models and many of the original illustrations published in the 3
Dick and Jane series.
The exhibition also includes revealing examples of changes in the
series over the years. the Dick and Jane books reflected ongoing
shifts in America's evolving ideas about gender, race, modern
technology and fashion from the 1930s through the 1960s. Significant
changes in the series clearly reflected historical moments in this
country, such as the growth of the feminist movement and the
changing role of women. Expanded versions which included
African-American, Asian-American and other minorities highlighted
the Civil Rights movement and a growing awareness of America's
multi-cultural populations.
Dick and Jane was a standard school text for the over 85 million
people who learned to read from the 1930s through the 1960s. The
Dick and Jane stories featured the characters Mother, Father,
Dick, Jane, Sally and Spot, and their happy lives in an untroubled
world. Their surroundings reflected prevailing middle-class values
of the period, with everyone clean and happy, living a good life in
safe environments behind white picket fences. As first stories read
by many American children, Dick and Jane presented a strangely
homogeneous world where night never came, knees never got scraped,
parents never yelled and everything was fun. Once television hit the
American landscape, shows like Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best
and the Donna Reed Show continued to promote these mythologized
scenarios of the ideal, well-behaved American family.
In their earliest incarnations, Dick and Jane books must have read
like a welcome fantasy for school children who lived through the
Great Depression and World War II. And for many baby boomers who
escaped the suffering of their parents and were born into a
middle-class postwar paradise, these optimistic stories may have
felt close to their own everyday suburban experiences. The now-
familiar images and texts in this exhibition paint a telling picture
of mid-century America, with all of the persistent struggles to
define, pursue, and live out what many considered to be the
'American Dream'.
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The Norton Museum
of Art is a major cultural attraction in Florida.
The Museum is internationally known for its distinguished permanent
collection featuring
19th and 20th century European and American art, Chinese, contemporary art and photography.
From its founding the Norton has been famous for its masterpieces
of 19th century and 20th century painting
and sculpture by European artists such as Brancusi, Gauguin, Matisse,
Miró, Monet, Picasso
and by Americans such as Davis, Hassam, Hopper, Manship, O'Keeffe,
Pollock and Sheeler.
View special exhibitions and attend lectures and exhibition programs
for both children and adults.
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1451 S Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach FL 33401 Florida
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