Powder Horn c. 1938

Curator: This is "Powder Horn," a drawing by Howell Rosenbaum, around 1938. What are your first thoughts? Editor: Well, it’s a very simple drawing. The horn has an inscription about Cabell County, Virginia, from 1814. It feels like an attempt to capture a historical artifact. How do you interpret this work? Curator: I think we need to unpack that idea of "capturing." Rosenbaum made this drawing during the New Deal era. Consider that context: The Federal Art Project employed artists to document American material culture. This wasn't just about preservation, but about constructing a national identity, right? What does choosing to represent this object say? Editor: So it's not *just* a powder horn. It's tied to ideas of Americana? Curator: Exactly. The powder horn itself symbolizes frontier life, hunting, self-sufficiency, perhaps even a romanticized vision of early American individualism. The inscription grounds it in a specific place and time, but also raises questions. Who was "J.A. Dial?" Why document *this* horn from Cabell County? This links to ideas about regionalism, local histories being woven into the national narrative. Editor: So, it's like the artwork uses a single object to represent the historical period of 1814 and frontier values within that region of Virginia, but through the added lens of Rosenbaum in 1938. Curator: Precisely. It's not just about documenting history, but also about who gets to write that history, and what aspects of it get amplified during times of economic and political stress, right? Whose narratives are included and whose are erased? Editor: That’s fascinating! I hadn’t considered all those layers. Thanks for pointing that out! Curator: My pleasure. It's a good reminder that even the simplest image can carry a heavy load of historical meaning.