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Americana (culture)

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File:Motherhood and apple pie.jpg
Apple pie, baseball, and the United States flag, three well-known icons associated with Americana
File:Currier and Ives Liberty2.jpg
Liberty Enlightening the World, a print version of the portrait of the Statue of Liberty by Currier and Ives
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Americana artifacts are related to the history, geography, folklore, and cultural heritage of the United States of America. Americana is any collection of materials and things concerning or characteristic of the United States or of the American people, and is representative or even stereotypical of American culture as a whole.<ref>Template:Cite Merriam-Webster</ref><ref>Template:Cite Dictionary.com</ref>

What is and is not considered Americana is heavily influenced by national identity, historical context, patriotism and nostalgia. The ethos or guiding beliefs or ideals which have come to characterize America, such as the American Dream, are central to the idea. Americana encompasses not only material objects but also people, places, concepts and historical eras which are popularly identified with American culture.

The name Americana also refers to Americana music, a genre of contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American music styles, including country, roots rock, folk, bluegrass, and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound.<ref name="USA Today">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Grammy>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

As nostalgiaEdit

From the mid to late 20th century, Americana was largely conceptualized as a nostalgia for an idealized life in small towns and cities in the United States around the turn of the century, roughly in the period between 1880 and the First World War.<ref name="Sears 1">Template:Cite book</ref> It was believed that much of the structure of 20th-century American life and culture had been cemented in that time and place. American author Henry Seidel Canby wrote:

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Many kinds of cultural artifacts fall within the definition of Americana: the things involved need not be old, but are usually associated with some quintessential element of the American experience. Each period of United States history is reflected by the advertising and marketing of the time, and the various types of antiques, collectibles, memorabilia and vintage items from these time periods are typical of what is popularly considered Americana. The Atlantic described the term as "slang for the comforting, middle-class ephemera at your average antique store—things like needle-pointed pillows, Civil War daguerreotypes, and engraved silverware sets".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The nostalgia for this period was based on a remembrance of confidence in American life that had emerged during the period due to such factors as a sense that the frontier had finally been "conquered", with the U.S. Census Bureau's declaration that it was "closed" in 1890, as well as the recent victory in the Spanish–American War.<ref name="Sears 1" /> By 1912, the contiguous United States was at last fully politically incorporated, and the idea of the nation as a single, solid unity could begin to take hold.

As Canby put it,

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On growing up Italian-American, novelist Don DeLillo stated:

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It’s no accident that my first novel was called Americana. This was a private declaration of independence, a statement of my intention to use the whole picture, the whole culture. America was and is the immigrant's dream, and as the son of two immigrants I was attracted by the sense of possibility that had drawn my grandparents and parents.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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The zeitgeist of this idealized period is captured in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom's Main Street, U.S.A. section (which was inspired by both Walt Disney's hometown of Marceline, Missouri and Harper Goff's childhood home of Fort Collins, Colorado),<ref name="fort-collins.co.us">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the musical and movie The Music Man and Thornton Wilder's stage play Our Town.<ref name="Sears 1" /> Especially revered in nostalgic Americana are small-town institutions like the barber shop,<ref name="Sears 2">Template:Cite book</ref> drug store, soda fountain and ice cream parlor;<ref name="Sears 3">Template:Cite book</ref> some of these were eventually resurrected by mid-twentieth century nostalgia for the time period in businesses like the Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour chain, with its 1890s theme.<ref name="franchise">Template:Cite news</ref>

ExamplesEdit

File:Oroville State Theatre during blue hour (2024)-L1005456.jpg
Americana in architecture: the Oroville State Theatre in the historic downtown of Oroville, a former gold mining town in Northern California
File:National Bullriding Championship Finals 2024-104A3770.jpg
Flag girls at a Rodeo
File:The Cow Boy 1888.jpg
Cowboys are a quintessential figure of the Wild West and American frontier.

Cultural symbolsEdit

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FoodEdit

MusicEdit

ReligionEdit

Clothing and fashionEdit

Brand namesEdit

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Similar conceptsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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Further readingEdit

External linksEdit

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