"Selling the Southwest: Tourism and Trade in the American Southwest, 1868-1940" presented by Dr. Erika M. Bsumek, The University of Texas at Austin

A talk presented by Dr. Erika M. Bsumek, Associate Profesor of History, The University of Texas at Austin

Open to the public. 

This talk explores the connections between the marketing of the Southwest's distinctive regional characteristics and populations and the rise of the nascent tourism and travel industry in the early 1900s. As the Fred Harvey Company emerged as a leader in the hotel business, Harvey sought not just to attract increasingly large numbers of tourists but he also wanted to provide them with souvenirs to help remember their journey. As a result, he turned to local indigenous producers. As Anglo tourists discovered Indian-made crafts, their opinions about Indians shifted. As artists, Indians were not "savages" but rather "primitives."  Beyond changing representations, tourism transformed the material conditions of day to day life on Indian reservations. Bsumek's talk will chronicle how the of the tourist industry influenced what it meant for something to be called "Indian-made" --  and how such meanings changed the lives of Navajo weavers and silversmiths.

Professor Bsumek's Faculty Page

The talk will be held on November 19, 2009, at 8:00 PM.  It will take place in Salon B of the AT&T Executive Conference Center, 1900 University Avenue, Austin, TX 78705.

For more information, please contact Courtney Meador, meadorcl@mail.utexas.edu, 512-471-5491