Fashioning the American Man: The Arrow Collar Man, 1907–1931

This essay is about the Arrow Man, one of the most successful advertising images in early twentieth–century America, and a visual representation of the New Man. The Arrow Man was created by a noted artist, J. C. Leyendecker, to sell the Arrow collar, a new version of detachable collars, a wardrobe staple for most US men and all but working–class men in Britain and Europe since the 1840s. The Arrow Man’s story is part of the transformations in masculine ideals and physical appearance, heightened by the new visual and consumer culture. He carried messages of men’s self–management of appearance and public performance from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth, where it changed from a mark of European gentility into that of the typically American white–collar man. His story is part of fundamental shifts in the US: new occupational and social class configurations and emerging American popular culture.     

“If voting could change anything it would be illegal”∗

Colin Crouch (ed.), Participation in Politics, British Political Sociology Yearbook, Vol. 3, Groom Helm, London, 1977; $38.50.     

The Hidden Meaning of Forms: Methods of Recording Paleolithic Parietal Art

There are many restrictions placed on researchers studying Paleolithic Cave art due to the constraints of conservation that limit direct contact with the original works. This paper discusses how recent advances in technology have revolutionized the study and interpretation of Paleolithic cave art. The interpretation of Paleolithic symbolic systems is a complex process and hypotheses must be applied to cave art with the greatest of precision. A detailed analysis of the painted or engraved surfaces leads to a greater understanding of both the techniques employed and the actual sequence in which parietal compositions were executed. By unlocking the creative process followed by Upper Paleolithic artists we are able to glimpse the artist’s motivations and to understand a portion of the art’s hidden meaning.