Celebrating two collectors’ passion for Americana and the window it provides into the everyday beauty of the past Becoming America offers a multifaceted view of one of the foremost collections of 18th- and 19th-century American folk and decorative art from the rural Northeast. Essays by leading specialists discuss the culture of furniture workshops, exuberant painted decoration, techniques of sewing and quilting, and poignant stories about the families depicted in the portraits. The collection itself includes Shaker boxes, a beaded Iroquois hat, embroidered samplers, metalwork, scrimshaw, handwoven rugs, ceramics, and a weather vane. The majority of these works have never before been published. With lively essays and profuse illustrations, this handsome volume brings to life the aesthetic of early Americans living in the countryside and is an essential exploration of the period’s taste and style. Distributed for The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Exhibition Schedule: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA (October 22, 2016–ongoing) Inside, as you leaf through the pages, you'll find showstopper after showstopper. . . . There's a rare late eighteenth-century Pennsylvania Schrank with an extravagant painted finish achieved, inpart, with a dry-brush technique called "scumbling." Another is an extraordinarily detailed sampler of about 1790 stitched by a Massachusetts girl named Eunice Hooper at age nine. A third is ahaunting posthumous portrait by Samuel Miller of a Cynthia Mary Osborn,who died in 1841 around age seven. As rich as the illustrations are, the book merits a place on reference library shelves thanks to the quality of its enlightening --and at times entertaining -- scholarly essays on topics broad and narrow. Stacy Hollander, former curator at the American Folk Art Museum, surveys themes in landscape and still-life painting in early America, while independent curator Robin Jaffee Frank closely examines three family portraits in the Fielding collection. Elizabeth V. Warren sorts through the textiles, which range from quilts and samplers to hooked rugs and beadwork. Virginia antiquarian Sumpter Priddy offers an illuminating look at the "fancy"painting style and the kaleidoscope motif in early American design. There's also an engaging interview with antiques dealer David Wheatcroft, who served as the Fieldings' Sacagawea in the world of American folk art, about the building of the collection and the methods he uses to weigh the merits and defects of antiques. Perhaps the most affecting essay comes from Yale historian John Demos. It's ostensibly a kind of primer on early American furniture, but Demos goes beyond details of the making and the stylistic attributes of the chests and chairs under discussion to examine their significance and what it means to collect them. Gregory Cerio, Editor-in-Chief, The Magazine Antiques The most compelling objects in the Fielding collection are the most humble, primitive lighting and hearth equipment made extraordinary by everydayAmericans withthe kind of imagination and initiative that, writ large, built thiscountry. Laura Beach, Antiques and The Arts Weekly Outstanding Academic Title for 2020 Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries This exploration of the art and everyday household items of rural New Englanders during the 18th and 19th centuries sheds light on early American consumer culture through quilts, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, portraits, and furniture. James Glisson is Curator of Contemporary at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He was formerly the interim chief curator of American art at The Huntington.  Jonathan Fielding  is the former director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Distinguished Professor at UCLA.  Karin Fielding is a trustee of the American Folk Art Museum in New York.