Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)

II. Die Wahrnehmungen von Raum / The perceptions of space - Jill Murdoch: The Railway in Arcadia: An Approach to Modernity in British Visual Culture

THE RAILWAY IN ARCADIA: AN APPROACH TO MODERNITY IN BRITISH VISUAL CULTURE

Jill Murdoch

“A PRETTY PROSPECT I "

Native (to our Landscape Painter who has come down to sketch), "why, sir, in this *ere valley that YOU’RE A COIN' TO. YOU MAY SEE—AH—THREE SPLENOID VIADUCTS ALL AT ONOE. AND ONE O’ THE LAROEST CLOTH FACTORIES IN THE WEST OF ENQLAfO I"

Illustration 1: 'A Pretty Prospect' by Charles Keene, published in Punch. Vol. 39, 1860.

Introduction

The traditional approach to railway history has been to view it from the perspective of its contribution to local or national economies and to altered patterns of social life. But it can take its place in a broader social history by examining its effect on cultural forms. This can give access to a greater variety of contemporary interpretations of the

Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs/Sonderband 7

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