An ancient and industrious place: visual geographies and urban identity in a Danish provincial town, c. 1780–1915. (6th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schjerning, Camilla
• Is Part Of: Urban history. Volume 47:Part 1(2020)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 85
• Publication Date: 2019-05-06
• Subjects: Cities and towns -- History -- Periodicals; Cities and towns -- History -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; 909.09732
• DOI: 10.1017/S0963926819000208
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-9268

Abstract

Abstract: Through the example of Danish provincial town, Odense, the article explores the role of visual culture in the construction and transformation of nineteenth-century provincial identities and placemaking in an industrial town. It demonstrates that while representations may follow certain aesthetic conventions of urban imagery and ideas of urban prestige, they both reflect and contribute to the construction and reproduction of a specific local, imagined geography; an imagined geography where initially history and nature and as time progresses signs of industriousness and in particular an infrastructure of civic culture merges into a narrative of an ancient and industrious place.