September 13th
Dr. Joe Stubenrauch (History, Baylor) will present “‘Leaves of Edification’: Evangelical Sentimentalism and Picturesque Tourism in the Early Nineteenth Century.” This talk will share research from his current book project, titled The Evangelical Age of Ingenuity in Britain, 1780-1851. The book argues that the late Georgian period saw British evangelicals develop a methodology for capitalizing on the transitions of modernity, including urbanization, cheap print, mass markets, domestic decorations, and an increasingly mobile population. This talk will present material from the second chapter of the book, which explores how evangelicals portrayed the material world as being conducive to religious practices and feelings. Their interest in sentimental narratives and picturesque views generated an array of Christian souvenirs, tourist practices, toys, sheet music, and one of the best-selling books of the first half of the nineteenth century.