2025 Exhibition: Doing Americana

Doing Americana: Photography, Mythology, and the American Dream | Schneider Hall Galleries | Belknap Gallery 

August 28-October 31, 2025

Drawing from the University of Louisville Photographic Archives’ extensive Standard Oil (New Jersey) and Fine Print Collections, Doing Americana: Photography, Mythology, and the American Dream peels back the layers of the seemingly natural myth of the American “good life.” Collaboratively curated by a mixed undergraduate and graduate class in the Spring of 2025, this exhibition invites viewers to look closer at how photography has helped shape American ideals of nationhood, domesticity, labor, and freedom. In the images presented, nostalgia and patriotism collide to paint an outwardly harmonious picture of the American Dream, subtly smoothing over the cracks and empty promises of a dream few Americans are able to fully achieve.

Image: 1967, Harvey Osterhoudt, 1968