Identifier

etd-10172015-095434

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This research examines traveling landscape-objects in tourist environments and their impact on cultural identity in America. Traveling landscape-objects include any form of tourist paraphernalia or representation of cultural landscapes. For these purposes, I studied different forms of tourist representation of the Natchez Trace Parkway, an entity of the National Park Service. Research areas include the content, location, and changing medium of traveling landscape-objects, while also addressing their meaning, frequency, quality, role in non-representational arenas, and the future of tourist representations. Methods include detailed cataloguing and analysis of over one thousand images of various shapes and forms ⎯ ranging from early illustrations of the Natchez Trace Parkway, to historic photographs, postcards and finally digital images found on flickr.com. Results suggest that we can identify prominent cultural landscape icons by acknowledging where tourists collected the most representations or traveling landscape-objects. In addition, the form or medium of traveling landscape-objects affects their meaning, frequency, and quality in that tourists value the tactile quality of representations. Lastly, the intrinsic value of representations (even in non-representational arenas) is confirmed, and their future secured.

Date

2015

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Colten, Craig

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.3260

Share

COinS