The Jessie Mae Pate Mcconagha Prize

Established in memory of Professor Jessie Mae Pate McConagha, who taught French at Lawrence in the 1920s and was a student of European painting with broader interests in the Appleton visual arts community, this award recognizes interdisciplinary scholarship in art history within the humanities. Alex Alden is awarded the Jessie Mae Pate McConagha Prize for his interdisciplinary research on a once-lost 18th century portrait that was falsely reproduced online as a portrayal of the composer Johann Pachelbel. Working at the intersections of Art History, Musicology, and History, Alex explores questions of genius, representation, and digital reproduction. He makes the compelling argument that while the portrait doesn't depict Pachelbel, the many reproduced digital versions of the portrait have come to depict Canon in D, his most widely known composition. Alex is a clear and careful writer, attentive to nuance and detail.