"The Ring Toss," a gum-print six-by-eight-inch photograph produced in 1899 and first published in 1903, has become one of photographer Clarence White's most noted images. It is an example of soft focus, or fuzzy pictorialism, a type of American art photography most practiced around the turn of the century. This analysis of the photograph…

Questions the origin of design history and its relationship to art history. Maintains that design historical knowledge is produced, and it must be acknowledged that there are design histories and not one monolithic body of knowledge. (KM)

Examines the way first-year public high school students drew the human figure from life, photographs, and copies of master drawings. Finds that the three referents were not significantly different in supplying information to learn specified art elements. Maintains that drawing from life needs to be reexamined. (KM)