Jacob's Ladder Flower Photograph by George Hoffmann.

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28, 10-13. Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version.

I am currently working on a book about Jacob's Ladder as a religious symbol and cultural image. I hope to convey a sense of the enduring power of this image in Western culture, of the varied ways that Jewish and Christian communities have conceived of the ladder, and of the diverse ways that artists and others have used the image in sophisticated, folk, and popular culture. I see this work as an exploration of the relations among an abiding image, cultural communities, and the human imagination.

As part of this project, I curated an exhibition at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at Holy Cross College, March 10-April 16, 2004, entitled, Envisioning Jacob's Ladder: Image and Allusion in American Visual Culture, 1750-2000. A brief Virtual Tour of the exhibition is available on this site. For further information, an exhibition catalogue may be obtained from The Cantor Art Gallery or David Hummon.

If you have interests in this work, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at dhummon@holycross.edu or by traditional mail: Professor David Hummon, Sociology and Anthropology, Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA 01610.

Under revision, December 2005.

to home page