Reasons for the Revival
by Angela Goebel Bain
At the turn of the 20th century,
the United States experienced rapid social, economic and technological
changes. Unprecedented numbers of immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe entered the country, bringing new political assumptions and
cultures. Americans whose ancestors immigrated earlier from northern
and western Europe feared that their traditions would be swept away
by this flood of foreign ideas. New technologies encouraged large-scale
enterprises, making traditional family farms and workshops nearly
obsolete. These social and economic shifts led disillusioned Americans
to seek refuge in a romanticized, nearly imaginary, past where the
population was homogeneous and goods were handmade by independent
As native-born Americans struggled to imagine
the country's future in the face of what they believed was the corruption
of traditional American culture and modes of production, they turned
to two aesthetic movements, the Arts and Crafts Movement and the
Colonial Revival. Through the production and consumption of goods
in the context of these movements, they asserted their Anglo-Saxon
ethnicity and cultural values while simultaneously trying to define
what it meant to be "American." Tastemakers and reformers advocated
moving away from the heavy, European-influenced ornamentation found
in Victorian homes toward simple, austere and more "American" decorative
forms and interiors. At the same time, artisans and manufacturers
produced and sold consumer goods with the underlying message that
owning these confirmed Anglo-Saxon sensibilities and had the potential
to homogenize the non-Anglo-Saxon population to this way of thinking.
These movements began in the 1890s as elite adventures and entered
the American mainstream in the early decades of the 20th century.
The Arts and Crafts Movement began in late 19th
century England, under the influence of art critic, John Ruskin,
and designer, William Morris. By 1890, their ideas had spread to
America. Adherents to this movement were convinced that industrialization
had caused the degradation of the worker and his product, through
the division of labor and separation of design from construction.
Mass-produced Victorian furnishings were considered especially corrupt
because of the common use of veneer and applied decoration. The
reformers' solution was a return to hand craftsmanship, employing
an honesty of materials and harmonious design. To upper- and middle-class
Americans, the Arts and Crafts Movement was a rejection of mass-produced
goods made by dehumanized factory workers in favor of handcrafted
products made by small-scale autonomous artisans, whose English
ancestry informed their modes of production and the style of their
products. They perceived an additional danger of industrialization
in the largely immigrant workforce, believing newcomers introduced
foreign political ideas, such as communism and anarchism, which
threatened traditional American individualism, republicanism and
The Colonial Revival emerged in America after
the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition sparked a popular and
romantic reflection on America's pre-industrial past as a time of
social harmony, independent work, and prosperity. Colonial Revivalists
were interested in remembering and communicating wholesome values,
which they believed their colonial ancestors possessed. As a result,
the last quarter of the 19th century saw great activity in preserving
colonial antiquities and celebrating the triumphs of English-born
ancestors. Ethnic Anglo-Saxon-founded heritage societies like the
National Society of Colonial Dames and the Sons of the American
Revolution, preserved and opened to the public colonial icons like
Mount Vernon, and embarked on the task of Americanizing immigrants.
On an individual level, the Colonial Revival
inspired many native-born Americans to surround themselves with
romanticized ancestral landscapes, homes, and artifacts. Consumer
goods connected with the colonial past were meaningful signposts
to assert one's cultural affiliation. In this period antiques also
became popular commodities for the first time. If one did not inherit
ancestral heirlooms, one could purchase them. New products, whether
reproductions of Colonial styles or interpretations in the Arts
and Crafts tradition, served as reminders of the values and fortitude
of the revered Anglo-Saxon ancestors, whom many native-born Americans
wished to retain as inspirational moral guides of American culture.
In the years following the Civil War, Deerfield,
Massachusetts, like many small towns in New England, experienced
economic and population declines. By the late 19th-century, Deerfield
farmers struggled to compete with those in the west, and area manufacturers
could no longer keep up with those in the cities. As a result, many
Deerfield residents left the area to seek better economic opportunities.
The migration of young workers left the predominately agricultural
village with a population that was increasingly older and female.
This pattern was particularly acute on the main street, the area
of the original Deerfield settlement of 1671, still lined with 18th-century
houses, many of which were occupied by descendents of the original
owners. Since women were disproportionately becoming heads of households,
the land was increasingly farmed by hired labor. By the turn of
the 20th century, Eastern European immigrants who initially had
been hired laborers began to acquire farms from old Deerfield families
in the areas surrounding the central village. By 1900, over 37 percent
of Franklin County residents were either foreign-born or children
of foreign-born parents.
To stem their eroding economic, social and political
prominence, Deerfield residents increasingly turned to a nostalgic
and romantic view of the past as both an economic and social solution.
They historicized their village and asserted their English identity
by capitalizing on their revered history. Villagers established
a museum, preserved colonial-era houses, raised monuments, and held
historical pageants. In effect, they created a "real" colonial village,
which brought public attention and economic gains to their community.
In this spirit of Colonial Revivalism and in
accord with the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a number
of Deerfield artisans formed the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts
in 1899, later renamed Deerfield Industries, which organized the
joint marketing and exhibition of their goods. A variety of individual
crafters created basketry, woven rugs, metalwork, jewelry, paintings,
photography, and embroidery. The colonial era artifacts in the local
museum, Memorial Hall, served as the inspiration for their modern
The Society's 1919 promotional brochure is void
of illustrations, but is rich in descriptive language about the
ideals underlying the artisans' work. The pamphlet concretely links
their products to their ethnic heritage through ideological connections
to the Arts and Crafts Movement and the natural link to the artisans'
Anglo-Saxon ancestors. They compared their traditional modes of
production and ancestry to industrial America and its foreign workers.
The pamphlet reads: "[a] great desire was in the air to supplant
the machine made ugliness of the merchandise of the period, with
good hand work, done by intelligent craftsmen, instead of dull factory
hands working under conditions that made both their lives and everything
they produced unbeautiful." Deerfield artisans further connected
their heritage and bucolic rural landscape with the authenticity
and pureness of their goods by claiming, "the old traditions of
hand-work had never died out in this commercially uncorrupted spot
[Deerfield]." Finally, the pamphlet reminded its readers that products
were created in the Anglo-Saxon based American values of individualism
and democracy. "With true New England individualism each crafts
woman works independently, and with New England honesty judges her
own work with a trained eye."
Numerous articles about Deerfield Industries
appeared in specialized magazines and continued this line of promotion.
An article entitled, "The Crafts of Deerfield" in New Idea Woman's
Magazine reported how this "quaint little town of Deerfield, Massachusetts
... embodies the spirit of the past, through adapting itself with
Yankee ingenuity and self-reliance to the spirit of the present,"
and that "[n]o smoke from noisy factories mars the landscape and
no busy shops proclaim the labor of the people."
Co-existing with Deerfield Industries was the
Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, an arts and crafts
organization founded in 1896 by Ellen Miller and Margaret Whiting,
"with the intention of reviving the traditional embroidery of the
Colonial Period and of establishing a village industry." The group
originally consisted of four embroiderers but grew to nearly thirty
women before it closed in 1926. Miller and Whiting discovered fragile
18th century textiles in the Memorial Hall Museum, recreated the
patterns so they would not be lost. Like the Deerfield Industries
marketing pamphlet, their brochure is void of illustration but strongly
links their work to the "homeland" of England: the "design, coloring
and stitches owed their origin to England ... these in turn being
direct in descent from the famous early Anglo-Saxon embroideries."
A 1902 article in Everybody's Magazine reported that the Misses
Whiting and Miller were led by a "feeling of patriotic affection"
to recreate and build on colonial designs. It claimed that their
society is "known in every State in the Union." For both the Deerfield
Industries and the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework,
national publications and their own promotional pieces emphasize
historical and ideological underpinnings as much as the quality
of the work itself.
Frances and Mary Allen, two other Deerfield
women, were renowned photographers who worked in the pictorial tradition.
Pictorialism was a turn-of-the-20th-century movement to elevate
the field of photography to the level of art. Pictorialists connected
themselves to the Arts and Crafts Movement by claiming that they
"crafted" their photographs; they did not merely take them. The
Allens took picturesque images of children and rural landscapes,
but one of their primary genres was "colonial life." They dressed
their family and neighbors in clothing intended to recall styles
of a hundred years earlier and posed them in activities designed
to conjure up memories of simpler days.
Although they were nationally and internationally
acclaimed art photographers and sold their work to individuals for
home decoration, their primary income came from their commercial
photography. They successfully supported themselves through commissions
for book and magazine illustrations. Their work frequently appeared
in the Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful,
Colonial Homes, and The Craftsman among others, attesting to the
strength of their images in popularizing the look of the Colonial
Revival. One such commissioned work is entitled "Thanksgiving Pies"
(1996.14.0712) and was used as an illustration in Alice Morse Earle's
1898 book, Home Life in Colonial Days. This image shows generations
of women working together in preparation for a holiday gathering.
The women are cooking on an open hearth, decades after cook stoves
were commonly found in American kitchens. Several artifacts from
the Colonial Period like the candle-making equipment (on the mantle)
would not have been in regular use at the turn of the 20th century.
The room features a mixture of Colonial (candle-making equipment
and bake oven) and early Federal Period artifacts (Dutch oven),
suggesting that the Allens integrated objects from different time
periods to achieve what they defined as "colonial." This is in line
with Earle's book, because she discusses the Dutch oven as a colonial
piece, even though it was first invented in the early 19th century.
Had this photograph not been an illustration for a book on colonial
days, it may have served simply as a romantic image of pre-industrial
rural America. This image, with its generations of women working
in a low-tech environment, evokes nostalgia for a family-centered,
slow pace lifestyle where simplicity was the mode of operation.
Other Allen images overtly point to the Colonial
Period. "Barbara Reading" (1908-1910) (1996.14.0065.01-.03) shows
a girl dressed as a puritan, right down to her buckled shoes. However,
it is clear the photographers were less concerned about historical
accuracy than communicating a feeling. Barbara's clothing is indicative
of a girl from around 1700, but the background shows wallpaper,
carpet on the stairs and sheer curtains, all exposing her true placement
in the 19th century. At other times, Allen photographs communicated
a stronger message. "Letter of the Law" (1996.14.0295.01-.02) can
be interpreted in several ways. The sitter is in puritan garb and
could be either a minister or a magistrate. The law is either the
law of God or the law of the society, but in early New England settlements,
these are one and the same. At any rate, the sitter communicates
stern, austere, unquestionable authority. His expression is hostile
and unwavering, and he seems to expect absolute acquiescence.
Frances and Mary Allen were concerned with creating
a feel for an idealized past, not accurately portraying it. They
conflated imagery from the 18th and early 19th centuries to create
nostalgic scenes from pre-industrial America. In their landscape
images, they even went to great lengths to remove the modern elements
from the scenes. No Allen photographs reveal telephone poles, automobiles,
or trolleys even though they were commonly seen in their time.
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