Quaker Aesthetics

by Lapsansky, Emma Jones; Verplanck, Anne A.

• ISBN13: 9780812236927
• ISBN10: 0812236920
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-29
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

The notion of a uniquely Quaker style in architecture, dress, and domestic interiors is a subject with which scholars have long grappled, since Quakers have traditionally held both an appreciation for high-quality workmanship and a distrust of ostentation. Early Quakers, or members of the Society of Friends, who held "plainness" or "simplicity" as a virtue, were also active consumers of fine material goods. Through an examination of some of the material possessions of Quaker families in America during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, the contributors to Quaker Aesthetics draw on the methods of art, social, religious, and public historians as well as folklorists to explore how Friends during this period reconciled their material lives with their belief in the value of simplicity. In early America, Quakers dominated the political and social landscape of the Delaware Valley, and, because this region held a position of political and economic strength, the Quakers were tightly connected to the transatlantic economy. Given this vantage, they had easy access to the latest trends in fashion and business. Detailing how Quakers have manufactured, bought, and used such goods as clothing, furniture, and buildings, the essays inQuaker Aestheticsreveal a much more complicated picture than that of a simple people with simple tastes. Instead, the authors show how, despite the high quality of their material lives, the Quakers in the past worked toward the spiritual simplicity they still cherish.

Author Biography

Emma Jones Lapsansky is Professor of History and Curator, Special Collections, Haverford College. Anne A. Verplanck is Curator of Prints and Paintings, Winterthur Museum.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xiii
Past Plainness to Present Simplicity: A Search for Quaker Identity	1	(15)
Emma Jones Lapsansky
From Plainness to Simplicity: Changing Quaker Ideals for Material Culture	16	(34)
J. William Frost
Part I Quakers as Consumers
Introduction	43	(7)
Patricia C. O'Donnell
Quakers and High Chests: The Plainness Problem Reconsidered	50	(40)
Susan Garfinkel
``All That Makes a Man's Mind More Active'': Jane and Reuben Haines at Wyck, 1812--1831	90	(32)
John M. Groff
Living in the Light: Quakerism and Colonial Portraiture	122	(34)
Dianne C. Johnson
Part II Quakers as Producers
Introduction	149	(7)
Bernard L. Herman
Quaker Beliefs and Practices and the Eighteenth-Century Development of the Friends Meeting House in the Delaware Valley	156	(32)
Catherine C. Lavoie
Eighteenth-Century Quaker Houses in the Delaware Valley and the Aesthetics of Practice	188	(24)
Bernard L. Herman
Edward Hicks: Quaker Artist and Minister	212	(34)
Carolyn J. Weekley
Part III Quakers and Modernity
Introduction	237	(9)
Anne A. Verplanck
The Aesthetics of Absence: Quaker Women's Plain Dress in the Delaware Valley, 1790--1900	246	(26)
Mary Anne Caton
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Forsaking Plain for Fancy	272	(15)
Carolyn Kinder Carr
What's Real? Quaker Material Culture and Eighteenth-Century Historic Site Interpretation	287	(14)
Karie Diethorn
Notes	301	(70)
Glossary	371	(10)
List of Contributors	381	(2)
Index	383