At Home: The American Family 1750-1870

by Elisabeth Donaghy Garrett

Illustrated with nearly 200 paintings, drawings, and prints, 101 in color.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1990

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a vast and extremely detailed look at the social and cultural history of the mid-eighteenth to late-nineteenth-century American home, with the first half's chapters focusing on specific rooms that are narrowed on down even further to a given furniture piece or common household item's everyday material uses. At Home is not gentle reading for the casual reader, as Garrett's audience is looking for the how and why of the intricacies of old homes. Such topics involve the enhancement brought from a parlor's wall sconce for that evening's candlelit readings and piano lessons, a spyglass' placement in order to readily announce the arrival from horseback of a long-travelled family member's return, or even the organization and ease of having chairs removed to the borders of an individual room for reasons of space, functionality, design, and conversation:

The men, he further noted, had previously carried their chairs to the wall, the women to a window. A great advantage of the formal dining room, however, was that the dining table might stand out in the center of the room and not have to be folded up and placed aside to make way for other activities. Long extension tables became popular in the Federal period, allowing for large numbers of guests in that convivial age.

While at times dry and tedious (as expected), Garrett's writing and research throughout is perfectly calculated, with brilliantly placed quotes from a colonial or prosperous family's letters or journals that describe their lives or memories in the comfort of their beloved parlor, dining room, kitchen, or bedchamber—complete with helpful illustrations on almost every page to complement the given subject at hand. Modern audiences easily take for granted such trifles and ordinary amenities as the scented candle, blackout curtain, or clogged toilet, but Garrett hearkens them back to a (housewife's) essential routine-scheduled cleaning. This includes the wiping of an oil lamp or chamber pot, and such matters as the importance of choice in shutters or candle wax due to issues involving abundance of smoke, frequency to the next inevitable snuffing, and illumination of a given space; whale tallow seemingly amongst the most-desired. Overall, this was a well-structured and researched history of the 1750's American household, in which Garrett delivers expansive and rich content up until the year 1870.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic with plenty of references, but the later chapters tended to repeat some of the earlier content, and the vocabulary was needlessly complex.

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ended up skimming rather than reading through. Parts were interesting, but not as much as I expected.

[AskNezka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best history discussions of the material culture of the American home.

[Alicia Nordwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

very informative, but a bit of a slog

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and very well documented study on the early history of American homes, their furnishings, room usage, and more. I devoured it!