The politics of taste in the new republic: The decorative elaboration of the Philadelphia household, 1780-1820.

According to one of Americans most cherished myths, the best way to insure democratic self-reliance is to follow the plain life. But as indicated in this study of the shifting politics of taste in post-revolutionary Philadelphia, the strict adherence to plain and neat forms of decorative restraint was the product of an aristocratic past in which ordinary citizens were supposed to keep to their modest station in life, out of deferential respect for those located at the top of the social hierarchy. To free themselves from the constraints imposed by the narrow range of plain and neat choices, post-revolutionary consumers embraced decorative luxury as never before--establishing a new democratic politics of competitive display which empowered a passive public to serve as an active judge and critic who had to be confronted, contested, and convinced. This study examines three crucial aspects of the shifting politics of post-revolutionary taste--focusing on changes in retail trade, patterns of emulation, and standards of household comfort and display. Section I of this study examines the proliferation of a new breed of retail storekeepers, who supplied Philadelphia consumers with a wider selection of decorative luxury goods than were offered by the local shopkeepers of the colonial period. Section II examines the causes and consequences of the departure from traditional plain and neat forms of fashionable display--tracing the ways in which competitive spending helped to widen the gap that separated the upper and middle classes, yet established a new standard of material respectability that united the middle-class networks which formed the backbone of the Democratic-Republican opposition to the aristocratic Federalists around a shared way of life. Section III examines changes in heating, lighting, and plumbing that helped to create a more suitable environment for new tastes of ornamental display. At the heart of sections II and III is an analysis of 204 probate inventories for Philadelphia's young parents, taken during the first five years of the four decades spanning from 1780 to 1820.PhDAmerican historyAmerican studiesArt historyCommunication and the ArtsSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129397/2/9501064.pd