Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity,

Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930

In Culture and Comfort Katherine C. Grier shows how the design and furnishings of the mid-nineteenth century parlor reflected the self-image of the Victorian middle class. Parlors provided public facades for formal occasions and represented an attempt to resolve the often opposing ideals of gentility and sincerity to which American culture aspired. The book traces the fortunes of the parlor and its upholstery from its early incarnations in â€œpalaceâ€ hotels, railroad cars, steamships, and photographers' studios; through its mid-century heyday, when even remote frontier homes could boast â€œsuitesâ€ of red plush sofas and chairs; to its slow, uneven metamorphosis into the more versatile living room. The author argues that even as the home increasingly was seen as a haven from industralization and commercialization, its ties to industry and commerceâ€”in the form of more affordable, machine-made furniture and draperyâ€”became stronger.

By the 1920s the parlor's decline signaled both a blurring of the Victorian distinctions between public and private manners and the transfer of middle-class identity from the home to the automobile. Describing the deportment a parlor required, the activities it sheltered, and the marketing and manufacturing breakthroughs that made it available to all, Culture and Comfort reveals the full range of cultural messages conveyed by nineteenth-century parlor materials.

Country	USA
Author	Katherine C. Grier
Binding	Paperback
Brand	Brand: Smithsonian Books
EAN	9781560987161
Feature	Used Book in Good Condition
ISBN	1560987162
Label	Smithsonian Books
Manufacturer	Smithsonian Books
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	280
PublicationDate	2010-06-22
Publisher	Smithsonian Books
ReleaseDate	2010-06-22
Studio	Smithsonian Books

Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930

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