1
2
by The Perriwinkles
3
4
This book belongs to:
5
Preface f ribbons, silhouettes and English gardens, this book is designed to capture and depict the flair of the Victorian Era. Elegante was carefully composed to showcase the rules and principles in typographic and layout design. It will allow us to understand that type is more than just words and that type design has a large influence on the mood and tone of voice of a message. Working alongside with my group, the Periwinkles, we carried out a thorough research on the Victorian Era and infused the art movement into our type and layout designs. For women and lovers of the Victorian art movement, this book will be the perfect company for afternoon tea.
6
Preface - 4 Contents - 5
Chapter 1
An Introduction - 7
Chapter 2
A Glimpse of The Past - 11
Chapter 3
The Victorian Flair Entertainment - 24 Technology and Engineering - 28 Architecture - 32 Fashion - 40 Art - 44
Chapter 4
Famous Figures William Morris - 50 Gustav Stickley - 54 Candace Wheeler - 57
Chapter 5 Typeface - 63
Picture Credit - 66 Bibliography - 68 7
CHAPTER 1
he Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities and political concerns to the passage of the Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Georgian period and followed by the Edwardian period. The latter half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe and the Gilded Age of the United States. Culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and the arts. In international relations the era was a long period of peace, known as the Pax Britannica, and economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation, temporarily disrupted by the Crimean War in 1854. The end of the period saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of gradual political reform, industrial reform and the widening of the voting franchise. Two especially important figures in this period of British history are the prime ministers Gladstone and Disraeli, whose contrasting views changed the course of history. Disraeli, favored by the queen, was a gregarious Tory. His
10
rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall law-making of the era. During the early part of the era, the House of Commons was headed by the two parties, the Whigs and the Tories. From the late 1850s onwards, the Whigs became the Liberals; the Tories became the Conservatives. These parties were led by many prominent statesmen including Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, and Lord Salisbury. The unsolved problems relating to Irish Home Rule played a great part in politics in the later Victorian era, particularly in view of Gladstone’s determination to achieve a political settlement. Indeed, these issues would eventually lead to the Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent domino effect that would play a large part in the fall of the empire.
11
CHAPTER 2
1819
1837
Queen Victoria is born
Victoria becomes queen
1838
The first photograph are taken
1842
The first Mines Act
1845
The Irish Potato Famine begins
1851
The Great Exhibition opens
1861
Prince Albert dies
1853
The Crimean War begin
1901
Queen Victoria dies
1876
Telephone invented
1866
A telegraph cable connects Europe and North America
1885
Gasoline-powered car is invented
1891
Free primary schools for all children
he Victorian era corresponds with the reign of Queen Victoria in England from June 20th 1837 until her death on January 22th 1901. It was a period of great change in the world due to new inventions, scientific discoveries, and social change. Queen Victoria served longer than any other monarch in British history. In 1837, after King William IV dies, his 18 year-old niece, Alexandrina Victoria becomes the Queen of England. By that time, Queen Victoria’s father had already died and none of her three uncles had any surviving children, meaning she was next in line. In spring 1838, Louis Daguerre, who invented the daguerreotype process of photography, took the first commercially successful photography in Paris. It was the first photograph to ever include a human being. As the image required a long exposure time, all the moving objects disappear from the scene.
16
At the beginning of the 19th century, methods of coal extraction were primitive and the workers labored in dangerous conditions. The public become aware of this condition after an accident in 1838 where a stream overflowed into the ventilation drift in Huskar Colliery in Silstone therefore causing the death of 26 children. This disaster came to the attention of Queen Victoria thus the Mine Acts of 1842 which prohibited all females and boys under ten years old from working underground in coal mines. In September 1845, the potato crops which had previously provided about 60% of the nation’s food needs, began to rot all over Ireland, leading to massive starvation. The potato blight struck again the following year. It is estimated that about a million people died during the famine, and another million emigrated to Britain and North America. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. It was organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, and held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. This exhibition attracts almost six million visitors in five months. Many ordinary people travelled to London for the first time on cheaprate excursion trains. The fairs were held to show the latest discoveries in science and technology.
17
Fig 1. Queen Victoria
Fig 2. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria
Fig 3. Victoria and Albert’s family 18
Fig 4. The first photograph taken in 1838
Fig 5. Starving Irish people raid a potato store in 1845 during the Potato Famine 19
he Crimean War in the 1853 was fought between the Russians and an alliance of the British, French and Turkey who feared Russian expansion in the Balkans. Russia was defeated in the Crimean War and it is no longer considered a dominant force in Europe. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris in March 1856. Prince Albert dies of typhoid at the age of 42 in December 14th, 1861. Queen Victoria is so filled with grief that she does not make a public appearance for 10 years and mourns Albert’s death for the rest of her life. Albert had been both a restraining and a guiding force on his headstrong wife and also an able and energetic man who played an important part in the scientific and intellectual life of his adopted country. In July 27th 1866, a telegraph cable is successfully laid on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean between Canada and Ireland. The cable allows telegrams to be sent between Europe and North America instead of sending letters on ships, which could take weeks to arrive. Alexander Graham Bell got the first patent for a telephone on March 7, 1876 as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph. A few days later, he had the first phone conversation when he spoke to his assistant, Thomas Watson.
20
In 1885, Karl Benz from Germany creates the first car that runs on an internal combustion engine that uses gas for fuel. It was powered by an internal combustion engine: three wheeled, four cycle, engine and chassis form a single unit. Benz is considered one of the founders of the German car company, Mercedes-Benz. In 1891, under the Elementary Education Ac 1870, basic State education becomes free for every child under the age of 10. It was set up to provide primary education in areas where existing provision was inadequate. This act then created the concept of compulsory education for children under thirteen later on. Victoria died at the age of 81 in January 22, 1901. As queen-empress she had ruled over almost a quarter of the world’s population. Although wilful and narrow-minded in some respects, she established firm precedents for a hardworking ‘constitutional monarch’, operating as a head of state above the fray of party politics. Her death, coming so soon after the end of the 19th century, was truly the end of an era.
21
Fig 6. The front door of the Great Exhibition
Fig 7. The Telegraph Cable on testing
22
Fig 8. The very first phone conversation between Bell and his assistant
Fig 9. The world’s first automobile from Mercedes-Benz in 1885
23
CHAPTER 3
People from the Victorian era attended parties and balls for amusement or simply to pass time. Other activities included literature, theatre, music, art and the circus.
opular forms of entertainment varied by social class back in Victorian era. Victorian Britain was mainly interested in literature, theatre and the arts. Music, drama, and opera were widely attended. The theater was in a flourishing state throughout Victoria’s reign. Michael Balfe was the most popular British grand opera composer of the period, while the most popular musical theatre was a series of fourteen comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan, although there was also musical burlesque and the beginning of Edwardian musical comedy in the 1890s. Drama ranged from low comedy to Shakespeare. Music acted as an important factor back in Victorian Era. Most people did not seek only to be entertained by professional musicians in the theater, they delighted in making music themselves. Most girls in upper and middleclass families learnt to sing and play the piano at home, so that they could entertain the family and guests at parties. Most working class houses could not afford pianos but
28
there was often someone in the house or in the street who could sing, recite or play some kind of instrument such as penny whistle or harmonica to amuse others. The Victorian era also marked the golden age of the British circus. In the mid nineteenth century there were hundreds of circuses operating in Britain. This development was intricately tied to a widespread demand for circus acts by a broad range of classes. Trick riding continued to be the main attraction, but a variety of other acts developed such as human cannonball, juggling, acrobatics, trapeze, and so on. Another form of entertainment involved ‘spectacles’ where paranormal events were carried. Illusionists and spiritualists were popular attractions in theatres and exhibition halls: audiences could sit amazed as ghosts appeared on stage and automata solved mathematical puzzles. Renowned performers appeared to levitate, slice the heads off spectators and escape out of locked boxes.
29
The Technology of the Victorian Era was based on the time period known as the Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 18th century and ended in the early 19th century.
he Industrial Revolution was one of the most dramatic changes in the level of science and technology. By the end of Victoria’s reign, a largely rural and agricultural society had been transformed with the might of industry, technology, and science. An important development during the Victorian era was the improvement of communication links. Steam power begun to replace horse power. Stagecoaches, canals, steam ships and especially the railways made international travel possible. It allowed goods, raw materials and people to be moved about, rapidly facilitating trade and industry. Beside the rails ran the telegraph wires (1832-1844). To begin with, they were confined to railway matters, but their usefulness was soon perceived by the business community, and as the Victorian world expanded, the telegraph kept pace. This form of communication used a system of dots and dashes (the Morse Code) to represent letters used in relaying messages. Within ten years after the first telegraph line opened 23,000 miles of wire crisscrossed the country. After that about thirty years, it transformed into the telephone that still being used until now.
32
Although initially developed in the early years of the 19th century, gas lighting became widespread during the Victorian era in industry, homes, public buildings and the streets. The invention of the incandescent gas mantle in the 1890s greatly improved light output. Hundreds of gasworks were constructed in cities and towns across the country. In 1882, incandescent electric lights were introduced to London streets. The British had also discovered new techniques in metal craft. The metal became more durable and much cheaper to produce. With stronger steel being used, new house frames were formed, which stabilized homes and reduced the occurrence of any hazards in Britain.
33
Victorian architecture originated in Europe as a combination of revivals of older styles. The architects tried to revive the old styles, and also incorporate modern needs and attitudes.
n Victorian times, population growth, and the Industrial Revolution which saw a migration of workers from the countryside to the cities, resulted in successive housing booms in the 1850s and 1870s that saw the creation of millions of houses. These catered not only for the rich and the new middling-classes but also for the poor. Victorian style houses were often built narrow and tall. That way, they could easily be lined up side to side. They had steep roofs, decorations on the outside, and often multicolored walls. Some common characteristics of Victorian architecture are bay windows, stairs to the front door, and cone shaped turrets. It is also common to have horizontal ridges at the roof line and above each window.
Queen Anne style architecture This style is meant to suggest the evolution of English houses from the medieval times through the Renaissance. It exhibits asymmetrical massing, towers, turrets, a rambling roof line, porches, and the use of a variety of building materials, textures and colors.
36
Fig 10. A wooden Queen Anne house
37
Italianate architecture The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and Neoclassicism, were synthesised with picturesque aesthetics. In this style, the roof is often low pitched or flat/hipped, topped by a cupola. The wide eaves are usually supported by heavy brackets. A one-story porch is commonly featured in this style, while the house itself is either 2-3 stories.
38
Fig 11. The Charles Brearley House, a fine Italianate
39
Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Victorian Gothic buildings feature arches, pointed windows, and other details borrowed from the middle ages. This style is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe as well as the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities.
40
Fig 12. The Gothic Milan Cathedral, Italy
41
Victorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in province throughout the Victorian era.
he dress of the early Victorian era was similar to the Georgian age. Women wore corsets, wide puffed sleeves and crinolines in the middle 1840’s. Dresses were simple and pale with realistic flower trimming over. By 1850’s the number of petticoats was reduced and the crinoline thrived with expanded skirts size; day dresses had a solid bodice and evening gowns had a very low neckline and were worn off the shoulder with shawls. In 1860s, the skirts became flatter at the front and projected out more behind the woman; day dresses had wide pagoda sleeves and high necklines with lace or tatted collars while evening dresses had low necklines and short sleeves, often worn with short gloves. In the 1870s, uncorseted tea gowns were introduced; bustles replaced the crinoline to hold the skirts up behind the woman. In the 1880s, riding habits had a matching jacket and skirt, a high-collared shirt and a top hat with a veil; hunting costumes had draped ankle-length skirts worn with boots or gaiters; clothing worn when out walking had a long jacket and skirt, worn with the bustle, and a small hat or bonnet. In the 1890s, women’s wear in the last decade of the Victorian Era was characterized by high collars, held in place by collar stays, and stiff steel boning in long line bodices. By this time, there were neither crinolines nor
44
bustles. Women opted for the tiny wasp waist instead. For men, during the 1850s, shirts with high upstanding or turnover collars and neckties tied in a bow or a knot with the pointed ends sticking out like “wings� were common. The upper-class continued to wear top hats, and bowler hats were worn by the working class. In the 1860, men started wearing wider neckties fastened with a stickpin; frock coats were shortened and were worn for business, while the mid-thigh length sack coat slowly displaced the frock coat for less-formal occasions. During the 1870s, three-piece suits grew in popularity along with patterned fabrics. Both frock coats and sack coats became shorter. Until the 1880s, formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark waistcoat, a white bow tie, and a shirt with a winged collar. In mid-decade, the tuxedo was used in more relaxed formal occasions and men’s shoes started to have higher heels and a narrower toe. Starting from the 1890s, the blazer was introduced, and was worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities.
45
Victorian art is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. It is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival of historic styles.
ictorian art was produced by a series of artists who were mainly focused on the popularity of England’s high-fashion and modern elegance, which was inspired by the British Empire’s growth during the era. This popularity and the elegant artwork which depicted it rendered England to be considered by the world at large a picture of modernity, finery and elegant etiquette. As a result, Victorian art often portrayed exciting and highclass events in bold colors to express the emotional energy of the situation in the paintings. It is also often viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. Movements of art covered during the Victorian period include the Classicism era, followed by the Neoclassicism movement and includes Impressionism and PostImpressionism as well. As a result, the Victorian art period began focused on a realism-centric style which hearkened back to classic art style used in ancient Greek and Roman pieces. The Classicism period then went through a series of influences which brought in the use of brighter colors and more emotional strokes, which replaced an attention to realistic detail in shadow and form, leading to the postimpressionism which ended the era of Queen Victoria’s reign.
48
Early Victorian art was heavily influenced by realism and faithfulness to the true aspects of nature. Most of the art incorporated a moral or spiritual undertone to realistic, lifelike scenery. Other the other hand, Late Victorian art began to abandon the realistic aspects of early works and moved into fantasy and mythology for thematic material. Many late Victorian pieces can be described as eclectic and ambiguous. Most Victorian art contained bright and cheerful colors and a stark attention to very small details within the scene. The English landscape of rolling hills and small farms was a common backdrop in Victorian art. Much of the Victorian art created during the 19th century depicted women. In particular, nudes, fairies and landscapes were common.
49
CHAPTER 4
(1834 - 1896)
illiam Morris was born in Walthamstow, Essex. He was the son of a wealthy businessman. As such, he enjoyed a comfortable childhood before going to Marlborough and Exeter, Oxford. Moreover, he was an English textile designer, artist, writer and libertarian socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. The initial plan was that he take holy orders, but after reading the scathing social commentaries and philosophies of Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin, Morris abandoned his liturgical aspirations to devote his life to art. He worked briefly for G. E. Street, the Gothic Revival architect, after he left Oxford, but soon left, determined to pursue a more painterly life. With his sensitivity and artistic proclivities, it wasn’t long before he forged
52
friendships with the clique known as the Pre-Raphaelites. These artists, particularly Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, had a lifelong impact on Morris and his work. Rossetti’s influence in particular is evident in Morris’s only surviving painting ‘La Belle Iseult’. By the 1860s, the mercurial and multi-talented Morris decided that his creative future lay in the field of the decorative arts. His career as a designer began when he decorated the Red House, Bexleyheath, which had been built for him by Phillip Webb. So successful was this venture that Morris formed Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861. The firm (later renamed Morris & Company) was particularly well-known for its stained glass, examples of which can be seen in churches throughout Britain. Morris produced dozens of designs that are often characterized by intricate intertwining fruit, flower, and foliage patterns. Poetry and language translations also numbered among Morris’s prodigious skills as well as creative writings. He translated many Icelandic and classical works including “Sigurd the Volsung” and “The Pilgrims of Hope”. Other writings include such fantasy novels and socialist parables as “A Dream of John Ball”, “News from Nowhere”, and the “Well at the World’s End.”
53
Politically, Morris leaned hard to the left. In 1876, he acted as treasurer of the Eastern Question Associations, the National Liberal League, and Radical Union. He soon became disillusioned with the Liberals and in 1883 joined the socialist Democratic Federation. After disagreements with the Federation’s leader, H.M. Hyndman, he formed the Socialist League, and later the Hammersmith Socialist Society. During the 1880s he was probably the most active propagandist for the socialist cause, giving hundreds of lectures and speeches throughout the country. In 1890, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press near his last home at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith. Inspired by Italian Renaissance and medieval German typography, Morris designed three typefaces for the Press: Golden, Chaucer, and Troy. More than sixty-six volumes were printed by the Kelmscott Press, the most impressive of which was its magnificent edition of Chaucer which was published in 1896. Morris died at Kelmscott House on 3 October 1896 at the age of 62 years.
54
Gustav Stickley (1858 - 1942)
ustav Stickley, the eldest son of the first generation German immigrants Barbara and Leopold Stoeckel, was born in Osceola, Wisconsin. He began training as a stonemason. By the age of 12, young Gustav was employed as a stonemason helping to support the large family. He started working in 1875 at an uncle’s chair factory, where he soon rose to manage it. In 1883, he and his brothers, Albert and Charles, founded the Stickley Brothers Company in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. That same year he married Eda Ann Simmons and a year later the brothers moved their operations to Binghamton, New York. By 1898, he had his own furniture business, The Gustave Stickey Company, in the Eastwood suburb of Syracuse, New York.
55
In 1895, he traveled to Europe for the first time and a transformation began. He saw the products of the English Arts and Crafts movement and the French Art Nouveau. A year later, he made a second trip to England and the Continent. These trips awakened a spirit deep inside him. The Arts and Crafts movement in Europe was movement promoting well built, hand crafted, and honest work. The movement was connected to a backlash against the poor treatment of workers in the urban factories. He embraced many of the ideas of this new Movement with a passion and was filled with ideas to apply its concepts in his furniture business. Working with architect and designer Henry Wilkinson and, later, designer LaMont A.Warner, he created his first Arts and Crafts works in an experimental line called the “New Furnitire� and, after exhibiting the designes in the Grand Rapids trade show in July 1900, he arranged for the Tobey Furniture Company of Chicago to distribute the line. These designs were a radical departure from the furniture of the Victorian era. They reflected the Arts andCrafts ideas of simplicity, honesty in construction, and truth to materials. Unadorned, plain surfaces were enlivening by the careful application of colorants so as not to obscure the grain of the wood and mortise and tenon joinery was exposed to emphasize the structural qualities of the works. Hammered metal hardware, in armor-bright polished iron or patinated copper, emphasized the handmade qualities of furniture which was fabricated using both hand-working techniques and modern woodworking machinery.
56
In 1901 Stickley founded the periodical known as The Craftsman that began by expounding the philosophy of the English Arts & Crafts movement. As it matured, the publication is credited with being the leading voice of that movement in the United States. In 1903, Stickley established the Craftsman Home Builders Club to spread his ideas on domestic architecture. Working with architect Harvey Ellis, he designed house plans for the magazine that later appeared in two books: Craftsman Homes(1909) and More Craftsman Homes (1912). These books illustrated the homes’ exteriors, as well as their interiors, and were accompanied with a floor plan. Financial problems forced Stickley to stop publication of The Craftsman in 1916. Though he lived another twenty six years, Stickley’s popularity had waned by the end of the Great War. Gustav Stickley moved back to Syracuse, where his wife was paralyzed by a stroke. She died in 1919, and after her death, he moved in with his daughter Barbara and her husband, who lived in the home he had built hor his family in Syracuse in 1900. There he lived, except for long absences visiting his other children, until he died on April 21, 1942. Known today as the creator of Craftsman furniture, made of quater-sawn white oak in subtle, plain designs, he was much more than a furniture maker. He was a visionary spokesman and proponent for the Arts and Crafts philosophy and a major tastemaker of his era.
57
(1827 - 1923)
andace Wheeler, artist and craftsman, was born Candace Thurber in Delhi, Delaware County, New York, the daughter of Abner and Lucy Dunham Thurber. Mrs. Candace Wheeler was the founder of the Society of Decorative Art and a little later, with her friend, Mrs. William Choate, evolved the idea of the Woman’s Exchange, to supplement the work of the Decorative Art Society. This extended opportunities to the home woman who was skilled in cooking luxuries and making useful and pretty articles for the home that hardly fell into the distinction of “Decorative Art.” Mrs. Wheeler was also the moving spirit of the Associated Artists, which was the moving force of the growth of industrial art throughout the country.
58
She was appointed Director of the Bureau of Applied Arts of the Woman’s Building at the Columbian Exposition. She is the author of books on interior decoration and embroidery and allied subjects, and after she was ninety years old wrote her autobiography, Yesterdays in a Busy Life. Candace Thurber grew up on her father’s farm, on the uplands of the Delaware Valley. Her parents reared a family of eight children of whom Candace was the thirdall destined in due time to take their useful places in the varied activities of our country. Her father and mother had brought with them from their Puritan ancestors the traditions of the sturdy pioneers, well educated in self-reliance, habits of thrift and industry, and knowing all the crafts of home making in a completeness seen most often in the early Southern plantations. It was easy to discern her New England parentage in the energy and enterprise of her character and the interesting blending of idealism with the intensely practical. Her father early developed her love of nature and showed her how to express its beauty in words. They would walk home, hand in hand, exchanging thoughts, and that night each would find time to translate what they had seen and felt into a poem to be read to each other at their next meeting in their chosen study the upper meadow. This was the background and environment in which Candace Thurber was brought
59
up, trained in all the useful arts by her able mother, and in the higher walks of the mind, in poetry and writing and drawing by her most unusual father. At the early age of seventeen, Candace married Thomas Mason Wheeler, a merchant from New York, who was spending his summer vacation in Delhi. With him she left her early active country life, in the quiet Valley of the Delaware, to become in time an equally active member of the literary, artistic and social life of New York. Nearly all the painters and writers of the latter half of the 19th century became the friends of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler and were familiar figures in the pleasant home that was their own by right of their eager active minds. It was not until her four children were grown and while she was still a young woman in the full flush of her mental and physical energies that Mrs. Wheeler came into the true range of her really useful and beautiful life. Always interested in the lives of women less fortunate than herself, she turned the inspiration of her mind and heart to the task of helping them to help themselves. Her thought was to show them how to make use of such talents as they had, just where they were, in their own homes. As yet the way was not open for women to go out into the world and get the education and special training they desired or needed. Many, nearly all, in fact, led starved ignorant lives in their isolated homes. If, by chance, their husbands were unable to give them freedom from actual drudgery, then, indeed,
60
they were really marooned in very empty lives. Needle work was their only outlet, the one form of decoration to feed the eternal yearning for beauty in the human heart. It was at this point, and to meet this need that with the aid of friends she founded the Society of Decorative Art. It was not so very long after this Society was in the full flush of its work that she found that it did not entirely meet the need that she meant it to. She had begun in the middle and it only covered the middle register. Here her friend, Mrs. Wm. Choate, came to the rescue and between these two clever and good women the Women’s Exchange was evolved, which valuable Society Mrs. Choate founded and managed the rest of her life. This Society helped not only the women who could paint or embroider, but also those who could cook luxuries for the sick or make jellies and preserves and cake, and thousands of useful and pretty articles of the household that could not be called “Decorative Art.” After a while, and very naturally, the other end of this Society of Decorative Art sprouted, and from it the Associated Artists grew and bloomed to its great and unexpected usefulness to the industrial art of the country. Mrs. Wheeler lectured and wrote much on these subjects and she mothered with her experience and sympathy many new enterprises inspired by this growth, that have
61
since become established and flourishing businesses. Her little book and many articles on home rug making were instrumental in reviving this household industry that has now become of such wide spread value. She wrote a useful book on interior decoration, and a history of embroidery in our own country from Colonial times. Incidentally, her love and understanding of nature brought one of the earliest and most charming little garden books into print, called Content in a Gardenas well as sundry and sporadic essays on fruit trees and garden flowers and weeds, gathered under the name of Doorstep Acquaintances. These essays are recognized to be classics in their way. It was during the busy and productive period of the work of the Associated Artists, that Mrs. Wheeler was appointed Director of the Bureau of Applied Arts of the Woman’s Building, at the Columbian Exposition of which her friend, Mrs. Potter Palmer, was head. This was, indeed, a test of her knowledge and ability to adjust forms of European art and industries, reflected through foreign temperaments with which she had no former dealings. It was a most exhilarating experience and gave her a wide outlook on world commerce and European manners and methods. In spite, or perhaps because of these engrossing activities, Mrs. Wheeler found time to join her brother, Francis B. Thurber, of New York, in founding a Club and Summer Settlement in the Catskills, called Onteora, the Indian name of this region, meaning Hills of the Sky. This Club started as a small group of personal friends, mostly literary men and women, artists and musicians, and comprising some of
62
the best known people of our country. Mrs. Wheeler’s last book was her autobiography called Yesterdays in a Busy Life. Although it was written after her ninetieth birthday, it is as vital and freshly interesting as anything she had written earlier. It is a thrilling story of a vivid mentality progressing from an almost pioneer farm life through the growth and development of our still young civilization. It is a record of a life lived in fullness and unselfishness for the help of others and graced with all the charm of a most unusual personality. Mrs. Wheeler closed her eyes upon the world she had loved and served so well on August 15, 1923. Her life was just four years less than the full century.
63
CHAPTER 5
66
67
PictureCredit 1. (Figure 1.) n.d. Queen Victoria. http://www.people.com/people/ package/gallery/0,,20395222_20447706_21167054,00.html 2. (Figure 2.) J. J. E. Mayall. 1860. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_ Consort 3. (Figure 3.) Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. 1846. Victoria and Albert’s family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_ Consort 4. (Figure 4.) Daguerre, Louis. 1838. The first photograph taken in 1838. http://funniestarea.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-photograph173-years-ago-1838.html 5. (Figure 5.) n.d. Starving Irish people raid a potato store in 1845 during the Potato Famine. http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art181204/Starving-Irish-people-raid-a-government-potato-store-in1842?&articleTypeId=31 6. (Figure 6.) n.d. The front door of the Great Exhibition. http:// henryhutcheon.com/page11.htm
68
7. (Figure 7.) n.d. 1866. The Telegraph Cable on testing. http:// atlantic-cable.com/Article/1866Recovery/ 8. (Figure 8.) n.d. The very first phone conversation between Bell and his assistant. http://whatcanilearntoday.wordpress. com/2012/02/19/what-were-the-first-words-spoken-on-thetelephone/ 9. (Figure 9.) n.d. The world’s first automobile from MercedesBenz in 1885. http://mercedesbenzblogphotodb.wordpress. com/2009/10/02/02-10-2009-the-worlds-first-automobile-was-athree-wheeler/ 10. (Figure 10.) n.d. A wooden Queen Anne house. http://www. garrellassociates.com/blog/victorian-style-houses-queen-anne 11. (Figure 11.) n.d. 2011. The Charles Brearley House, a fine Italianate. http://picturesqueitalianatearchitecture.blogspot. com/2013/05/the-charles-brearley-house-trenton-nj.html 12. (Figure 12.) n.d. The Gothic Milan Cathedral, Italy. http://www. skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1565555 13. n.d. William Morris. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/ biography-of-william-morris/ 14. n.d. Gustav Stickley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_ Stickley 15. n.d. Candace Wheeler. http://peggyoberlininteriors.com/ blog/2012/05/17/candace-wheeler-an-advocate-for-women-ininterior-design/
69
1. n.d. Candace Thurber Wheeler. Accessed 2013. http://www. askart.com/askart/w/candace_thurber_wheeler/candace_thurber_ wheeler.aspx. 2. n.d. Victorian Style Art: Victorian Prints of Art in Victorian Style. Accessed 2013. http://www.starrabbott.com/article-victorianstyle.htm. 3. n.d. Architectural Styles and Photos/Definitions. Accessed 2013. http://www.historicnearwestside.com/architecturestyles.htm. 4. Assael, Brenda. 2005. The Circus And Victorian Society. Accessed 2013. http://books.google.com.my/books/about/The_ Circus_And_Victorian_Society.html?id=p5wMYvBVGgIC&redir_ esc=y. 5. Bliss, Heather. n.d. Definition of Victorian Art. Accessed 2013. http://www.ehow.com/about_5045826_definition-victorian-art. html. 6. n.d. Candace Thurber Stevenson Papers. Accessed 2013. http:// asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss162_bioghist. html.
70
7. 1918. Candace Wheeler. Accessed 2013. http://www.arts-crafts. com/archive/people/wheelercandace.shtml. 8. Cody, David. 2012. William Morris: A Brief Biography. 17 October. Accessed 2013. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ morris/wmbio.html. 9. 2013. Gothic architecture. 21 May. Accessed 2013. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_style. 10. n.d. Gustav Stickley. Accessed 2013. http://www.arts-crafts. com/archive/gstickley.shtml. 11. n.d. Gustav Stickley biography. Accessed 2013. http://www. biography.com/people/gustav-stickley-9495098. 12. 2013. History of education in England. 23 May. Accessed 1 June, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_ England. 13. 2013. Italianate architecture. 27 May. Accessed 2013. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italianate_architecture. 14. Jones, Ralph. n.d. William Morris. Accessed 2013. http://www. arts-crafts.com/archive/wmorris.shtml. 15. Kipling, Rudyard. n.d. Scanning the Continent: Telegraphy. Accessed 2013. http://www.britishempire.co.uk/science/ communications/telegraph.htm. 16. Landow, George P. 1999. What was Victorian taste, really? August. Accessed 2013. http://www.victorianweb.org/art/design/ taste1.html. 17. Lucy. 2005. Entertaining The Masses. 18 November. Accessed
71
2013. http://vicfun.blogspot.com/. 18. 2013. Mines and Collieries Act 1842. 26 April. Accessed 1 June, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_and_Collieries_ Act_1842. 19. Northwest College Graphic Design. n.d. The Victorian Era. Accessed 2013. http://visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/thevictorian-era/. 20. 2013. Penny Black. 11 May. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black. 21. n.d. Popular Culture. Accessed 2013. http://www.bl.uk/ learning/histcitizen/victorians/popculture/culture.html. 22. 2013. Queen Anne style architecture. 20 May. Accessed 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne_Style_architecture. 23. Sakirasci. n.d. General Overview of The VIctorian Era and Timeline. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http://www.slideshare.net/ sakirasci/general-overview-of-the-victorian-era-and-timeline. 24. Smith, Mary Ann. n.d. Gustav Stickley. Accessed 2013. http:// stickleymuseum.org/learn-more/gustav-stickley.html. 25. Smith, Rebecca. n.d. The Temperance Movement and Class Struggle in Victorian England. Accessed 2013. http://www.loyno. edu/~history/journal/1992-3/smith-r.htm. 26. n.d. Technology of the Victorian Era. Accessed 2013. http:// rodriguez9-3.pbworks.com/w/page/10300435/Victorian%20 Era%20Technology. 27. Temperley, Nicholas. n.d. Victorian Theater. Accessed 2013.
72
http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/exhibitions/Victorian%20 Entertainments/home/home.html. 28. n.d. The Great Exhibition. Accessed 1 June, 2013. http://www. vam.ac.uk/page/g/great-exhibition/. 29. n.d. The rise of technology and industry. Accessed 2013. http:// www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/technology/industry.html. 30. n.d. The Victorian Age. Accessed 2013. http://gds.parkland. edu/gds/!lectures/history/1840/victorian.html. 31. n.d. The Victorian Era (1837-1901). Accessed 2013. http:// www.erasofelegance.com/history/victorianarts.html. 32. n.d. The Victorian Timeline. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http:// www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/access/victorian/timeline_ victorian.htm. 33. n.d. Transport and Communications. Accessed 2013. http:// www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/transport/communication. html. 34. n.d. Victorian Britain. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http://www.bbc. co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain/. 35. n.d. Victorian Britain. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http://www.bbc. co.uk/history/british/timeline/victorianbritain_timeline_noflash. shtml. 36. n.d. Victorian Circus. Accessed 2013. http://www.vam.ac.uk/ content/articles/v/victorian-circus/. 37. 2013. Victorian decorative arts. 16 March. Accessed 2013. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_decorative_arts.
73
38. n.d. Victorian Era. Accessed 2013. http://mural.uv.es/ropriegi/ Browning.html. 39. n.d. Victorian Era Timeline. Accessed 29 May, 2013. http:// www.softschools.com/timelines/victorian_era_timeline/43/. 40. 2011. Victorian Era’s Introduction. 21 January. Accessed 30 May, 2013. http://victorianeracnr.blogspot.com/2011/01/victorianeras-introduction.html. 41. 2013. Victorian fashion. 9 May. Accessed 2013. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_fashion. 42. n.d. Victorian Inventions. Accessed 2013. http://www.museum. siu.edu/old/museum_classroom_grant/Museum_Explorers/school_ pages/lawrenceville/inventions.html. 43. n.d. Victorian Style. Accessed 28 May, 2013. http://library. thinkquest.org/16545/data/low/victoria.htm. 44. n.d. Victorian Technology. Accessed 2013. http://www. steampunkery.com/history/caledon.htm. 45. 2013. Victorianism. 7 March. Accessed 2013. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorianism. 46. victorp. n.d. History of Typography: Evolution of Typography in Flyer Advertising Over Time. Accessed 2013. http://creativefan. com/history-of-typography-evolution-of-typography-in-flyeradvertising-over-time/. 47. Warren, Julie. 2010. Candace Wheeler, 1827-1923. 2 March. Accessed 2013. http://www.aauw.org/2010/03/02/candace-wheeler1827-1923-entrepreneur-artist-and-founder-of-american-interiordesign/.
74
48. n.d. William Morris (1834-1896). Accessed 2013. http://www. artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/graphic_designers/william_ morris.html. 49. 2013. William Morris. Accessed 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/William_Morris.
75