Liberalism, nationalism and the evolution of middle-class values : the literature on interior decoration in England, 1875-1914.

PhDIn the 1870s and 80s, the interior decoration of the middle-class home was the focus of a great deal of attention, as reflected in a dramatic increase in the literature on this subject in the form of handbooks 'for those about to furnish', articles in women's magazines, trade Journals and publications for artists and architects. This literature expressed the most advanced ideas of the day and actively promoted such progressive concepts as individual freedom of expression, cosmopolitan internationalism, the need for improvement in the position of women, and the application of new scientific theories This thesis traces these ideas to the political ideology of modern British liberalism which was at its most influential during this period Liberal writers, in particular John Stuart Mill, wrote persuasively about the primacy of the private sphere of life In their view, it was only in private life that man could develop true individuality through freedom of choice, this concept had important implications for the appearance of the home Many of those who wrote on interior decoration had read Mill, or were involved with reform movements or political activities inspired by liberal theories As a result, they tried to bring about social change through the application. of liberal principles to the decoration of the middle-class home There were also, however, sharp disagreements expressed in the decorating literature about what constituted the optimal middle-class interior These conflicts reflected areas of unresolvable tension within the ideological framework of liberalism; their impact on interior decoration is explored as well As the influence of liberalism waned, the values expressed in the literature on decoration changed correspondingly The importance of the home in the formation of national character was given greater emphasis and a return to 'correct' and traditional national styles was seen as a necessary protection against both internal weakness and the 'foreign contagion' of European styles such as Art Nouvea

"Any lady can do this without much trouble ...": class and gender in The dining room (1878)

Macmillan's "Art at Home" series (1876–83) was a collection of domestic advice manuals. Mentioned in every study of the late-nineteenth-century domestic interior, they have often been interpreted, alongside contemporary publications such as Charles Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste (1868), as indicators of late 1870s home furnishing styles. Mrs Loftie's The Dining Room (1878) was the series' fifth book and it considers one of the home's principal (and traditionally masculine) domestic spaces. Recent research on middle-class cultural practices surrounding food has placed The Dining Room within the tradition of Mrs Beeton's Household Management (1861); however, it is not a cookery book and hardly mentions dinners. Drawing upon unpublished archival sources, this paper charts the production and reception of The Dining Room, aiming to unravel its relationships with other contemporary texts and to highlight the difficulties of using it as historical evidence. While it offers fascinating insights into contemporary taste, class and gender, this paper suggests that, as an example of domestic design advice literature, it reveals far more about the often expedient world of nineteenth-century publishing practices