American VictorianThe term Victorian when applied to American architecture encompasses a variety of styles. Looking to European influences, early U.S. architects combined the esthetics of Queen Anne dwellings, Stick-Eastlake, Shingle and Beaux Arts, finding fun and fancy in the ornament and creating spaces that focused on family living, comfort and the entertainment of guests.   Structures would follow a new type layout, moving away from the standard colonial style that encompassed neatly formed boxes stacked upon one another, to layers of rooms that followed great hallways, utilized pocket doors adding depth and dimension to the structure in a series of many rooms. Porches and verandas were added. Rooms such as the parlor and living rooms were given special attention as a place to greet guests, entertain and raise a family.  Within these living areas the hearth or fireplace became the focal point (fig 1), and moving the dull and messy mechanics of life like the kitchen to the back and out of view. Interiors and exteriors were heavy in ornament.  Exteriors included visual interest in its decorated gables, corbels and brackets with many different colors, materials and textures.  Interiors were designed to reflect the individual homeowners’ taste. A variety of ornamentation was available for the homeowner to select through pattern books of turned ornamentation and stylized motifs.  Homeowners could personalize these touches and provide unique spaces.  New technologies in electric and plumbing provided many comforts to this modern life, which capitalized on the industrial revolution and the ability to utilize this progress in the homes’ fixtures.  In grand homes, the new electric moved beyond the formal and functional qualities of gas fixtures (fig2) to lighting that illuminated rooms while continuing an ornamental format found in woodwork, stained glass windows (fig 3) and door hardware.

American Arts and Crafts -Craftsman Design Seeking an aesthetically richer life, American design began to evolve into a new realm that followed intellectual principles of harmony, nature and culture within their homes and furnishings.  Following the writings of England’s John Ruskin and William Morris, Americans added their own flair to the emphasis on craft, handmade and simplicity. Unlike Ruskin and Morris, who saw the industry as a decline in society and design, American utilized factories to provide products that the average middle class homeowner could make use of, but would still encompass the Arts and Crafts mission of quality.   The Society of Arts and Crafts explains America’s theory on design n in its credo, published in 1897:This Society was incorporated for the purpose of promoting artistic work in all branches of handicraft. It hopes to bring Designers and Workmen into mutually helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to execute designs of their own. It endeavors to stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity and value of good design; to counteract the popular impatience of Law and Form, and the desire for over-ornamentation and specious originality. It will insist upon the necessity of sobriety and restraint, or ordered arrangement, of due regard for the relation between the form of an object and its use, and of harmony and fitness in the decoration put upon it. Middle class dwellings moved away from the overly ornamented Victorian era to homes that included open floor plans, rooms that utilized natural light, beautiful woodwork and a harmonious mix of objects and ornament that reflected quality over the Victorian quantity.  Gustav Stickley’s publication, The Craftsman broadcasted these ideals for Americans with images and essays about the superior value of objects that were handcrafted and how to transform domestic environments.  From this, the American Bungalow, Mission style and Prairie school can all be found in the general term of Arts and Crafts. Quality and the hand made could be found in a variety of businesses.  Companies such as Quezal and Steuben found a niche in homes by creating exquisite lighting shades, each hand blown and unique.  (Fig 4) Handmade pottery and ceramics companies such as Grueby, Rookwood and Batchelder also flourished within home décor by providing simple designs in rich colors in tile to be utilized around the fireplace hearths. (fig 5).  Retailer, interior designer and tastemaker, John Scott Bradstreet provided these products to the mid-west and to local Minneapolis in his show room with the mix of antiques.  (Fig 6).  Bradstreet wanted to promote the Arts and Crafts ideals while producing his own designs, allowing for the homemaker a venue to purchase unique products that could transform their homes.

American Art DECO Geometry, streamline shapes and the machine age transformed design into a new realm as designers looked to technology and man-made for influences in inspiration.  Introduced in Paris in 1925 at the Le Musee des Arts Decoratif exposition, this eclectic mix utilized music, electricity and the skyscraper to create motifs that reflected modern life, nationalism and technology.  A new palette of materials was introduced for the designer; stainless steel, aluminum, chrome, glass and Bakelite.  Technology allowed for new techniques in lighting, working with the materials, (Fig 7) and the ability to mass-produce for the consumer masses.   No longer creating forms from nature, Art Deco’s foundations explored man’s ability to control nature and its environment, a foundation of strength. Much like a decorative form of Cubism of Futurism, objects and motifs became a mix of stark and clean shapes where symmetry and repetition in line and shape was utilized to further distance it from the clutter and ornamentation that dominated the first part of the 20th century.  (fig 7)