THE LUSTROUS STONE: WHITE MARBLE IN AMERICA, 1780-1860 by Elise Madeleine Ciregna A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Summer 2015 © 2015 Elise Madeleine Ciregna All Rights Reserved ProQuest Number: 3730261 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 3730261 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 THE LUSTROUS STONE: WHITE MARBLE IN AMERICA, 1780-1860 by Elise Madeleine Ciregna Approved: __________________________________________________________ Arwen P. Mohun, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of History Approved: __________________________________________________________ George H. Watson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ James G. Richards, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ J. Ritchie Garrison, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Katherine C. Grier, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Christine L. Heyrman, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Wendy A. Bellion, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was fortunate indeed to have landed at the University of Delaware in the History of American Civilization program for my doctoral studies. At UD I found a welcoming and broadly interdisciplinary scholarly community, crucial to the development of a material culture scholar. The opportunity to study at the Henry France du Pont Winterthur Museum was the perfect entrée into the material world of everyday life in America. My greatest debts are first to those who mentored me during my years at the University of Delaware. J. Ritchie Garrison was my first contact at the University, convinced me to come to Delaware to study, and quickly became my mentor. His prodigious knowledge and insights into the histories of landscapes and particularly of craft were deeply influential to my own work. (Although I still think Ritchie’s comments on my wooden candle box made in class under his supervision a bit unfair. His assessment began “Elise Ciregna + hand tools = recipe for disaster” and ended with the comment that “no personal injury lawsuits were filed as a result of this project.” I do acknowledge, however, that this experience made it abundantly clear that I was better suited to the study of stone craft than being an actual practitioner.) I could not have worked with anyone who better understands the realities and challenges urban craftsmen in early America faced, and who cares about them as iv much as I do. Ritchie pushed me in scholarly inquiry directions I had not conceived of, and for that I am deeply grateful. Kasey Grier was one of my earliest scholarly influences. Her book Culture and Comfort, based on her own dissertation at the University of Delaware, was my bible in my work in the 1990s as Projects Manager of the Conservation Center of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which had one of the very few upholstery conservation labs in the country. I spent many happy hours, weeks, even months thumbing through my copy of the original color edition of her book as the upholstery conservator and I sourced historically appropriate velvets, damasks, trims and passementerie for the nineteenth-century chairs, sofas, and ottomans that came into the lab. Although I had completed my coursework when Kasey first came back to Delaware, she was an obvious choice for my dissertation committee. I have very much appreciated her willingness to read through drafts of this work in progress. Her cheerful encouragement, keen scholarly insights, and humor have been invaluable throughout this process. Christine Heyrman was a mentor in the craft of writing, and writing history. It was Christine’s “piquantly named Baptist preacher” Loveless Savidge in her book Southern Cross: the Beginnings of the Bible Belt that first alerted me to the possibilities of humor, empathy and humanity in academic writing. Our conversations in class and privately about the craft of writing have stayed with me; I still maintain a commonplace book because of her suggestion. Christine’s fluid and graceful writing style is one of my most important influences, and a model I have kept front and center—though any infelicities of style, grammar and punctuation are, of v course, my own. I also wish to thank Wendy Bellion in the University of Delaware’s Art History department, who first connected with my dissertation project by agreeing to provide the faculty remarks at my DIPSOP (Dissertation in Progress and Occasional Papers) meeting, and who presented thoughtful and engaging commentary at that time, remarks that I have kept in mind. Although I was employed during most of the years I worked on this project, I was fortunate to receive financial support so that I could occasionally free myself to think, research, and write. In particular, a New England Regional Consortium grant early in the project allowed me to spend a significant amount of research time at a number of New England archives, including the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Boston Athenæum, the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School, the New England Historical Genealogical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society Library, the Connecticut Historical Society and the Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut. I thank all of the staff members of these various institutions, who were endlessly generous with their time and enthusiastic about my project. I am also grateful to the Henry France du Pont Winterthur Museum for a short-term fellowship, which allowed me a blissful month free of all professional distractions to focus on all things marble, and to make significant writing progress. Many thanks are due to the staff of the museum and library, including curator Linda Eaton, Greg Landrey, Rich McKinstry, Cate Cooney, Emily Guthrie, and Laura Parrish. I wish to particularly thank Jeanne Solensky of the Josephs Downs Collection of Ephemera in the Winterthur Library, for her extraordinary and on-going efforts to connect me to sources and other scholars, vi even in a relatively rarefied area of research. Ms. Solensky was also instrumental in allowing me to curate a short-term exhibit at the Downs Collection entitled the “The Lustrous Stone” and featuring Downs Collection items. During the course of this project I was able to present my work at various conferences, including the inaugural James and Shirley Draper conference at the University of Connecticut; the Organization of American Historians’ annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the WAPACC conference in Woodcliff, New Jersey; and various iterations of the annual American Culture Association (ACA) and Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) conferences in Philadelphia, Boston, and Wilmington, Delaware. Travel funding assistance from the University of Delaware was also enormously beneficial as I had the opportunity to present my work at conferences in Bath, England, Glasgow, Scotland, and Florence, Italy, and to meet scholars from many different countries doing interesting and provocative work. A scholar is drifting without oars at sea if she doesn’t have friends and colleagues who will support and encourage her in the right direction, but who will also challenge her arguments, call her on her mistakes and false assumptions, and comment on her ideas and writing. I am lucky to have such a wonderful corps of such friends and colleagues. Classmates at the University of Delaware included Dan Claro, Hillary Murtha, Michelle Mormul, Laura Johnson, and many others. Our “Dissie Chicks” group of dissertating women included Pat Keller, Frances Davey, Zara Anishanslin, Bryn Varley Hollenbeck, Rebecca Sheppard, Heather Boyd, and Amy Henderson. vii “Head chick” Pat Keller transcribed an entire inventory of a stonecutter’s tools at an archive, just because she thought I might find