Distribution Agreement in Presenting This Thesis Or Dissertation As A

Distribution Agreement In presenting this thesis or dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this thesis or dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. Signature: _____________________________ ______________ Catherine E. Shrout Date What Every Girl Dreams Of: A Cultural History of the Sacred in American White Weddings, 1840-1970 By Catherine E. Shrout Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Division of Religion Ethics and Society ____________________________________________________ Gary Laderman, Ph.D. Advisor ____________________________________________________ Elizabeth Bounds, Ph.D. Committee Member ____________________________________________________ Brooks Holifield, Ph.D. Committee Member ____________________________________________________ Leigh Schmidt, Ph.D. Committee Member Accepted: ____________________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies ______________________ Date What Every Girl Dreams Of: A Cultural History of the Sacred in American White Weddings, 1840-1970 By Catherine E. Shrout B.A., Emory University, 1998 M.J., University of California at Berkeley, 2001 Advisor: Gary Laderman, Ph.D. An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Division of Religion, Ethics and Society 2010 Abstract What Every Girl Dreams Of: A Cultural History of the Sacred in American White Weddings, 1840-1970 By Catherine E. Shrout In the mid-nineteenth century, middle-class Americans began celebrating marriages with a set of rituals that were sentimental, female-centered, and expensive: the “white wedding.” The white wedding became understood to be a marriage conducted in a formal style, with some degree of decorum and pageantry, in which the bride was distinctively costumed in white. This dissertation, a cultural history of the white wedding from 1840 until 1970, demonstrates how the ritual offered middle-class Anglo-American women sacred experiences. Drawing upon diaries, advice books, advertisements, novels, church materials, films, photographs and material artifacts, the dissertation uses a cultural studies approach to clarify how the experience of what was sacred about a wedding changed over time, how weddings became more symbolically central within American Christianity as marriage was perceived as being under siege, how twentieth-century marketers drew upon sacred associations with the wedding day to appeal to women, and how churches and the marketplace accordingly interacted and shaped wedding practices. The white wedding has been viewed as a family ritual ordaining nineteenth-century “priestesses of the home;” as a performance that raised questions about its own authenticity; as a serious Christian rite which, if understood properly, prevented divorce; and as a thrilling opportunity to enact the story of Cinderella. As it became a more elaborate religious practice, it also developed into a ritualization of women’s consumer agency, a conscious and unconscious recognition of the marketplace’s transformative power. This dissertation views wedding practices as sacred practices, placing attitudes towards white weddings in an account of the history of American Christianity, and, in doing so, examines one way how consumer culture in the United States has competed with, fed upon and sustained American religious experiences. What Every Girl Dreams Of: A Cultural History of the Sacred in American White Weddings, 1840-1970 By Catherine E. Shrout B.A., Emory University, 1998 M.J., University of California at Berkeley, 2001 Advisor: Gary Laderman, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Division of Religion, Ethics and Society 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As is always the case, I owe much to the kindness, intelligence and hard work of others. I am terribly grateful: For all those kind and efficient souls who helped me navigate archives and brainstorm research avenues, including Susan Strange, the now-retired “wedding lady” at the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institute, as well as the archival staff at The Archives of the Episcopal Church, the Austin History Center and the Atlanta History Center. For those entities whose fellowships allowed me to work on the dissertation and continue to be a functioning adult: the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies, the Dean’s Teaching Fellows program, the Woodruff Library Fellows program, and the Emory Initiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology. For many wonderful teachers in my past who paid me the compliment of taking me seriously, especially my undergraduate mentors Alice Benston (who told me that academic prose really ought to be more than serviceable; it ought to “sing”), Tim McDonough, Michael Evenden, and Vincent Murphy. I also have a special soft spot for my social studies teacher at Hixon Junior High School, the late Tom Franey, who asked a lot of seventh graders. For faculty members who have helped immeasurably in my doctoral work, including my supportive, good-humored advisor, Gary Laderman, my committee members E. Brooks Holifield, Elizabeth Bounds and Leigh Schmidt, as well as the always-encouraging Steve Tipton. For Jon Gunnemann, who missed the company of graduate students enough in his retirement to start up a classical music appreciation club for a small group of us. (We listened to his music, soaked up his musical insights, and indulged in his always-excellent wine and cheese. Honestly, I can’t think of many better ways to spend time.) For the impact of the late Nancy Eiesland on my thinking about American religion. Although her worsening health prevented me from continuing to learn from her throughout my time in graduate school, I am keenly aware of how important knowing her was for me intellectually and personally. For an exemplary community of allies among the past and present graduate students of the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory, especially Anjulet Tucker, Letitia Campbell, Donna Mote, Samira Mehta and David King. These fellow scholars of American religion are the sort of folk who will always make time to get coffee and talk something through. For Robyn Neville, for offering a well-timed tutorial on sacraments in the Episcopal Church. In addition, I am grateful for all of my fellow grad student collaborators in the bumpy but edifying process of shaping and keeping afloat Practical Matters, Emory’s new online journal of religious practices and practical theology (wwww.practicalmattersjournal.org). I thank particularly my understanding co-managing editor, Courtney Goto. For the other members of my dissertation writing group, three individuals to whom I am greatly indebted and of whom I am tremendously fond. For their feedback on drafts, of course, but also for simply being top-notch people to be in graduate school with. They are Amy Levad, who can quote you statistics about criminal justice or instruct you how to format block quotes just off the top of her head; my next-door neighbor John Senior, who brainstorms ideas with you late in the evening when he should be sleeping or working on his own dissertation; and of course my closest sibling on a long road of doctoral training, Matthew Bersagel Braley, who has shown me wisdom and goodness in so many ways I could never list them all. For my own family: my mother and father, and my sister Maggie. I am especially thankful that my mother also happens to be such a smart and excellent copy editor. Not everyone is so lucky. For Josh, my blushing groom. For our sweet Lucy, who is roughly the age of this dissertation. For our soon-to-be-born second daughter, who only narrowly will escape overlapping with my doctoral work, and kicks as I type. And for Josh’s grandfather Walter Johnson, who passed away in 2008, and his widow Lois Johnson. They had a white wedding in 1941 that led to a happy sixty-plus year relationship. May all of our paths be so blessed. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Looking for the sacred in American wedding practices ……………………..1 About the sacred, consumer culture and women, 10 Methods and organization, 23 CHAPTER TWO The invention of the white wedding: creating priestesses of the home, 1840-1880 ………30 Wedding practices before 1840, 31 Here comes the bride: the Victorian white wedding, 39 The domestic altar: women’s significance in the sacred family, 45 “Give all to love”: romantic love as sacred actor, 55 Just like your great-grandmother: history, memory, and death as sacred themes, 66 CHAPTER THREE Performing the wedding day, 1880-1920 ………………………………………………....73 Mock marriages and Tom Thumb weddings: white weddings as entertainments, 76 So long as ye both shall live: shifting

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