Cultural and Environmental Change in Detroit, 1879 - 2010
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Gardens in the Machine: Cultural and Environmental Change in Detroit, 1879 - 2010 by Joseph Stanhope Cialdella A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in the University of Michigan 2015 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Kristin A. Hass, Chair Professor Philip J. Deloria Associate Professor Matthew D. Lassiter Associate Curator David C. Michener Wealth of a city lies, Not in its factories, Its marts and towers crowding to the sky, But in its people who Possess grace to imbue Their lives with beauty, wisdom, charity. -Dudley Randall, “Detroit Renaissance” (1980) Belle Isle Aquarium employee cleaning a lake sturgeon with a cloth, c. 1910 © Joseph Stanhope Cialdella 2015 For Mom and Dad; and Detroit. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation has benefited from the expertise, insights, and guidance of colleagues, friends and former teachers who have helped shaped my thinking and taught me to follow my interests. I would like to start with a huge thank you to all of my friends and colleagues in Ann Arbor and beyond. I'm so grateful for your support and friendship. This project has been a long time in coming, and in your own ways you have helped me keep things in perspective. There are also many individual thanks due. Foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Kristin Hass, who has guided me through graduate school since my first semester. She has been generous with her time and sage advice and a role model for the type of publicly minded scholar I hope to be. I would especially like to thank her for her support and encouragement to explore avenues for my scholarship and interests outside of academia proper, taking the time to answer countless questions, for correcting my mistakes, and for pushing me to develop and expand my ideas and writing in new ways. Her insights and approach to American Studies have helped me grow personally and professionally. I’ve lost track of how many recommendation letters she has written, how many introductions she’s made, and how many drafts of my work she has reviewed. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate the time, effort, and encouragement she has given me. Her mentorship and advice have been invaluable. In addition to Kristin, members of my dissertation committee brought their distinct perspectives to my project. Despite a busy schedule as dean, Phil always made time to review my work, write recommendation letters, and pushed me to think more deeply about craft of iii research and writing as I organized and reorganized the narrative of my project. He always brought enthusiasm to reading my work and is a model for type of interdisciplinary historian and engaging speaker I aspire to be. I particularly appreciated the way he mapped out ideas in our meetings that helped me see the organization of my content and arguments more clearly. As an undergraduate, Phil was one of the first people that taught me how to read history and culture in the landscape when I enrolled in his summer course at Camp Davis in Wyoming. I feel particularly grateful that I’ve had him as a guide in this project too, asking questions and pointing out details large and small that helped me look more closely at Detroit’s landscape. His perspective helped me to take a step back from my own assumptions and my analysis is stronger because of it. As the resident urban historian on my committee, Matt Lassiter also offered truly excellent comments that greatly improved this dissertation. When I was just beginning my research, he offered me tips and recommendations on archives, materials, and topics to examine. His thoughts helped me to continually rethink my approach to history and his straightforward and clear-sighted advice, as well as his willingness to connect graduate students with scholars in all stages of their careers helped me grow intellectually. In particularly, the urban history seminar he taught during the fall of 2009 introduced me to works that made me think more critically about how to think about the history of urban spaces. During my first year of college, I signed up for a course called “Introduction to the Built Environment,” taught by David Michener. It is to blame for a good portion of my interest in cultural landscapes. David was particularly adept at engaging students in looking the complex ways built and natural systems shape the world around us. During graduate school, I was lucky that David was ready and willing to be a part of a project outside his “field” because this iv dissertation has benefited tremendously from the questions and comments he has asked of it. In our conversations, it was particularly refreshing and productive to have the insights of someone outside my home fields of history and American Studies. He has pushed my writing and arguments to be more accessible to a wider audience. I’m also particularly thankful for David’s mentorship and sage advice that has helped me navigate many scholarly and professional decisions. During my time as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, I benefited from classes, discussions, and comments I received from other faculty across the university during formative moments in developing my own approach to history and humanities scholarship. A special thanks to: Paul Anderson, Francis Blouin, Matthew Briones, William Glover, June Howard, Michelle McClellan, Susan Parrish, Ray Silverman, Bradley Taylor, Michael Witgen, Magdalena Zaborowska, Claire Zimmerman, and Rebecca Zurier. Will Glover also served on my field exam committee with Phil and Kristin and introduced me to a variety of scholars thinking about architecture, space, and cultural landscapes in this capacity as well as through is course on colonial and post-colonial architecture and urbanism. He also encouraged me to follow my interest in urban gardening for which I am particularly grateful. June Howard also wrote letters of recommendation and helped me locate a sense of place in work in literature through her class on American regionalism. My dissertation and graduate school experience was also enriched by the companionship, comments, and proof reading abilities of my fellow graduate students. Jesse Carr, Sarah Gothie, Natalie Lira, Hannah Noel were a supportive, warm, and welcoming cohort in the AC department, always ready to laugh and commiserate. I’ll fondly remember our writing groups and gatherings. I was also lucky to have the friendship and guidance of graduate v students Rabia Belt, Tyler Cornelius, Margot Finn, Yamil Garcia, Liz Harmon, Frank Kelderman, Katie Lennard, Pascal Massinon, Alex Olson, Ronit Stahl, Aimee VonBokel, and Stephen Wisniewski. Through classes, workshops, and informal gatherings all offered insights that shaped and challenged my thinking. Aston Gonzalez, Sarah Nobles, and Holly Rapp were an excellent group of historians to write with at Mighty Good Coffee in Ann Arbor. Always encouraging and interested, Holly has also read and commented on every chapter of this dissertation and our weekly writing check-ins throughout graduate school helped hold me accountable to writing goals and deadlines. My time in Washington DC, overlapped with that of Rabia and Aston, who were ready and willing to write every week. Long live the musketeers! Back in Ann Arbor, Liz Harmon was also a faithful writing companion, who also read parts of this work and offered very helpful comments. I would also like to thank the dedicated staff of the American Culture Department, who have helped with everything from reimbursements to reserving rooms for events. In particular AC’s graduate coordinator Marlene Moore deserves a special thanks for her assistance in answering questions, processing requests, and being an all-around generous guide to the process and procedures required to successfully complete my degree. American Culture’s graduate students would be lost without you. I have had many professors and instructors during my undergraduate education that shaped my passion for historical research and expanded my horizons. In particular Susan Crowell, the late Barbara Morris, and Stephen Ward, all instructors in the University of Michigan’s Residential College, taught me the persistence, rigor, and creative ways thinking that laid a strong foundation for my graduate studies. Undergraduate classes with Phil Deloria, June Howard, Matt Lassiter, and David Michener also inspired me to think about the importance of vi places and environments as topics of inquiry. Margot Finn, Tyler Cornelius, and Stephen Wisniewski were truly excellent Graduate Student Instructors whose enthusiasm and engagement with their work helped to sparked my own imagination. During graduate school, Susan Crowell also generously allowed access to the ceramics facilities at UM, which helped me stretch my mind and keep up my sanity amidst the confines of research and writing. The research and writing in this dissertation benefited from several workshops and seminars. Chapter two benefited from the comments of Jesse Carr, Matthew Countryman, and Rabia Belt who helped me organize my ideas at a workshop in April 2014. I am grateful to the participants of the Newberry Library’s American Art and Visual Culture Seminar in September 2013, for their insightful reading and discussion of my work, especially Gregory Foster Rice and Peter B. Hales. During my time in graduate school I was fortunate to spend a year and a half in residence at the Smithsonian Institution through the Enid A. Haupt Fellowship from Smithsonian Gardens. My time there was invaluable to my research and writing. In addition to having a dedicated place to research and write, I also had the opportunity to apply my research and writing skills to assist with some of their exhibits and programing. In particular, I would like to thank Cynthia Brown for taking an interest in and supporting my work.