INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EDITH BLAKE BROWN AND THE RISE OF PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN by Karina Helen Hiltje Corrigan A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a major in Early American Culture Summer 2001 Copyright 2001 Karina Helen Hiltje Corrigan All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1404589 Copyright 2001 by Corrigan, Karina Helen Hiltje All rights reserved. ___ ® UMI UMI Microform 1404589 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EDITH BLAKE BROWN AND THE RISE OF PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGN by Karina Helen Hiltje Corrigan Approved: JamesJCl Curtis, PhJD. Professor in charge of thesis Approved: James G. Curtis, Ph.D. Director, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture Approved: Conrado M.'S^fnpesaw II, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Planning Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Richard McKinstry, National Endowment for the Humanities Librarian at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, acquired Edith Blake Brown’s papers for Winterthur. I am grateful for his foresight in acquiring the collection, his suggestion that a study o f these papers might make an interesting thesis topic, and for the encouragement he offered along the way. The librarians at the New York Historical Society, Syracuse University, and the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University were tremendously helpful in locating material relevant to the project. Neville Thompson, Andrew W. Mellon Librarian at Winterthur deserves particular thanks for her assistance with not only this manuscript, but also for her helpful suggestions throughout my tenure as a Fellow. I feel blessed to have spent two years within such an awe-inspiring institution; the company of my fellow Fellows made those years all the sweeter. Ashli White deserves my particular thanks for her willingness to serve as teacher, guide, therapist, and chef both during my tenure at Winterthur and in the ensuing years. I am profoundly grateful to Dr. James C. Curtis for his guidance and willingness to persevere with this project, even when I had given up all hope for ever seeing its completion. Lastly, I thank my parents, Sharon and Don Corrigan and my sister, Caitlin Corrigan for their love and support. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Chapter 1 THE RISE OF PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGNERS IN LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA 2 THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE IN ARCHITECTURE: STANFORD WHITE AT 11 EAST 61 st STREET 3 EDITH BLAKE BROWN, INTERIOR DESIGNER AT 11 EAST 61 st STREET Bibliography Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This thesis examines interior design in late nineteenth-century America through a careful study of one project, the renovation and redecoration of the home of Almeric and Pauline (nee Whitney) Paget at 11 East 61st Street in New York City. An unprecedented number of documents relating to the project survive in the archives of Edith Blake Brown, a designer from Boston. Brown served as the interior decorator and general contractor for the project in 1897. McKim, Mead and White, New York’s leading architects, were commissioned to renovate the house; the correspondence between Stanford White and Edith Blake Brown which survives in her archives is the only surviving record of this commission. This archive also records the work of upholsterers, painters, wallpaper hangers, lighting experts, and antiques dealers on the project. In the late nineteenth century, professional interior designers or “artistic decorators” offered to coordinate a client’s interior renovation from start to finish, serving as artistic guide and general contractor to properly furnish a late nineteenth- century room or house. As industrialism expanded the variety and availability of consumer goods, Americans became increasingly conscious of what their homes revealed about their moral character and their affluence. Securing the services of an artistic decorator ensured that one’s house would be both beautifully and v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. appropriately furnished. Most scholarship on early interior designers has focused on large firms; very little has been written about independent designers in the late nineteenth century, particularly early women designers in the field. The papers of Edith Blake Brown in the Joseph Downs Collection of Archives and Manuscripts at the Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum facilitate this study of one of the field’s earliest practitioners. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1 THE RISE OF PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGNERS IN LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA Professional interior designers or “artistic decorators” in the United States first began advertising their skills in the second half of the nineteenth century. These designers offered to coordinate a client’s interior renovation from start to finish, serving as artistic guide and general contractor to properly furnish a late nineteenth- century room or house. As industrialism expanded the variety and availability of consumer goods, Americans became increasingly conscious of what their homes revealed about their moral character, their cosmopolitanism, their pedigree and their affluence. Securing the services of an artistic decorator ensured that one’s house would be both beautifully and appropriately furnished. Large firms devoted exclusively to interior design such as Herter Brothers, Leon Marcotte and Company, and Associated Artists catered to the demand for a professional artistic vision in the ornamentation of the American home.1 1 Katherine S. Howe, Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Catherine Hoover Voorsanger, editors. Herter Brothers Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded New Age. York: Harry Abrams, Inc. in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1994. Phillip M. Johnston, “Dialogues between Designer and Client: Furnishings proposed by Leon Marcotte to Samuel Colt in the 1850s,” in Winterthur Portfolio vol. 19, no. 4 (Winter 1984): 257-276. Wilson Faude, “Associated Artists and the American Renaissance,” in Winterthur Portfolio vol. 10 (1975): 101-130. See also Leslie Pina. Louis Rorimer: A Man o f Style. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Most scholarship on early interior designers has focused on large firms; very little has been written about independent designers in the late nineteenth century, particularly early women designers in the field.2 The papers of Edith Blake Brown in the Joseph Downs Collection of Archives and Manuscripts at the Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum provide an extensive record of the work of an independent woman designer on a single commission. Between May of 1897 and January of 1898, Edith Blake Brown designed and coordinated the redecoration and installation of furnishings in the home of Almeric and Pauline Paget. Pauline Paget was the daughter of William C. Whitney, a wealthy New York industrialist and philanthropist; her husband, Almeric Paget, was the youngest son of the Marquis of Anglesey. In true Gilded age fashion, this union of American wealth and British aristocracy was “the most