W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 How gardening pays: Leisure, labor and luxury in nineteenth- century transatlantic culture Robin Veder College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, Canadian History Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Veder, Robin, "How gardening pays: Leisure, labor and luxury in nineteenth-century transatlantic culture" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623995. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-cvgv-zy92 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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HOW GARDENING PAYS: LEISURE, LABOR AND LUXURY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY TRANSATLANTIC CULTURE A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the American Studies Program The College of William and Mary In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Robin Maremant Veder 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 9999058 Copyright 2001 by Veder, Robin Maremant All rights reserved. UMI’ UMI Microform9999058 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. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 7^: i l l . Robin Maremant Veder Approved, October 2000 Chandos Michael Brown, Associate firbfessor, History and American Studies Maureen Fit: gerald, Visiting Assistant Professor. American Studies Grey Gundaker, Assistant Professor, Anthropology and American Studies Scott Reynolds Nelson, Assistant Professor, History Shirley Teresa Wajda, Assistant Professor, History, Kent State University Alan Wallach, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ForW. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES vi ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION: RETHINKING FLOWER GARDENING: LEISURE, LABOR OR LUXURY? 2 CHAPTER ONE: SONS OF FLORA: WEAVERS' PROFITABLE LEISURE 29 CHAPTER TWO: GARDENING AS LABOR REFORM 78 CHAPTER THREE: TRANSPLANTING THE BUSINESS OF FLORICULTURE FROM BRITAIN TO THE UNITED STATES 132 CHAPTER FOUR: FROM WEAVERS' FLORISTRY TO LADIES’ PARLOR LUXURIES 184 CONCLUSION: HOW GARDENING PAYS 226 FIGURES 230 BIBLIOGRAPHY 276 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without generous support from the American Studies Program of the College of William and Mary, the Horticulture Services Division of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Winterthur Museum and Library. It was an honor to hold a Visiting Student Fellowship and the Enid A. Haupt Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution's Horticulture Services Division. Winterthur Museum and Library kindly provided a one-month Research Fellowship. I would like to acknowledge the extensive help provided by the staff at each of these institutions. Thanks are also due to the Germantown Historical Society, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Library Company of Philadelphia, McLean Library of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and Dumbarton Oaks for access to materials held at each of those repositories. Portions of this work were presented at conferences of the American Studies Association (1994), Pennsylvania Historical Association (1998), Center for Working- Class Studies (1999), Center for Studies in Landscape History (1999), and Great Lakes American Studies Association (1999), and as part of colloquium series offered by the Winterthur Museum and Library (1997), the American Studies Program of the College of William and Mary (1998), and the National Museum of American History (1999)). I am grateful to these organizations for allowing me to present my research, and to the audiences and other participants for their helpful remarks. I am particularly indebted to the following individuals for their assistance and guidance during the development of this research: Meghan Brewer, Matthew Cohen, Grey Gundaker, Paula Healy, Walter Howell, Jennifer Luff, Charles McGovern, Geoffrey Nutter, Brandy Parris, Susan Pennington, Randall Potts, Rodris Roth, Hannah Sears, David Serlin, Robert Blair St. George, Carol Veder, Alan Wallach, Jochen Wierich, and Marca Woodhams. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Chapter One 1. Pancrace Bessa, Pot o f Auriculas, watercolor with traces of pencil, 1817. Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum. University of Cambridge. PD. 199-1973. 2. Pit for Sheltering Auriculas, from "Culture of the Auricula," Paxton’s Magazine o f Botany 1 (1834): 10. 3. Pelham Street, Spitalfields andHouse in Booth Street, Spitalfields, woodcuts, from Knight's H istory o f London, 1842. Reprinted from Sir Frank Warner,The Silk Industry o f the United Kingdom: Its Origin and Development (London: Drane's Danegeld House, 1921): Plate VIII. 4. Weavers' Houses in Menotti Street, Bethnal Green, photograph, from Sir Frank Warner, The Silk Industry o f the United Kingdom: Its Origin and Development (London: Drane's Danegeld House, 1921): Plate X. 5. Hand Loom Workshop at Foleshill, Coventry, photograph, from Sir Frank Warner, The Silk Industry o f the United Kingdom: Its Origin and Development (London: Drane's Danegeld House, 1921): Plate XV. 6. Shade used by Florists fo r Auriculas and Polyanthuses, from "Culture of the Auricula," Paxton's Magazine o f Botany I (1834): 10. 7. Spitalfields Silk-weavers, 1861. By permission of The British Newspaper Library. 8. Isaac Emmerton,Effigy o f ReverendC. J. Cottrell, JP., drawing, 1800. Collection of Public Record Office, King’s Bench (KB) 1.30, Part Two, 41 Geo. m , no. 1, enclosed with affadavit of the Reverend Thomas Lane, JP, 17 November 1800. Reprinted from E.P. Thompson,Customs in Common (New York: The New Press, 1991), plate VI. Chapter Two 9. Panoramic view, shewing the situation intended for the mansion at Bayham, and View, shewing Bayham Abbey as proposed to be built. Hand-tinted prints based on watercolors by Humphrey Repton in Repton's Red Book for Bayham vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abbey, fromThe Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture o f the late Humphrey Repton, Esq, John Claudius Loudon, ed., (London: Printed for the editor and sold by Longman & Co., 1840), 30S. Collection of Smithsonian Institution Libraries. 10. Principal view from the home at Blaize Castle, “which is considered too somber for the character of a villa,” and the same view “as enlivened by a cottage in the distance.” Hand-tinted prints based on watercolors by Humphrey Repton, from The Landscape Gardening and Landscape Architecture o f the late Humphrey Repton, Esq, John Claudius Loudon, ed., (London: Printed for the editor and sold by Longman & Co., 1840), 2S6-7. Collection of Smithsonian Institution Libraries. 11. Doric portico, Gothic cottage, andRustic thatched