Atlantic Parlour Culture: Loci of Power By Amber Melinda May Hanrahan A Thesis Submitted to Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies September, 2015, Halifax, Nova Scotia Copyright Amber Melinda May Hanrahan, 2015 Approved: Dr. Peter L. Twohig Co-Supervisor Approved: Dr. Richard H. Field Co-Supervisor Approved: Dr. James H. Morrison External Examiner Date: September 15, 2015 ii Atlantic Parlour Culture: Loci of Power By Amber Melinda May Hanrahan Abstract Parlour Culture is considered for its long duration and social impact on both sides of the Atlantic, but my research focus culminates with the expression of that culture in Queens County, Nova Scotia from the late 18th century to the mid-20th century. Interdisciplinary research of vernacular parlour culture has uncovered evidence for a sharing of social power through reciprocity and inclusivity during the American parlour of New England, the Liverpool Township and the settlements of White Point and Hunts Point, Queens County. To identify the essence of parlour culture in each of these areas, research traces the intangible life behaviours as related to the tangible ones of place (locus). Through its dominant goal of promoting relationships between the home and the community, parlour culture becomes the instrument for the realization of self- identity. Thus, the essence of parlour culture is that of a spatial artifact directed toward the construction of sustainable community life. An original study of two South Shore communities reveals an elegant social model based on a parlour culture that was transferred from New England. Moreover, vibrant traces of this culture are still found there to the present day. September 15, 2015 iii Acknowledgements Of my gratitude and heartfelt thanks to the following: Atlantic Canada Studies Thesis Advisors – Dr. Peter Twohig who has truly helped me to see my research with a more critical eye. Dr. Richard Field who actively promotes Atlantic Culture to all his students and who introduced me to the mystery of Parlour Culture. Dr. James Morrison who has given generously of his time to act on my thesis defense committee and who has greatly influenced the methodology of oral history in my thesis. Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research for financial recognition that allowed me to continue my studies. Professors of Saint Mary’s University who nurtured my goals and techniques for interdisciplinary research notably in English Literature, History, Irish Studies, and Atlantic Canada Studies. Patrick Power Library for its excellent library services at Saint Mary’s University that facilitated my research techniques for discovering and accessing sources. As well, it afforded me a place of employment throughout my study programs and benefited me with a repertoire of refined and marketable skills. I shall especially treasure fond memories of my colleagues in the Departments of Circulation and Acquisitions. Staff of the Simeon Perkins Museum, Liverpool and the Elizabeth Perkins Museum of Old York, York, Maine for the assistance I have received in examining the Simeon Perkins House in Liverpool and the Simeon Perkins collection holdings at the Museum of Old York in Maine has far exceeded my expectations. Direct contact with Ms. Linda Rafuse, Liverpool, Ms. Cindi Young-Gomes, York, and Kevin Verge, Liverpool, greatly helped the development of my thesis. Thesis Interviewees— All my participants have provided much needed assistance to advance this thesis: finding old pictures, photographing furniture, accessing genealogies, filling in details on distant family and local history, and trusting me with their personal copies of family diaries. Nobody could set a value for these tremendous efforts and I hope I have done justice to the part these great families have performed in developing strong, happy communities within the heritage of parlour culture. iv There has been, during the progress of this thesis, a sense of cultural loss. Shortly after her interview, Edna Smith died and during the final week of editing, in August 2015, Ivan Doggett passed and was buried in the White Point Cemetery. My partner, Blaze Rhyno, for his constant support and words of encouragement throughout the completion of my Bachelor of Arts, Honours Certificate and Master of Arts at Saint Mary’s University. And, finally, I’d like to acknowledge my grandmother, Bette Verge Hanrahan, for everything. v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Quotation vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Inclusivity and the American Parlour 15 Chapter 2: Simeon Perkins and an Inclusive Liverpool Township 47 Chapter 3: Hunts Point and White Point: Socially Inclusive Parlour Culture 82 Conclusion 204 Bibliography 210 vi Quotation “While every man must consider himself a citizen of the world, it seems to me that if he is not to dissipate his energies he must find some corner of it that he loves, whose people he understands, whose past and present he knows, whose future is his concern, and spend himself there in the best way he knows”1 1 Thomas Raddall to Paul J. Gelinas, 21 August 1944, Dal MS 2-202 S 508-509, Corres. P.V. Gelinas, DUA. 1 Introduction The thesis title, Atlantic Parlours: Loci of Power, connects place to power in parlour culture. In this culture, power is mediated by place. Place not only provided comfort, privacy, and space for entertainment but also a means of self- identification for the owner. This self-identification would be displayed in ornamentation, architectural style and artifacts that represented the life of the owner in a celebratory way—heroic feats, accomplishments, family possessions or portraits of the family that would encourage visitors to think highly of their host and be happy to share his domicile. Most of these homes were passed down from one generation to another and represented a measure of history rather than the modern attitude of a quick sale investment. The emphasis on place is necessitated for the purpose of the parlour to be an instrument in the meeting and sharing in community life. Power is, therefore, not vested directly in the control of others but rather is mediated through place, locus, as the nexus between interior and exterior communications. Place in the home as an essential mode of power characterized centuries of parlour culture in what was often lively and inclusive socialization, but this home connection has been largely lost in present social life. The concept of the English parlour has persisted some eight hundred years adapting to new lifestyles and different geographies with varied practices and artifacts. The parlour is a key architectural invention in the evolution of the 2 meaning of home2 and in the creation of community life often through the practice of visitation.3 While the term ‘parlour’ designates a particular kind of space, its meaning should not be limited to that material confine. Parlour in this study includes the structural features, furnishings, decorations, and activities dictated by the goals of its owners.4 A study of a “material renaissance” concludes to the need to see not only the spatial decorations and structure of parlours but also the uses of these artifacts and how they “condition behavior during social interactions between the owner and members of his community”.5 The nature of these social interactions will determine the orientation of the culture, whether it is characteristic of exclusive or inclusive attitudes towards people.6 A parlour is a specialized living space as indicated by the derivation of the term from the Old French parleur and meaning a place for private conversation or reflection and, similarly, it relates to the French verb parler.7 This essential feature of a parlour makes it a conceptual idea, one facilitating the expression of the ideals of the home, hence the identity of the home and its owners.8 Parlour activities project 2 Thad Logan, The Victorian Parlour (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 12. 3 Karen V. Hansen, A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England (Berkeley: University of California, 1994), 80. 4 Logan, The Victorian Parlour, xiv. 5 Tara Hamling and Catherine Richardson, “The ‘material renaissance’ and the middling sort: domestic goods and the practices of everyday life in provincial English urban houses”, University of Birmingham, UK and University of Kent, UK. URL: https://materialhistories.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/urban-history- conference-paper.pdf. Accessed: 30 July 2014, 14. 6 There is an ongoing debate on the issue of exclusivity versus inclusivity in parlour culture; see the research work of Ann Judith Poole’s 2007 master’s thesis titled Taking Tea in the Parlour: Middle Class Formation and Gender Construction in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 1760-1850 (Simon Fraser University, 2007) and Karen V. Hansen’s A Very Social Time: Crafting Community in Antebellum New England and dissertation, Transcending the Public/Private Divide: The Social Dimension of Laborer’s Lives, 1860-1910 (Berkeley: University of California, 1983) and numerous related scholarly articles. Both Poole and Hansen are current researchers in the colonial era of parlour culture. 7 Logan, The Victorian Parlour, 12. 8 Ibid. 3 those ideals into reality to be understood and transmitted to the wider community by those people assembled from time to time in its surrounds.9 My research explores the historical concept of parlour culture on both sides of the Atlantic and how it shaped society in the communities of Hunts Point and White Point, Queens County, Nova Scotia through its social inventions. The study of the social life of these small but remarkably self-contained communities is beneficial for social history and contributes to original research in the field. My interviews and written transcripts from past and present members of the Hunts Point and White Point communities have revealed vital memorial links to a long lasting parlour culture, related to that of New England.