The Colonial Revival:
A Review of the
Literature
by Dale Allen Gyure, Ph.D.
Most people have a general idea of what is meant by the phrase "Colonial
Revival." The words tend to evoke images of Chippendale furniture and Georgian
houses. But the Colonial Revival is much more than an architectural or
decorative style; it is a physical and psychological manifestation of an ongoing relationship between past and present. Torn between a nostalgic
yearning for the past and the seductive promise of the future, Americans are
been locked in what Michael Kammen calls "the never-ending dialectic between
tradition and progress."
1 As part of
this process, Americans have negotiated a compromise between past and future
through the use of colonial imagery. The following bibliography represents an
attempt to review the various ways Americans have seen and used the colonial
period over the course of almost two centuries.
General Background
The Colonial Revival movement, with its roots in a distant past, has
helped successive generations of Americans ease the transition into the
newness of the present and the uncertainty of the future. Tracing the history
of the Colonial Revival through popular and scholarly literature allows us to
see how successive generations have chosen to effect a continuation of the
colonial period to some extent by venerating antiques or reproducing objects
and images inspired by that time. These artistic and cultural renewals have
taken many different forms and have been motivated by many different factors.
The Colonial Revival peaked in popularity between 1880 and 1940, but it has
never really died. In fact, it is probably best thought of as a "survival"
rather than a revival. This ongoing attraction is partially due to the
widespread adoption of colonial models in many different artistic fields.
Examples of the Colonial Revival's flexibility include the popularity of the
"modernized" colonial house, historical paintings depicting important
Revolutionary scenes, and the continuing attraction of colonial furniture. The
longstanding and pervasive appeal of colonial imagery demonstrates its ability
to fulfill both symbolic and functional needs. The past, in the form of the
ambiguous term "colonial," has been part of a continuous present in the United
States for over a century. The literature of the Colonial Revival documents
this important relationship.
Identification of Key
Trends Indicated by the
Literature Search
A review of the extensive literature on the Colonial Revival reveals a
number of trends. Three of the most important are (a) the manner in which the
Colonial Revival has been promoted, (b) the various meanings and associations
afforded to "colonial" over time, and (c) the reasons for the Colonial
Revival's popularity. This essay will briefly address each of these themes.
Promoting the Colonial
Revival
The promotion of the Colonial Revival has generally followed different
patterns within different disciplines. In architecture, for example, three
types of writings have done the most to advance the movement in the last 150
years: picture- or sketch books; scholarly histories; and "how-to" guides.
The earliest manifestations of an architectural Colonial Revival after the
Civil War took the form of sketchbooks and brief articles in architectural
journals. Picturesque old houses, or details such as doorways or stairway
balusters, were lovingly rendered by architects attuned to their historical
worth.
2 At the same time, brief
articles in professional journals praised the simple elegance of colonial
building.
3
By the end of the nineteenth century, architects were lauding colonial
architecture in journal articles and using colonial references in their built
work. Architects, not scholars, created the first significant body of
historical scholarship on America's colonial architecture.
4 At the time, the fledgling architectural
profession in America had not yet reached a desirable level of organization
and social status. This situation influenced early twentieth century
architects' attitudes toward the colonial past. Architects made detailed
drawings of old buildings, supplemented by historical studies of their
construction techniques and artistic lineage.
5 The chronology and taxonomy of styles occupied most of the
work. Much of this activity focused on "high style" colonial architecture
rather than everyday or vernacular buildings for an important reason; the
great Georgian mansions, with their fine proportions and English details,
implied the presence of a trained builder or architect rather than an
unskilled carpenter.
6 Impressive
colonial buildings that could be attributed to a skilled designer strengthened
the early twentieth century architect's claims for historical legitimacy and
continuity. The architect-historian continued to be the most important scholar
of colonial architecture into the 1960s. Since then, the Colonial Revival has
become the domain of art, architectural and cultural historians.
Colonial Revival architecture has also been promoted by a uniquely American
type of book - the "how-to" guide.
7
Readers were advised on issues concerning proper interiors and exteriors for
the "colonial" look, to avoid "certain shortcomings recognizable in much of
the supposedly-in-the-old-vein modern work."
8 Although these books peaked in popularity during the
interwar period, their spirit continues today in the form of popular magazines
- like Colonial Homes and Early American Homes - dedicated to the appropriate
decoration and furnishing of a neo-Colonial house.
In furniture and the decorative arts, the Colonial Revival has concentrated on
objects either inspired by historical items or direct reproductions. This
strategy is reflected in a literature that promotes colonial furnishing and
decoration through taste guides and house histories. The first promoters of
colonial furniture were collectors and antiquarians who focused on the
originals and admired their simplicity and proportions.
9 These early advocates produced books and articles intended
to elevate popular taste by providing examples of colonial refinement for
adaptation to modern life.
10
Contemporary designers were urged to follow older models. As the style became
more popular, manufacturers like Wallace Nutting began to produce historic
reproductions inspired by surviving antiques.
11 Into the 1950s, popular magazines like House Beautiful
and House and Garden were filled with articles on interior decoration that
promoted colonial styles, while advertisements touted a wide array of Colonial
Revival products.
12 At the same time,
specialized magazines like Antiques advocated the virtues of colonial design
and attempted to educate readers in the merits of various colonial
styles.
House histories and picture books were another popular means of promoting the
Colonial Revival in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The
typical picture book focused on interior details like fireplaces or wood
paneling.
13 Histories tended to mix
the stories of famous houses and families with descriptions of their
surroundings.
14 Both types of books
served to increase awareness of colonial design while also subtly or blatantly
advocating the colonial idiom as a display of good taste. Until the late
twentieth century, however, the colonial revival in the decorative arts
avoided serious scholarly investigation. In recent years, historians have
attempted to go beyond simple promotion or connoisseurship to ask important
questions about the place of furniture, needlework, wallpaper, and other
objects in the Colonial Revival movement.
15
The Colonial Revival also affected American landscape and garden design. Due
to the perishable nature of plants and a lack of precise documentation,
colonial gardens have been difficult to accurately reconstruct.
16
But in the late nineteenth century, a distinct style of garden evolved in America inspired by perceptions of
historical colonial gardens. The movement to recreate "grandmother's garden"
produced formal, ordered gardens in yards and estates of all sizes.
17
Colonial-inspired gardens at large estates
were frequently exhibited in photographic surveys.
18 Numerous catalogs, usually produced by local or national
garden clubs, extolled the beauty of smaller-scale Colonial Revival gardens.
19 Colonial gardens also played an
important role in romantic "historical" tales of everyday life in colonial
times; the tending of gardens was associated with self-sufficiency and a
simpler, nobler lifestyle.
20
The colonialization of the American garden extended to the larger landscape as
well. Colonial Williamsburg remains the most important full-scale reproduction
of a colonial urban design, although the underlying armature of many East
Coast cities like New Haven and Savannah is essentially that of colonial
times. During Williamsburg's reconstruction in the 1930s, both professional
and popular magazines documented its progress.
21 Colonial Williamsburg was partially inspired by the
transformation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of a
number of New England towns, like Litchfield, Connecticut, into idealized
versions of what colonial villages were thought to be.
22 Colonial villages were often resurrected by
"colonializing" existing houses (through paint, shutters, molding and windows)
and creating village greens where none had previously existed. Such romantic
visions had little in common with historical predecessors, but their
popularity, demonstrated by "museum villages" like Old Sturbridge Village and
Historic Deerfield, led to the development of a pervasive stereotype. Many
recent communities, designed under the rubric of "New Urbanism," consciously
seek to integrate planning ideas (and sometimes building styles) from these
Colonial Revival towns.
23
The Colonial Revival has also influenced American art, but it is difficult to
characterize a colonial revival "movement" in art analogous to that in
architecture and the decorative arts. In the art world, there was no
discussion of the inherent value of painting in the manner of colonial
artists, nor was there any particular effort to reemphasize the subject matter
of colonial painting. In other words, the fundamental essence of the
architectural colonial revival - to revive the spirit of colonial architecture
through direct imitation or inspired emulation - had no counterpart in art and
sculpture. Instead, the colonial manifested itself in other ways. For example,
a small group of painters produced colonial genre scenes around the turn of
the century depicting quaint domestic scenes that emphasized period costumes
and furniture.
24 These works catered
to a growing national nostalgia. They also had the effect of domesticating and
personalizing history for the average person.
25 The same can be said for Wallace Nutting's
extraordinarily popular photographs of faux-colonial scenes.
26 Unfortunately, there is a shortage of
corresponding literature on these works - they appear almost exclusively in
exhibition catalogs or artist biographies. A few historical or genre paintings
were included in American art surveys, and artistic journals published short
descriptive essays on the work of individual artists, but no insightful
analyses exist until the late twentieth century.
27 The general public would have been more likely to
encounter Colonial Revival art through illustrations in popular magazines like
Scribner's and Harper's Monthly, where important events from colonial history
were portrayed in a dramatic fashion.
28
A similar situation exists in the field of sculpture, where a few statues were
created of historical figures (e.g., George Washington) or with colonial
subject matter (Daniel Chester French's The Minuteman) during the period of
the most intense Colonial Revival between 1880 and 1930. Because of the public
nature of sculpture, there was probably more public contact with these
historical monuments than with Colonial Revival painting. The issue of
reproducing actual colonial sculpture was irrelevant since sculpture was
virtually non-existent before the Revolution. Unfortunately, unlike
architecture, no literature exists to analyze colonial-themed sculptural works
or disseminate them to a wider audience.
Meanings and Associations
The Colonial Revival has been associated with many ideas that range
beyond the revival or survival of a historical heritage. Since the expansion
of the national historic consciousness in the 1870s, promoters have used
Colonial Revival styles in art and architecture to advance notions of
patriotism, good taste, moral superiority, family life, democracy, and the
simple life.
Patriotic qualities have been central to the Colonial Revival since the
earliest days. The 1876 Centennial generated a great surge of interest in
American history. These sentiments also inspired the birth of a cultural
Colonial Revival.
29 As architect
Robert S. Peabody declared in 1876: "With our Centennial year have we not
discovered that we too have a past worthy of study?"
30 Colonial design in architecture and the decorative arts
was promoted as a unique artistic achievement.
31 Of course, at the time "colonial" referred to the Anglo-
Dutch colonies of New England and the Mid-Atlantic, and the art and
architecture so admired by the revivalists was almost exclusively English in
origin. In the process, racial identity became tied to the American colonial
past. When the flood of Southern and Eastern European immigrants began in the
late nineteenth century it engendered fear in some of America's Anglo-Saxon
Protestant population (particularly in the Northeast), which strengthened many
advocates' devotion to what was perceived as America's true "national" style.
32 These feelings were intensified
during and after the First World War.
The patriotic aspect, which we might think of as the most salient quality of
the Colonial Revival, was quickly coupled with other associations. In
architecture and furniture design, the qualities of "refinement and dignity"
found in colonial examples, along with simplicity and proper proportions, were
considered by many a fresh counterpoint to the busy eclecticism found of most
Victorian work.
33 These qualities
linked colonial styles to the balance, symmetry and proportion of classical
architecture. Interest in the Colonial Revival was therefore equated with
timeless good taste.
34
Non-aesthetic qualities were also important to the popular development of the
Colonial Revival. One of the first ideas to be connected to the movement was
"democracy." The wide variety of things that could be called Colonial Revival
- from shingle-covered shacks to great Georgian mansions, or simple rush-
seated chairs to elaborate highboys - could be equated with the democratic ideal of unity despite diversity. Along the same lines, the Colonial Revival
decorative objects and furniture admired by consumers of elite culture were
also available to the lower classes, thanks to mass production. This allowed
colonial styles to "trickle down" to the masses so that everyone could get
their own small piece of history.
35
The colonial became democratic in both ideology and marketing.
One of the most interesting associations attached to the Colonial Revival
concerned its ethical value. A sense of moral deterioration in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries inspired many revivalists to surround
themselves with material products from what was considered to be a more
family-oriented period of American history.
36 Writers romanticized the moral virtue of colonial life
through countless books and articles.
37 Simplicity in furniture and architectural design was
equated with ethical superiority, as a counter to what many saw as the
decadence of Victorian culture, the breakdown of the family and the evil
threat of increasing industrialization. As Karal Marling states, much of the
architectural interest in the colonial past was "devoted to the regeneration
of American virtue through the restoration of the American home."
38
Reasons for the Colonial
Revival's Popularity
The continuous popularity of the Colonial Revival in America since the
1870s is due to a number of factors. Patriotism or nationalism is certainly a
significant reason. The ethical argument - that furniture and architecture
from a more virtuous time has an inherent moral superiority - is also
important. In terms of aesthetics, much of the attraction to colonial
architecture is a result of its "correct" proportions and adherence to
classical principles. But economics has also entered into the equation.
Colonial reproduction furniture began to be mass marketed to the public in the
1880s. While intended to denote handcraftedness, the pieces were inexpensive
precisely because they were machine-made. Small inexpensive houses in various
colonial styles were also marketed to the mass public in the early twentieth
century. The Colonial Revival house, also known as "modernized colonial" for
its combination of historic appearance with modern functionality, peaked in
popularity in the 1930s.
39 These
simple houses were almost infinitely variable and required neither the
ornamentation of the previous century nor the expensive materials of the
budding modernist movement. In fact, the Colonial Revival achieved its most
enduring popular acceptance in the domestic sphere. The home became the center
of everything associated with the Colonial Revival. As a writer stated in
1899: "The American home is the object to which we may well give our best
thoughts and make it the place where religion and civilization shall dwell
together."
40
Other Trends
In addition to these key trends indicated by the Colonial Revival
literature, there are some other tendencies worth mentioning. One of the most
important is the changing conception of what constituted the colonial period.
The early revivalists of the late nineteenth century loosely interpreted the
word "colonial" to include everything from the first settlers to the 1840s.
41 What we now consider to be "Federal
Style" and "Greek Revival" were lumped together with early colonial and high
Georgian. Near the turn of the century, more precise investigators began to
differentiate pre- and post-Revolutionary styles, the former being "colonial"
or "Old Colonial" and the latter "Provincial," "Georgian," or "Federal." Into
the 1920s, however, the term "colonial" often described anything pre-
Victorian. As researchers looked closer at older American design, a new
nomenclature developed that differentiated style by ethnic group ("Spanish
Colonial," "Dutch Colonial," etc.) and put more emphasis on the differences
between early work and the Georgian and Federal (or "Adam") styles that
followed.
Another interesting aspect of the Colonial Revival is the shifting emphases in
the literature of the movement. Nineteenth century writers tried to direct
attention to the colonial period in their particular field, or created
romantic visions of an inviting and not-so-distant past. In the early years of
the twentieth century, most of the literature was produced by scholars
investigating the historical realities of colonial architecture, architects
promoting it as a legitimate contemporary style, producers marketing colonial-
inspired products, or tastemakers advancing the style for various aesthetic or
ethical reasons. After the 1930s, a growing interest in the modernist
aesthetic slowed the production of Colonial Revival-oriented books and
articles, though the popularity of Colonial Revival architecture and furniture
with the general public never waned. The Colonial Revival virtually
disappeared from scholarly attention and popular magazines during the period
of modernist domination (1960s-1970s). In the 1980s, it reemerged as a
respectable area of study as well as a source of popular interest.
Relevance and Potential
Usefulness of the Available Literature
The available literature provides a substantial historical record for
tracing both academic and popular interest in the Colonial Revival. The early
writings tell us what revivalists thought was important about the artistic
past and why it should be renewed or extended. They also show us the extent of
the Colonial Revival's popularity before World War II. The rebirth of Colonial
Revival literature in the last three decades has included a group of scholars
who have begun to ask important "why" questions rather than merely describing
or promoting the style. Why did the Colonial Revival happen? What accounts for
its longevity? What were the specific characteristics of the movement in
different time fields, periods or regions? More of these "why" questions
should be asked. An especially fruitful area of inquiry involves the
relationship between the societal and cultural factors that have propelled the
Colonial Revival into prominence and sustained its popularity. Michael
Kammen's far-ranging work on America's development of its historical past can
serve as a guidepost for this type of analysis.
42
Potential Direction and
Emphasis of Future Studies
Gaps in the existing Colonial Revival literature suggest at least six
main areas of further emphasis. First, and possibly most important, is the
paucity of studies on the Colonial Revival's impact on fields other than
architecture. The amount of architectural literature is disproportionately
large. Perhaps this is a reflection of architecture's visual prominence in the
environment; whatever the reason, the other artistic fields have much ground
to make up. Second, more studies of non-English Colonial Revival arts and
architecture will help to further define the phenomenon. The focus of the
Colonial Revival in both scholarly and popular literature has always been
heavily weighed toward the Anglo-Dutch colonies of New England and the Middle
Atlantic States. With the exception of regional revivals in Florida,
California and the Southwest, non-English traditions have generally been
neglected. More work is needed on the legacy of other ethnic groups.
43 Third, the Colonial Revival's relationship
with popular culture needs more scrutiny. Some attempts have been made to do
this with particular building types, but the prevalence of Colonial Revival in
American popular culture as a whole is unexamined.
44 Fourth, the possible influences of the Colonial Revival
on other areas of American arts and culture should be investigated. For
example, David Gebhard claims that the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
in Southern California spurred the formation of avant-garde modernism among
architects in that area.
45 Fifth,
historians have generally overlooked the colonial genre and historical scenes
painted in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as a source of
information on popular attitudes toward the past.
46 These scenes obviously had a market; the forces that
affected public interest in such pictures need to be examined in more detail.
Finally, few works have compared the American Colonial Revival with revivalist
movements in other countries. Examining the experiences of other countries
with revivals of "national" or inherent artistic styles might shed light on
the true nature of our own ongoing infatuation with our colonial
heritage.
The Colonial Revival permeated art, architecture, landscape architecture,
urbanism, and decorative design - almost every human artistic endeavor. The
colonial period exerts a continuing influence on us, even at the beginning of
the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, the true nature of this important
influence is only partially understood. Hopefully, our evolving relationship
with the colonial past will continue to produce significant insights to
supplement the considerable body of Colonial Revival literature.
Afterword: On the
Inclusion of Magazines and
Popular Literature
Popular magazines often provide an excellent resource for tracing the
public and commercial embrace of the Colonial Revival style in the twentieth
century, particularly in the area of antiques, decorative arts, and house
restorations. They offer innumerable articles on colonial antiques,
reproductions and decoration, and frequently feature excellent imagery. In
this regard, advertisements in older publications can be as important as the
articles. Within this bibliography, certain popular magazines, such as
Antiques, House and Garden, House Beautiful, Conoisseur, and even
Popular Mechanics are listed.
47
Additionally, local, state, or regional historical bulletins and publications
may yield useful and regionally-specific information, and should not be
overlooked.
48 However, the editors wish to stress
that while such sources frequently include helpful articles on Colonial
Revival homes or restorations, the reader should be aware that unusual
interpretations may be tendered, representing a distinctive departure from the
accompanying contemporary historical discourse.
49
Promotions, commercial house renovation campaigns, development schemes and the
like might distort the historical validity of such works. Nevertheless, they
still provide an important understanding of the enduring popularity of the
genre through time.
--KLM--
Footnotes
4 See William B. Rhoads, "The Discovery of America's
Architectural Past, 1874-1914," and Keith N. Morgan & Richard Cheek, "History
in the Service of Design: American Architect-Historians, 1870-1940," in The
Architectural Historian in America, Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, ed., Studies
in the History of Art 35 (Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art,
1990).
22 The Litchfield story is told in William Butler, "Another
City upon a Hill: Litchfield, Connecticut, and the Colonial Revival," in The
Colonial Revival in America. For a broader view of the New England urban
transformation, see the writings of J. B. Jackson, particularly American
Space: The Centennial Years, 1865-1876 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1972), and
"Several American Landscapes," in Landscapes: Selected Writings of J.B.
Jackson, Ervin H. Zube, ed. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
1970).
27 Alfred Trumble, Representative Works of Contemporary
American Artists (1887: reprint, New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc.,
1978); Charles M. Skinner, "The Domestic Pictures of Frank D. Millet,"
International Studio 32 (October 1907): cxi-cxx; William J. Ayers, ed.,
Picturing History: American Painting 1770-1930 (New York: Rizzoli
International Publishers, Inc., and Fraunces Tavern Museum, 1993).