The Arts and Crafts Movement and Prairie House Architecture--A Uniquely American Design

ARTS AND CRAFTS

The later half of the 1800s saw the emergence of a new aesthetic movement that spread around the globe. Conventional styles of home building and decorating that had become characterized by the Industrial Revolution lost favor for it's very blandness. Now the public's taste harkened back to standards of design that emphasized natural beauty and personalized, handcrafted workmanship. 

The individualized style which followed and came to be known as the Arts and Crafts movement, was chiefly inspired by William Morris, an English reformer, poet, and designer. In 1861 he founded a firm of interior decorators and manufacturers dedicated to recapturing the spirit and quality of medieval craftsmanship. Eventually, decorating ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement broadened and became infused with ideas that spread to other countries and became identified with the growing international interest in design, specifically with Art Nouveau.

In 1887, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. Along with hosting annual exhibitions at the New Gallery, it also published Arts and Crafts Essays written by the society's members, including Mr. Morris, who unfortunately passed away on the opening day of its 5th exhibition year.

The Arts and Crafts movement grew at odds with the argument that such designs were practical in the modern world. But as more people flocked to the movement, practicality combined with beauty and inspiration, and demand for more aestetic styles grew.

Once the movement reached American shores and came to rest in Chicago, a new type of architect and architecture rose to meet the Arts and Crafts philosophy.

PRAIRIE SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

If you've noticed or lived in a home built in a way that emphasizes clean horizontal lines and flat or hipped roofs with broad, overhanging eaves; and one that incorporates natural materials such as brick, wood, and stone, then you've likely discovered a model of a Prairie School home. The Prairie School style was the first architectural style to be considered uniquely American. It's name was derived by historians and critics who noted that the design seemed influenced by the landscape (wide, flat prairies) and plant life (natural wood and stone) of the Midwestern prairie.

The most credited architect for developing the Prairie School style was Frank Lloyd Wright, though many others followed. Wright designed not only the house, but also the interior lighting, windows, rugs, furniture, and textiles, tying the entire piece into an artform. One of his designs which is now a National Historic Landmark is the Frederick C. Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago. Built in 1910, it is considered by many to be the quintessential example of a Prairie School home.

Frederick C. Robie House - Photo Wikipedia Commons

The Prairie School style spread extensively beyond the building of homes. Today you can see it in a plethora of buildings from banks to churches. But still the most famous and creative use was in homes. Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece "Fallingwater", a house built over a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania, has been voted "The Best All-Time Work of American Architecture".

Fallingwater - Image by lachrimae72 from Pixabay

The Arts and Crafts movement also influenced other another style of home-building across America with the rise of the popular Craftsman House, a bungalow home that is an offshoot of the Prairie Style home. You can read about them in Denise Weimer's 2019 HHH series here:  

Craftsman Home Exteriors

Craftsman Home Interiors

Craftsman Home Decorating

Arts and Crafts has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades. While design styles continually change, we all seem to have within us a desire to create beauty around us in some form or another, whether though furnishings, art, clothing, jewelry, or gardens and landscapes. We are all creatives, made in the image of our Great Creator. The broadness of what that means never ceases to amaze me!

Creating with you,

Naomi

https://naomimusch.com/

Art Nouveau influences Polly's style in Book One of the Apron Strings series when she turns her grandfather's Victorian house into a fashionable ladies tea room, combining many elements of beauty. But will the meddlesome tavern owner down the street ruin the respectability of her business, or is there more to him than meets the eye?

Polly, Apron Strings, Book One

Get it here.

Passenger Pigeons, Whiskey, and the North American Landscape - What Did They Have In Common?

 

JOIN ME TODAY, in the Apron Strings series book group, where we are meeting several of the heroines of our series and giving away prizes in a Friday Flurry!

Last month, in my post The Birds That Turned Night Into Day, I wrote about massive flocks of passenger pigeons, once so vast that they used to blot out the sun as they passed overhead. But their extinction with the death of the very last passenger pigeon, named Martha, in 1914, has had lasting side effects that changed our landscape and many of our industries.

When I heard that statement, I was surprised. How could the extinction of these birds make for such dramatic consequences, and the answer to that--beyond the fact that we once ate a LOT more pigeon than chicken in our diets--was white oak tree.

Did you know that the beautiful fall colors for which New England and many upper Midwestern states are famous didn't used to be quite so . . . so red? Their predominant colors a hundred fifty years ago were gold, orange, and russet. In fact, did you know that red maples were almost non-existent in the northeast back then? Quite so. But why?

The answer again is the white oak. (We'll get to what changed that in a bit.)

White oak trees used to be one of the most abundant species of tree in our country. And more importantly still, the white oak was the most popular tree for building on a wide scale. From homes and barns to furniture and especially in ship building, the wood of the white oak reigned supreme.

Part of the reason for this is that there is a plastic-like substance called tyloses that helps make a White Oak Tree’s wood waterproof! Because of this waterproof 
quality – white oak was used not only in ships, but also in barrels and buckets!

However, we don't see plantations of white oak for harvest. The reason for that is that white oak takes a long time to mature. They grow at a rate of 1-2 feet a year (considered slow growth), and the process takes about 30 years just to reach early maturity. White oaks need a lot of wide open space to grow as well. Each white oak has a sprawling root systems covering three times as much area belowground as the width of their shady canopies above. They need about four hours of direct sunlight each day to reach their full potential in height and canopy.

But get this: an average white oak tree lives about 300 years and can live as long as 600! 

Image by Candace Freeland from Pixabay

White oak bark has also been used as a medicinal. Brewed as a tea, it is used to treat arthritis (Hey, I might try that!), colds, fever, cough, bronchitis, and as an appetite stimulant and to improve digestion. 

The same cannot be said of other types of oak trees. White oak is harder than red oak. 

It's wood is much denser and burns longer, making it a popular firewood through the ages. Because of its hardness, the Native Americans used white oak for fashioning tool handles, corn pounding mortars, and gathering baskets. 

And remember when I said it was used to build barrels? One of the most popular uses for the wood of the white oak was in building whiskey barrels. In fact, how they did it was a closely guarded secret of coopers (barrel makers). You might say, so what? Why do I care? I don't imbibe, and isn't a barrel a barrel anyway?

Image by Bernd from Pixabay

No, it sure isn't. White oak was very specifically chosen, not only because of its imperviousness to moisture, but because the wood itself lent a pleasant-tasting ambience to the alcohol stored within, be it whiskey, wine, or scotch. This was important to brewers through the decades, and no less so during prohibition in the early 20th century. Of course, not everyone had such a barrel, but if someone got hold of liquor stored in one, they new the difference. In fact, it's said that bourbon whiskey must be stored in charred oak casks to give it its unique flavors.

SO WHAT ABOUT THE PIGEONS, NAOMI?

Oh, yeah. 

When the flocks of pigeons, called "kits", would nest, their weight would often break the branches of lesser trees, and the stuff they'd leave behind would just about drown out any remaining undergrowth. However, pigeon poo did wonders for adding nutrients to the soil of the hungry white oaks which could bear the weight of tens of thousands of plump pigeons and their young. In the fall, such nutrients made wonderful bedding for acorns to plant themselves. While pigeons loved to forage for acorns of red oaks in the spring, the acorns of white oaks didn't produce until fall, long after the nesting birds had moved on. 

People continued to harvest the white oak for its coveted wood, even after the pigeons died out. Little by little, other kinds of undergrowth began to claim the ground of the white oak, and pretty soon, trees like red maple and red oak took over much of the land that used to solely host the white oak trees. Before long, the landscape changed. And while it only takes one little acorn to produce a mighty white oak, it also takes open area and less competition with other tree species. 

And with that, I'll leave you with one of my all-time favorite sayings.

"The mightiest oak was once just a little nut that held its ground."

That speaks to me.

Happy New Year from your nutty friend, Naomi

naomimusch.com

Speaking of the era of prohibition,

THERE ARE ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT to pre-order Polly, but today I'll be giving away a copy over at the Facebook Apron Strings readers group! And other authors have prizes too.

Apron Strings series, Book One

The Great War has ended, but Polly Holloway’s heart is shattered when her fiancé finally returns home—with a French war bride. Now her future feels desolate, until she fastens onto the idea of using her skills and a special cookbook to turn her grandfather’s Victorian house into a fashionable ladies’ tea room. Yet, how will she endure the patronage of the woman who stole her sweetheart? Moreover, the suave tavern owner down the block is interfering in her business, personal and otherwise. Heaven only knows what goes on behind his doors. Might he be a bootlegger?

Friday Flurry in FB Apron Strings Readers Group

Pre-Order Link

The Birds That Turned Day Into Night

Recently, as I was reading Denise Weimer's novel, A Counterfeit Betrothal, Book One from her Scouts of the Georgia Frontier series, I came upon mention of massive flocks of pigeons darkening the sky--so massive that a flock could take a full day to pass by. I referred to such an occurrence in one of my own novels, The Green Veil. Seldom in fiction have I read of one these flocks, although immense migrations of pigeons across America were very common in centuries past. In fact, as recently as a little over a hundred years ago, the Passenger Pigeon numbered the highest  count of any bird in North America, where it lived exclusively. Although now extinct, over 3 BILLION passenger pigeons soared the skies at that time.

This morning, as I sit at my computer, my gaze flitting to the window from time to time where the only thing breaking up my vision of the vast, blue sky is a bare oak branch crossing my view, I try to imagine the site of such a flock darkening the horizon. People who lived to see such sites talked about clouds of birds blocking out the light of day so that it seemed as though night had fallen.

Depiction of a shooting in northern Louisiana, Smith Bennett, 1875/Public Domain

Space doesn't allow me to go into the history of the passenger pigeon in detail, or the depth of the reasons the bird went extinct. I suppose that the image above explains a lot. For much the same reason as the near-demise of the American buffalo heard, these pigeons slowly disappeared off the scene. In fact, some say that they weren't even considered a game bird, since they were so easily shot or captured. A fellow who was a reasonably good shot could take six birds down with one shotgun blast, and a shot fired at a roosting flock could take down as many as sixty birds--or so it is said. Even the Native Americans harvested a large amount of birds prior to European expansion. Using nets, they could capture up to 800 birds at a time. They also killed juvenile birds at night, using long poles to take them, while being careful not to disturb the nesting adults, because they didn't want them to abandon their nesting grounds. Low-flying birds could even be killed with a well-aimed rock or stick. 

Pigeons being shot to save crops in Iowa, 1867

Eventually, traps were designed as well as nets for capturing the birds. Hundreds of thousands of birds were used for sport shooting as well as to be sold on the open market. Juvenile birds were considered the choicest for flavor, and their fat was used for butter. It's worth noting, since we in the states just celebrated Thanksgiving, that the huge numbers of passenger pigeons as game birds were second only to wild turkeys.

There were a myriad of ways man found to procure the birds. Most of them, as history notes, are rather sad. Even though these pigeons were the fastest of their kin, able to fly over 60 mph, they were still easy to pluck out of the sky. While, like the American Buffalo and the giant white pine, their supply seemed limitless and was treated as such, it wasn't, of course. The advent of railroads and telegraph lines (to report their movements) made bagging the pigeons easier than ever. Attempts at conservation that finally came, proved to be too little too late.

More factors than hunting alone brought about the extinction of the passenger pigeon, however. Depending heavily upon mast--the fruit of forest trees and shrubs, such as acorns and other nuts--the pigeons competed for their declining supply as deforestation combined with farm expansion spread across the continent. Predators and disease likely also played a role, especially since passenger pigeons were not prolific egg-layers. 

The very last known passenger pigeon known as Martha, died in 1914. You can see her here in this brief Smithsonian film clip:

This is Martha, the World's Last Known Passenger Pigeon - Smithsonian Institute Channel

Your great-grandparents and mine likely either remember the pigeons that used to flock across the skies or at least they have heard the stories of them. I was happy to see them mentioned in Denise Weimer's novel. What's a tidbit of history you've read about lately that either surprised you or stirred a memory of something you'd once learned about?

Have a safe and blessed holiday season.

Naomi Musch

https://naomimusch.com/

Don't miss this holiday drawing!

Polly releases right after the holidays, so I'm giving away some fun swag to one of my newsletter subscribers in December. If you haven't heard about Polly, here she is! Pre-orders are available for this first novel in the Apron Strings series. 

Polly wants to mend her shattered heart by using her homemaking skills and a special cookbook to open a fashionable ladies’ tea room in her Victorian house. But the interfering tavern owner down the street arouses both her suspicions and her pulse. Can her idea succeed, and is Ross Dalton really a changed man?

The Volsted Act - a Law with Loopholes (and a Free Book)

 

America is a nation known, in part, for the ingenuity of its people. 

While the same might be said of individuals around the world—after all, we’re all made in the image of our Great Creator—Americans seem to have a special penchant for finding ways to accomplish goals even when the path seems blocked. That's been particularly true if the way is forcibly blocked by government. We've been pesky rebels for a long time. Ha!

The roaring twenties is indicative of that mentality. When we think of that era, we imagine jazz music, loosening dance and dress styles, and most poignantly, the illegal alcohol trade. It’s almost hard to separate the twenties from images of speakeasies and gangsters. 

Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels.com

(Case in point, with my book Polly coming out next January, it was difficult to find a cover image of a model who wasn’t a flapper.) Nope... Not Polly.

Nope, that's not Polly.
(photo by Victoria Rain - pexels.com)

At any rate, let’s take a look at how we got to those roaring years.

Temperance organizations existed in nearly every state earlier in the century. By January 1916, when a constitutional amendment of Prohibition was actually passed federally, alcohol had already been banned by statute in over half the states in the country. The 18th Amendment merely established Prohibition across the entire land.

HOWEVER, even though the law was made, it lacked some teeth. It took the Volsted Act, passed the following October, to actually clarified the law by stating that "beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors" meant any beverage that was more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. In fact, the Act also stated that even owning an item designed to manufacture alcohol was illegal, and it set specific fines and jail sentences for violating Prohibition. That's why those secreted stills out in the woods were illegal to have, even if they were empty or idle. 

This makes it easy to see why there were people who saw a lot of money to be made by "rum-running" or "bootlegging". Lucrative but dangerous work.

Here's a 2-minute, tongue-in-cheek presentation of the effects and outcome of the Volsted Act, performed as a silent movie. It's cute, but really does make its points.

PARALLELS

I always like to look at history as it regards our current times and situations. Can you think of laws that Congress is trying to pass (national or state level) that could have such sweeping ramifications as to prevent even owning a piece of equipment that could be used to make something considered "illegal"? 

I believe this is why it’s important for citizens to monitor the reach of government.

INGENUITY

Back to prohibition... 

Of course, that old fashioned American ingenuity kicked in before the Volsted Act was enforced. Americans not willing to give up their chances to imbibe soon discovered loopholes in the January law. For instance, since it wasn't ratified for nearly a year, that gave plenty of time for people to store up their personal supply. Stockpiling and hoarding became a big deal. History is fraught with examples of raids in which these stockpiles were sought after and removed.

Also, the Volsted Act didn't actually say individuals couldn't drink liquor. If it was prescribed by a doctor, it then became legal. There quickly became quite an uptick in prescriptions for alcohol.

Prescription for Medicinal Supply of Spirits
By US Treasury Department - ha.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63943871

Of course, many turned to producing the product themselves, either for personal use or mass distribution. Next month, I'll talk a little more about this fascinating era that didn't end until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.

Do you get my newsletter? If not, you can sign up here. And don't forget to join the new Facebook Apron Strings Readers' Group, where eleven authors are posting and chatting over recipes, history, fashions, and snippets from the Apron Strings series of books releasing throughout 2024. It's just plain fun! 

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