Quaker Aesthetics: Reflections on a Quaker Ethic in American Design and Consumption.

Wood, Richard E.

Quaker Aesthetics: Reflections on a Quaker Ethic in American Design and Consumption. Edited by Emma Jones Lapsansky and Anne M. Verplank. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. xiv + 394 pp. $35.00 cloth.

Quakers purchased or produced paintings, buildings, domestic interiors, and clothing based both on worldly circumstances and changing religious standards in the years from 1700 to 1925. Based on surviving artifacts, pictures, and written records left mainly by prosperous and articulate Friends in the Delaware valley, thirteen authors reveal that although ostentation was at least nominally forbidden, individual members interpreted these guidelines in varying ways.

In her analysis of colonial portraits of Friends, Dianne C. Johnson finds a wide range or preferences, from that of Joseph Pemberton, which did not show him as distinctively Quaker, to the case of Hannah Logan Smith, who "apparently eschewed portraiture." But there were no explicit rules banning the art form. Philadelphia's leading residents were "absorbed by an interest in the arts, and Friends were as active in their pursuits as non-Quakers."

By 1800, Friends enforced standards of plainness more rigidly, but these did not eliminate all significant painting as noted in Carolyn J. Weekley's fascinating chapter, "Edward Hicks: Quaker Artist and Minister." Apprenticed to a carriage-maker in 1793, Hicks did ornamental and sign painting even before he joined Friends in 1803. More likely to become the object of controversy after being designated a minister in 1811, he gave up painting for two years in 1815 after some members complained that his artistry was too elaborate and ostentatious. Unable to succeed as a farmer, Hicks returned to painting, but conservatively enough so as to satisfy ,most Quakers and to produce many variations on "The Peaceable Kingdom, his portrayal of tame and wild animals living in harmony.

The Quaker aesthetic in clothing allowed its narrowest range of creativity in the period from 1800 to 1850, but with individual and local variations. In "The Aesthetics of Absence: Quaker Women's Plain Dress in the Delaware Valley, 1790-1900," Mary Anne Caton provides careful description and analysis, based on a 1990 exhibition at the Chester County Historical Society and materials from the Winterthur Museum and Westtown Friends School. Plain dress marked a separate identity from the world at large but "was not a uniform of prescribed garments, fabrics, or colors." It forbade certain fashionable details but still allowed some differences in self-expression.

According to J. William Frost's excellent overview article, "From Plainness to Simplicity; Changing Quaker Ideals for Material Culture," there was a broadening of the Quaker aesthetic in many places after 1860. London Yearly Meeting no longer required distinctive dress or speech. Evangelical Friends in America soon argued that plainness did not necessarily coincide with piety, and that it also might hinder evangelism. Philadelphia Orthodox Friends held to plainness somewhat later than did others. But ultimately they bought into the modernism of Rufus M. Jones and others, which revealed God as immanent in creation, communicating through nature, music, and painting.

It would be difficult to imagine a more positive appreciation for the arts than that described in Carolyn Kinder Carr's essay, "Sara Tyson Hallowell: Forsaking Plain for Fancy." Born in Philadelphia in 1846 to a family with deep Quaker roots, she had moved to Chicago by 1870 and became prominent in the field of arts management during the 1880s, ultimately coordinating major art exhibitions with the assistance of leading collectors and art dealers. Having displayed the works of prominent French impressionists, she moved permanently to France in 1894 as an agent for the Art Institute of Chicago. Although Hallowell stayed in contact with Quaker cousins and had sympathies for the denomination, Carr's essay does not indicate that she worshipped regularly with Friends after 1870.

In four chapters dealing with residential architecture and furniture from the colonial period to 1831, other researchers conclude that wealthy Quakers in the Delaware Valley lived quite comfortably in a style consistent with their station in life. Chippendale furniture and "monumental" homes predominated so much that in three surviving historic sites there is virtually nothing in the material record that appears to be distinctively Quaker. Even when Friends had renewed an emphasis on "plainness" in dress, Jane and Reuben Haines enjoyed "handsome" clothing and fashionable furniture.

Meetinghouse architecture is another story, however. Prior to 1768, houses of worship of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends varied significantly, blending well with materials of nearby construction. After that date, structures conformed closely to the pattern of Buckingham Meetinghouse, which had been designed to provide the equal space for women's business meetings that the stricter enforcement of marriage rules required.

Editor Emma Lapsansky describes this volume as "a search for Quaker identity" and a study in contradictions. The essays do not attempt to place American Friends material culture in context with other religious groups nor do they provide much detail on the varieties of Quakers outside of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. As resources for the history of the region and the time periods covered, they will be especially useful due to sixty-nine pages of endnotes, plus an index and a glossary of Quaker terms. Seventy excellent black-and-white illustrations and twenty color plates further enhance the book.

Richard E. Wood

Seminole State College