Domesticating History Domesticating History

Domesticating History

The Political Origins of America's House Museums

    • $20.99
    • $20.99

Publisher Description

Celebrating the lives of famous men and women, historic house museums showcase restored rooms and period furnishings, and portray in detail their former occupants' daily lives. But behind the gilded molding and curtain brocade lie the largely unknown, politically charged stories of how the homes were first established as museums. Focusing on George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and the Booker T. Washington National Monument, Patricia West shows how historic houses reflect less the lives and times of their famous inhabitants than the political pressures of the eras during which they were transformed into museums.

GENRE
Arts & Entertainment
RELEASED
1999
May 17
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
256
Pages
PUBLISHER
Smithsonian
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
10.3
MB