Material Culture is printed two times a year for members of PAS:APAL. You may download a PDF of the contents of the current issue here. Abstracts of the current issue‘s feature articles follow:
Indian for a Night: Sleeping with the “Other” at Wigwam Village Tourist Cabins
By Katie Algeo, Department of Geography, Western Kentucky University
Frank Redford of Horse Cave, Kentucky, started a chain of Wigwam Village tourist cabins in 1933, an enterprise that eventually expanded to seven locations stretching from Florida to California. With individual cabins in the shape of tepees, Wigwam Village capitalized on the appeal of kitschy roadside attractions and on Americans’ fascination with Native Americans. In the waxing days of automobile travel by the masses, each Village also served as a practical agglomeration of tourist services – in addition to accommodations, each offered a gas station, restaurant, and gift shop. By drawing on methods of hermeneutic analysis stemming from the “cultural turn” in humanities and social sciences, this paper explores themes related to the appropriation and commercialization of Native American culture represented by this tourism enterprise, including the geographically displaced authenticity of a dwelling style indigenous to the Great Plains, the entrenched American habit of “playing Indian,” and the social construction of a pan-Indian identity through markers of generic “Indian-ness” rather than specific tribal cultures. The result is a deeper and multi-layered understanding of the symbolism inherent in this outstanding example of programmatic architecture.
Oklahoma’s County Courthouse Grounds
By John A. Milbauer, Department of Social Sciences, Northeastern State University
The county courthouse square is prominent in many townscapes of the United States. Here the courthouse is centered in a square that is surrounded largely by businesses. This feature originated in colonial Pennsylvania and it was diffused to the Lower Middle West and the Upland South. County courthouse squares assume many forms, and the Shelbyville style is common in the Upland South. Scholars have long pondered the regional status of Oklahoma. Is it the Upland South? The Lowland South? The Middle West? The West? The Southwest? Is it Native America? An examination of Oklahoma’s county courthouse squares should shed some light on the regional nature of the state. On the other hand, town squares declined during the railroad era, and most of Oklahoma’s towns were founded during that time. The late date of settlement could result in a scarcity of county courthouse squares in Oklahoma. I analyzed all of Oklahoma’s county courthouses in the field, and I studied them on historic plat maps and on the maps of the Sanborn Insurance Company. Results show that county courthouse squares are significant, and formerly they were more abundant. However, county courthouse squares, especially the Shelbyville type, are more numerous elsewhere. This attributed to a late date of town founding, the influence of a number of culture regions in Oklahoma, and a declining desire to retain county courthouse squares.
Louis Sullivan’s Ocean Springs Cottages: A Vernacular Perspective
By Philippe Os´zu´scik, Department of Visual Arts, University of South Alabama
Louis Sullivan designed beach cottages at Ocean Springs, Mississippi for himself and James Charnley of Chicago in 1890. This study reviews aspects of Sullivan’s professional and modernist features in the designs. The study reveals that the designs venture into architectural traditions of the Gulf Coast, a direction not discussed by early scholars of Sullivan. Altogether, a wide range of design elements were selected from the past and present and mixed with his creative vision that was to become the future. Finally, this research retraces Sullivan’s first trip to the Mississippi coast to illustrate its 1890 environment and climate that motivated him to design the beach cottages that he fondly referred to as his “shacks” and “bungalows.”
Before the Deluge: Reading, Writing and Rebuilding New Orleans — A special comparative review of several books focusing on the city of New Orleans
By Thomas Ruys Smith, School of American Studies, University of East Anglia, UK
This review essay examines four recent books concerned with the history of New Orleans. Though their approaches and focuses vary – from nineteenth century memoir to historical geography to tourism studies – all four volumes offer a variety of insights into the development of the city. In particular, they offer readings of the city’s evolution that help to interpret the devastations of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and give a timely sense of perspective to the ongoing attempts to rebuild New Orleans.