Relationships between woodworking technology and residential millwork in the nineteenth century : with an appendix on the implications for the evaluation of historic millwork

Abstract

This document is an examination of the millwork industry in the nineteenth century and its influence upon the residential built environment. This study explores influences and results in relation to the development of millwork in the United States. The first is the technological divergence that developed between the United States and Europe, as America introduced different technologies to exploit the vast amounts of timber accessible to the New World. The second development occurred as the New World slowly developed a taste for the type of elaborate millwork previously associated with wealthy patrons. Low cost of materials and new technologies made more complicated wood finishes available to those of modest means. The third situation reflects the struggle between an elite class of architects and pattern book designers, who advocated restraint in design, and carpenter-builders and their clients, who wanted to display their talent or status through the use of a high level of ornamental millwork.