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- Title
From the “ornamental and evanescent” to “good, useful things”: Redesigning the Gift in Progressive America.
- Authors
Litwicki, Ellen
- Abstract
This article examines the transformation of American gift giving in the early twentieth century, using prescriptive and trade literature, as well as individual stories. This transformation occurred within the context of the transition from a Victorian to a modernist ethos and from a production to a consumption orientation. Changes in gift-giving practices were shaped by Progressive Era hygiene and home economics reformers and by aesthetic movements such as Arts and Crafts and interior decoration. Gift reformers divorced the gift from the Victorian ideal of ornamental and sentimental items, asserting that a gift's beauty lay in its functionality. This transformation fostered a second shift in the ideology of the gift. Rather than the giver's knowledge of and sentiment toward the recipient determining gift selection, the recipient's needs and desires increasingly dictated the choice. The gift thereby became more consumer-oriented. This change paved the way for the gift registry, which provided a commercial forum where prospective gift recipients could list their preferences.
- Subjects
UNITED States; GIFT giving; CONSUMERISM; CONSUMPTION (Economics); HOME economics; HYGIENE -- Social aspects; PROGRESSIVISM (United States politics); ARTS &; crafts movement; GIFT registries; MANNERS &; customs
- Publication
Journal of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era, 2011, Vol 10, Issue 4, p467
- ISSN
1537-7814
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S1537781411000326