An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195079922 ISBN 13: 9780195079920

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

This lavish book is a compilation of architectural and landscape terms used in the colonies and states of the Southern seaboard from Delaware to Georgia. The purpose of the work is to trace the growth of a regional and increasingly technical and academic vocabulary in the period from 1607 through the 1820s. The glossary contains 1,500 terms ranging from building types to methods of construction. All terms are succinctly defined, describing meanings found in primary documents of the period. Extracts from various contemporary sources are quoted in most entries in order to elucidate the context and contemporary usage of these words and phrases. Nearly 400 drawings, photographs, plates, and prints illustrate building types, architectural elements, construction details, tools, materials, and landscape features.
In the period between the adaptation of English building practices in the seventeenth century and the beginning of industrialized and standardized building practices in the antebellum period, a wealth of architectural terms were used to describe the Southern landscape and the practice of building. During this period, craftsmen and clients used many traditional terms in new and unusual ways. Many of these, such as the names given to certain framing methods, are distinctly regional in nature. Southerners also shaped the language of building by retaining archaic meanings long after they had passed from use elsewhere in America and Britain. Along with regional and traditional terminology, Southern building was enriched in the late colonial and early national period with the principles and language of classical architecture introduced by English architectural books, professionally trained builders, and knowledgeable clients acquainted with the heritage of ancient architecture and its modern revival.
Readers can refer to the glossary for definitions of archaic terms found in documents, to verify the use of specific words at different periods of time, to identify names of architectural details, to recognize how architectural terminology has been used and modified over time, to trace the emergence of distinctive building types, and, by comparison with other parts of the country, to identify regional patterns in the usage of architectural and landscape terms.

About this title

About the Author

Carl R. Lounsbury, Architectural Historian, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Review

"Far surpasses the others in quality and fills a large gap in the literature....Should be in the reference collection of every library supporting the study of architecture or American history."--Choice

"Provides useful and easily accessible information about construction technology, building types, and a plethora of building terminology used in early America....A useful, if not essential, tool for architectural historians, preservationists, architects and anyone interested in early
buildings."--Georgia Historical Quarterly

"In this splendid volume Carl Lounsbury has provided a treasury of useful information that will appeal to architects, preservationists, curators, historians, and others who study early buildings and building styles for reasons related to their professions, while at the same time making an
esoteric subject appetizing to lay readers."--The North Carolina Historical Review

"I cannot resist labelling this volume a collection of entertaining, richly informative short essays on building....I will repeat its dust jacket claim 'that it will be of great interest to architectural historians, cultural historians, historic preservation offices and preservationists, and
students of American English.'"--Arkansas Historical Quartely

"Rarely does one actually sit down to read a glossary or a dictionary, but this book entreats you to settle back and peruse it at length....This is a book of tremendous value that will become one of the standards for anybody doing research in early American culture."--William and Mary
Quarterly

"An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape is a watershed publication....Well composed, comfortable to handle, and captivating in its detail."--Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts

"Beautifully printed and bound, loaded with information, An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape is a must for libraries, and highly recommended for all scholars of American architecture. It will probably be one of the most useful books in your
library."--Vernacular Architecture Newsletter

"Engagingly written books on architecture, urbanism, and the landscape are not as available as the reading public would like them to be. Thus it is good news when a distinguished new reference work appears which will appeal to a broad readership as well as to the several scholarly professions
for which it was intended....For the lay reader there is no better way of beginning the study of early architecture of the coastal south than by reading the introductory essay, the prolegomenon of a book we await, and following its italicized terms into the glossary itself.--The Filson Club History
Quarterly

"An admirable work of historical scholarship...Establishes a new editorial standard in the production of architectural dictionaries. By virtue of its methodology, its clarity of prose, and its refined design, it generously invites historians to become acquainted with and make use of the
spatial/cultural landscape of the South in their work."--The Journal of Southern History

"An admirable work of historical scholarship....Establishes a new editorial standard in the production of architectural dictionaries. By virtue of its methodology, its clarity of prose, and its refined design, it generously invites historians to become acquainted with and make use of the
spatial/cultural landscape of the South in their work."--The Journal of Southern History

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0195079922
• ISBN 13: 9780195079920
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: Lounsbury Carl R.