You Wanna Take This Outside?: Porches, Parkitecture, and the Creation of an American Identity

Erin Whitson; Hunter W Crosby

You Wanna Take This Outside?: Porches, Parkitecture, and the Creation of an American Identity

Author(s): Erin Whitson; Hunter W Crosby

Year: 2020

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Outdoor space in mid-to-late 19th-century America grew into a force that drove recreation and tourism across the United States. From porch spaces to parks, Americans began spending increasing amounts of time outside. Following common 19th-century themes, Americans used these spaces to boost a Nationalist agenda meant to express and reify class, gender, and racial divisions. These grew more rigid as Americans at the turn of the century experienced an increase in exposure to designated wilderness spaces. Using case studies from central Illinois and the American West, we explore elements of the built environment that are often overlooked. These elements remain important in understanding how Americans have conceptualized and integrated the outdoors into identity politics inside their homes and businesses. This paper uses porches and “parkitecture” as vehicles into a deeper conversation about notions of nationalism and identity that continue to irrefutably shape the way we engage with “wilderness” today.