The Colonial Revival:
Facts, Myths, and Legends

The cultural and aesthetic movement that we now call the Colonial Revival arose in the late 19th century partly in opposition to a great influx of foreign immigrants, who provided the needed labor for America's growing manufacturing economy. These foreign workers, who came primarily from southern and eastern Europe, were perceived as a threat to the established Anglo-American population. Identifying and preserving the memory of America's past became a popular response to social and linguistic anxiety.

The centennial celebrations of 1876 spurred attention to the colonial and Revolutionary past. Architecture, domestic interiors, and gardens were created in styles that looked back to colonial times. Sarah Orne Jewett's writings reflect a nostalgia for the old ways, while the immense popularity of Wallace Nutting's staged photographs suggests yearnings for domestic tranquility and an era when women did not aspire to the vote.

Wealthy women furnishing summer homes in the Piscataqua region began to collect hooked rugs, embroideries, marine paintings, samplers, old iron wares, and country furniture--almost anything produced by hand in an earlier, pre-industrial America, which was generically called "colonial". The portraits of ancestors, whether they were real or imaginary, came to be prized as symbols of long American lineage.

The story of of the Colonial Revival that heightened awareness of our local and national past is just one of the stories the Portsmouth Historical Society tells. We also tell the stories of Portsmouth as a seaport and colonial capital, of Portsmouth's role in the American Revolution and the development of the United States Navy, of women and everyday life in Portsmouth, and of Portsmouth men abroad.

Portsmouth Historical Society
We Tell Portsmouth Stories