| As the first step towards a long-term study of Ohio furniture, this thesis examines the furniture of Washington County, Ohio, beginning with the establishment of Marietta as the first official settlement in the Northwest Territory in 1788, and ending in 1825, when the building of canals and, eventually railroads, supplanted the Ohio River as the primary connection between the East and the West. Using surviving furniture, probate records, newspaper advertisements, and the daybook of cabinetmaker Joshua Shipman, this thesis surveys furniture production and ownership and uncovers a culturally diverse community with a seemingly unified commitment to the refinement of domestic spaces. Settlers, such as Joseph Buell who migrated from Connecticut in 1789, began to reshape themselves according to their new frontier surroundings. Not coincidentally, the furniture of this period mirrors this change and served as a material symbol of their evolving identities. |
