The persistence of family: a study of a nineteenth-century Canadian family and their correspondence

Beginning in the 1850s, the struggling farming family of Elijah Dunham (1810-1893) and Anna Maria Briggs (1813-1899) ceased to function as a single economic and social unit. The children left the family home to establish lives and families of their own in various parts of Canada and the United States. As the family dispersed, however; they continued to maintain contact through letters. In the letters, the family shared news, sought advice, received comfort, and, at times, vented their frustrations and exposed internal family tensions. The letters provided a means of requesting and extending financial assistance, especially as it came to maintaining the elderly parents back in Ontario. Although the family would never again inhabit the same geographic location, they continued to function as a kinship network even though separated by time and space.     

Geographical structure in nineteenth-century urban retailing: Milwaukee, 1836–1890

This study explores the spatial structure of retailing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the era before the introduction of the electric streetcar in 1890. It uses city directory listings to chart changes in the numbers and types of retail outlets, their degree of nucleation and the functional complexity of such nucleations. The evidence suggests the early appearance of non-central retailing, the rapid dispersal of high as well as low order goods to non-central sites and the early emergence initially of a three-level and then, by 1870, a four-level hierarchy of shopping clusters. The pattern of retail clustering varied with the class and ethnic character of neighbourhoods, and clusters gravitated toward major arterial routes even in the pre-mass transit ear. Urban retailing in the second half of the nineteenth century was neither randomly dispersed nor over-whelmingly concentrated in a single central retail district, but developed a spatial hierarchy that clearly anticipated modern patterns.     

Changing patterns of familial sociability: family members as witnesses to (re)marriage in nineteenth-century Flanders

Based on research in three Flemish communities, the author concluded that during the course of the second part of the nineteenth century, there was an increasing trend toward choosing family members as witnesses to the marriage ceremony (of first marriages). This was interpreted as an aspect of the "familiarization" of marriage. It might also, however refer to changing family contexts and social networks, to switching roles of parents and youth, to shifting intergenerational power, and to new family situations of solidarity and conflict. In this follow-up study, the author demonstrates that the former conclusions also hold true for other Flemish regions, for all social groups, and for remarriages. It also appears that marrying people increasingly selected brothers and brothers-in-law as witnesses, rather than descending or ascending kin. These observations support the thesis of the increasing familiarization of family relations during the course of the nineteenth century.     

Determinants of divorce in nineteenth-century Flanders

In 1830, the year Belgium became independent, there were four divorces in Belgium. From about 1870 to 1910, there were about one hundred divorces per year, and since 1910, there have been about 1,000. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that played a role in the increase in the number of divorces in Belgium in the course of the nineteenth century. The research relates to information from four Flemish municipalities for the period 1800-1913. Results indicate that an explanation of the rising divorce rate can be sought in the psychological and social consequences of the more pronounced shift in marriage, gender and family expectations. Increasing numbers of women threw themselves more and more into their gender-specific expressive gender role, whereas the objective opportunities and attainability of this role did not increase commensurately. The result was role strain: high marriage and family expectations soon come up against intrinsic limitations. As a result of this, both individual and general frustration increased, and this was an ideal social substratum for facilitating divorce.     

Local-scale turnpike roads in nineteenth-century Kentucky

This essay will examine, through a Kentucky case study, the process whereby states, county-level localities, and individuals undertook for themselves the responsibility for internal improvements, especially the construction of comprehensive road networks in the nineteenth century. Before the Kentucky legislature authorized state-funded road construction in the twentieth century, the state's best roads were a few toll turnpikes. Following other eastern states, Kentucky approved turnpike construction charters and subscribed to turnpike stock to underwrite construction. State statutes, based upon directives from trained engineers hired by the Board of Internal Improvement, required that turnpike construction follow complex procedures. A change in the state constitution in 1850 forced the state to withdraw from turnpike road investment and road construction oversight and finance devolved to counties and private investors. Local county road networks were largely the product of neighborhood turnpike companies chartered by the state. Primary documents record the local road-building process for a five-mile turnpike in a Bourbon County. With little direction or assistance from state engineers, the neighborhood residents, led by farmer John W. Jones, surveyed a route, arranged for right-of-way access through adjacent farms, hired Irish turnpike construction crews, built a tollhouse, and collected tolls. Formal state law and engineering directives became attenuated as amateur turnpike builders constructed a simplified version of the state's ideal road.     

Caricatures of clergymen in nineteenth-century Sweden

This article investigates caricatures of clergymen in the nineteenth-century Church of Sweden. It offers the first attempt in Sweden to study these images as an enduring historical source. As case study, six caricatures of bishops from 1790–1870 will be analysed in terms of both their motifs and their significance. The bishops have been selected as the object of study because of their visibility as ex officio members of Parliament and leaders of the clergy. It is argued that graphic satire was used as a medium to criticise the bishops' influential position in the government and their defence of the Parliament of the Estates. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that as the techniques used to produce caricatures improved during the period, the images were more widely spread and had a greater impact on Swedish society. Finally, it is shown that caricature in Sweden reached a peak in the middle of the nineteenth century thanks to the extended debate on parliamentary reform and restrictions on press freedom.     

Neo-Latin literature in nineteenth-century Europe: an overview

To date, neo-Latin studies have been hardly concerned with the nineteenth century, let alone the twentieth century. It would seem that literature written in Latin (called ‘neo-Latin literature’ from the Renaissance onwards) had completely lost its significance. However, recent research has shown that Latin verses were still quantitatively and qualitatively important, even if they no longer enjoyed the same popularity as in previous centuries. This article is a synthesis of what we know about neo-Latin literature in nineteenth-century Europe. The first section discusses the question of its quantitative and qualitative significance. Section 2 deals with the specific features of the neo-Latin literature in the nineteenth century. Section 3 presents the situation in Germany in order to give a more precise idea of the phenomenon. The aim of this article is to provide an impetus for further investigation in the field and to cast light on a facet of the nineteenth century that has long been forgotten.