1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910809262303321

Autore

Adams Annmarie

Titolo

Architecture in the family way : doctors, houses, and women, 1870-1900 / / Annemarie Adams

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal ; ; Buffalo, : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1996

ISBN

1-282-85379-1

9786612853791

0-7735-6586-8

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 227 pages) : illustrations

Collana

McGill-Queen's/Hannah Institute studies in the history of medicine, health, and society ; ; v. 4

Disciplina

728/.01/03

Soggetti

Architecture, Domestic - Health aspects - England - History - 19th century

Architecture, Domestic - Social aspects - England - History - 19th century

Housing and health - England - History - 19th century

Architecture, Victorian - England

Architecture and women - England - History - 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-221) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The International Health Exhibition of 1884 -- Doctors as Architects -- Female Regulation of the Healthy Home -- Female Regulation of the Healthy Home -- Domestic Architecture and Victorian Feminism -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this revealing look at the forces influencing domestic life, health, and architecture in Victorian England, Annmarie Adams argues that the many significant changes in this period were due not to architects' efforts but to the work of feminists and health reformers. Contrary to the widely held belief that the home symbolized a refuge and safe haven to Victorians, Adams reveals that middle-class houses were actually considered poisonous and dangerous and explores the involvement of physicians in exposing "unhealthy" architecture and designing improved domestic environments. She examines the contradictory roles of middle-class women as both regulators of



healthy houses and sources of disease and danger within their own homes, particularly during childbirth. Architecture in the Family Way sheds light on an ambiguous period in the histories of architecture, medicine, and women, revealing it to be a time of turmoil, not of progress and reform as is often assumed.