Godey's Choice

Abstract

STUDENTS of mid-nineteenth-century architecture often cite the famous villa books of the period as indices to the state of Victorian domestic architecture. In studies of the latter part of the century specialized architectural publications usually perform a similar function. A third source of information is the popular press, in which architectural ideas, though less fully treated, were more widely communicated and (in the case of domestic architecture) perhaps more widely put into practice. Unfortunately for the architectural historian, few popular newspapers and magazines in America dealt in any consistent way with domestic architecture. For this reason, Godey's Lady's Book and Lady's Magazine,l which between 1846 and 1892 published some 450 house designs, is perhaps worth considering as a source book of popular architectural taste. The importance of Godey's Lady's Book was greatest in the forties, fifties, and sixties. It was then in all probability the most widely read monthly magazine in the country.2 'Everywhere', wrote the publisher, Louis Antoine Godey, in 1849, 'have we received credit for our efforts to improve the cottage architecture of our country, and we have the proud satisfaction of knowing that hundreds of cottages have been built from plans that we have published. In one place not far from us, it has been suggested to call