In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860

Abstract

In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860. Edited by Maurice D. McInnis in collaboration with Angela D. Mack with essays by J. Thomas Savage, Robert A. Leath, and Susan Ricci Stebbens. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999. Pp. xix, 352. Illustrations, color plates. $75.00.) Science, Race, and Religion in American South: John Bachman and Charleston Circle of Naturalists, 1815-1895. By Lester D. Stephens. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Pp. xviii, 338. Illustrations. $39.95.) Colonial Charleston, William Francis Guess notes in South Carolina: Annals of Pride and Protest (1956), considered itself London of Southern Coast. As these two books illustrate, this attraction to European-and especially British-ideas and taste continued into antebellum period, shaping elite's notion of what it meant to be cultured. For wealthy Charlestonians, education and travel abroad provided opportunity to acquire manners and appurtenances of Europe's aristocracy. Among most important of these indicators of cultural refinement was appreciation for fine arts. In Pursuit of Refinement, a collaborative project of Gibbes Museum of Art and Historic Charleston Foundation, examines European experiences and purchases of Charleston's elite and, through these, chronicles creation of the most Anglophilic urban culture in America (63). The volume begins with a description of colonial and antebellum milieu; continues with essays on various Charleston collectors and collections; and finishes with an annotated catalogue of 1999 exhibition. As both essays and illustrations suggest, cultural horizons of elite Charlestonians extended far beyond borders of their state. The catalogue is beautifully illustrated and meticulously researched, containing many items from private collections never before exhibited in public. It convincingly demonstrates that not only were Charlestonians great patrons of European culture, but also that their own creative works were influenced by European motifs and styles. John Izard Middleton, for example, attended Cambridge and spent extended periods of his life studying art and architecture on continent. According to Susan Ricci Stebbins, he ranks as of first American landscape watercolorists and draftsmen and one of great art collect[ors] in America (82). Theodore Stebbins similarly describes Washington Allston as the most sophisticated American of his generation, a master of classical landscape before becoming first great American romantic painter (158). Because In Pursuit of Refinement is primarily a catalogue of an exhibition, it contains little analysis or criticism of art itself beyond broad generalizations. Nor does it consider impact of European models on city's artisans and laborers, majority of whom were black. It is important to remember that although Charleston's oligarchy may have emulated British aristocracy, it was an African workforce, not a European peasantry, that provided basis for its prosperity and leisure. In his examination of Charleston's naturalists, historian Lester D. Stephens argues that antebellum city was remarkable for its scientific achievements as well as its material culture. Stephens focuses on Lutheran theologian and naturalist John Bachman and five contemporaries -Edmund Ravenel, John Edwards Holbrook, Lewis Reeve Gibbes, Francis Simmons Holmes, and John McCrady-who shared his interest in natural history. These six individuals made Charleston a recognized center of natural history in antebellum South. John Bachman is pivotal figure in Stephens's study, and his work illustrates intersection of science, race, and religion in culture of region. A native of New York, Bachman's poor health led him to Charleston in 1815, where he became pastor of St. …