The furniture craft community of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1798-1837
Date
1996
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This study of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, furniture industry spans the years 1798-1837. These specific years coincided with the arrival of federal-era craftsman Langley Boardman from Ipswich, Massachusetts, and the collapse of the empire-period shop of Samuel Dockum in the economic panic of 1837. The careers of these two entrepreneurial craftsmen fall into two distinct eras defined by local and national economic factors, business trends, and the emergence of a new nation and the expectations of markets. ☐ The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationships among cabinetmakers active in early nineteenth-century Portsmouth, with a focus on the shop practices and community influence of Boardman and Dockum in the furniture industry. Their careers illustrate the advances made by the trade in the rapidly expanding market of the republic. ☐ This study complements examinations of the development of the cabinetmaking trade during the early decades of the nineteenth century in other coastal communities such as Salem and Boston, Massachusetts, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although smaller in scale, the activity and goals of craftsmen in Portsmouth were similar. The differences seen in this smaller seaport Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. town offer a microcosm in which to further understand craftsmen and their working environment in the years of the early republic and to broaden the focus of related studies to include smaller urban communities on the edge of rural America.