"The long and the short of it: historic height and the dimensions of furniture"
Date
2001
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Many modem Americans believe that our ancestors were significantly shorter than they are today. Examining the objects of early American history, particularly furniture, may help us understand the confusion surrounding early American stature. Analyzing the connections between stature and furniture scale give us a better understanding of design criteria for chairs, beds, and tables. It also begins to clarify why so many modem Americans believe that our ancestors were shorter “back then.” The height of Americans began to change with the first generation of settlers and stabilized by the 1750s. Both furniture scales and human stature have remained relatively constant for the past three hundred years, reflecting that early achievement of near modem heights. There are few differences in scale between modem and old furniture. Little has changed in terms of what was (and is now) the standard. Beds have stayed within the range of a modem full-sized bed since at least 1700, chairs have utilized the seventeen-inch seat as the standard since as early as 1650, and tables have consistently been between twenty-eight and thirty inches high. Variations do exist in these historic forms, yet the majority of variations in scale exist for aesthetic and cultural reasons rather than for reasons of human height. Height led to the standard, while posture, comfort, function, and decoration are most responsible for the deviations from that standard. The visual misconception of size and scale has contributed largely to the idea that our furnishings have grown significantly larger in the twentieth century. Americans and their furniture were becoming modem earlier than most of us have realized.