Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted Access (SIA Only) - With Distinction
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Historic Art and Design
First Advisor
Morgan Falconer
Second Advisor
Matthew Nichols
Abstract
This paper examines how early nineteenth-century Americans constructed cultural identity during a formative moment of nation-building. Although drawing on British and French neoclassical models, American neoclassicism emerged as a distinct practice shaped by two intersecting aims: expressing republican moral ideology and acquiring cultural capital. The chairs produced by New York’s leading émigré cabinetmakers, Duncan Phyfe and Charles-Honoré Lannuier between 1803 and 1809, the years they were both in the city, reveal that American taste was not a simple matter of choosing between British or French styles. Instead, patrons engaged in cultural “code-switching,” selecting and combining European vocabularies to serve the identities they wished to project. This study traces neoclassicism back to its British and French origins and follows its transmission through chair design, examining how the two nations shaped the forms Americans encountered as well as the meanings Americans ultimately assigned to “British” and “French” taste.
Recommended Citation
Harper, Nia, "Performing American Identity: Neoclassical Chair Design from Europe to New York" (2026). MA Theses. 256.
https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/stu_theses/256
Distinction
1