Kitchens, Smokehouses, and Privies: Outbuildings and the Architecture of Daily Life in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic
"InKitchens, Smokehouses, and Privies, Michael Olmert takes readers into the backyards behind the great houses of the Chesapeake. In these spaces behind the homes of the wealthy, Olmert illuminates a world where the sometimes dirty work of food preparation, the clean work of dairying and laundering, and the necessary work of the necessary was carried out. The book's main argument is that we should take these buildings seriously, because they can teach us about the society that built them. Olmert lays out the reasons convincingly, and with great skill, and in the process provides a valuable service to general readers and scholars alike. Kitchens, Smokehouses, and Privies is beautiful, thoroughly researched, and written with grace and humor."—Matthew H. Jennings,H-South, H-Net Reviews, February 2010"Michael Olmert offers a wonderfully conversational introduction to the myriad structures that supported the drudgery and business of eighteenth-century domestic life. Olmert marshals the evidence of archaeology, poetry, narrative, art , and most importantly the buildings themselves in an account that explores an intimate world of work in the service of the 'big' house. If the clustered gangs of outbuildings thronged around the dwellings of the Chesapeake countryside have sparked your curiosity, Olmert's book is an excellent introduction to their social, cultural, and architectural histories."—Bernard L. Herman, author ofTown House: Architecture and Material Life in the Early American City, 1780–1830"How were the glamorous seven-course meals cooked? The clothes washed? Or, where did you go to the potty? The backyard had more activity than the actual house. Elegantly written with great insight and accompanied by many photographs and drawings, Michael Olmert's book illuminates how the grand houses and also the more middling actually functioned in the Mid-Atlantic region. This book is essential for any serious student of Colonial America."—Richard Guy Wilson, author ofBuildings of Virginia