“Home Is The Theater Of Life”: Scenographic Poetics And American Living Room Ambience, 1900–1925

Abstract Proceeding from the notion of scenography as atmosphere or ambience, this article explores scenographic design elements aimed at a range of American middle-class living rooms during the early-twentieth century when these newly configured domestic interior spaces replaced Victorian parlors, libraries, and drawing rooms as gathering places for both private family activities and those social occasions when friends and guests were invited into the home. Looking to the period’s theatre with its realistic, natural portrayal of family life as unfolding in the living room, spokespersons for the emerging professions of interior design and illumination engineering spearheaded a call for replicating the aesthetics of theatre atmosphere in living rooms through the manipulation of artificial light at a time when rapid innovations in electric lighting were beginning to transform public and private spaces. Through the utilization of the new “color science” housewives could create the proper atmosphere for any occasion through an inviting scenographics of illuminated fixtures, decorative furnishings, and wall treatments that radiated a pleasing harmony of refinement and relaxation.