cleaned and stored for the duration of the warm 

 weather, "the floors in the mean time being only 

 partially covered with oil cloth or matting." That 

 this was also an 18th-century practice in America, 

 if not in Europe, is indicated by the surprise foreign 

 travelers expressed at finding carpeted rather than 

 bare floors in some American homes during the 

 summertime. Brissot de \Varville, for instance, 

 apparently was shocked somewhat by the summertime 

 use of floor coverings in this country which he visited 

 in ! 788. Indeed, he seems to have viewed the entire 

 subject of underfoot furnishings in America as a 

 moral issue. In reference to luxury, the Frenchman 

 wrote: 



It already appears: they have carpets, elegant carpets; 

 it is a favourite taste with the .-Xmericans; they receive it 

 from the interested avarice of their old masters the 

 English. 



A carpet in summer is an absurdity; yet they spread 

 them in this season, and from vanity: this vanity excuses 

 itself by saying that the carpet is an ornament; that is 

 to say, they sacrifice reason and utility to show."^ 



Moreau de Saint Mery, a countryman of Brissot's 

 who \-isited America in the 1 790s held a more tolerant 

 view of floor-covering ctistoms in this country. Never- 

 theless, Moreau, too, seents to have raised his eye- 

 brows when it came to the summertime use of carpets. 

 "[The .Americans] have carpets imported from Eng- 

 land, and these are kept laid even during the summer, 

 except in Charleston, where they are unrolled only 

 during the winter and after noon, and kept rolled 

 the rest of the time."'^'' Despite Moreau's observa- 

 tions it seems possible that some Northerners also 

 limited their use of floor co\erings to the winter 

 months. This is suggested by Mrs. Anne Grant's 

 description of the Schuyler's house in New York, the 

 "Flats." Recalling its appearance prior to the Rev- 

 olutionary War she noted that the "winter-rooms had 

 carpets.""' This quotation seems to imply that 

 rooms used in the summer were without carpets. 



No doubt, Moreau de Saint Mery who disappro\'ed 

 of the use of carpets in the summer was well aware of 

 the need for floor coverings in the winter. During his 



American sojourn, he observed that "good carpeting 

 tends to concentrate the heat, which is an advantage 

 in a covmtry where, as I have said, rooms are drafty." "* 

 That this function of floor coverings was indeed ap- 

 preciated by Americans, too, is pro\ed by Benjamin 

 Henry Latrobe's correspondence concerning the 

 designs he submitted in 1803 for Dickinson College at 

 Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In reference to the "distri- 

 bution, and arrangements of apartments," he ex- 

 plained that the rooms used the most were on the 

 south, since the north side of the building would be 

 subjected to cold winds, rain, and sleet. This talented 

 and thoughtful architect then went on to note: 

 "There are indeed two Chambers in the N.E. wing on 

 each story. — If these Chambers be inhabited by Pre- 

 ceptors, the one as a study, the other as a Bedchamber, 

 the disadvantages of the Aspect must be overcome by 

 such means, of Curtains & Carpets, as a Student does 

 not so easily acquire." ^' Indeed, even straw carpetmg 

 would have been of some help in a cold north room "to 

 concentrate the heat." Perhaps it was for this 

 reason that straw mats were found in bedchambers 

 where they may have served as bedside rugs. 



As to the appearance of straw floor coverings, it is 

 evident from Claxton's mention of red and white 

 variegated matting that some were patterned and 

 colored. Possibly some of the straw mats and carpets 

 of the 18th century also were very much like the 

 present-day imports of plain weave and natural 

 color from the Orient. 



Although their exact construction and purpose 

 remain problematical, it is clear that carpets and 

 matting of straw were available and used at least in a 

 limited way on floors in this country during the second 

 half of the 18th and on into the 19th century. 



INGRAIN 



Ingrain as well as Scotch, Kilmarnock, Kidder- 

 minster, and English were all names employed in 

 the 18th century for pileless, loom-woven floor cover- 

 ings of double construction. These carpets were made, 

 as were two-ply co\eriets for beds, by simultaneously 

 weaving and interwea\ing two cloths of different 

 colors in such a way as to allow first one cloth 



'^'^ Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville, .\V«.' Travels in Ihe 

 Uni'ed Slates of America. Perjormed in 1788 (2d. ed.; London: 

 r. S. Jordan, 1794), vol. I, p. 270. 



»« Mmeau de St. .Mery's .imencan Journey [1793-1798], trans, 

 and edit. Kenneth Roberts and .'Knna M. Roberts (Garden 

 City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., Inc.. 1947). p. 264. 



"Grant, Ioc. cit. (footnote 31). 



«' .Moreau de Si. .Mery's American Journey, op. cit. (footnote 

 66), p. 326. 



69 Talbot Hamlin, Benjamin Henry Lalrohe CSew York : O.xford 

 University Press, 1955). p. 193. 



PAPER 59: FLOOR COVERINGS IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



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