A doctoral student in English, Elizabeth Barrett discovered there’s nothing better than being where events occurred and sifting through clues and histories first-hand to understand past lives.
A Lawrence Henry Gipson Institute for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Lehigh travel grant recipient, Barrett spent two weeks in England last summer visiting sites and combing through archives and documents to explore the life and economic rise and decline of the Huddleston clan, a minor noble family from Cumbria and Yorkshire.
The two-week research trip took Barrett to Millom in Cumbria, Whitehaven and Carlisle in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and the National Archives in London, among other historically significant sites, she says.
Wood held both practical and symbolic importance. Oak, an English symbol, was used for everything from furniture to shipbuilding. When the Great Frost of 1709 caused a timber shortage, demand grew for Colonial American walnut. Ironically, what people called "English style" at the time was actually the product of continental craftsmanship, transatlantic resource networks, and a shifting ecological landscape, Barrett explains.
From wood to war and its heartbreaking consequences Barrett, compared the long seismic changes to the oak as the English solid, dependable “status quo” of the 1600 and 1700s — and walnut’s continental strength, beauty and versatility — embodied after major climatic events.
“Oak was a native English timber that symbolized steadfast loyalty to the monarchy and reflected a rooted royalist identity in heavy, traditional household furnishings. Walnut rose in prominence, reflecting refined, Baroque sensibilities brought back by returning elites” from the continent, Barrett explained in her Gipson grant application.
Spotlight Recipient
Elizabeth Barrett
Ph.D. Candidate