Week 8: Interpreting Domestics

         This week I focused on placing the former domestic servants of Glen Foerd into a larger historical context. I read several books written in the early twentieth century intended as guides for wealthy women running a household. The most helpful of these primary sources was Millionaire Households and Their Domestic Economy, With Hints Upon Fine Living, written by Mary Elizabeth Carter in 1903. Carter offered explanation and advice on the duties of each employee of the household, from housekeeper to scullery maid and everyone in between. Of course, I paid special attention to the section on the duties of a butler to help provide general information about Arthur Laws. Carter stated that one of the defining characteristics of a butler was a physical one—height and bulk was a requirement for the position. Since we are unaware of any existing photographs of Arthur, this information (that Arthur was most likely a tall and bulky man), as well as details about common uniform requirements, will be helpful to offer during tours to provide visitors with some sort of mental image.

Another helpful point in Carter’s Millionaire Households answered a question brought up by the 1930 US Census. Arthur laws appears on the 1930 Census twice, listed at both Glen Foerd with Tonner family members and fellow servants, and at 1527 Fontain St. in North Philadelphia with his second wife, two children, and stepson. From 1900 to 1940 there are dozens of other servants listed in the Foerder/Tonner households, but Arthur remains the sole employee to turn up on the same census at two separate addresses. Because he is also the only African American employee listed (evidence of other African American employees does exist in an oral history, but they were farm laborers and would not have lived in the main house), I assumed it was uncommon for African American domestics to live with other servants of white families. Carter, however, explained that it was perfectly acceptable for a butler to marry, have a family, and keep a separate home of his own. The employer often kept a room and private bathroom specifically for the butler to use, as they were often required to remain at the house late into the night because of the demanding duties of his job. Other male household employees did not share this privilege.  

Jennifer Pustz, author of Voices From the Back Stairs: Interpreting Servants’ Lives at Historic House Museums provided another explanation to the same question of Arthur’s dueling addresses. She explained that as immigration restrictions were lifted and African Americans migrated North during the early twentieth century, both groups began to dominate the profession. At Glen Foerd, the majority of domestics were German, Swiss, or Swedish immigrants. A few were Irish, one was French, and Arthur Laws was African American. Very few of their servants were American born. Pustz noted that African American domestic workers throughout the United States frequently lived outside the home of their employer, no matter their position in the household. She stated that this tradition echoed traditions found in the slaveholding South, where slaves were housed in separate quarters. As an African American butler, it would have been extremely unlikely that Arthur would have lived at Glen Foerd, which makes the 1930 Census make perfect sense now! These sources, among others, proved helpful in placing Arthur Laws and other Glen Foerd servants into a larger historical context.