Threats and Promises: The Promotion of Artificial Lighting to Women Consumers in the United States, 1880s – 1960s

This article examines the development of a specific gendered discourse in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century that united key beliefs about feminine beauty, identity, and the domestic interior with particular electric lighting technologies and effects. Largely driven by the electrical industry’s marketing rhetoric, American women were encouraged to adopt electric lighting as a beauty aid and ally in a host of domestic tasks. Drawing evidence from a number of primary texts, including women’s magazines, lighting and electrical industry trade journals, manufacturer-generated marketing materials, and popular home decoration and beauty advice literature, this study shifts the focus away from lighting as a basic utility, demonstrating the ways in which modern electric illumination was culturally constructed as a desirable personal and environmental beautifier as well as a means of harmonizing the domestic interior.

Bedroom; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Kitchen; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Dining room; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Dressing room, door open into bedroom; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Entryway and staircase; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Study and library; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Salon with door open to garden; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Desk; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Library; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Dining room; Mosse family residence; Berlin Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Staircase and first floor landing; Steinharter residence; Munich Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Entryway; Steinharter residence; Munich Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

View into dining room; Steinharter residence; Munich Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image

Steinharter residence; Munich Architecture; Residences; Interior

Digital Image