Cultural Landscapes Bibliography
Wells, Camille. "The Planter's Prospect: Houses, Outbuildings, and Rural Landscapes in Eighteenth-Century Virginia." Winterthur Portfolio 28, no. 1 (1993): 1-31.
In "The Planter's Prospect, Houses, Outbuildings, and Rural Landscapes in Eighteenth-Century Virginia," Camille Wells uses property sale advertisements in the Gazette to understand and interpret both the physical and ideological landscapes of Euro-Americans in this region and time period. Wells mines the advertisements for information on main dwellings; outbuildings such as kitchens, slave quarters, barns, granaries, laundries, and schoolhouses; and the construction materials of these various buildings. More interestingly, the author also examines the apparent organization of descriptions of the "land" or landscape to provide insight into ideological meanings. This article would be useful to those studying cultural landscapes because it provides insight into a potentially valuable source of both physical and ideological information about landscapes (newspaper advertisements). It raises the question of what kinds of landscapes can be understood from a source such as newspaper advertisements, and is particularly useful to those studying landscapes of the past. In addition, the author integrates the use of probate records, with the text of newspaper advertisements, to provide a more comprehensive interpretation. [E. Martin]