Book Review: In Pursuit of Pleasure: Leisure in Nineteenth Century Cumberland County

Clarke Garrett, In Pursuit of Pleasure: Leisure in Nineteenth Century Cumberland County. Carlisle: Cumberland County Historical Society, 1997. 152 pp. $37. 50.

This engaging new book by Clarke Garrett, professor of history emeritus at Dickinson College, opens a window onto the county's social history through a survey of public amusements popular before 1910. Topical chapters describe the social dancing that filled private homes and outdoor pavilions (with or without the roller skates briefly the rage in the 1880s); the "Spas, Resorts, and Trolley Parks" that once dotted the county from Carlisle Springs to Mount Holly; the choral music that echoes through churches and theaters; the brass bands that paraded on holidays and performed on stage; and the other public performances of every description, from circuses and minstrel shows to the short but deep popularity of "Signor Blitz" and his "Learned Canary Birds," that passed through the area on regular circuits. Based on local newspaper accounts and on such ephemera as handbills, concert programs, and dance cards collected by the Cumberland County Historical Society, the Dickinson College Archives, and the Library Company and Free Library of Philadelphia, In Pursuit of Pleasure evokes the complicated texture of organized leisure activities in the Victorian era. 

The volume is profusely illustrated with reproductions of advertisements and playbills and photographs of performers and revelers, drawn primarily from the Society's priceless collections. With Garett's clearly written text and keen eye for the illuminating example, these images of concert venues and resort hotels, picnickers and pavilions evoke a real feel for the period. Several things immediately capture the reader's attention : the size of the crowds that once thronged places like the Doubling Gap Hotel, the Williams Grove Picnic Ground, or the Boiling Springs Park; the ubiquitous public transportation that tied these locations together in an era we insist on seeing as more primitive than our own; the vast array of communities and social groups that sponsored brass bands; the efforts of determined musicians such as Elizabeth C. Smead and J .B. Harry and energetic churchmen such as W.B. Morrow, George Nevin Brandon, and Henry Ganss to harness the Carlisle community's vocal talent and push it to new levels; the racism of newspaper articles that derided African-American performances and social outings; the ability of those same newspapers occasionally to rise above the cultural blinders of their era and describe Black Carlislians or Indian School pupils in human terms. 

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