Music in Washington, DC, 1800–1825

Thanks to the funding provided by the Decorative Arts Trust, Winterthur fellow Leah Giles traveled to a variety of museums and historic houses in and around Washington, DC, where she researched music and musical instruments from the early nineteenth century. The goal of her ongoing research is to contextualize the social and political use of musical instruments to better understand the role entertainment played in establishing and nurturing elite society’s standards for membership and behavior in the new capital city.

Figure 1. Louisa Catherine Adams had a gifted singing voice to accompany her playing the harp or pianoforte. The column and decorative rams’ heads on her harp and the lyre and laurel leaves on her music stand reflect classical ideals popular in the early nineteenth century. Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. Photo by author.

January 8, 1824 marked the ninth anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. To commemorate the hero of the occasion, Louisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams “gave an evening party or ball to General [Andrew] Jackson at which about one thousand persons attended.” John Quincy also recollected in his diary, “The dancing continued till near one in the morning.” ¹ Given its extraordinary number of attendees and the known political rivalry between the host and honored guest, the ball received unprecedented media attention—just as the Adamses intended. John Quincy was campaigning for president in 1824, and he and Louisa increased their social reputation, and consequently John Quincy’s political standing, through engagements like the Jackson ball, which became arguably the most celebrated social event of the era. Louisa had selected the musicians for the ball herself, recognizing that music and dancing were crucial to the success of the evening’s entertainment.² If professional musicians were unavailable for one of the Adamses’ soirees, Louisa never hesitated to play herself. Like many well-to-do women of the time, she grew up playing the harp and pianoforte (figure 1). Her musical talents demonstrated her education, refinement, and sensibility—qualities considered desirable in a marriageable young woman.

Figure 2. Charles Bird King’s 1824 portrait of Louisa Catherine Adams reflects her musical education and talent and shows her at the height of her popularity and entertaining in Washington City. She is depicted with a fashionable harp and the sheet music for “Oh! Say Not Woman’s Heart is Bought,” one of the Adamses’ favorite ballads.

Louisa appreciated music’s power not only to entertain but also to curry political favor and influence as she established herself and her husband as members of the ruling elite (figure 2). Her success reflects the importance of sociability and entertaining in early Washington, DC. Scholars have often dismissed musical performance as feminine or trivial, but the examples of Louisa Catherine Adams and others demonstrate that musical displays, both amateur and professional, constituted an integral part of the social scene (figure 3). More than mere entertainment or amusement, music reflected social customs and political circumstances. Federal-era Washington was unique both as a new city and as the nation’s capital, where entertaining often carried political implications, and people used social settings, both private and public, to achieve political gain.

Figure 3. Like Louisa Catherine Adams, Susan Decatur also played the pedal harp and piano forte. Both instruments are listed in the 1820 inventory of her late husband, naval hero Stephen Decatur. National Archives and Records Administration. Photo by author.

The “City of Washington” in the “Territory of Columbia” was established as the capital of the United States in 1791, and the seat of government moved to the District in 1800 (figure 4). A fashionable, exclusive civil society quickly grew up alongside the new city, composed of a diverse mixture of landed gentry whose estates were located near Washington, wealthy urban families from Alexandria and Georgetown, a new resident class of civil servants, and legislators only inhabiting the capital when Congress was in session.³ Social interactions, including music and dancing, provided a congenial, neutral arena that in fact proved necessary for the nation’s rulers to effectively practice the art of politics.⁴

Figure 4. George Town and Federal City, or City of Washington. Aquatint. T. Cartwright after George Beck. London and Philadelphia: Atkins & Nightingale, 1801. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Figure 5. The family of Elizabeth and Richard Bland Lee lived at Sully Plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia from 1794 to 1811. This square piano, made by James Rigg in London c. 1815–1825, is probably similar to one the Lees owned. Sully Historic Site. Photo by author.

Musical instruments are part of a constellation of objects associated with this social sphere. Citizens dined, drank, danced, and/or played cards and music at small, intimate gatherings, such as afternoon teas, and at large, grand soirees, such as the Jackson ball. Of all musical instruments played by amateurs in early Washington, the piano is perhaps the most significant symbol of social status, respectability, and education, as it continues to be in many American homes today (figure 5).⁵ My thesis explores pianofortes as objects of decorative art; as conveyors of music and singing; as expressions of gender and class; and as integral elements of entertaining. By focusing on domestic performance, especially piano playing and piano pedagogy, I examine how Washington women learned, played, and used one of the most popular, respectable, and explicitly feminine instruments of the nineteenth century.

Figure 6. Leah studies original Washington, DC probate inventories at the National Archives. Pianofortes were prohibitively expensive, often the single most valuable item in an inventory. The exorbitant price of pianos, in addition to the cost of lessons, sheet music, and constant tuning and maintenance, ensured that only the wealthiest individuals could afford a new one, although a vibrant second-hand market allowed middle-class individuals to also aspire to gentility and musical refinement.

This past summer and fall I studied pianofortes and harps at institutions such as the National Museum of American History, Sully Historic Site, and Gadsby’s Tavern (figure 6). Music books at Dumbarton House and Tudor Place (including collections belonging to James Monroe’s daughters and to Martha Washington’s granddaughter Martha Custis Peter) enabled me to view the actual pages of music played by elite young women in early Washington. Valuable archival research at the National Archives and the Historical Society of Washington, DC has also better informed my understanding of music in the context of sociability, entertaining, and the formation of elite society in the new nation’s new city. Generous support from the Decorative Arts Trust allowed me to travel to Washington as well as to the James Monroe Museum in Fredericksburg, VA to view a pianoforte and harp which belonged to the fifth president’s family. In completing my thesis, I look forward to gaining new insights into the musical and social life of the early republic.

Leah would like to thank the Decorative Arts Trust for its support and encouragement. Her thesis research is ongoing, and she welcomes email inquires and comments: leah.giles@gmail.com.

Footnotes

1 John Quincy Adams, The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794–1845, ed. Allan Nevins (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), 313-314. The Battle of New Orleans, considered the final major battle and the greatest American land victory of the War of 1812, took place on January 8, 1815. Major General Andrew Jackson commanded the American forces.

2 Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 2000), 179.

3 Members of the diplomatic corps were other transient, but important, members of the Washington social scene. Rosalie Stier Calvert of Riversdale Plantation wrote her sister in Belgium, “There are always a good many foreigners in Washington during the session of Congress, which makes society here very pleasant and diversified.” (Letter from Rosalie Stier Calvert to Isabelle Van Havre, March 25, 1819, in Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795–1821, ed. Margaret Law Calcott, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991, 346.)

4 In a world where politics was profoundly personal, entertaining could facilitate the social relationships so essential for building a government and a new city. For more on the concept of the social sphere and the political role of women in early Washington, see Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 2000).

5 Pianos from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century are generally referred to as pianofortes or fortepianos today, and were almost always called pianofortes in the period. The most common pianofortes were square pianos, which are actually rectangular.