When writing Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1917) drew from her memories of growing up near Cavendish, Prince Edward Island in a community of real houses, including Park Place (owned by Montgomery’s grandparents) and the house of her Macneill cousins. Contextualizing Cavendish houses to other examples of settler houses, Green Gables is part of a network of similar housing which as folklorist Henry Glassie points out can bind a community together. Historical illustrations paint Cavendish as a rigid, regimented working landscape, as do some characters in the novel. However, Anne stresses how houses relate to the landscape, particularly trees and stars. Next, we consider the times Montgomery employs nature and pathways. Anne employed nature to enhance her identity to the chagrin of Rachel. Additionally, Anne is an explorer. Like architect Colin Ward, we might judge that Anne and her friends appropriated spaces. Last, I examine how the east gable transforms from a stark, bare room designed by Marilla to one in which Anne personalizes the space through nature, books, and modifying furniture. Moreover, this was representative of farm children, according to architectural historian Sally McMurry. The story conforms to the established trope in children’s literature of a female character changing from the unruly to the conventional (Brock-Servais and Prickett 2010; Epperly 2007; and Gammel 2008; Reimer 1992). However, in this paper, I complicate this view by pointing out the ways Anne engages nature to concretize her identity.
About the presenterFrederika Eilers
Frederika Eilers is a research assistant and PhD candidate in architecture at McGill University. She is researching the architecture of dollhouses to investigate relationships between modernisms, models, gender norms, playrooms, and toys. When she was recognized as a Étudiants-chercheurs étoiles from the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et culture for her article “Barbie versus Le Modulor: Ideal Bodies, Buildings, and Typical Users” in Girlhood Studies (2012), journalist Jean-François Venne wrote: “Pour elle, la recherche doit nécessairement avoir un impact social.” Accordingly, her research intends to make the field of architecture more accessible to girls and women.
On the other end of the age spectrum, Frederika works as research assistant on “Re-imagining Long-term care” a SSHR MCRI grant lead by Pat Armstrong. Due to strong interest in material culture, she has been a research fellow at the Winterthur Museum (2011) and the National Museum of Play (2013). At McGill she also has been a co-convenor for two reading groups at the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas called “Designing Diversity” (2011) and “City and Memory” (2012). Recent conference papers include “Kitchen Technologies as Domestic Innovation in Dollhouses: modernization, modernism, and modernity from 1910-1940”, “Model House, Miniature Home: the do-it-yourself architecture of dollhouses and models of 1940-1980”, and “Room to Play: Ventilation, Cleanliness, and Individuality” (2013).
Previously, Frederika earned a post-professional master of architecture in the cultural mediations and technology program at McGill (2010) and a professional bachelor of architecture (2006) from Syracuse University. She worked at CSD Architects, Inc. (2006-2009), KPN Architects, LLC (2010-2011), LaBella Associates, P.C. (2005-2006), and Flynn Battaglia, P.C. (2004) designing educational facilities and long-term care which attained citations from the Maryland Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and Design for Aging Review.