Undergraduate Research Accomplishments Accomplishments: 2022 New Bedford Art Museum/Artworks! Fellowship for UMassD's Art History Major

Does architecture manifest social and moral principles? Can we equate ethics with aesthetics? How can historical architectural styles reveal the values of societies in which they were built? Kayla Rausch, a third-year Art History major, was the Fall 2021/Spring 2022 recipient of the prestigious New Bedford Art Museum/Artworks! Student Fellowship and the Spring 2022 OUR grant. Under the supervision of her advisor, Dr. Pamela Karimi, Rausch developed her research project entitled Architecture and Morality in Antebellum New Bedford. Rausch’s project examined how local architecture was emblematic of the esteemed values upheld by influential and affluent citizens of New Bedford during its Whaling boom in the pre-Civil War era. Amidst such prosperous conditions, the Society of Friends or Quakers—who had fled England to escape religious persecution during the 1600s— embraced simplicity and rejected excess ornamentation in their architecture. Contrasting the opulent Greek and Gothic-revival or the Second Empire styles, which were built and owned by other prosperous New Bedford whaling captions and businesspeople, New Bedford Quakers’ preference for modesty demonstrated that even within the same society there were differing ideas of morality and taste. Rausch explored how simplicity and transparency were at the heart of their values. Additionally, Rausch studied how Quakers were strong advocates of social activism and committed to racial equality as quintessential components of their faith. Specifically, Quakers played a major role in the abolitionist movement in New England. Quakers also advocated gender equality, encouraging women to participate in businesses while their men were away and busy with whaling. In addition to extensive fieldwork, Rausch made numerous visits to the New Bedford Free Public Library to investigate 19^th c. society and Quaker history. The library afforded her an examination of the mainstream nineteenth-century materials such as architectural pattern books, popular magazines, and early twentieth century New Bedford city atlases. By comparing and contrasting a wide range of published materials, Rausch examined which moral values were predominantly promoted and to what end. Given the significant role the Quakers played in all aspects of life in Antebellum New Bedford, Rausch further explored the reasons behind the marginalization of the Quaker aesthetic preferences in the mainstream and canonical discourse of American architecture.