"Gentlemen of Elegant Appearance in a State of Bustitude" Woodruff Place and Indianapolis, 1870-1910: A Novelist's Approach and the Historian's Reality
Abstract
Despite the passage of time and accumulated historical evidence, little is known about Indianapolis during the Gilded Age, as advancing capitalism and the rise of large factories changed the town into an industrial city. During the early twentieth century, Hoosier author, Booth Tarkington, provided a novelist’s perspective of Midwestern towns, he called “Midlands”. Many of his works became plays, and one of his most popular novels, The Magnificent Ambersons, won him a Pulitzer Prize, and became a movie. Woodruff Place and the city of Indianapolis were the models Tarkington used as the basis for his story about the Amberson Addition and “Midlands”. This study compares Tarkington’s claims in The Magnificent Ambersons against the historical record of Woodruff Place, and some of many changes occurring in the city of Indianapolis. The advantage of hindsight and historical record challenges the accuracy, uncovers the omissions, and notes the biases Tarkington wove throughout his story. The conclusion that emerges from Tarkington’s narrative is an indictment of the personal character of men, rapid change, and bigness brought about by factories, boosterism, growth, and non- native residents. This project contributes only a small piece toward the much-needed study of what really happened in Indianapolis between 1870 and 1910.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Larson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American history|American literature
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