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Individuals, who were predominantly untrained in architectural design and construction, created the vernacular architecture of American homesteads for their own use. The buildings homesteaders created varied in materials and architectural forms. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that the cultural backgrounds of homesteaders were significant in their homestead architectural decisions. Three homesteads in Cebolla Canyon, New Mexico, were selected for study, due to their unique architectural construction and close proximity, both geographically and temporally. Methods included historical and biographical research, homestead site documentation, dendroarchaeological research, and architectural analyses. The results of this study suggest that the cultural backgrounds of homesteaders were influential in architectural decisions, but were not necessarily the most influential factor. Intentions for staying in the canyon and interests in conveniently acquiring construction materials were also influential factors in architectural decisions in Cebolla Canyon homesteads.

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This dissertation examines Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living and her contribution to the modern homesteading movement. Emery (1939-2005) advocated the use of traditional methods and antique cookbooks for food self-sufficiency. She first self published and distributed the book in "issues" (1971), which were eventually combined and sold as a single book, originally named The Old Fashioned Recipe Book (1974). A reading community developed around The Encyclopedia and readers participated in its development by submitting recipes and homesteading resources. Several editions have followed and the book remains in print, considered an authoritative reference for modern homesteading. Modern homesteading is rooted in the traditions of homesteading and domestic advice. It represents a consciousness of human relationships with the land for food production and the role domestic advice in cooking and other aspects of home economics, Emery recommended a country living foodways and 19th century methods of food production for homesteading, attempting to de-industrialize the kitchen. Emery represents an important and persistent cultural interest in going back-to-the-land. Modern homesteading practices also provide possible responses to contemporary post-industrial concerns including consumer culture, food insecurity, and the environment.

The purpose of this case study was to determine whether the urban homesteading program in Indianapolis was successful. The hypothesis of this case study was, that if six criteria were met, the urban homesteading program was successful. The criteria were categorized according to internal success, external accomplishment, and cost effectiveness, as detailed in Chapter 3, Method.There were a total of 169 properties awarded between 1975 and 1979 during Phases I through VI in three neighborhoods. There were 151 properties awarded in the Forest Manor neighborhood, 8 properties awarded in the Highland Brookside neighborhood, and 10 properties awarded in the Fountain Square neighborhood.The conclusion of this case study was that the urban homesteading program in Indianapolis was successful because it met each of the criteria formulated. It was being operated and administered in an efficient manner with a minimum amount of paperwork and a maximum amount of attention by the rogram administrators. The program dispersed HUD owned properties and those homesteaders who had completed all the program requirements had received the deed to their property. The program did reduce, to an extent, abandonment and neighborhood deterioration, and in terms of cost, the homesteaders spent an average of $6,742 to own their properties, far less than if obtained through conventional methods. / Department of Urban Planning

Lime kiln use in Saskatchewan from the earliest days of European settlement was researched and documented. Remaining features were relocated and oral or documentary history was gathered. This information was put in context on the prairies in regard to early cooperative industries and employment, architectural traditions, commodities in demand, the generation of supporting industries and spatial patterning. These resulting data were then used to explore several research questions. Lime kilns were associated with early trail systems upon which the earliest European settlements were established due to projected railway routes and areas suitable for wheat agriculture. Most of the earliest architectural traditions in Saskatchewan required the use of lime because homesteaders - predominantly those from northern Europe and specifically the British Isles - were building with log, stone and gravel or rammed earth and needed and to have access to a lime kiln in the area. The skill and knowledge to build and burn successful kilns was transmitted either through those bringing the technological know-how with them from their country of origin or was adopted by new settlers arriving from the east or the south. These skills were also taught by Indian Agents to native people on reserves as a way to generate income. The construction and use of lime kilns is indicative of one of the earliest settlement industries in Saskatchewan and was usually a necessity for the establishment of built heritage.

When the pandemic hit, and grocery stores and other necessities started to shut down and create havoc amongst the general public, it became clear that having the ability to rely on a self-sufficient homestead might be the only way to survive and thrive. As a graduate student who has studied architecture and sustainability, this idea seems possible. As an average human with no prior architectural or homesteading knowledge, this idea is daunting. This thesis is asking, is there a systematic way to develop a tool to evaluate, and aid in the design of, a self-sustaining, off-grid homestead? Can this tool make homesteading and living a self-sufficient, off-grid lifestyle more attainable to any person who wishes to try it out? With these questions in mind, the Homestead Helper Handbook: A Guide to Help Start a Self-Sufficient, Off-Grid Homestead in New England from the Ground Up has been developed to offer a cohesive approach, detailing the components that could go into the makeup of the homestead. Suggestions regarding the site, livestock, crops, and built structures will be made based off of specific input values of the future homesteader, leaving the reader with a well-rounded, precise breakdown and understanding of what might go into the homestead, allowing it to successfully function off-grid and self-sufficiently. Thus, it makes the idea of living a self-sufficient and off-grid life in New England more attainable to any human who wishes to do so.

his dissertation examines the rhetoric of the homestead movement in antebellum America as a particular instance of domesticity. Homestead rhetoric alters the modes of identity and subjectivity usually found in domesticity, and alters the home-nation metaphor at the moment when the nation faced an increasing sectional divide that would lead to a Civil War. As deployed by Congressmen, homestead rhetoric used domesticity to define the relationship between manhood and citizenship. Harriet Jacobs uses this rhetoric in her autobiographical Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to shape an identity more in line with male homesteaders than with the subjects of women’s domesticity. E.D.E.N. Southworth’s The Haunted Homestead offers the home-nation metaphor as a solution to national crisis, but ultimately the crisis is too large to solve through domesticity. This dissertation uses Jurgen Habermas’s concepts of lifeworld and system to assess the types of subjects created through the different modes of domesticity. Lifeworld describes modes of communication that foster the agency of individuals, and system describes the instrumentalization of individuals into roles where they are only a means to an end. The lifeworld created through homestead rhetoric is ultimately systematized by the importance of transforming land into property; Harriet Jacobs recognizes that she must escape the systematization of slavery and enter into a new economic system to have her rights fully acknowledged; Southworth’s failure to find a literary solution to national problems suggests the limits of a literary lifeworld, or the extent to which the domestic itself has been systematized. This dissertation concludes by considering how Laura Ingalls Wilder’s experience homesteading in South Dakota can bring an ecocritical perspective to lifeworld and system. Ingalls Wilder rejects the system of commodified nature to find contentment in a lifeworld affirmed through an agrarian relationship to the land.

abstract: ABSTRACT The early twentieth century saw changing attitudes in gender roles and the advancement of the "New Woman." Despite the decline in the availability of homesteading land in the US West, homesteading still offered a means for women to achieve or enact newfound independence, and the letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Elizabeth Corey, and Cecilia Hennel Hendricks offer a varied view of the female homesteading experience. This dissertation focuses upon the functionality of epistolary discourse from early twentieth century homesteading women within a literary and historical framework in order to establish the significance of letters as literary texts and examine the methodology involved in creating epistolary identities. Chapter one provides background on the history of the letter in America. It also as introduces a theoretical framework regarding life writing, feminism, and epistolary discourse that inform this study, by scholars such as Phillipe LeJeune, Leigh Gilmore, Janet Altman, Julie Watson, and Sidonie Smith. Chapter two delves into the published letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart and the way in which her writing, when situated within a US western literary framework, serves as a reaction to the masculine western hero. Chapter three considers the epistolary relationships evident in the letters of Elizabeth Corey and the construction of gender identity within epistolarity. Chapter four focuses upon Cecilia Hennel Hendricks and the historical and feminist context of her letters, with a particular emphasis upon the "love letter." The conclusion examines the progression of the letter in the twentieth century and forms of online discourse that can be directly linked to its evolution. Far from being simply a form of communication, these letters reveal the history of a time, a place, a people, function as narrative literary texts, and aid in developing identities. For readers and scholars they tell offer a glimpse into life for women in the early twentieth century and highlight the significance of letters as a literary form. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2010

Using personal narrative, interviews, and research, this thesis project looks at how the middle-class American home has been transformed, by people like me, into a modem-day public square.