Ladies and Gentlemen on Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860.

Ladies and Gentlemen on Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860. By Charlene M. Boyer Lewis. The American South Series. (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2001. Pp. x, 293. Paper, $19.50, ISBN 0-8139-2080-9; cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8139-2079-5.)

In Ladies and Gentlemen on Display, Charlene M. Boyer Lewis demonstrates that when elite southerners relaxed at the Virginia Springs, they were in fact working bard to reinforce the power relations of southern society. In these exclusive environs, they could further the sociability of their class, while engaging in subtle contests that clarified the values of their culture and the hierarchy among themselves. Both the elements that made a visit to the Virginia Springs enjoyable--more lenient gender relations, physical pleasure, and social conviviality--and the parts that led to stress--the cut-throat gossiping and insistence on proper deportment--helped to create southern identity. In this fascinating study, Lewis offers a persuasive argument about the importance of understanding elite southerners at play.

Ladies and Gentlemen on Display is not organized in traditional chapters, but rather in three parts, each of which consists of several titled sections. As Lewis discusses the physical setting, contemporary conceptions of nature and health, and the "community and competition" of the springs, she goes beyond older debates about southern society--whether it was composed of "aggressive capitalists or paternalistic traditionalists"--to indicate how these elements could exist simultaneously in the region (p. 7). While highlighting southerners' unswerving commitment to traditional hierarchies, Lewis alerts readers to evidence of southerners' preoccupation with money, modern sensibilities about health and medicine, and the companionate relations between men and women.

Lewis begins by noting that more than serene natural surroundings attracted visitors. Instead, she asserts, southerners raved about the physical refinements at the springs, suggesting that the inclusion of Grecian temples, classical architecture, and English gardens confirmed elite southerners' own links to that gracious past. Unlike vacation spots further north, the elegant and remote springs of Virginia remained unaffordable to most Americans. While some came to recover health, the majority of visitors came to see and be seen. This group, Lewis finds, embraced what historians have assumed were later-held beliefs in the invigorating and healthful properties of nature. Though southern society was known for its prudishness and restraint, visitors to the springs found intimate discussions of bodily functions, participation in public weigh-ins to mark robustness, and new attention to their bodies entirely appropriate.

That very openness and sense of exclusivity made it possible for planter society to use the springs as a "stage" and a "school of life," as one father termed it (pp. 142-43). Whereas certain conventions were relaxed--such as the need for introductions or chaperones--other aspects were more important than ever. Public manifestations of gentility--"the appearance & manners of the gentleman" according to a visitor--were essential (p. 159). Those who failed to live up to these standards faced exclusion. Following cultural theory, Lewis contends that "Through display, contest, and scrutiny, southern ladies and gentlemen defined themselves and consolidated their claims to status" (p. 104).

Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of Lewis's study is her research. Well over one hundred family collections and fourteen different archives endowed Lewis with a treasure chest of amazing anecdotes, and she recounts her story without the repetitions or reinterpretations of limited sources that often mar such history. Though such research subjected Lewis to detailed discussions of bodily "cleansing" and tedious recitations of fashion faux pas, we know more about planter society because of her effort.

STEPHANIE COLE

University of Texas at Arlington