{"id":7298,"date":"2005-12-26T19:54:52","date_gmt":"2005-12-27T00:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=7298"},"modified":"2023-03-01T19:02:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T00:02:26","slug":"what-not-whatnot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/7298","title":{"rendered":"what-not \/ whatnot"},"content":{"rendered":"

A kind of stand or piece of household furniture, having shelves for books, ornaments, and the like; an \u00e9tag\u00e8re. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They decided then to make a whatnot. Mrs. Boast said everyone in Iowa was making one and she would show them how. – manuscript, By the Shores of Silver Lake<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\nW<\/span>ere whatnots really “all the rage in Iowa” in 1879? An 1879 Harper’s <\/em>Magazine included the following in describing a pleasant room of comfortable pieces of furniture: a what-not displaying a collection of minerals, fossils, shells, and various articles of virtue, among which were an owl’s claw, a humming-bird’s egg, a wild-turkey’s beard, a rattlesnake’s tail, and a hornet’s nest. And now pray what more could any reasonable person desire, either for comfort or show? <\/em><\/p>\n

Whatnots were listed in furniture advertisements starting at least a decade earlier than Mrs. Boast was telling Charles Ingalls how to build one, as described in By the Shores of Silver Lake<\/em>, Chapter 22, “Happy Winter Days”). After all, there was one in the James Wilder parlor in Farmer Boy<\/em>, a whole decade earlier (see <\/em>Chapter 18, “Keeping House”).<\/p>\n

The whatnot wasn’t a utilitarian piece, like the packing-crate dish cupboard or a wooden bedstead Pa might build. It was a mainstay of the Victorian parlor, a place where one displayed objects that reflected the occupants’ good taste, refinement, and education. Not a place to store pots and pans or dishes, its progressively smaller and smaller shelves were filled with the Ingallses’ pretty things: the older girls’ little glass boxes, the family clock, Laura’s white china jewel box, and Carrie’s china dog. The bottom two shelves held Ma’s books.<\/p>\n

The whatnot (or what-not, as Wilder sometimes wrote it) pictured above is in the replica shanty at Ingalls Homestead. Look for one also in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society’s Surveyors’ House in De Smet.<\/p>\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t

THE WHATNOT<\/strong> is a piece of furniture for general use, as the name implies, or, as if the question were asked, “For what not suitable.” It resembles the dinner-wagon being a series of shelves supported by uprights at the corners, or if the shelves be shaped, by a framed back or ornamental brackets and uprights in front. A whatnot is made in three or four tiers, and of any shape: square, oblong, quarter of a circle, as in the illustration, to fit into a corner. Sometimes when the whatnot is rectangular a drawer is added below the lowermost shelf. They are generally intended for the reception of music-books, china, &c. \u2014 Ward and Lock’s Home Book, A Domestic Encyclopedia<\/em> (London: Ward, Lock and Co., 1882), 162-163.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

     
\n
\nwhat-not \/ whatnot<\/strong> (FB 18; SSL 22, 28-30; LTP 2, 4; THGY 19, 32), see also<\/i> pasteboard \/ lambrequin
\n     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An \u00e9tag\u00e8re for books & ornaments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[624],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7298"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15210,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298\/revisions\/15210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}