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In the 1890s, interior decorating and women's magazines in the U.S. presented many articles about how to incorporate foreign goods into the American home. Accompanying these articles were illustrations of domestic space -- halls, drawing rooms, and alcoves -- outfitted in exotic styles with such names as 'Oriental,' 'Japanese,' 'Persian,' 'Turkish,' 'Moorish,' and 'Saracenic.' Images were often lush and elaborate, meant to evoke relaxation and the supposed luxury that objects from the Middle East and East Asia came to represent to American consumers. The visual complexity of these images stimulated multiple senses, which allowed magazine readers -- in this case middle- and upper class white women -- to imagine themselves in the interiors depicted. Textual and visual cues tempted the reader to linger and consider the myriad objects placed around a room to stimulate touch, and descriptions of sounds, smells, and tastes. Though these images do not necessarily depict interiors that existed in real life, magazine reading provided a means of escape from the attendant social responsibilities and home management that were so important to the cult of domesticity. Images of exotic interiors also permitted white women to engage in a domestic form of imperialism, as the United States began its ascent as a world power.

Andrea Truitt is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, completing her dissertation, 'Experiencing the Otherworldly: Magazine Reading and Illustrations of Orientalist Domestic Space in the United States, 1880-1920.' She currently volunteers at the historical society, scanning historical photographs. For more information about the State Historical Society of Iowa, visit www.iowahistory.org.