The History in My Historical Novel - A White Room

I spent six months conducting the initial research for A White Room and continued that research whenever uncertainties and curiosities arose in the since I started writing the book in 2008.

Let’s start with setting. A White Room is set in Hannibal, Missouri – Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Titanic’s Molly Brown came from Hannibal. It’s believed Mark Twain set his Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer novels in Hannibal although he did not name the town that in the books. Mark Twain visited Hannibal up until he died. The last time he visited was 1902 – notice how close that is to the time period of my book – 1901. Interesting – why ever would I tell you that? Mark Twain’s family home, a white house along with a white picket fence (believed to be the fence painted by Huck and Tom), still stands today. Using local history books, photos, and Google Earth, I did my best to recreate historical Hannibal, Missouri.

Mark Twain's childhood home

Speaking of a white house, the house described in A White Room is a real home called the Doyle-Mounce house, which was built in 1880. It’s called the Doyle-Mounce house because it was built by a Doyle and altered by a Mounce. In the book I describe the real exterior of the house, but the inside is all a fabrication of my own because there are no photos of the inside available online. I chose this house because I didn’t know how to describe a Victorian home, and I wanted something that was dark and creepy, but at the same time I wanted to be white to reflect the overall concept of a white room. Long behold this house screamed out at me like a massive beast. It wanted to be a star! Take a look at the Doyle-Mounce House at http://users.rcn.com/scndempr/dave/missouri/hann09.jpg.

The furniture described in A White Room is also based on real historical furniture from the times – primarily from the Art Nouveau trend, which incorporated living creatures and winding appendages into the art, furniture, and architecture. I combed through tons of Victorian furniture books and antique guides searching for pieces to go in Emeline’s home and eventually come to life and torture her. I couldn’t just make this stuff up. I had to make it as accurate to the times as possible because this furniture is going to do some weird stuff that isn’t based on fact. That’s why I described real pieces rather than making them up. Everything described in great detail in the book is based on real objects, including the owl bowl, John’s desk and chair, the bizarre dishes and glowing decanters, the cabinets with windy appendages, and the mirror with the woman flowing into a metallic wave of wind and butterflies. Check out the Art Nouveau style here https://www.google.com/search?q=art+nouveau+furniture&hl=en&client=browser-rockmelt&hs=b4&channel=omnibox&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=OmYxT_mWDOuAsgKqwMncBg&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQsAQ&biw=1076&bih=614.

Art Nouveau doorway and arch. Notice the use of  the living, the gaudy and Gothic like embellishments, and bizarre lines. And the most important feature - the inanimate doorway seems like it's staring out at you. Oddly this is a common theme in Art Nouveau, which is why it works so well in A White Room when the furniture comes to life.

Insanity! Emeline’s hallucinations are not based on a factual mental disorder but a dramatization of the common disorder of the late 19^th century and early 20^th century called hysteria. This condition is most well known from the literary short story The Yellow Wallpaper, which was an inspiration for A White Room. At this time period psychology was becoming well known and popular. Hysteria was the funny disorder characterized by hundreds of different symptoms, so any kind of out-of-the-norm behavior, specifically among women, could lead to a diagnosis of hysteria. The causes of hysteria were also wide and varied – the simplest being too much or too little stimulation/stress – and the most bizarre being wild theories of female organs (usually the uterus) floating unrestrained within the body and effecting the brain. The primary cures for hysteria were the water cure (dunking or resting in hot and cold baths) and sensory deprivation, meaning bed rest and absolutely no mental, emotional, or other stimulation. This is the cure that drove some women, and Emeline Dorr in my novel, deeper into insanity because they were expected to lay in bed and do nothing for months.

Hysteria in women was often a reflection of various stressors occurring in the domestic realm during this time period, i.e. women were entering the workforce and seeking independence for the first time, but society still needed women in the domestic sphere in order to provide food, clothing, sanitation, basic education, basic medical care, religious guidance, and order to the family. However, at the turn of the century factory production, new technology, and new trends were changing the face of domesticity, which allowed for women to leave the home for the first time. Still, society at large did not recognize these changes as they were occurring. Usually, the women diagnosed with hysteria were rebelling against traditional domestic roles in some form or another – many were trying to gain independence, were sexually promiscuous (which could mean one partner outside of marriage), or were accused of lesbianism. Those are the most obvious circumstances, but all kinds of women with all kinds of symptoms were diagnosed.

The Gibson Girl, a popular image at the time that eventually came to represent the new independent woman of the turn of the century. 

The idea of professionalizing medicine and eradicating midwives and unlicensed nurses was a real movement at the end of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th century. Hunting down abortionists like witches was also a very real legal movement. When caught male investigators would interrogate the people involved and force them to describe information about the medical procedure involving a woman’s genitalia. At the time, this was something people did not talk about openly, so those involved felt degraded, mortified, and sometimes even traumatized. The dying confession described in my novel was the one exception to the hearsay rule. It allowed for testimonies given by women before they died from an abortion to be held up as firm as a live testimony in court. Investigators pushed women who had abortions to give up the abortionist because it could be used as a definitive testimony in court if the woman did not survive.

These are just some of the larger historical ideas in A White Room, but almost every detail in the book has been researched and tailored to the times, from the clothing, speech, etiquette, women at college, mourning rituals, dinner party procedure, home features, medical procedures, medical ailments, etc. Even some of the nursing Emeline conducts is based on accounts by female nurses at the time. Emeline’s lack of knowledge about sex and the idea that no one would tell her, so she would just find out on her wedding night is based on accounts given by women in letters and journals at the time. The history of men and women at the turn of the century is extremely intriguing because it wasn’t just the beginning of a new century, it was also the beginning of many major changes in the world. Within a decade the New Woman of the 1920s would appear; technology would be on the rise with electricity, phones, and airplanes; not to mention World War, and so much more. I hope everyone gets a kick out of how fact weaves into fiction in this crazy book.