‘ALL SHAM BUT PARADISE’: NATURE, ATTACHMENT AND THE EDIFICATION OF VIOLENT INTERACTION IN SEYMOUR JOSEPH GUY’S THE CONTEST FOR THE BOUQUET: THE FAMILY OF ROBERT GORDON IN THEIR NEW YORK DINING-ROOM, 1866

This thesis examines the ways in which the Gordon children are being trained by their father, Robert Gordon, to interact with and ultimately exhibit control over, signifiers of the natural world within Seymour Joseph Guy’s The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room. It situates objects derived from natural materials —such as the bouquet, wooden-dining chair and mounted antlers— as significant tools through which Henry and William Gordon are being trained to inherit their father’s legacy, examining such objects through an affective lens. Through their interactions with the objects the young heirs are positioned to engaged in activity that parallels their father’s business ventures, pursuing control over products derived from the natural world with a relative callousness, so that they might continue to profit from them in the postbellum age. As a consequence of his business tradings, Gordon, a partner of a merchant bank, is materially intertwined with colonial trade networks, systems of enslavement and exploitative labour practices, as were many of his contemporaries, fellow members of the Northern elite class, who would have made up the majority of the piece’s viewership. Through The Contest for the Bouquet Gordon is able to advocate for his approach to parenting, and given that contemporary emphasis was placed on children and their potential to ensure the reunification and continued success of the nation, he is able to demonstrate the ways in which proper training proved fundamental to ensuring the legacies of elite expatiates would endure.