Bibliographie complète

Set in late eighteenth-century Philadelphia, covering the American revolutionary and the early republican eras, this thesis explores three major and interrelated themes: material culture, sociability, and female agency. It focuses on Elizabeth Willing Powel, a privileged and educated woman of Philadelphia, and on the ways she projected herself to society through the material environment of her house –Powel House - and through her correspondence. Elizabeth Powel was renown for her intellect, her conversations and her hostess qualities. This project explores the interaction between an elite woman and her material environment during the eventful revolutionary and post-revolutionary era, and how material culture conveyed a social, cultural and political stance. By a careful analysis of Elizabeth Powel's correspondence - with a particular attention to her discourse on women's social role, female education, politics, and goods - this thesis observes Elizabeth's social interactions and self-presentation to society. It also explores how material culture and epistolary activities provided Elizabeth with means of agency, and ways to participate to late eighteenth-century American society, then undergoing crucial transformations.