1997 Gest Fellow
Rich Rath

My manuscript, "Worlds Chanted into Being: Soundscapes in Early America," explores the ways people interpreted and expressed their attitudes and beliefs about natural sounds, acoustical spaces, instruments for civic use (e.g. bells), non-linguistic and paralinguistic vocalization, and speech. As a fellow in the Gest library, I was able to find a rich mine of materials concerning how Quakers designed and negotiated the interior acoustics of their meeting houses by means of sounding boards, shallow octagonal ceilings, and galleries which put the most people the shortest distance form each other. Another set of documents allowed me to flesh out the economy of silence, non-verbal vocalizations, and speech, particularly as it concerned the seventeenth-century phenomenon of "ranting" or "singing" Quakers. My time as a Gest Fellow was remarkably productive, not least because of the active interest and knowledge the staff provided.

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