Ogden Codman and Edith Wharton's book, The Decoration of Houses (1897), is considered among the most important books on interior decoration and classical architecture published in America (Reed, 1997, p. xi; Wilson, 2007; Holm 1997). Given the authors’ limited training and prior experience in decorating houses, this study questions the extent that their authoritative advice comprised their own ideas and explores broader influences for Decoration's development. It appraises how the American Beaux–Arts movement impelled the seminal literary work and seeks to establish that American Beaux–Arts architects and French design theory were primary sources for Decoration's prescribed methodologies. Significantly, the study proposes an alternate view of the development of Decoration, and the process of simplification and unification of interiors and architecture in the late nineteenth century. By considering Decoration from an interiors perspective in relationship to French design theory, it is set apart from the work of previous scholars, who have examined the book from art historical, sociocultural, and literary perspectives. In this way, it broadens understanding of social class and professional competitions based on the aesthetics of taste in architecture and interior decoration.
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