Victorian Fashion in America: 264 Vintage Photographs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Victorian Fashion in America: 264 Vintage Photographs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Compelling pictorial archive of 264 vintage photographs, selected from rare tintypes and other authentic materials (1850s–1910), depict little girls in their mothers’ hats and clothes, sisters wearing identical plaid dresses and button boots, a young man in an everyday suit and bowler hat, a boy dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy style, and scores of other.
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Entertaining and informative.,
Kristina Harris won my applause in her introduction, where she says that knowledge of costume AND knowledge of photographic processes must be used together for maximum accuracy in dating pictures. Seems obvious, but the obvious is seldom stated. She is certainly well-schooled in both fashion and photography. However, neophytes will find it difficult if not impossible to recognize each photographic process even with the best of written descriptions. This skill is attained through experience.
Readers may also be in danger of inaccurate dating if they take the guidelines provided in this book too literally. For instance, the popularity of carte-de-visite photographs may have peaked in the 1860s in Philadelphia, but they do not even appear until 1869 in frontier areas and are certainly more typical of the 1870′s in Ontario.
The chief strength of this book as a resource is in the captions to the illustrations, which include the name and location of the photographer, the photographic format, the name of the sitter(s) if available as well as a few comments to indicate significant aspects of the costume. We don’t have to jump to endnotes: the information is right there. Bravo!
Harris also knows to use “circa” (c.) to indicate that the date is a best guess. –And therein lies a weakness. This is yet another work in which photographs have been chosen to illustrate a history, as opposed to basing history on dated photographs as documentary evidence.
The warning that dates written on backs of photographs are “frequently added long after the photograph was taken” disquieted me. Although Harris is absolutely correct to warn us never to make assumptions, I worry that beginners will devalue what might be critical evidence. The fact is that folks often wore out-of-date or very personal choices in dress and that ‘questionable’ date may turn out to be right.
I gave this book three stars out of five for the above reasons, and because it is neither indexed nor sourced. An index based on photographer/city/sitter would have been very useful, and there is no bibliography.
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|For those interested in historic fashions,
I liked this book because, although it is mostly studio portriats of Victorians, they are often in everyday dress. If you like old photographs, you like this book, and if your looking for some ‘design’ elements for historic costumes then you’ll love this book.
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|Fantastic photos!,
Costume resources from this period tend towards drawings from period magazines, and use highly stylized model forms. This great collection of pictures shows a wide range of people, in a fairly wide range of clothing types. The limitations of period phots are that the clothing is almost always the fanciest outfits the person owns, and does not reflect day to day wear. Other photos are clearly theatrical costume, but the author has clearly identified them as such, even where the oroginal information is missing.
As with any black and white source, colors are left to your imagination, but the details of finsh and construction that can be gleaned from the photos makes this a necessary tool in researching clothing of this era. Teamed with a Harper’s Bazaar drawing reference, and an accessory reference, and you are ready to start making your own victorian clothing!
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