Subjects
Clothing, Society and Culture in Nineteenth-Century England
General Editor: Clare Rose
Volume Editors: Clare Rose and Vivienne Richmond
978 1 84893 012 4: 234x156mm: £275.00/$495.00
Recently, the history of clothing has been the subject of intense scholarly interest, but there has been a shortage of source material available. This three-volume collection redresses the balance, bringing together rare documents and unpublished manuscript material in both reset and facsimile form. The volumes cover the economics of buying and selling clothes, the art of dressmaking and its democratization and issues specific to working class dress during the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
Volume 1 examines clothing from a commercial perspective and contains material from retailers’ catalogues, advertizements, pricelists, posters and dressmakers’ manuals. Illustrations are reproduced in facsimile while print material is presented in reset format. Volume 2 concentrates on changing social attitudes and dress reform, including a series of articles by or about Oscar Wilde. Other sources come from a variety of newspaper and magazine articles, extracts from books and the lyrics of comic songs. Volume 3 looks at the problems and solutions which were faced by the working classes in their consumption of clothing. Various perspectives are examined through parish newsletters and reports, as well as other local and national sources, to produce a picture of hardship and deprivation tempered with charity and ingenuity.
This edition will not only be invaluable to those studying clothing but also to social historians and those with an interest in retailing and consumption.
- Full editorial apparatus: general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and volume introductions
- Includes previously unpublished manuscript documents
- Includes facsimile pages from retailers’ catalogues, newspaper advertizements and dressmakers’ manuals
- Consolidated index in the final volume
Contents
Volume 1: Buying and Selling Clothes
Early Ready-to-Wear Innovators
The Gentleman's Illustrated Album of Fashion, L Hyam & Co, London (1850); Reform Your Tailors' Bills, Doudney and Son, London (1838); How to Get a Good Dressing, Doudney and Son (1840); Facts are Stubborn Things, Doudney and Son (c1845); By Special Appointment, Doudney and Son (1846); flyer, Andrew Kelly, Oakham (1829); flyer, Noah's Ark Shoe Shop, London (c1840); flyer, E Williams Linen Draper, Nottingham House, London (c1850)
The Business of Advertizing: Late Nineteenth-Century Documents
Sales flyer blank by Masseys, Leeds (1892); Pair of catalogue pages by Wesley Petty of Leeds (1900); Advertising Novelties, by Wesley Petty and Julian Green (1894–5); Catalogue of Shop Display Materials, Harris & Sheldon, Birmingham (1911) [extracts]
Clothes Retailers After 1880
The March of Puff, J & C Winter tailors (1889); Copyrighted images of ladies’ clothing, H J Nicoll, London (1882)
Developments in Mail-Order Retailing
Merriment & Modes, A Lynes and Son (1876); Noble's Novelties, John Noble Ltd, Manchester (1895); ABC Guide to London, C Baker & Co, London (1897) [extract]; Mail-Order Catalogue, Pryce Jones of Newtown (c1908) [extracts]
Tailors and Their Customers
C S Jones, 'When Buying a Cheap Suit', Modern Man (1910); W D F Vincent, The Cutter's Practical Guide, Vol II, Morning Coats (1893) [extract]; J P Thornton, The Sectional System of Ladies' Garment Cutting (1900) [extracts]
Making and Maintaining Clothes
Madame Schild, Brighton Courier of Fashion (1872) [extracts]; Madame Schild's Shilling Dress Patterns (1879 and 1880) [extracts]; Brochure, National Tailoring Co/Freedberg's Dry Cleaning Service (1911)
Volume 2: Abuses and Reforms
Abuses in the Clothing Trade
The Dressmaker as a Social Problem
G W Reynolds, Slaves of England I: The Seamstress (1850) [extracts]; Charlotte Elizabeth [Tonna], Wrongs of Woman (1843) [extract]; Thomas Hood, 'Living – and Dying by the Needle', Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine (1863)
Emigration to Australia as a Solution
Sidney Herbert, Letter proposing female emigration fund, Morning Chronicle (1849); 'Report on the Fund for Promoting Female Emigration', Morning Chronicle (1850); 'Report on the Fund for Promoting Female Emigration', Morning Chronicle (1851); 'Report on the Fund for Promoting Female Emigration', Morning Chronicle (1852);Silverpen [Eliza Meteyard], 'Lucy Dean: the Noble Needlewoman', Eliza Cook's Journal (1850) [extracts]; The Female Emigrants, a Ballad (1851)
Abuses in the Clothing Trade After 1900
Edith Lyttelton, Warp and Woof (1904/8) [extracts], Frances Balfour, 'Mrs Alfred Lyttelton's Play', The Times (1904)
The Daily News Sweated Industries Exhibition 1906
Articles from the Daily News (1906); Articles from the Clarion (1906); Articles from the Co-Operative News (1906) [extracts]
Reforming Practice: Amateurs Take Over from Professional Dressmakers
'Sylvia', 'Dressmaking at Home', How to Dress Well on a Shilling a Day: A Lady's Guide to Home Dressmaking and Millinery (1876) [extract]; S Beeton, The Housewife's Treasury of Domestic Information (1884) [extract]; R Monroe, Practical Dressmaking: Being Plain Directions for Taking Patterns, Fitting on, etc ([1879]) [extract]; 'Hearth and Home', Manchester Times (1887); Sophie Bryant, 'Our Choice from the Fashions' Aglaia (1893); E Winifred Dickson, 'The Distribution of Weight in Clothing', Aglaia (1893); B Garnett, 'Practical Suggestions', Aglaia (1893)
Reforming Dress for Women
Attitudes to the Bloomer in the 1850s
'The Bloomer Costume', Chambers' Edinburgh Journal (1851); 'I Want to be a Bloomer' – sung by Miss Rebecca Isaacs (1851); Edward Stirling, A Figure of Fun, or, the Bloomer Costume, an Original Farce in One Act (1851); James Bruton, 'The Bloomer Costume or Tunics, Turbans and Trousers', a comic song (1852); Great Tom of Oxford, 'I Would Not Have a Bloomer', an original comic song (1858); E Hodges, 'I'll Be a Bloomer' (nd)
Reforms in the 1880s
Aesthetic Reforms
Lady Eastlake, Art of Dress (1852) [extract]; Mrs Haweis, 'The Aesthetics of Dress', Art Journal (1880)
Rational Reforms
Lady Harberton, 'Rational Dress Reform', Macmillan's Magazine (1881); Dora de Blaquiere, 'Modern Dress Reformers', Leisure Hour (1884); Florence Pomeroy,Viscountess Harberton, 'Reasons for Reform in Dress' (1885); Rational Dress Society Gazette (1888) [extracts]
Oscar Wilde and Dress Reform: Pall Mall Gazette
'Mr Oscar Wilde on Dress', PMG (1884); Wentworth Huysche, 'Mr Oscar Wilde on Dress Reform', PMG (1884); A Girl Graduate, 'A Woman's Rhapsody on Dress', PMG (1884); H E T, 'A Practical Woman on Dress', PMG (1884); 'Mr Oscar Wilde on Woman's Dress', PMG (1884); An Old Sailor, correspondence, PMG (1884); various, 'The Mysteries of Dress', PMG (1884); E H, 'An Ideal Under-Garment', PMG (1884); Oscar Wilde, 'More Radical Thoughts upon Dress Reform', PMG (1884)
Public Reactions to Rational Dress
'The Health Exhibition', Leeds Mercury (1884); The Lady (1888) [extracts]
Reviews of Rational Dress Society Bazaar, 'The Coming Dress' (1891)
Review, Glasgow Herald (1891); 'The Coming Dress', Leeds Mercury (1891); 'The Coming Dress Bazaar', Daily News (1891); 'The Coming Dress', Bristol Mercury (1891); 'The Coming Dress', The Graphic (1891); 'Notes on Fashion', Northern Echo (1891); 'Rational Dress for Women', Glasgow Herald (1899)
The Viscountess and the Pub Landlady: Testing Tolerance of 'Rational Dress'
'Irrational', Pall Mall Gazette (1899); 'Innkeepers and Rational Dress', The Times (1899); 'Sartor Resartus: The Law and the Lady in Bloomers; Viscountess Harberton and the Innkeeper', Daily News (1899); Editorial, Daily News (1899)
Dress Reform for Men
Henry Holiday, 'Men's Dress', Aglaia (1894); 'A Suggestion for Evening Dress for Men', Aglaia (1894); A E Garrett BSc & H F Tomalin, The Purpose and Efficacy of Clothing (1912) [extract]
Reforming Consumption
Co-operative Women and Ethical Consumption
'Woman's Corner', Co-operative News (1889) [extracts]
Mourning Dress
Correspondence on mourning dress, Co-operative News (1896) [extracts]; 'Women's Corner', Bristol Mercury (1880)
Liberty and 'Artistic' Consumers
Arthur Lasenby Liberty, 'On the Progress of Taste in Dress: III, in Relation to Manufacture', Aglaia (1894)
Clothing the New Woman
Theo Chapman, 'A Dialogue on Dress', Nineteenth Century (1894); Votes for Women (1908, 1910 and 1911) [extracts]; The Common Cause (1913) [extracts]
Volume 3: Working-Class Dress
Needlework and Home-Made Clothes
Needlework Teaching in Government-Funded Schools (National and Board)
Lady Finch, The Sampler: A System of Teaching Plain Needlework in Schools (1855) [extracts]; Rev John D Glennie, Hints from an Inspector of Schools (1858) [extract]; M E Bailey, School Needlework and Cutting Out (1875) [extracts]; 'Memorial on Needlework in Elementary Schools from Managers and Teachers of Schools to Education Department' (1877); 'Education Department Minutes, Establishing New Code of Regulations' (1882) [extract]
Extra-Curricular Sewing Instruction
A E G, Lancashire Needles and Thread, or, The History of Birtley Sewing Class (1864) [extract]; Report on Girls' Friendly Society sewing class, All Saints, Mile End New Town, Parish Magazine (1886) [extract]; 'List of Things Suitable for the Trousseau of a Working-Man's Wife', Friendly Leaves (1888); Maude Stanley, Clubs for Working Girls (1890) [extract]; Flora Lucy Freeman, Religious and Social Work Amongst Girls (nd) [extract]; Federation of Working Girls' Clubs, In Peril in the City (1909) [extract]
Ways to Afford Ready-Made Clothes
Commercial Clothing Clubs
Prospectus, Rules and Regulations of W Paul’s Original Co-operative Club...for...Supplying Woollens, Ready-made Clothing, Boots ... on the Easy Purchase System (1879); Rules of the New Co-operative Clubs for the Supply of Drapery, Boots, Clothing (c1900)
Pawning and Tally Men
Anon (SPCK), Phoebe's Marriage, or The Perils of Dress (c1873) [extract]; Mrs G S Reaney, 'Crooked Lives and How They Come So', The Stepney Meeting Magazine (1885); 'The Pawning of Children's Clothes', Birmingham Daily Post (1893); Fred Murray and George Everard, 'Tally-owe, the Tallyman' (c1905)
Second Hand
'The Old Clothes Market, Camp Field, Manchester', The Graphic (1870)
Parish Relief
'Correspondence between the Poor Law Commissioners and the Boards of Guardians of the Ledbury and Cricklade Unions' (1846)
Charitable Initiatives
Anglican Clothing Societies
Rules of a Clothing Society for the Poor of the Parishes of St Clements and All Saints, Hastings (1847); The Twelfth Annual Report of the Newark Provident Clothing Society (1847); 'The Boys' and Girls' National School Shoe Club', St Bartholomew's, Sydenham, Parish Magazine (1868); A District Visitor's Address to the Depositors in a Clothing Society (1861); Rules of the Uckfield Clothing Society (1894)
Other Anglican Clothing Charities
Rev Edward J Nixon, A Manual of District Visiting (1848) [extracts]; A Free Registry Office and Clothing Club (1880); List of parish initiatives to clothe the poor, St Margaret's Lee, Parish Magazine (1895); Florence Stacpoole, Homely Hints for District Visitors (1897) [extracts]
Non-Anglican Clothing Charities
Manchester Jews School Ladies' Clothing Society (after 1853) [extract, ms]; 'Relief of the Poor', The Preston Guardian (1857); Society of Ladies for Clothing the Children of Poor German Families (1868) [extract, ms]; Bethnal Green Road Congregational Church Clothing Society and Female Benevolent Society, The Annual Record for 1876 (1876); The Annual Record for 1890 (1890) [extract]; London Wesleyan Mission, East, Record of Work for 1892–3 (1892–3) [extracts]
Jumble Sales
'At a Jumble Sale', The Graphic (1892)
Police Clothing Charity
Report of meeting of the committee of the Police-Aided Association for Clothing Destitute Children, Birmingham Post (1893)
Needlework Guilds
Reports of annual meetings of the Birmingham Needlework Guild, Birmingham Daily Post (1885–93); Middlesex Needlework Guild Report for 1897 (1897); Middlesex Needlework Guild Rules (1890s)
Mothers' Meetings
Report on Mothers' Meeting, Old Windsor Banner (1897); Madame Cecilia, Girls' Clubs & Mothers' Meetings (1911)
Institutional Clothing
Charity Schools
'Anniversary Festival of Charity Children in St Paul's', The Graphic (1870)
Workhouses
'I Take My First Peep at the World', Penny Illustrated Paper (1866); 'Workhouse Dress', The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post (1892); Report of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor... (1895) [extract]
Prisons
'Female Convict Life at Woking: Part II', The Graphic (1889) [extract]; 'Dinner Parade – Cooks at Attention in the Kitchen Waiting for the Governor', The Graphic (1889); Prison Rules Enquiry (1889) [extracts]
Lunatic Asylums
J Mortimer Granville, The Care and Cure of the Insane... (1877) [extracts]
Servants' Dress
'The Dress of Female Servants', The Family Economist (1855); 'Household Reform', Penny Illustrated Paper (1868); Frances Elizabeth Bree, On the Training of Young Girls for Domestic Service in Industrial Schools (1872) [extracts]; 'Rather Hard on the Kitchen', Manchester Times (from Punch) (1872); Herbert P Miller, The Scarcity of Domestic Servants: The Cause and Remedy (1876) [extracts]; 'Dowdy Rachel', The Banner of Faith (1884)
Morality
Emma Leslie, Myra's Pink Dress (1873) [extract]; M A Paull, 'Romance of a Rag', Romance of a Rag and Other Tales (c1877)