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Subject: [RHEA] Social History-Women's Fashion and Couture
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 18:53:10 EDT

Social HistorySocial history resources about specific aspects of women's
lives are very common, in print and on the Internet (endnote 6). What laws
influenced their lives? Marriage laws, divorce laws, child custody laws, lack
of laws protecting women from economic exploitation or physical violence by
their husbands? What kind of work did women do, inside and outside the home?
Work outside the home for women was surprisingly common, although married
women before the 19th century had little independent control over the
economic fruits of their labor. The earnings of 19th century women in
Britain, for example, belonged to their husband prior to the passing of the
1882 Married Property Act (endnote 7). What was the state of medical
knowledge and practice? Did doctors or midwives deliver babies. How many
children did women lose to epidemics, accidents and other death -- and how
many of these would be preventable today?Secondary sources are books and
articles about women's lives, rather than primary sources, which are written
by women about their own lives. They are also useful because they help fill
in details that such primary sources leave out. There were many subjects that
our ancestors probably didn't wish to commit to writing - sexuality,
childbirth, addiction, bastardy and infanticide to name a few. Published
social history works can help you to learn how these issues may have affected
your female ancestor.Many wonderful overviews of the lives and roles of women
in society have been published. Books like The Other Civil War by Catherine
Clinton Good Wives by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (endnote 9), documents details
of New England women in 1650-1750; Founding Mothers by Linda Grant de Pauw
(endnote 10) gives a good overview of women's lives in the late 18th century;
The Marriage Exchange by Martha C. Howell (endnote 11) examines how
Renaissance women fought to protect their interests and those of their
children in a male-dominated society.Hundreds of scholarly articles have been
written since the 1970s focusing on the day-to-day lives of women in many
parts of the world and in many eras. You can find a good index to such
articles on the Internet at the Women's History page of the International
Institute of Social History (endnote 12).For more information on women’s
lives and social history:Chasing Elusive Women: A Family Historian’s Guide
http://www.everton.com/learn/showcontent.php?id=1269 Women's Lives - Everyday
Life and Status By Country and Era
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/lives/ International Institute of Social
History: Women's History
http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/ A Bibliographic Guide to the History of Women's
Reproductive Health & Childbearing
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/bibliogs/hws/hws070402.htm

The Immigrant Experience: Social History
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/2501.asp Women’s Fashion and
CoutureEven without photos, you can often re-create a general description of
your female ancestor through a study of the clothing, hairstyles and fashion
of the time and place in which she lived. Many books, articles and other such
resources have done much of the tedious work for you by compiling useful
information from many difficult-to-locate primary sources. For instance, in
The History of Underclothes by C. Willett and Phillis Cunnington (endnote
13), readers learn that in the 19th century men and women believed that good
grooming required that all clothes in direct contact with the body be of
wool. The changes through time of how women covered or revealed their body
parts, says much about how women and their roles were perceived in their
cultures.In reading about clothing of any period keep in mind that in most
ordinary families before the 20th century, all that clothing would have been
constructed - and sometimes the cloth woven - by the women of the family.
Women also maintained the clothing. This is an insight I experienced
first-hand on a visit to the Frederick Douglass home in Washington, DC, where
in the laundry behind the kitchen, heavy irons were used to press the
clothing of the household. The time to iron one lady's dress might be several
hours, given the volume of material used and the intricate pleating popular
at that time. This, in addition to the actual laundering time done without
the aid of modern washing machines (especially in cold weather) might take
hours.Probate records, wills and other inventories can be a good source for
information about your female ancestor's clothing items. Advertisements and
photos in local newspapers, lady's fashion books and magazines from the time
period, and costume exhibits at local museums and historical societies may
also provide insight into the kind of clothing your ancestor likely wore.For
more information on women’s fashion and couture:Fashions: What Women Wore
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/fashion/index.htm Timelines of Clothing and
Hairstyles
http://genealogy.about.com/cs/clothingtimelines/index.htm The Costume Page:
Costume History
http://members.aol.com/nebula5/tcpinfo2.html Your Female Ancestors are
Silently Waiting…With the wealth of genealogical and historical resources
available there is no excuse for researchers to neglect their female
ancestors in family narratives and histories. Despite the challenges of
tracing female ancestors, they are just as much a part of your heritage as
their male counterparts. Begin today by talking with your living relatives
before it is too late and then branch out from there. It takes a bit of
creativity and sheer determination, but by using a combination of personal,
primary and secondary sources, you should be able to glean a significant
amount of detail about what life might have been like for those women in your
family tree. You will also learn about how different our lives are today, in
part because of their hard work and sacrifices.AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHIES:Kimberly
Powell is a professional genealogist, Internet consultant, web developer and
proud mother of two young children (with a third due any day now). She is a
member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the U.S. National
Genealogical Society, the International Society of Family History Writers and
Editors and several local genealogical societies.Jone Johnson Lewis is an
Ethical Culture Leader and Unitarian Universalist minister as well as the
About Guide to Women's History coordinator. Jone enjoys researching her own
family history with ancestors mostly from Sweden and Norway. AUTHOR’S CONTACT
INFORMATION:Kimberly Powell, Genealogy Guide, About - The Human Internet
924 Fairfield Lane
McDonald, PA 15057
(724) 693-0347
SS# 248-61-2605Jone Johnson Lewis, Women's History Guide, About - The Human
Internet
14303 Uniform Drive
Centreville, VA 20121ENDNOTES1. Old Our Savior's Lutheran Cemetery, Martell
Township, Pierce County, Wisconsin, transcribed online at
ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wi/pierce/cemetery/oloursav.txt 2.
Johnson, Linnea, "The Life of a Hardy Pioneer." Young Verses: Anthology of
Student Verse and Prose, North High School 1918-1933. Compiled by Marian R.
Gould. Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1933.3. Smith, Bonnie Hurd, "Judith Sargent
Murray's Letter Books." Undated. Online at
http://www.hurdsmith.com/judith/letterbooks.htm 4. Smith, Bonnie Hurd, From
Gloucester to Philadelphia in 1790 . Curious Traveler Press, 1988.5. Neis,
Steve. A Brief History of Postcard Types, online http:
//www.ecollectmall.com/articles/pchistory.html 6. Index to Internet sources
on women's lives, around the world and in many different eras, About Women's
History, online
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/lives/ 7. Summary of 1882 Married Women's
Property Act, Victorian Voices: An Insight Into the Women of the 19th
Century, online
http://www.wooster.edu/english/jhayward/pages/Law_1880s.html 8. Clinton,
Catherine, The Other Civil War. Hill and Wang, 1999. A book review and
summary is online at
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/rd/bl_bkr_clinton.htm 9. Ulrich,
Laurel Thatcher, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in
Northern New England, 1650-1750. Vintage Books, 1980.10. de Pauw, Linda
Grant, Founding Mothers: Women in America in the Revolutionary Era. Houghton
Mifflin, 1975.11. Howells, Martha C., The Marriage Exchange: Property, Social
Place and Gender in Cities of the Low Countries, 1300-1500. University of
Chicago Press. May 1998.12. http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/index.html 13.
Cunningham, Willet C. & Phillis, The History of Underclothes. Reproduction
edition of a 1951 work by Dover Publications, 1992




Patricia L. Hall






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