We are very fortunate to live just up the street from the Edgewater Antique Mall. It’s one of the first places I wander when I need to feed my imagination (or procrastinate) by sifting through long-forgotten postcards or boxes of women’s gloves, buttons, and hatpins. Don’t even get me started on the flapper-era costume jewelry–sigh! There are a thousand novels hanging in their air among all those cast off treasures, just waiting for someone to write them.
Of course, the antique mall also has plenty of books, and my favorite find to date is a bound volume of all twelve issues of Godey’s Lady’s Book from 1859.
As some of you may know, Godey’s Lady’s Book was the Vogue of the mid to late nineteenth century, though GLB was much more ubiquitous and influential. The magazine brought news of the latest fashions, popular sheet music, embroidery patterns, hairstyles, architectural trends, and recipes to women all over the country, who might otherwise be completely isolated.
It also contained original writing by American writers and was one of the first publications to exercise copyrighting to prevent piracy, which was rampant at this time. The editor, Sarah Hale, was a highly respected tastemaker (she campaigned for the creation of Thanksgiving, for one). And while Anna Wintour uses her power to crush the spirits of women who like to eat on a regular basis, Sarah Hale printed women’s writing when few publications would and gave editorial attention to issues that mattered to her readers, though she declined to enter political arguments of the day over suffrage and abolition. GLB famously makes no reference whatsoever to the Civil War.
GLB was an important source for me as I researched The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott and tried to imagine how the impoverished Alcott sisters might feel when they saw the stunning fashion plates depicting clothes they yearned for but could never afford.
Check out these tiny corseted waists! If you want to learn more about the deformed ribs of women who wore them, check out this link, via @history_geek.
A little cognitive dissonance seeing this in an age when women seem to be wearing pajama pants everywhere.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it’s remarkable how vibrant the colors in the third photo are. Also, imagine how many people that lady in the big dress could sneak into the movies. She could take the whole family for the price of a single ticket.
I’ve been trying to find a decent one of these books during the time of the Civil War. I think these visuals help authors understand the time better.
Thank you for the english lit lesson!