On Mon, 25 Jul 2005, Marc Carlson wrote: > One of my long term projects is back tracking sources, and seeing who > was using what when writing costume (and specifically shoe) related > texts. This week I finally got a hold of a copy of Strutt's _A > complete view of the dress and habits of the people of England_ (1796) > [there is a 1970 reprint], and have to say that from a > historiographical perspective it's fascinating. I find it really > interesting how little the known and accepted 'facts' have changed > since the 18th century, and where they -have-. If you are interested > in (mostly English) historical costume, you might want to find a copy > of this -- not to use as a guide mind you, but to see where things > have come from.
Tracking back is one of my longtime recurring themes in my work as well, and when you track back costume in English, you always come back to Joseph Strutt. He was a fascinating figure as a researcher, too, being mostly a dedicated amateur (in the traditional sense of the word) and antiquarian, as well as a professional engraver and artist. He wrote his first book (on medieval English antiquities) when he was only 24 years old. I spend a lot of time talking about Strutt and his influence (which was enormous, and continues today) in my lecture on the origins of costume sources, which some of you have heard. Strutt essentially invented the field of English costume history, so many of the longstanding assumptions of the field originate with him. In fact, sometime he got things right that got twisted or confused with later scholars -- most notably James Robinson Planche, who edited Strutt's work into a "new and improved" edition in the 1840s (after publishing his own costume history in 1834). A lot of Planche's emendations were wrong; it's interesting to compare his version with Strutt's original 1796 edition. The latter is available for view in quite a few rare book rooms. It's worth the perusal. I don't recall seeing the 1970 reprint of Strutt; Marc, is it of Strutt's original, or Planche's edited version? An affordable facsimile of the original Strutt would be a lovely thing to have. Drea has an original edition of Strutt, of which I am very jealous. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
