I've studied the Gunston Hall probate inventory database for late 18th-early 19th century, and a friend shared some New England inventories from the same time. But it is frustrating in that there aren't that many women listed. Also, for both men and women, the enumerators sometimes didn't make a list, but just recorded, "wearing apparel of the deceased" with a lump sum value. Gee, thanks.
However, you can get snippets that way. Ann Wass -----Original Message----- From: Heather Rose Jones <heather.jo...@earthlink.net> To: Historical Costume <h-cost...@indra.com> Sent: Wed, Oct 8, 2014 10:28 pm Subject: Re: [h-cost] wardrobe size Wills are often a great place to research this type of question. Unlike a trousseau, they tend to reflect possessions at a random point in life (rather than a planned-for life transition). There are a lot of researchers studying clothing represented in wills in various times and places, so you might be able to find a good selection across time. I sorry not to have specific authors or publications to recommend, but that might give you keywords to work from. Heather On Oct 8, 2014, at 4:16 PM, Cascio Michael wrote: > Hello, > I'm trying to look into the size of the average middle-class woman's wardrobe through the centuries. Finding advice on the trousseau is easier, at least after the advent of ladies' magazines but I'm most interested in how many dresses a middle class woman would own. How common was the one dress for every day and one for Sunday with a multitude of aprons? Do women start having more dresses after the advent of cheap cotton? Since the list covers a large span of history I'm hoping for answers from many centuries. > > Cassandra > -------------------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
