That does sound like a fun find, but do please be very careful of such tertiary sources (overviews and fact books that aren't actually from the period in question and just summarize information from sources which themselves MIGHT refer to the original primary source, but who knows?), especially Victorian ones. The road to hell is paved with the good intentions of Victorian costume historians... These are the folks who came up with images of 14th century gowns worn over curvy 19th c. corsets and hoops...
So, enjoy the images, but if something strikes your fancy, turn to sources a little closer to your period of interest to try to find what the original actually might have looked like. And please, please, if you have Peacock's history of costume (that one's a modern abomination), take it out and burn it. It has nothing but impossible line drawings and no facts to back anything up. If only I could make all copies disappear from library shelves.... Looking in the bibliography and in footnotes is indeed an excellent way to find info. Sometimes a bit of digging turns up surprises-- I once decided to look up a reference to medieval women's underwear that a lot of people quoted from a book on Italian textiles by Maureen Mazzaoui. The author footnoted her source for the statement. I went to find the source. And discovered it was in a tertiary source with lots of inventive line drawings and nothing to back up the claim, with no further footnoting to follow up on. So, just because it's in a book, don't take it as Truth! And have fun digging--it's like figuring out a really complex and intriguing puzzle! Astrida > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:55 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [h-cost] Re:Finding Information > > Thank you for your wonderful advice again, I never thought to look in > the back of the book for the sources where the author did the research > from! This is something I got from ebay and thought it would be worth > having, the original would be awesome but this is a copy of the entire > book on cd rom: > > "The History of Fashion in France or The dress of women from the > Gallo-Roman period to the present time. > >From the French of M. Augustin Challamel. > By Mrs. Cashel Hoey and Mr. John Lillie > 1882 " > > It has 293 pages which are said to be all included in the disc and for > the price I paid for it ($8) I am sure it will be worth something > without losing much. This seems like a good place to start for my own > collection, minus the dozens of Dover paper doll books my sister and I > have accumlated over the years. I have the Godeys fashion plate book, > and the history of underwear, and the history of the corset and there > are others I want still but it is time to get into the real > researching. Those books are good for at a glance information, and the > pictures are stimulating too of course. Moore College of Art in Phila > is where I went and they had a good library too, I think there would be > no problem with me getting in there and looking around and perhaps > atleast making printouts. they did have antique books in there that > were costume porfolios but I think they were ethnic costumes, worth > taking another look at though. Take care > Justine:) > > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - > http://webmail.aol.com > _______________________________________________ > 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
