Exhibit Design Phase

              I had a lot of fun creating this design. Since our exhibit is going to be in two phases, I choose to work with the theme of performance. For the first phase I used the theme of celebration/upscale event. Therefore,  I choose to pace the 3 wedding dresses in chronological order in the case. Then I placed the Honeymoon Trousseau Dress as the final piece in the case. On the opposite side of the room I placed the corset, which would of been worn by the bride under her wedding or Trousseau Dress. I also placed the Dolman because it was a high end jacket that would of been worn to a special event, potentially worn by a guest to a high end wedding. Therefore, the overall theme of the first phase was the celebration/upscale event.
The 2nd phase looks at the concept of performance through every day material. In the class it starts with the day dress, followed by the assembly dress, and then the 2 waistcoats. These were every day items that were expected to be worn in the day to day activities of citizens.
             My only issue I ran into was the card case, I had an issue connecting it to the upscale event phase and I do not consider the card case part of everyday experience because it is a mourning card case. It is an accessory that is expected at a normal funeral, thus aiding in the concept of normal performance wear. Which is why I placed the card case between the top hat and the shoes in a case on the opposing wall.

Phase 1
I am unable to upload Phase 1, however it is the same design set up!
In the case will be the 1837 Wedding Dress, 1845 Wedding Dress, 1850 Wedding Dress, and the 1888 Trousseau Dress
-On the opposing wall will be a case holding the corset ( the same position as the shoe case in phase 2)
-The Dolman Will also be a in case on the opposing wall ( same position as the top hat)
- The crazy quilt will be hung up between these two cases on the opposing wall.

Below is Phase 2
- In the case it will include; the Day Dress, Assemble Gown, 18th Cent. Waistcoat, 19th cent. waist coat
- The crazy quilt will be placed behind the 18th and 19th cent. waistcoat on the wall.
- On the opposing side there will be 3 cases holding the card case, shoes, and top hat.

Phase 2

A Touch of History

             Mark Smith's book Sensing the Past was our reading for this past week. In Sensing the Past, Smith examines how the senses such as; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are all important pieces of history that tend to be overlooked. Prior to reading this book, I never thought about how one can experience history through senses. However, Smith makes a point that the use of sense gives an important insight into history that can easily be overlooked. We tend to experience some of these senses collectively and naturally assume that they go hand in hand. One could argue that the sense of seeing and touching are very similar, however sight and touch are two different things. In Smith’s chapter about touching he speaks about the handshake and how important handshakes are in our society. There is a history being a strong handshake, however as our society has developed the concept of a strong handshake the sense of touch is used to develop this history.

             In addition to the chapter that delved into the sense of touch, I also found the chapter that examined the sense of hearing to be interesting. Smith stated that the sense of hearing was used to bridge together sight and other weaker sense such as taste. Naturally when we think about the concept of sound we think of some sort of noise. However, Smith states that during the slavery period many slaves used the concept of silence, no sound, as a way to stand their ground and disobey their masters. The slaves were able to control when and where they sang songs from their culture, it was one of the only things that the slaves were able to control. One could imagine how important the sense of sound was to the history of slavery in the country.

            The overall theme of Smith’s book was that we as the culture have the ability to look at history not only through the sense of sight, however we can use the sense of hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching to further our understanding of history.  This overall theme made me think about my Trousseau dress in a different light. How would the dress feel on the individuals skin? Was the silk smooth as we believe?  Would the dress naturally generate a certain noise as the young woman walked around in it? These are all questions that involve the concept of sense and would give us a more in depth understanding of our objects. 

Legs vs. Arms? Is one more important than the other?

            Prosthetic Impulse was an enjoyable and interesting read that addressed the concept of prosthetics and there use in society. The book contained numerous articles that looked at different aspects associated with prosthetics however I believed that the overall theme from the book was how prosthetics were used to create a sense of normalcy for the individual that is missing a limb. While living out in California and training at the Olympic Training Center I was fortunate enough to get to know some of our Paralympic athletes. Some of these athletes are missing their limbs and use prosthetic's to run and compete. These athletes do not view themselves as abnormal and their prosthetic have made them become normal. I agree with the argument that prosthetic's allow an individual to live a normal day to day life by giving an individual the ability to walk or run. Additionally, I do not believe that these prosthetic make the individual any less human or un-natural they simply aid an individual in maintaining a normal life style.

            Out of all of the chapters, I found chapter 1 to be interesting because the author went through her own experience of having a prosthetic leg. Sobchack stated that within the world of arms and hands have been granted agency compared to legs. I found this to be very interesting observation because how our entertainment world grants agency one could state that it is just as normal to have a prosthetic arm or hand instead of a leg. The importance of agency has been created based on what society finds and values as more interesting and appealing. Does this mean that as a society we value our arms over our legs? I have difficulty understanding why we have placed value on a part of our body however we didn’t carry it over to another section of the body.  I feel that how we socially construct the thought of being disabled it what allows us to place value and agency on one part of the body over another. Does it come back to some level of sexual attraction/fetish that is associated with the prosthetic?

            Referencing back to my friends that live in California and are Paralympic athletes, these individuals felt that prosthetics had a negative connotation when our society places a negative connotation on them via through language. When we use phrases such as disabled or handicap, many individuals feel that they are not handicapped they are simply just missing a limb and the prosthetic is there in place for what naturally should be there. Unfortunately, I had difficulties relating the book to my article of clothing but none the less I found the book to be very interesting. 

Jeans are everyone's best friend :)

Blue Jeans: The Art of The Ordinary written by Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward was an ethnographic study on the journey of the blue jeans. I found Miller and Woodward’s approach to blue jeans to be interesting because Miller and Woodward argued that blue jeans have continued to be a part of our culture due to the aspects and feelings that have been associated with the jean pants, and argued that these thoughts and feelings associated with blue jeans is why we continue to see the blue jeans generation after generation.  I found this aspect of feelings that clothes give us to be interesting because at the beginning of class when I first saw my dress my first question was how could this be comfortable for a woman to wear? I believe that Miller and Woodward believed that blue jeans became a corner stone in fashion because of the comfortable feeling that was associated with the jeans. Earlier in the semester we spoke about fashion and how fashion was not associated with feelings such as being comfortable. However, Miller and Woodward make the argument that jeans became and held being popular because the jeans are comfortable which would make blue jeans truly extraordinary yet blue jeans themselves are ordinary and worn day to day which is why many have fallen in love with them. There are not many similarities that are associated with the book and my object, however I do believe that blue jeans are truly an iconic fashion symbol in our society thus doing an ethnographic study is valuable and interesting. Everyone has a favorite pair of jeans; male/female, old/young jeans can be found in generation after generation. 

A picture is worth a thousand words- but we need to only use 50 :)

Object Exercise #4: Captions

Caption #1: Bustle Period Theme- Historical (Word Count: 85)

This 1888 Wedding Trousseau dress was a result of the Bustle Period which was a period of fashion that emphasized the curves of the female. Viewed as scandalous from those conservative and rooted in the past. This dress was a part of the 3^rd phase which emphasized the posterior of the female yet it was not overly extravagant or large.  The dress kept it shape by the hoops and padding that was worn underneath which helped aid in giving shape to females who needed it.

    Phase 1                            Phase  2

 - Photos would not load on the blogger :(

Caption # 2:  Numerous Changes of Outfits (hinting at class) - Evening Dress (Word Count: 74)

This 1888 Wedding Trousseau dress was one that would have been worn in the afternoon. With the shorter sleeves and the cut of the dress lowering in the front, it was acceptable of women in this time to show more skin as the day went on. Thus, a female found herself changing into multiple different outfits through the day; starting with being covered up completely and finishing the day revealing cleavage, shoulders, and arms.

Caption # 3: What is Trousseau Dress? (Word Count: 75)

A Trousseau Dress (1888) was purchased for the bride to be worn during her honeymoon and newlywed phase. The newlywed was expected to where the Trousseau dress as a status symbol and it was tradition for her to wear the dress the first time she and her husband entertained guests in their new home. This Trousseau dress is lavished with lace and the owner traveled to Paris to have the dress made custom for her.

Explanation

            Writing these captions was more difficult than I thought it would be. The issue that I ran into was attempting to get my point across in an effective and interesting manner however attempting to try to meet the word limit. The third caption theme which looked at the explanation of the dress is the one that I am leaning towards. I believe that it is important to understand what exactly a Trousseau dress is because we do not have this kind of fashion still present in our society. Our current understanding of a Trousseau dress is a wedding gown, which was not the case back in the late 19^th century.  It is hard though for me to not look at the historical background of the bustle period as well and how the back of the dress was emphasized the 3^rd bustle phase. However, I have realized that it will be difficult for the audience to understand the 3 phases when only the 3^rd phase is being displayed. Therefore, I thought that I could provide a sketch for the progression of the phases to help the audience member understand the shift in fashion.  I attached some photos and I am sure I would have to discuss this idea with Clare if I choose to go in this direction of caption to complement the overall theme of the exhibit.

            Overall, I had fun being creative with 3 different captions. I believe that whatever theme I go with will be dependent upon the fact of the overall theme of the exhibit. The captions are meant to complement the overall theme and goal of the exhibit. Once we speak with Clare and have a better understanding with the direction Clare is going in, which will allow all of us to fine tune our captions so that there is an underlying connecting theme found in all of our captions. 

History of Object #3 Exercise

Object Exercise #3

            This object exercise dealt with the historical context of the article. I was unfortunately unable to get in contact with Clare to find out about the donor card which I was unable to learn more about during my first meeting with the object due to time constraint.  Yet, I was still able to develop a great of information about the family the dress belonged to as well as the history of the Trousseau dress in the late 19^th century.  Therefore, my object exercise #3 will begin with my exploration of the Creese Family and The Cresse Student Center at Drexel University and will finish with exploration of the 2^nd bustle period which is the period Trousseau dress designed from.

            The donor of my object was Mrs. James Creese who lived in Philadelphia. Mrs. James Creese is the wife of former Drexel University President Mr. James Creese. Therefore I choose to take the subway over to Drexel University because the dress is directly linked to Drexel University. Therefore James Creese was the 6^th university president at Drexel University. James served from as the university president from 1945 to 1963. James had a very extensive educational background; he was born in 1896 in Pittsburg, PA. James ended up attending Princeton University in 1914 and graduated in 1918. While at Princeton University, James focused his studies on humanities and poetry. An important historical note to mention was that while James was at Princeton World War I was occurring and James enlisted in the military and served as a second lieutenant in the artillery division. Following the war James returned to Princeton and completed his Master’s work and graduated with a Master’s degree in 1920. Following his Master’s degree Creese became the president of the American-Scandinavian Foundation where Creese spent most of his time traveling in Sweden. While in Sweden, Creese married a fellow Pennsylvanian native Margaret Villiers Morton in 1925. In 1928 Creese was name Vice-President and Treasurer of Steven’s Institute of Technology in New Jersey.  While the Vice-President at Steven’s Institute Creese focused on developing funding and public relations with the community.

            Following his time at Steven’s Institute Creese became the President at Drexel Institute, which is now known as Drexel University, in 1945. World War II was coming to an end and many colleges and universities begun to see an increase in student attendance. Creese saw the need to immediately update the facilities at Drexel as many universities in the country saw the demand for as well.  Creese desired to develop Drexel into an institute that mimicked MIT however it also offered a strong humanities department as well, which I am sure was influenced by his humanities background from Princeton. Creese served as the president from 1945 to 1963. While as president Creese expanded the undergraduate studies at Drexel and encouraged female enrollment to the University.   Creese also offered an evening school at Drexel University which allowed many working individuals to complete a degree and take advantage of the education surge that was occurring in the United States. Creese was popular among the students at Drexel because many students believed that Creese made many positive contributions and developments to Drexel that were geared to improve the experience and life of the students at Drexel University. The picture above is Creese at the ceremony of the student center being built on Drexel’s campus. An interesting connection that I found between Creese and I was that from 1956-1959 Creese was a member of the Board of Trustee of the Baldwin School. I attended the Baldwin school from Kindergarten through 5^th grade. The Baldwin School is an elite private school for girls and is well known in the area. This supports Creese efforts that he made while at Drexel with promoting and encouraging education for females.

            I believe that my Trousseau dress would either worn by either James or Margaret mother. The timeline of the dress and age of James would suggest and support the thought that the dress was worn by either one of their parents. The dress was donated in 1957 and was dated to be from 1888. With the dress being dated back to 1888, means that the dress is from the 3^rd and final Bustle period. The third bustle period used wiring, padding, or a combination of both to emphasis the posterior of the woman. The first bustle period emphasized extremely large padding on the posterior, the 2^nd bustle period went in the opposite direction and was more tightly fitted on the women’s hips and had little padding on the back side, and the third and final bustle period had the posterior padding yet it was not as extreme and wide.  My Trousseau dress accurately describes and fights the description of the third bustle period, which is another clue supporting that this dress was worn by either James or Margaret’s mother.  On the posterior side of the dress there is a beautiful silk cream ribbon as well as fabric that are meant to be filled in with the posterior padding that would be placed in the women’s underskirt.

            From my research I have learned that a Trousseau dress was purchased and used as a honeymoon and newlywed out. The dress was a status symbol to show society that the young women just married and is now settling into their new place. Research stated that it was normal for the young women to wear their Trousseau dress during their first hosting event in their new home. The Trousseau dress that I was assigned to was a high end dress, which was represented by the large amount of manufactured lace and silk that was present on the dress. The dress also had a ribbon label on the inside of the top of the dress with the designer’s name on “Mme. Barbelet, Paris”.   I researched the Mme. Barbelet however I was unable to find any information on the designer, which leads me to believe that this was not a mass produce dress. The female that bought this dress traveled to Paris and had the dress made specifically for her, which reflects that the woman belonged to a very affluent family.

            My final important aspect of the dress is that the Trousseau dress I have been assigned was one that would have been worn in the afternoon. As we learned from Perrot, the way women dress differed throughout the day. It was considered to be inappropriate if a woman was showing cleavage and her arm during the morning portion of the day. As the day would continue it was acceptable for women to have the cut of their dress begin to get lower and reveal more cleavage and are allowed to shorten their sleeves and show more of their forearm. The top front of my dress has a cut of a V and revealed more cleavage of the woman. Also the sleeves of the dress were ¾ sleeves and had lace attached to the bottom of it.

            In conclusion, I am still very excited to have my Trousseau dress. I am still looking forward to read the donor card that came along with my dress. However, with the information that I have found about the Creese family, the family that donated this dress was an important and well-loved educator in the Drexel Family.  Creese was responsible for the development of Drexel post World War II and help Drexel become one of the strongest schools in the Mid-Atlantic region. I believe that the information that I will learn from the donor card will only allow add to the information about the family and will hopefully give me a better idea of the Creese family and which side of the family the dress belonged to. 

Hurricanes and Clothes

            In this week’s blog I choose to focus the concept of clothing as a language as well as the concept of fashion as a commodity. The piece written by McCraken gave great insight about clothing and how it is a form of language which I felt had some interesting points that correlated with my trousseau dress. Also the Stallybrass article that looked at fashion and its relationship to the capitalist society spoke about fashion as a commodity and fetish which also is related to the trousseau dress.

            The McCraken article was interesting because it touched upon many numerous points however the overall theme of clothing as a form of language and how clothing communicates the language and culture of the time. McCraken states that clothing can be used as a means to study the cultural principles at the time. When looking at my trousseau dress I believe that the dress represents the etiquette that was expected from young women in the 19^th century following their wedding. The Trousseau dress was worn by women during the honeymoon and newlywed phase of the marriage. The women were expected to have the dress and in my research I found that the women were expected to wear the trousseau dress during their first hosting event in their new home. This cultural piece demonstrates how much emphasis was placed on the etiquette associated with the bride and what was expected of her after the wedding.

            The Stallybrass article hint many great points however a theme that I believed was the most important was that fashion was a commodity in culture. We see that this is present in our culture today in which there are tons of fashion shows, fashion magazines, and fashion districts all that are specifically designed to share the fashion culture with others. I believe that my trousseau dress was viewed as a commodity and many believed that in order to step out correctly in society following your marriage the woman needs to be in her trousseau dress. Fashion was a commodity in the 19^th century because it was a visual classification of social class and construction. The theme of Stallybrass’s article was that fashion is a commodity in culture and thus we should continue to pay attention to fashion in the past because they can teach us many lessons such as what was important at that moment in time. 

- Hope everyone is safe during the storm!

Corset or no Corset?

             After reading Fashioning the Bourgeoisie: A History of Clothing in the Nineteenth Century by Philippe Perrot I walked away with a greater understanding of my Trousseau Dress and look forward to Clare coming into our class tomorrow to continue the discussion on dress’s in the 19^th century. A very interesting point that I drew from the book was that fashion was an indicator of class. Perrot states “clothes became organized as significative differences within a code and as status symbols with hierarchy”.  Thus the choice of dress was determined based on your class and what was expected from your class when it came to style.  The reason why the relationship between fashion and class are important because in our society today we do not use fashion as a determining factor as to whether or not one is wealthy, we use cars and electronics to show off affluence. Thus, I believe that clothes hold the same symbolic meaning as electronics and cars do today in which an individual was able to be identified as to which class they belonged to base on their outfit and the materials used for the dress.

            Another point that I found interesting from the book was that women wore numerous outfits throughout the day. I found this point to be important because the Trousseau dress that I was assigned was an evening dress. Throughout the day women were expected to have a certain amount of skin covered up, thus one would have to have a breakfast dress in which they could wear the dress throughout the morning. Then the woman would have to plan on changing into an afternoon dress in which it was appropriate for a lady to show off a bit more skin.  Finally, the female had an evening dress which showed off the most amount of skin. Perrot stated that even on special occasions women would change their outfits, thus it was normal for a female to make anywhere between 5-8 outfit changes. These changes occurred because it was necessary! The corset still amazes me, the young lady that wore my dress had to wear a corset underneath because the design of the dress was to show off a small waist and emphasize the posterior bust. Perrot stated that even though corsets were the trendy and women wore them in order to make themselves appear more attractive the corsets “threatened the body” and gave women a higher chance of becoming infected with “sickness”.

On pg. 153 Perrot stated that over a 40 year period of observation of the corset out of 100 women; 25 “succumbed to diseases of the chest, 15 died after their first delivery, 15 remained infirm after delivery, 15 became deformed. The most interesting thing about these numbers were that as these negative health issues occurred as a result of the corset women still wore the corset.  I then thought back to my first point that fashion was a way to classify you with a social class. Thus many women of the upper class knew that by wearing a corset it not only made them look more attractive however it also showed everyone else that they belonged to the wealthy class. 

I am really excited to hear the discussion in class tomorrow and especially from my classmates that had dresses as their objects. I wonder if they were able to determine what class potentially their object would fall under. 

The exciting process of creating an exhibit

            After reading the articles from this past week the whole exhibit became real to me. Alice Parman’s article “Exhibit Makeovers: Do-It-Yourself Exhibit Planning” had a wonderful  lay out of a step by step process to use to get the juices flowing with the exhibit one is planning to put on.  However, before Parman went into the step-by-step process she drew from the concept of Romance being an essential component of your exhibit, this element I completely agreed with. Parman stated that in order to have visitors enjoy your exhibit they need to fall in love with it. I understood this as being that in order for the visitor to enjoy the exhibit they need to fall in love with an object being exhibited. I related this to my dress, which is beautiful in itself. However, how can I make the visitors fall in love with my dress? I believe that my label that I associate with the dress will be my key to making the visitor fall in love, which I will touch upon in a bit.

            The step-by-step planning that Parman spoke about I believe is the strongest information that I read this past week. The first step is the Mission Statement, in this step our group decides what our goal of the exhibit it and what we hope the visitors will take away from the exhibit. Additionally, in the mission statement phase we need to develop a story line that will draw the visitors in and keep them interested in the objects throughout the exhibit.  Second Step is when we organize our story line into “galleries of thought”. Parman states that it is important to organize our concepts either based on category, chronology, analogy, observation/deduction, comparison/contrast, theme, and watchword.  All of these organizational concepts are important and we have the ability to choose how we would like to organize our exhibit, I could see us using a couple of these ideas so it will be exciting to see what we will choose. The third step is the inventory which Clare has already chosen what objects she felt were the most important to be displayed. The fourth step is to find a way to motivate and engage your visitors, in which we have to take into account that we will have multiple perspectives and opinions attending the exhibit so we need to take into account all of these experiences and motivate our visitors. The fifth step is when we would plan the “look and feel” of our exhibit where we take into account the color of lighting we would choose to use and the dimensions of the display of the cases being used. The sixth and final step is the production and installation of the exhibit which is essentially the blueprint of our idea and then making it become a reality.

            A point that I connected with in Parman’s section about Romance was that it is important to make the visitors feel like they are learning in their own desirable way. When students visit our exhibit it would be wonderful if the student would pick a piece of clothing or object and immerse themselves in the time and history that surrounds the object. This would allow the student to learn feel as if they are learning but without having to fill out hand-outs or take notes. The label would play a key role in this concept and development of learning. The title of the label needs to draw my visitor in and have them want to learn more about my dress. Which got me thinking about some ideas already yet I need to keep in mind that the label would need to match the overall theme of the exhibit.

September 30th readings

            All of the readings from this past week dealt with issue race and gender and its relationship to the object. The articles this week looks at objects that was associated or commonly found among a certain race or gender. I found this week to be interesting because the objects showed us how gender roles were present in the nineteenth century. Additionally, I found it interesting how in the past many historians over looked the advancements and common standards of living among the African-American culture due to prior racism and we can see that objects were found among African-American communities as well.

            Upton’s article examined the landscape of blacks and whites in the 18^th century in central Virginia which at the time had the slave system present. The most interesting part about Upton’s article was how Upton was describing the landscape that was found on a plantation and how there were very specific roles that each found themselves designated to. The way that the plantation was designed reinforced the social relationship between whites and blacks and how blacks were considered to be inferior to the white community.

            Jane Przybysz’s article “Quilts, Old Kitchens, and the Social Geography of Gender at Nineteenth-Century Sanitary Fairs” examined the popular craft of quilting and how it was associated with a specific gender during colonial America.  With quilting being associated with females it demonstrates that the gender roles that feminist fight today are deeply rooted in our cultural and material history. I found that with the article dealing with gender roles is similar to my object I am studying for our exhibit, in the fact that my Trousseau dress also have gender roles associated with it with women expecting to have a honeymoon/newlywed dress to be presentable to society as a newlywed. Another aspect of Przybysz’s that I believe will help me with my object is that she used primary sources such as a diary and literature to examine the craft of quilting and looking at primary sources such as a diary I believe will give me a better insight as to the social relations that are associated with a Trousseau dress and the means women went through to have an appropriate garment.  

            Finally, Ulrich’s book The Age of Homespun, also showed the gender roles that were associated with specific domestic responsibilities. We begin to see how it was expected more for women to stay in the home and spin wool for clothes and candles and the men out in the community doing more manual labor. Additionally, I found it interesting that Ulrich introduced the development of the female labor economy which at the time was a bartering system. Women’s work was deemed valuable and the women were able to exchange goods among themselves, therefore we saw a community developing among women who were trading goods among one another. 

Reading Blog #2- Hairwork and biographies

            Helen Sheumaker’s Love Entwined: The Curious History of Hairwork in America examined the ancient practice of hairwork. The art of hairwork in the 19^th century was an important way for many to mourn and remember loved ones that have passed away. Sheumaker took an in depth look at art of hairwork through primary sources as well as secondary sources such as letters, diaries, etc. With hairwork being popular during the Victorian Age in the 19^th Century, it is crucial for the researchers to not only define the action but to also to understand the symbolic meaning behind the hairwork. An important aspect associated with hairwork that Sheumaker spoke about is that the art of hairwork is associated with social class. Hairwork pieces are associated with those who come from middle and upper class families. The craft of hairwork was done by professionals whom many worked out from their home. Middle and Upper class families had the money to pay for these nostalgic hairwork pieces.

            Kenneth Ames article “Meaning in Artifacts: Hall Furnishings in Victorian America” examined the design of the Victorian home and the hallways that were built in these homes. Interestingly enough, it was common for there to be a long hallway with formal rooms located from the hallway. This concept is important to know because it gives a great indication as to how social interactions occurred and how important the hallway was to facilitate these interactions. An interesting piece of furniture that was about was the hallstand, which served its purpose as a coat and hat stand. The hallstand was important in showing visitors the social status of the homeowners, thus if the hallstand had numerous coats and hats on it one would assume that the family is wealthy or is popular and has a lot of visitors. Ames stated that if the hallstand had a mirror, the mirror was another indicator that the family was wealthy.

            Dannehel article spoke about object biographies and why object biographies are important when studying artifacts. As Dannehl states that it is important to understand the background of the object and the history that surrounds the object. Yet, Dannehl stated that it is also important for the researcher to understand the function of the object; how the object was made, how was the object used, if the object was broken how was it fixed. This examination of an artifact gives the everyday objects that were normally overlooked receive more than the face value meaning. Dannehl’s article was a great reading to finish with because it summed up how important it was to not only look at artifacts at face value but take time to look at the object in its everyday function. This gives the researcher a great insight in the social functions of the artifact as well the how the individual used artifacts to help their life function more fluidly.  There is a lot to learn from artifacts that can’t been seen by the naked eye, which a more in-depth understanding of the artifacts gives us a better understanding of the community and social life that was present at the time.  The biography of an object will help me understand my Trosseau dress more and the life of the young woman that wore the dress. 

Object-Description

            Based off of my methodology designed from the first object exercise the steps that will be included in the methodology will be 1st observation, 2^nd step will be the imagination phase, 3^rd step will be the analysis phase. The object that I was assigned was a women’s honeymoon/newlywed dress called a Trousseau dress. My dress was dated back to 1888 and was made in Paris, France.

            The first step is the observation phase. During my observation of my object I found many exciting things. My first observation was that the dress was done professional by a seamstress and it was done very well. The dress was two pieces, the top section and the bottom section. The dress was made at the end of the bustle period, thus the dress had less emphasis on the backside but still did draw attention to the bustle region. The dress looked like it had some padding on the back side; however not as much padding that was associated with the bustle period. The bottom of the dress measured 38.5” from the waist to the feet.

            The top went from the shoulders down to the high waist and the bottom of the dress started from the high waist and went down to her feet. The top of the dress had a v-neckline in the front that would reveal more of her cleavage and the v-neckline was also present in the back of the dress. On the top of the dress on the front there was small round buttons in the center that looked that they closed the bodice of the dress. The top of the dress was very form fitting, it was boned and would have sat very snug on the young woman. We were unable to determine what kind of material was used for the boning of the dress; however we could assume that it was from whale because of how expensive the dress looked. The top measured 18.5” from the top center of the V-neckline to the waist. The top also measured 13” from the center of the top to the side, which would be roughly a 26” waist measurement from one side of the dress to the other side. The dress went from the shoulder to the elbow of the young woman.

            The dress was woven and made out of silk and also had machine factored lace throughout the dress, which demonstrated that the young lady had a lot of money. The colors that were used in the dress were green, darker cream, and red. The creamer looked darker because one could tell that the dress was older thus the cream fabric darkened a tad, but still the colors looked amazing with one another. The dress was made of silk ribbons that were the color of green and cream. Also I noticed that there were red rose buds on the cream fabric. The colors of the fabric were a pattern in which the cream with the red rose buds was alternated with green silk. The amount of colored ribbon looked varied, in which roughly the cream fabric looked approximately 2” wide and the green ribbon looked approximately 1” wide.   The same pattern of silk ribbon was also found on the top of the dress as well, therefore the top and bottom of the dress mirrored one another.

            The dress had a considerable amount of lace on it as compared to the other Trousseau dress. The neckline of the dress was trimmed in lace along with the center front opening for the bodice. Lace was also designed on the sleeve of the arm in which it went from the elbow to the wrist. The skirt of the dress also has draped lace throughout the patterns of silk, the largest amount of lace on the skirt was found on the backside where the bustle was placed. The bottom of the skirt was also trimmed with lace as well. The color of the lace was cream which matched the cream ribbon that was used throughout the dress.

            The next phase is the imagination phase, during this phase I place myself in the shoes of the young woman who bought this dress and think about what the dress would feel like to wear. Unfortunately when we saw our objects we were unable to feel the dress, however since the dress is made out of silk it would be safe to assume that the dress would feel nice on the skin. My initial thought of the dress was that the skirt had a lot of fabric and material, thus I believe that skirt would feel heavy on the hips when wearing it. As compared to the top of the dress which did not look like there was as much fabric used for it. The top of the dress had built in boning and was designed to fit the woman snug, therefore when the dress was buttoned fully it would sit very tight on the woman’s waist and would naturally create a bust line, even if the woman was not fully chested. Looking at how the bottom of the dress was created, the skirt looked fuller therefore the woman squeezed herself into the top and was able to let things fall as they would in the bottom of the dress.

            The final step is the analysis phase. Based on the historical research that I did regarding a Trousseau dress, the dress was bought for the honeymoon of the young lady. Since the dress was made in Paris, France we assume that the dress was purchased while she was on her honeymoon. The woman wore this dressing during the afternoon because of how the dress was cut. Historically women would reveal more as the day went on. Therefore, it was normal for a women to start her day off more covered up then when she was changing into her afternoon outfit she would reveal more cleavage and more defined curves and this was socially acceptable. I soon began to think that in order to have multiple outfits for one day; the woman would have to be wealthy. Having the ability to change into multiple outfits throughout the day demonstrated how wealthy you were and allowed the woman to flaunt it to her friends. I am going to also take it a step further because I believe that this allowed the woman to show what social class she belonged to simply because she had the ability to change into an afternoon dress. Therefore, due to the amount of lace that was found on the dress as well as the dress being made in Paris, France the woman who owned this dress came from a wealthy background and was able to have multiple outfits per day.

            I am planning to continue expanding the historical research of the Trousseau dress. The research I did was preliminary information to give me a good grasp on my article of clothing. Therefore, I am going to next focus more on the history of the dress itself and also the social implications that were associated with the dress. I will attempt to support the claims that I drew during my analysis section. 

Reading Blog #1

              In Small Things Forgotten by James Deetz and “Building in Wood in the Eastern United States: A Time-place Perspective” by Kniffen and Glassie had common underlying themes in both of the works. I believe that the main underlying theme from this week’s reading was that architecture is in embedded with a lot of history and culture. When we think of historical artifacts we immediately think of letter, books, painting, clothing, etc. However, we forget about the structures that encompass these historical artifacts. The readings from this past week proved that not only were the materials used in the 1800s were influenced from European countries, we could also see the influence in our building structures as well religious objects. Kniffen and Glassie stated the “method of construction employed had its European antecedents” (Kniffen and Glassie, 178), thus one would derive from the point that there was a stronger European influence than one would think. Deetz references to the advancement in the Tombstone’s used which gave us great insight into the religious attitude that was present. When we look at objects we sometimes overlook any religious or spiritual history that could be associated with it, therefore when Deetz pointed out that the Tombstones were related to a secular religion that is a huge connection with European lifestyle. The typical American attitude is that we are very original and we are not influenced as much so it was very interesting that the readings showed how we are society has been greatly influenced by the European culture even though we try to state that our countries and cultures are not alike. In conclusion, I found both of the readings to be very enlightening because one can learn a lot from artifact, which includes buildings and tombstones. 

Statement of Purpose

Hello, my name is Kelly Driscoll and I am currently a second year master’s student in the Master of Liberal Arts program here at Temple. I am currently pursuing my 2^nd master’s degree at temple. My first master’s degree is a Masters in Applied Sociology (MA) from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.  In my undergraduate studies, which were also completed from Old Dominion University, I doubled majored in Criminal Justice and Sociology.  While at Old Dominion University I played in goal for our nationally ranked field hockey program, following my career at ODU I was named to the national field hockey development team. I soon then got moved up in the central training program and trained full-time as a member of the US Field hockey team. What a wondering experience, so needless to say sports have played a strong role in my work ethic and character.

            I am very interested in studying race, ethnicity, and culture in the urban environment. After the completion of my degree, I would love to work with the at-risk youth population, via enrichment programs or non-profit groups. This class interested me because materials are used in our everyday life whether it is at work, at home, or in social settings. How one views and interprets these materials determines how we as human view the material and its relationship to our society. I believe that materials can dictate the socio-economic status of the individual.  Additionally, I am interested in relating how materials help an individual improve their life situation or how materials block an individual’s development in our society which will impede the individual from being successful in the long run.  Lastly, I am excited to see how bias in our society shapes our thoughts and feelings towards specific materials. We never really look at a material and wonder why we associate it with either male or female, so I think that throughout the semester it will be very interested and enlightening.