THINGS TO AT LEAST KEEP IN MIND

OR: WERE PEOPLE IN THE PAST REALLY STUPID?

CLOTHING GIVES A SIGNAL

We are all horrified at some of the things we used to wear

We do not think that those outside our group just see us as an homogenous ‘mass’.

“Fashion is the Mirror of History”

So In the Past Were They Really Stupid? Looking to make sense

of the world (If it was not Demons then what was it?) VOLTAIRE

Were they religious (faith) or was it a belief system?

How many went to church?

NOTE The ‘Church’ as a power play

What would the historian of 200 years in the future make of some of today’s situations and beliefs?

A) Alien Abduction B) Astrology C) Sitting under Pyramids D) Extra Sensory Perception E) ‘Certain’ Alternative Medical

Treatments F) Conspiracy Theories

Clothes Also Suit the Climate of the time

HUGE IMPACT OF DISEASE ON HISTORY

STATISTICS: ALL WE KNOW IS THAT THEY ARE WRONG IF THE WRITER DOES

NOT QUALIFY THE STATISTICS: BEWARE

1691 AND MY CLASS

POPULATION STATISTICS

War Dead Influenza Ireland

UK POPULATION

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

1900

1902

1904

1906

1908

1910

1912

1914

1916

1918

1920

1922

1924

1926

1928

1930

1932

1934

1936

1938

1940

1942

1944

1946

1948

1950

1952

1954

1956

1958

1960

Dateline 1900-1960

MIL

LIO

NS

Males

FemalesNOTE

Data based on Census Information.Census every 10 years in years ending in 1.i.e. 1901, 1911, 1921

Government Statistics Must be Accurate eh! Census every 10 years ‘In-Between’ years estimated on trends Estimated to be + or - 5% at best. Depends on honesty and accuracy of the

collector. Depends on ‘everybody’ taking part. Almost all historical statistics open to

doubt THEY ARE A TREND AND INDICATION OF

CHANGE

Who Would not Answer the Statistical Analysis? Criminals Illegals Can’t be bothered Not home on the date Those that have anything to hide or just

view it as intrusion. Who is the Householder?

THE FURTHER WE GO BACK IN TIME THE MORE ‘DODGY’ THE STATISTICS

MASLOW’s HIERARCHY OF NEED

TRY NOT TO PUT MODERN DAY CONCEPTS INTO HISTORY I.E. Cruelty (People and Animals) Feminism The Vote Victorian Restrictions Sex (Agnes Sorrel: Mistress

Charles VII of France) Breasts were for feeding babies.

A Society of child death, no social security and a knowledge of what sex was for.

So allure was very important.

HOW DID THE MASS OF THE POPULATION LIVE?Breugal - Hogarth

We have little idea Very much a ‘rough and

tumble’ life tied to agricultural work and seasons.

Until the Industrial Revolution apart from a few illustrations did not appear on the landscape

“Individual visibility in historical records depends to a great extent upon wealth, social status and literacy.” The English Family 1450-1700. p2

Administration of the Poor Law

SOMETIMES EVIDENCE ARISES (Not sure about the glamorous image)

GUNNA dress found in a peat bog in Jutland.

Small lengths of material stitched together to form a sack like gown

THE DESERVING POOR AND THE RESIDIUMFrith (Railway) – Gustave Dore 1872 – Filde (Applicants for admission to a casual ward)

MARRIAGE: NOT ‘LOVE’ – A CONTRACT Children a ‘welfare’

resource: No social security. 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law

compelled children to look after destitute parents.

Life long mutual support mechanism

High proportion of marriages were re-marriages

Marriage important to keep skilled business within the family. Run farms. Look after children

AFTER ALL: TODAY MARRIAGE IS VERY DIFFERENT

AVERAGE LENGTH OF MARRIAGE IN WESTERN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

YEAR 2000: 15 Years

Mid Victorian Europe 1860-1880 (Mainly British Data)

15 Years

JOHN KOMLOSAnthropometric Measures. By the study of weights and

heights and dietary standards etc, over a time line certain questions can be raised about the mass of a population.

Aristocratic born boys in Europe were on average 4 to 7 cm taller than Middle Class born boys.

In England in the same period Gentry born boys were 20cm taller than London slum boys. (Social Science History, 6, Fall 1982, pp 422-52)

Note: Very difficult to get accurate runs of heights for lower class boys and all girls

Possible Considerations(After Screening out Variant Factors)

Decline in nutrients: Food output did not keep pace with population. Agricultural labour force falling. Urbanization of USA. Lack of railroad system.

Meat output did not keep up with population increase.

Reversed after Civil War and railroads Minimum height requirements at West

Point? Cadets had a higher socio-

economic status than recruits. Move of USA from an agricultural

hierarchy to a Professional hierarchy

Much smaller class difference in USA compared to Europe.

Destruction of livestock in Civil War

051015 Privates

Harvard

W.Point

Decade of Birth

Privates

Harvard Grads

20yr old West Point

1820’s 173 N/A 173.5

1830’s 173.3 172.5 174.0

1840’s 171.9 173.3 171.9

1850’s 170.9 172.9 170.8

1860’s 170.9 174.4 171.7

1870’s 171 175.6 173.4

DRESS SIZES OF THE POOR UNRELIABLE IN THE EXTREME: (JACK

THE RIPPER) 1888 Elizabeth Stride

(Long Liz)

4 out of 5 over 40 No Teeth All had been married

(21 children) Whitechapel an

immigrant, dock area hell hole. Yiddish spoken widely.

NOTE Married Women’s Property Act 1882

Also in 1888

To Crin or Not to Crin

EAST END LONDON FASHIONS

DEPENDS ON YOUR PLACE IN SOCIETY At the top essential

to determine true inheritance. Once this is secure then each person can ‘more or less’ go their own way.

No DNA tests. NOTE 30%

MARRIAGE FOR MOST PEOPLE Late marriage until they had the ability

to survive financially Because of this many would never marry ‘Nuclear family’ Eliz. England mean age of marriage,

women 26,men 28 Sharing of work: Agriculture, proto

industry.

FOR THE GENTRY JANE AUSTEN: (Wrote the only real novel in history) Not a historical novel: a Chronicler of her times.

Story of the novel is Mrs. Bennet’s quest to marry off her Five educated daughters.

Today is reads like she was mad but her great concern was what would happen to the girls if they remained unmarried.

Dickens Wharton

Certain Paintings at a certain time are very useful if we know the story.Renoir, Pierre-Auguste: Le Moulin de la

Galette 1876 The girl in the striped

dress in the middle foreground was said to be Estelle, the sister of Renoir's model, Jeanne. Another of Renoir's models, Margot, is seen to the left dancing with the Cuban painter, Cardenas. At the foreground table at the right are the artist's friends, Frank Lamy, Norbert Goeneutte and Georges Rivière who in the short-lived publication L'Impressionniste extolled the Moulin de la Galette as a page of history, a precious monument of Parisian life depicted with rigorous exactness. Nobody before him had thought of capturing some aspect of daily life in a canvas of such large dimensions.

WHILE ON THAT SUBJECT: STUDY OF CLOTHING CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE (14 years or 30 years?) (Artistic License)

ACCURACY OF CARTOONS IN WHO WORE WHAT AND HOW1867 & 1909 - Dana Gibson Granddad & Rival Beauties

MERE ‘ILLUSTRATORS’ A VERY IMPORTANT SOURCE

NUANCES OF 1850s PARISIAN SOCIETY (INGRES) Princess de Broglie 1853 Born an aristocrat

Baronne James de Rothschild 1844-48

‘Arriviste’ Flounces on skirt hemline too frivolous; jewelry too complicated, ostrich plumes much too ostentatious and like a vulgar hat. (Hats not be worn with evening dress)

Shocks to the System– I am going to rouge my knees and roll my stockings down: All that Jazz .

ALL THAT JAZZ

WOMENS WORK (ALWAYS UNDERSTATED AND UNDER-RECORDED: AGRICULTURE?: HOME WORK)

0102030405060708090100

19011911192119311951

PERCENTAGE

WHO WRITES THE BOOKS?AND FOR WHOM? M COLLINS His opinions are shaded by age,

gender, place of birth, places lived etc Globe and Mail April 08 “------------- book

shocked a whole generation of men” Up until the 1960s text books were written by

a very very small group of people for a small group of people.

Since then a small group is writing for a reasonably large group.

BUT everybody is biased, everybody is shaped by their own culture.

QUESTION THOSE SOURCES Use all sources as a guide to making up

your own mind. What is the experience of these writers? What is their social class? What is their education? What are their political beliefs. (Note

Irving, Hobsbawm.) Do they really know very much or are

they just regurgitating the same old sources?

SO WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED FASHION? A way of behaving that is temporarily adopted by a

discernable proportion of members of a social group because that chosen behaviour is perceived to be socially appropriate for the time and the situation. (Sproles, quoted in Curran 1991)

Louis XIV “Fashion is the ‘mirror of history’, it reflects political, social and economic changes rather than mere whimsy”

Lord Chesterfield - Dress is a very foolish thing and yet it is a foolish thing for a man not to be well dressed according to his rank and way of life.

WOAD to WESTWOOD

TECHNOLOGY AND LIFE ITSELF SHAPES FASHION Day Dress – Cage - Feragammo

PERCEPTIONS CHANGE James Laver (V&A) 1937 Laver’s Law

10 years before its time Indecent 5 years before its time

Shameless 1 year before its time Daring

Fashionable

1 year after its time Dowdy 10 years after its time Hideous 20 years after its time Ridiculous 30 years after its time Amusing 50 years after its time Quaint 70 years after its time Charming 100 years after its time

Romantic 150 years after its time Beautiful

But all fashions can go just a bit too far!

On the face of it there appear to be two obvious reasons behind clothing, let alone fashionable clothing.

a) Warmth. However Tierra del Fuego early European travellers and natives, No clothes but backing away from fire perspiring heavily.

b) Modesty. Well many periods in European history not too modest with breasts falling out or handkerchiefs stuffed into underwear, codpieces and public exercise of bodily functions. It really does appear that modesty in dress goes hand in hand with culture.

But in our society today clothes and fashion play a much larger part in life than is generally recognised.

We dress up for interviews-why? There are norms of dress for various functions. However, even the person who says he has no interest whatsoever is affected by fashion.

Would the accused standing in the dock in his borrowed suit, wear something really out of fashion? Not talking about a three cornered hat here—he would not even wear the suit fashion of ten years ago.

And yet in that very same court he is faced with:

Judge Wig a Queen Ann period Barristers George Third wig (60

years later) KC/QC A Tudor gown.

SO Bring your arguments and opinions

to class and in your work. For heavens sake do not think you

have to agree with me. Talk about your work with me. Bring your experiences and those

of your family to class. ENJOY YOURSELF

THINGS TO AT LEAST KEEP IN MIND

OR: WERE PEOPLE IN THE PAST REALLY STUPID?