Womens Shoes in America, 1795-1930

E. Rexford Nancy

Description

"Many a man's heart has been kept from wandering by the bow on his wife's slipper."-Demorest's, 1883In an engaging narrative history, the beautifully illustrated Women's Shoes in America investigates an aspect of American material culture not previously examined and provides a detailed reference for dating women's footwear.Part One, "A History of Women's Footwear in America," discusses the history of the American shoe industry and surveys changing styles of shoes, boots, boudoir slippers, overshoes, and sports shoes. It examines the relationship between women's footwear and women's roles in the context of nineteenth-century culture, as well as providing specific information about the evolving etiquette that governed women's choices in shoes.Part Two, "Dating Women's Shoes, 1795-1930," a detailed reference for dating surviving shoes, will be of particular use to museums, dealers, collectors, material culture historians, and reenactors. It is arranged according to easily defined visible characteristics and presents the style variations in chronological order. Over four hundred clear and detailed drawings make identification as simple and accurate as possible.Women's Shoes in America is invaluable for those interested in fashion and costume history-or just shoes!

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612779249
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Women’s Shoes in America, 1795–1930
 

From the magazine Judge , January 10, 1920, drawn by F. Foster Lincoln. Smithsonian Institution Photo No. 83-890.
women’s
shoes
in america, 1795–1930
written and illustrated by nancy e. rexford
© 2000 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 99-055197
ISBN 0-87338-656-6
Manufactured in China

08  07  06  05  04  03  02  01  00      5  4  3  2  1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rexford, Nancy E., 1947–

Women’s shoes in America, 1795–1930 / written and illustrated by Nancy E. Rexford.
     p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87338-656-6 (cloth: alk. paper) ∞
1. Shoes—United States—History. 2. Shoes—Collectors and collecting—United States. 1. Title.
GT 2130. R 48 2000 391.4'13'0820973—dc21 99-055197
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.
For all those who care for the material culture of the past and labor with little recompense to preserve the body of surviving American dress .
Many a man’s heart has been kept from wandering by the bow on his wife’s slipper.
— Demorest’s (1883)
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Terminology
Introduction
Part I: A History of Women’s Footwear in America
1. Makers and Marketers: A Brief Look at the American Shoe Industry
2. Stepping Out or Staying In? Women’s Shoes and Female Stereotypes
3. A Chronological Overview of Shoe Fashions
4. The Correct Dress of the Foot
5. Shoes Adapted for Sports
6. Shoes Adapted for Protection
Part II: Dating Women’s Shoes. 1795–1930
7. Upper Patterns in Shoes
8. Upper Patterns in Boots
9. Looking at the Bottom: Heels and Soles
10. Variations in Lasts
11. Materials and Decorations
Appendixes
A. How Leather Is Made
B. How Shoes Are Made
C. Rubber and Elastic Webbing
D. Partial Listing of Shoe Manufacturers
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Credits for Part II Illustrations
Index of Illustrated and Cited Shoes, Alphabetically by Museum
Index
Acknowledgments
M y interest and expertise in costume took root in the world of small, underfunded, and understaffed historical societies that (no matter how sympathetic they were) could not possibly support scholarly work of this scope. Therefore, it is entirely due to financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities that this volume could be written at all. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is a federal agency that supports the study of such fields as history, philosophy, literature, and languages, and through its grants it has repeatedly acknowledged costume history to be a worthwhile field of investigation in the humanities. I am grateful that the NEH recognized the validity of work that not only was done outside academia by an independent scholar but that also grew out of familiarity with the evidence of material objects rather than of written documents. It was my good fortune to have as my program officer at NEH David Wise, who for more than a decade consistently encouraged me in my work, and whose very name was a consolation in times of trouble.
I would like to acknowledge the first publisher who took an interest in this book, Holmes & Meier, especially Barbara Lyons, Miriam Holmes, Sheila Friedling, and the late Max J. Holmes. Their work enormously influenced its development, although they were unable to carry the project to completion.
Women’s Shoes in America has been a particularly complex publication, and I deeply appreciate the willingness of The Kent State University Press to take it on, especially Julia Morton, the first editor who encouraged the project; Christine Brooks, the designer; and Joanna Hildebrand Craig, the editor who managed to pilot this unwieldy ship into harbor.
During the preparation of this volume, I have benefited from the advice and encouragement of many friends and colleagues, particularly Jean Druesedow, Claudia Kidwell, Edward Maeder, Joan Severa, and the late Otto Thieme. Arthur S. Tarlow of the Alden Shoe Company, Saundra Ros Altman, Jan Armstrong, Dr. Stephen Blomerth, Jeffrey Butterworth, Colleen Callahan, Louise Coffey, Paige Savery, June Swann, and Jonathan Walford have kindly shared information related to shoes. Doris May spent significant time researching the history of Viault-Esté for me in Paris. I also thank the many costume enthusiasts who allowed me to make use of material from their personal collections, including Elizabeth Brown, John Burbidge, Elizabeth Enfield, Heidi Fieldston, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fisher, Peter Oakley, William Streeter, and Merideth Wright. David Rickman kindly shared his expertise on the art and craft of illustration and on early California costume. Barry Kaplan and the staff of The Finer Image deserve the credit for anything good about the photographs taken by the author. They were unfailingly generous with their advice even when they really didn’t have the time, and when I still made mistakes, they fixed them in the lab. I am grateful to Gaza Bowen, Jean Druesedow, Claudia Kidwell, Edward Maeder, Fred Prahl, Nen Rexford, Gillian Skellinger, Charles Turner, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jonathan Walford, Joan Walther, and Merideth Wright, who read and commented on part or all of the manuscript.
As researcher or consultant, I have visited a great many museums and historical societies in the course of my work on American women’s dress, and to all of them I am grateful for their generosity in making their collections available. For this volume on shoes, I owe particular thanks to Ken Turino, Sophie Garrett, Laurel Nilsen, and the staff of the Lynn Museum, which opened its collections to me without reservation; to Paula Richter and many other current and past staff members at the Peabody Essex Museum (formerly the Essex Institute), and especially to Anne Farnam, curator and director, whose generous encouragement of my work on shoes extended an entire decade until her untimely death in 1991; to Sandy Rosenbaum and Edward Maeder at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, who introduced me to the costume of early California; to Jessica Nicoll, Peter Oakley, and Sarah LeCount at Old Sturbridge Village (they suffered lengthy discussions on early nineteenth-century women’s work shoes and shared both their collections and their files); to Lynne Bassett and Pamela Toma at Historic Northampton, and before them to Ruth Wilbur, without whose encouragement and guidance I would not be working in the field of costume today; to Colleen Callahan at the Valentine Museum in Richmond; to Joan Walther and the Costume Committee at the Colonial Dames in Boston, and especially to Liz Ballantine, to whose angelic interference I owe a great deal.
I am grateful as well to the following museums that allowed me to study their shoes: in Massachusetts, to the Bedford Historical Society, Danvers Historical Society, Duxbury Rural Historical Society, Haverhill Historical Society, Museum of Fine Arts–Boston, Old Sturbridge Village, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Topsfield Historical Society, and Wellesley Historical Society; in Vermont, to the Aldrich Public Library in Barre, the Ferrar Mansur House in Weston, the Morristown Historical Society, the Old Constitution House in Windsor, the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington, and the vermont Historical Society in Montpelier; in Pennsylvania, to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Tioga County Historical Society in Wellsboro; to the Connecticut Historical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Valentine Museum in Richmond (Virginia), the Kansas City Museum in Kansas City (Missouri), the Oakland (California) Museum, and the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of New York; and to the staff of the Division of Costume at the Smithsonian Institution, who were willing to share the rich picture files they had developed during the years of preparation for the book Men and Women: Dressing the Part and its attendant exhibition on gender and dress.
And finally, I am grateful to my family for doing everything in their power to make it possible for me to write this book: to my father, Don Rexford, for desks, shelves, and all the practical domestic conveniences it was in his power to provide; to my mother, Nen Rexford, for assistance with research and for discovering critical illustrations and quotations, not to speak of a lifetime of intellectual encouragement and support; to my son, Gerritt, who made sure his mother remembered that basketball was just as important as shoes; and most humbly and deeply, to my husband, Charles Turner, whose belief in the value of my work led him, day in and day out, to make the countless sacrifices of time, money, pleasure, and personal convenience that made it possible for me to continue my research and writing.
A Note on Terminology
S hoe terminology may confuse the beginner, not merely because many terms refer to variations in detail that are difficult for the novice to distinguish but also because the words have changed over time and are not consistent between Britain and United States. To simplify matters in Women’s Shoes in America , technical vocabulary is kept to a minimum in the text, and when there is a choice, the term preferred is one that describes the characteristic to which it refers (for example, “side lacing” rather than “Adelaide”). The glossary provides extended definitions of many shoe terms and explains the distinctions between British and American usage.
For the purposes of this book, footwear is broadly divided into shoes, boots, and overshoes. Shoes are defined as encasing only the foot, while boots encase the ankle and sometimes part of the leg. Overshoes are worn over another pair of shoes or boots for warmth or protection from wet and dirt.
In order to produce a more organized discussion, shoes and boots