1895-1900 Worth ball gown

Introduction

The spring 2010 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. The exhibition, on view from May 5 through August 15, 2010, explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sartorial emancipation. Early mass-media representations of American women established the fundamental characteristics of American style – a theme explored via a multimedia installation in the final gallery.

“The ideal of the American woman evolved from a dependence on European, Old World view of elegance into an independent New World sensibility that reflected freedoms still associated with American women today,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator of The Costume Institute. “The show looks at fashion’s role in defining how American women have been represented historically, and how fashion costumes women into archetypes that persist in varying degrees of relevance.”

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Biltmore Estate:

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A rare 1913 Stevens-Duryea Model “C-Six” seven-passenger touring car will be placed on display for the first time beginning May 20 at Antler Hill Village on the Biltmore Estate. The car is one of 10 motor vehicles on the estate that was registered in North Carolina in June 1916, and the only one purchased by George Vanderbilt that remains in The Biltmore Company’s collection. This particular model is believed to be one of only 10 known existing in the world today.

Conservation work will take place over the next several months, and then the car will be on exhibit in a closed, climate-controlled space just outside Biltmore Winery in the new Antler Hill Village Like many objects in historic collections, guests will not be able to touch the vehicle, but they will be able to see it up close and get a sense of the Vanderbilts as a family who enjoyed one of the most exciting new inventions of the 20th century – the automobile.

While Biltmore conservators enjoy the daily work of caring for objects, furniture and art in the Biltmore House collection, using their skills to conserve an automobile is especially interesting. The team will begin work on the vehicle’s interior and exterior this month, using a wide variety of techniques to prepare the car for its debut to Biltmore guests. The undercarriage and mechanical components of the car will be conserved by B.R. Howard & Associates, a team that specializes in historic transportation objects based in Carlisle, Pa.

About the company and the car:

In 1901 J. Frank Duryea, after breaking up with his brother Charles E., built the Hampden automobile which proved to be a pilot model for the first Stevens-Duryea automobile, built as part of the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. This five-passenger car has Westinghouse air shock absorbers, and a spring-loaded front bumper, and when introduced was the only car with a one-piece windshield.

Specifications: Model C-six; engine six-cylinder in-line, water-cooled; bore 4 9/16 in., stroke 5-1/2 in., displacement 495 cu. in., 48 hp. Price new $4,500.

Further Reading:
A restored 1913 Stevens-Duryea
A look at Biltmore

A few helpful primary resources that give a peek into Parliament during the Edwardian era (click on the titles to read online):

The House of Commons
The House of Commons from Within
Gentlemen of the House of Commons
The Procedure of the House of Commons
The Inner Life of the House of Commons
“Scenes” in the Commons

The House of Lords
The House of Lords Question
The House of Lords
British Aristocracy and the House of Lords
Liberalism and the House of Lords
Fifty Years in the House of Lords

Political Questions of the Day
A Primer of Tariff Reform
The Case for Tariff Reform
The Case Against Tariff Reform
The Irish Question
The Speaker’s Handbook on the Irish Question
The Home Rule Movement
The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910
Women’s Fight for the Vote
Army Reform and Other Addresses

Parliament & Its People
Peeps at Parliament
Later Peeps at Parliament
A Popular Handbook of Parliamentary Procedure
A Diary of the Salisbury Parliament, 1886-1892
A Diary of a Home Rule Parliament, 1892-1895
The Balfourian Parliament, 1900-1905
Eight Years of Tory Government, 1895-1903
From Gladstone to Lloyd George
Dod’s Parliamentary Companion, 1902