Floor Plan

http://pl.an/d445mz
(Please click the link to see my floor plan, I could not attach the picture on my blog.)

Background:

     In antebellum American society, people faced anxieties to transition to modernity. Following the wave of second great awakening, market and consumer revolutions, middle-class Americans embraced fears and anxieties toward changing economic, society, and culture. Their anxieties created the sentimental culture in early nineteenth century America. Since middle-class Americans faced fears of bottom up transitions from slaves and working-class people, they tended to look back good old past sentimentally. Women’s life and fashion reflect the sentimental culture during antebellum America. 

Theme:

     My exhibit plan divided in two sections of femininity and masculinity within the exhibition. In one side of the exhibit, I displayed three wedding dresses and corset. Three wedding dresses displayed with body, and hopefully corset also displayed with a body. Audience could visually recognize how nineteenth century women formed their body to look style through thin waist of body. In other side, I displayed top hat, waistcoat, and dolman. Compare with women's dresses, male fashion shows audience its simplicity. From the contrast, people could see how women's culture constructed what looked them like. Other than each captions of displays, I hope to have one more caption, which describes meaning of whole exhibition. In the caption, I would like to explain about contrast between men’s and women’s costume and historical background of fashion in nineteenth century. Social pressure of how women look like and raise of sentimental culture could be seen in those objects.

Layout:

     I display three wedding dresses and corset in one side of the room, and waistcoat, top hat, and dolman in another side. In the wall of back of wedding dresses, I hang crazy quilt. This layout divided by costume of men and women. Not only displaying women’s dresses and corset, display of crazy quilt represent women’s domestic sphere. To display corset next to those wedding dresses, audience could recognize how thin waist was important to wear dresses at that period of time. Contrast between dresses and fashion objects also interesting. On the side of women's objects, there are mostly dresses which romanticized and remind women's virtue through fashion. However, on the side of men's objects, it shows simple and less colored objects. These contrasts represent how women's "how to look like in society" images were important in nineteenth century. 

Reading for Nov 26

This week’s reading focused on history of sense. In Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History, the historian Mart M. Smith explored historiography of five senses in his five chapters. He uses a lot of scholarly books to constitute historiography of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching from ancient time to present in worldwide perspectives.

In his analysis of five senses, I was intrigued by the fact of touching. Differ from seeing, touching is the sense of invisible and historically tended to ignore. However, during the time of the Enlightenment, sense of touching started to consider important fact of history with perspectives of sex and disease. Smith analyzes that “Men of any rank, however, saw the female body as always open to touch and, therefore, possession.”[i] Since female body considered as male possession, clothing, which wear on female body, shows male power and class. Considering my wedding dresses, which designed with expensive materials and detailed ornament, those dresses not only shows women’s social status, but also her father’s and husband’s social status and power.

When I think about museum exhibitions, those five senses were used well to attract audiences in many cases. Last week, I visited Bacardi rum factory tour in Puerto Rico and consider how the tour became a part of museum exhibition and attraction. As seeing, we see beautifully build building within a factory, which seems not working as factory, and exhibit of history and process of creating Bacardi. During the tour, we hear explanation of the guide who is well trained to entertain audiences, and we can touch many exhibits of factory processes. Also there are exhibition of smell. They exhibit different kinds of rum to show different smells. In the end of tour, they provide rum to taste it. The main purpose of this factory tour is an advertisement of company, but to think about as a part of museum exhibition, it was interesting to see how they stimulate five senses to audiences and get interests from them. In clothing exhibition, those ideas of five senses could helpful to entertain audiences. It is difficult to touch real exhibit, but we can put material examples that can touch and audiences can feel. As we talked about in class, explain captions in audio also help to catch visitors’ interests. Smith explored class and race of American south associated with five senses, but his analysis could be adaptable for all material exhibitions.

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[i] Smith M. Mark, Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History, (California: University of California Press, 2007), 101.

Reading for Nov 19

   This week’s reading gave me a different perspective toward material culture. The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future,[i] edited by Smith and Morra, explores human body and disability in perspective of technology of prosthetic. This collection of essays analyzes how people constitute their identity with the relationship with their replaced bodies. In Disability, Masculinity, and the Prosthetics of War, 1945 to 2005, David Serlin describes how concepts of disability and prosthetic influenced masculinity and people’s identity over time. Considering prosthetic as not a part of human body, prosthetic experiences change people’s identity creation.

   In that sense, two wedding dresses also could be considered as a part of prosthetic impulse. Brides do not experience replace of their body, but they shape their body with unnatural form with corset and express femininity for their special day. Compare with American soldiers who consider normal body and performance as masculinity, women consider femininity as unnatural shape. Throughout Serlin’s essay, I was wondering her argument of identity construction with the relationships between disability and masculinity could be interesting contrast to consider with femininity identity. Male are complete figure from the birth, so losing their body parts means losing their masculinity and identity. However, as Simone de Beauvoir pointed out in her book, The Second Sex,[ii] women were not perfect and less complete with natural figure, women had to wear corset and high heal to shape their body to express their femininity.

   The argument of posthuman body in this book interestingly expressed different ideas of prosthetic experiences and human identity. However, if the idea of prosthetic impulse could be consider as an expression of unnatural body, women were practicing reshape their body all the time throughout history.

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[i] Smith Marquard and Morra Joanne, edit, The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future, (MA: The MIT Press, 2006).

[ii] Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, (New York: Vintage Books Edition, 1989). 

Reading for Nov 12

   In Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary, Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward explore sociological aspects of blue jeans and analyze personal and cultural relationships with blue jeans through interviews in England. In their early chapters, they discuss personal relationships with blue jeans. They interviewed people and asked their experiences of blue jeans. It is interesting to focus on personal histories of blue jeans and connected to social experiences. They interview a woman, who calls Susan, and explore that she had different connections with blue jeans in each stage of her life. When she was young and went out for fun, she preferred to wear skirt, but after she got married, she always wore jeans. It was her personal history, but the relationships between her and blue jeans were not entirely personal. Her decisions to wear jeans were influenced by social and cultural environments surrounding her. Authors talk about conformity of blue jeans in other chapter. They said “the need to feel comfortable, in the sense of appropriate, under the gaze of others within a public situation.”[i] Although jeans sometimes uncomfortable to wear depend on weather and shape, they describe conformity in physical, social, and personal perspectives. When I think about two wedding dresses from 1830s and 1840s, those dresses needed corset to wear and used heavy materials. Although wearing dresses must be uncomfortable from perspective of modern fashion, people might be comfortable to wear those because of social appreciation at that time.

   Miller and Woodward also discuss about jeans and women’s bodies. They said “Jeans are both the measure of her body and sometimes even the reward for getting her body shape right.” [ii]Through their interviews, they found most women tend not to wear jeans if they gain certain amount of weight. If they are slim enough, they consider it is appropriate to wear jeans. In some part, jeans are for ordinal and comfortable wears, but in certain brands and shapes, they represent ideal women’s bodies unconsciously. Skinny jeans remind me my dresses and corset. Both of them are tight and squeeze women’s body to create ideal shape. On the other side, people who can fit and wear those fancy clothing feel comfortable because of appropriation from social gaze. As authors mention that “Comfortable, meaning that at least from the point of view of subjective experience there is a good fit with the situation,“ [iii]ambivalent conformity exist together.

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[i] Miller Daniel, Woodward Sophie, Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary (CA: University of California Press, 2012), 82.

[ii] Ibid, 27.

[iii] Ibid, 73.

Object Exercise 4

[Dress of 1837]

1.     This light ivory striped silk dress with multicolored flower needle works was worn at wedding in 1837. Sleeves and tight tops express the latest fashion of 1830s. Long shirring, “ham-string” shaped sleeves were fashion in 1830s. Small tight tops were also popular. Compare to the volume of the bottoms, tops are very small and waist is only 24 inches.

[Dress of 1845]

1.     This ivory colored beautiful silk dress was worn at wedding in 1845. Significance of this dress is a lot of fringes. In 1840s, the trends of dresses are short sleeves and volume skirts. On the bottom of the skirt, there are two lines of ivory colored fringes. This is unusual for wedding dresses, but those fringes make a skirt bigger and fashion.

[Comments]

These captions express details of the dress and materials. Those captions did not focus on historical and cultural background of people, but more explained fashion and trend of 1830s and 1840s. Visitors can learn what the latest fashions were at that time and can compare differences of trends between 1830s and 1840s. Also descriptions of materials and designs express details of dresses.  

[Dress of 1837]

2.     This dress was worn in Appleton’s wedding in 1837. Appleton was one of the famous families, so the woman who wore the dress at their wedding was in a certain status. This dress features the latest trends of long shirring sleeves. This latest fashion of silk detailed dress express owner’s higher position in society.

[Dress of 1845]

2.  This 1845 wedding dress was donated by Samuel K. Reeves. Reeves family is one of the prestigious families with a long history. A white wedding dress was a status of elite in 1840s. This dress has numbers of back buttons, which indicates bride needed helper to wear the dress. This white, silk, detailed dress was a symbol of high status.

[Comment]

In those captions, I focused on family background and their status in society at that time. Clothing express people’s class and status, so visitors can learn how those dresses worked as a status symbol in 1830s and 1840s. I also assume that displaying beautiful dresses and explaining owners of rich families help visitors to imagine invisible working class fashion. Emphasizing dresses as status symbols, people can imagine existence of dresses and clothes for working class people.

[Dress of 1837] [Dress of 1845]

3.  Those dresses of 1837 and 1845 were the style of sentimental dress. Rise of middle class culture created cult of womanhood and sentimental mood from mid-1830s to 1840s. Sentimental women were less active and simple in style to embrace the domestic virtue of women. The style of dress expressed women’s position in society.

[Comment]

This caption explains relationship between dresses and women. Since fashion strongly connected to women’s social and cultural situations, it is interesting to know how social expectation to women reflected in fashion. I hope I can use this caption 3 for express both two dresses, and also use caption 2 for individual expressions. 

Object Exercise 3

   Fashion and women strongly connected each other over history. Fashion not only expresses senses, status, and identities of people, but also explains social, cultural, and economical situations of their history. My two dresses came from 1837 and 1845. They are not only beautiful objects, but also reflect women’s social situations in each time periods. This paper explore how fashion connected to social and cultural situations of women in early nineteenth century America.

   From the research at Historical Society in Pennsylvania, I found information related to my objects. Samuel K. Reeves was the donor of the ivory wedding dress from 1845. It was hard to find out who wore the dress, but Reeves family was one of the prestigious families having long history. In Thomas Reeves and his Descendants, Emma M. Reeves describes six generations of Reeves family. Thomas Reeves first came to America from Southampton, England in the “Beves” in 1638 as the servant of Henry Byley of Salesbury.[i] Thomas started his new life in America as a servant, but he became free in 1644 and married Hannah Rowe in next year. In Ancestral Sketches, Le Roy Reeves describes history of her family in early nineteenth century.[ii] Since I could not find the exact wedding of 1845, I tried to analyze the same time period of Reeves family and see their social and cultural background. There are two brothers Peter Miller Reeves and William Miller Reeves married in 1831 and 1836 with two sisters of de Vault family. Le Roy describes those brothers’ works that “In 1838 the brothers purchased together for $5500 a tract of 400 acres of land. They made their home, each operating a part of the farm; that part of the farm containing the buildings being known in later years as “Wheatland”.” Her descriptions tell their prosperity and success in business. Their wives also described as “They were model wives and mothers. Their homes were homes of comfort and plenty. Both survived their husbands and were tenderly cared for by their children in their declining years.” They were very religious women and embodied ideal wives and mothers.

The dress from 1837 has specific trend at that time. In the 1830s, trends of dresses were short bodice, tight skirt, and ‘ham-shaped’ sleeves. In “A History of Costume”, Carl Kohler described specific trend of sleeves that “A characteristic feature at the beginning of the thirties was the so-called ‘ham-shaped’ sleeves; there were long and enormously wide at the top, narrower from the elbow down, and tight at the wrists.”[iii] In “Gody’s Lady’s book” which was published in Philadelphia in 1830 also shows the image of ‘ham-shaped’ sleeves. The descriptions of the image says that “the corsage tight to the shapes; is trimmed with a fancy silk cord; the sleeves are ornamented with the same, and the skirt and border are also trimmed with the same.” [iv]The dress of 1837 has exactly same short bodice and ‘ham-shaped’ sleeves. Since this dress was worn by Appleton’s wedding which was one of famous family, we can assume that the dress was the latest fashion in the 1830s. Although the other dress was worn only after 8 years, there are differences of trends between them. In the 1840s, trends of dresses changed dramatically. Sleeves decreased, skirts increased, and their growing volume required artificial means of extension.[v] Compared to the dress of 1836, the dress of 1845 has short sleeves and huge fringed skirt.

Relationships between dresses and owners describes social and cultural situation in the nineteenth century America. Virtues of women were important facts for women from prestigious families. And those rich women could afford the latest trend dresses. Wedding dresses has a long history, but white wedding dresses became popular in 1840 when Queen Victoria first wore white wedding dress at her wedding. White became a coveted choice for brides of higher social position, but it were not for purity but wealth. However, for poor women white were not preferred choices. [vi] It clearly expresses that the woman who wore the dress from 1845 was a part of rich family. Her white (ivory), silk ringed dress was a symbol of their family status.

In Fashion and Women’s attitudes in the Nineteenth Century, Willet Cunnington discuss women’s situations that “The 19^th century woman, whose economic position was still largely dependent on her powers of sex-attraction, made a virtue of necessity, and her hands modesty became a fine art.”[vii] She explains Sentimentalism and Exhibitionism as women’s approach to attract men. The Sentimentalist attracted men with emotional tie. On the other hand the Exhibitionist herself, body, and mind. Those two attitudes changes overtime and balance together depends on social situation. For those women who owned the dresses seems to tie with sentimentalism. Although they wore the latest trend dress and express their high status, they had to wore corset and cover their bodies with long skirt. Those dresses showed their good images of women who has virtues and morals in good families.

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[i] Emma M. Reeves, Thomas Reeves and his Descendants, (New Jersey: Privately Mimeographed Salem).

[ii] Le Roy Reeves, Ancestral Sketches, (Virginia: J.P. Bell Company Lynchburg, 1951).

[iii] Carl Kohler, A History of Costume, (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1963), 422.

[iv] Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, 1840.

[v] Norah Waugh, The Cut of Women’s Clothes 1600-1930, (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1968).

[vi] Mead Rebecca, One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), 79.

[vii] Willett C. Cunnington, Fashion and Women’s Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century, (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 2003). 

Reading for Oct 28

   In “Clothing as Language”, Grant McKtracken discusses clothing as an expressive medium and explores how clothing constituted parts of history.[i] His analysis of relationships between clothes and languages explores expressions of clothes as materials are limited. Clothing shares space and time with people who live in the same time periods. In that sense, clothing shares social customs and habits within history. Considering with two wedding dresses of the 1837’s and the 1845’s, they interacts with social and cultural backgrounds within each time periods. Those two dresses are the latest fashion of each time periods. The dress of 1837 has special ham-shaped sleeves and the dress of 1845 has fringes and short sleeves, both of which are the specific designs of the 1830s and the 1840s. Those dresses expressed women’s status and social backgrounds. They also can tell that women who own those dresses at the time were sensitive for fashion and could afford to have the latest dresses. However, it is hard to tell specific languages of women who wore those dresses in specific occasions and how they expressed their identities. Material culture reveals relationships between objects and social/cultural situations of the past. However, it is sometimes hard to describe specific ordinal and daily languages of owners.    

   In “Marx’s Coat”, Peter Stallybrass explores the idea of fetish for objects.[ii] Within the concept of capitalism, he analyzes how possessions of clothing influence people’s social status. He describes that “Marx’s overcoat was to go in and out of the pawnshop…and his overcoat directly determined what work he could or could not do.” [iii]Without the overcoat in winter, he labeled as a poor man and hard to be a part of society. A wedding dress also works as a symbol of status. It does not affect people’s occupation, but definitely tells family’s status and power in communities. When a bride wore the dress with latest fashion, expensive material, and designer’s label, that expresses how her family has authority and status in the community. Since wedding is a family involved ritual, it became a place to show their power to relatives and community members. Fetish to the commodity shows social attitude in the capitalistic society.

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[i] Grant McKracken, “Clothing as Languages: An Object Lesson in the Study of the Expressive Properties of Material Culture,” in Culture and Consumption (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988).

[ii] Peter Stallybrass, “Marx’s Coat,” in Patricia Spyer, ed., Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces (New York: Routledge, 1998).

[iii] Stallybrass, 187.