DOCSLIB.ORG

The Language of Dress in the New Woman Novel

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Language of Dress in the New Woman Novel THE LANGUAGE OF DRESS IN THE NEW WOMAN NOVEL By KATHRYN IRENE MOODY Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Dr. William R. Siebenschuh Department of English CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2011 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Kathryn Irene Moody candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree *. (signed) William R. Siebenschuh (chair of the committee) Kurt Koenigsberger T. Kenny Fountain Mary E. Davis (date) 7/13/2011 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. i Table of Contents List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Aesthetic Dress and the Painted Heroine ...........................................................................11 Chapter 2 The Tea Gown: “Perhaps More than You Think” .............................................................43 Chapter 3 The Tailor-Made Girl .........................................................................................................80 Chapter 4 Knicksies, Kicksies, Rational Dress: The New Woman as Anti-Actress ........................120 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................165 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................182 ii List of Figures Figure 1. Jane Morris photographed by D. G. Rossetti .....................................................13 Figure 2. May Day by Kate Greenaway .............................................................................17 Figure 3. Tea gown with Watteau train .............................................................................44 Figure 4. “Garment No. 5” .................................................................................................73 Figure 5. Tailor-made gowns by Spice Box ......................................................................81 Figure 6. Ladies Jacket with military braid by James Thomson........................................92 Figure 7. “Costumes at Oneida” ......................................................................................126 Figure 8. Advertisement for Marie Lloyd‟s “Salute My Bicycle” ...................................128 Figure 9. Illustration of Jessie Milton in “rationals” by J. Ayton Symington .................133 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my dissertation director, William Siebenschuh, for taking on my project and for guiding me through the process of presenting my argument. In addition, I would like to thank the members of my committee, T. Kenny Fountain, Mary Davis, and in particular, Kurt Koenigsberger, who introduced me to the New Woman novel. All of my professors at Case have been crucial in shaping my academic persona and, consequently, this dissertation. Gabriel Rieger‟s advice, editing, and experience have been invaluable to this process. Jared and Andrea Moody helped me obtain rare and vital resources. Linda Moody scanned images. Eleanor Traster provided emotional and financial support for my long education, as well as an early example of a pants-wearing woman. Special thanks to Margaret Rieger, the perfect dissertation baby, who has napped in accordance with my writing schedule rather than the other way around, and who is even at this moment playing quietly while I tie up the loose ends. iv The Language of Dress and the New Woman Novel Abstract By KATHRYN IRENE MOODY Historically, dress has served as a kind of shorthand for expressing information about characters, particularly female characters, in British literature. I assert that there is a language of dress at work in the New Woman novel, and this dissertation is an endeavor to interpret four components of that language: Aesthetic dress, the tea gown, the tailor-made gown, and rational dress. Through analysis of Vernon Lee‟s Miss Brown, Sarah Grand‟s The Heavenly Twins, and Mary Ward‟s Marcella, I argue that to dress a woman Aesthetically was often to denote her desire for women‟s liberation along with her own. As painters dressed female models Aesthetically, so Aesthetically dressed characters found themselves “painted” into particular roles. Through readings of Netta Syrett‟s The Day‟s Journey, John Strange Winter‟s A Blameless Woman, and Violet Hunt‟s The Human Interest and A Hard Woman, I show that to dress a character in a tea gown was to demonstrate her desire for intimacy. New Women heroines often wear tea gowns in situations not v considered socially appropriate. Such fashion statements demonstrate a desire to expand societal notions of “respectable” intimacy; one example of this is the association of the tea gown with maternity. Through interpretations of Rita‟s A Jilt‟s Journal, George Moore‟s Evelyn Innes and Sister Teresa, Ella Hepworth Dixon‟s The Story of a Modern Woman, and Beatrice Whitby‟s Mary Fenwick‟s Daughter, I show how the tailor-made represents a desire for solidarity with other New Woman, and a tendency to seek maternal guidance from one‟s peers rather than from one‟s mother. Finally, some fictional New Woman heroines appear in trousers, or rational dress. These costumes appear only rarely in fiction as they appeared rarely in life, due to social stigma which associated women in pants with actresses and prostitutes. Such fiction represents an attempt to revise the language of dress by presenting rationally dressed New Women as particularly honest, while depicting other characters as mendacious. I support this assertion through readings of H. G. Wells‟ The Wheels of Chance, Rhoda Broughton‟s Scylla or Charybdis?, George Paston‟s The Career of Candida, and Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett‟s New Amazonia. 1 Introduction to the Dissertation Women‟s clothing and dress have long been used as a kind of language in British fiction, both as a means of identifying a character‟s class status (sometimes illustrating a transition from one class to another) and as a means to reveal character. In The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath‟s personality is hinted at broadly by her bright red stockings and sharp spurs (Chaucer lines 456, 473). In Richardson‟s Pamela, Pamela must give up the fine clothes her employer has given her and acquire something more suitable to her station before returning home to her parents. Pamela also worries that accepting clothing from Mr. B will cause others to believe she is less than virtuous. In Eliot‟s Middlemarch, Dorothea Brooke‟s choice of simple, Quaker-like clothing, in contrast to the “shade of coquetry” in the clothes of her sister Celia, serves to reveal her serious, determined nature (7). In the New Woman novel, clothing serves many of the same purposes as dress in earlier British fiction: demonstrating a character‟s class or motives. However, because new technology for dyeing fabrics and for mass-producing ready-made garments made clothing less expensive, it is at this point in the history of dress that clothing begins to regularly demonstrate more nuanced details about the wearer (aside from wealth or class status). In this dissertation I will attempt to interpret the “sartorial language” of four different varieties of clothing which were adopted by the New Woman and which appear in New Woman novels: Aesthetic dress, the tea gown, the tailor-made gown, and rational dress. I will demonstrate ways in which a knowledge of that language may serve to improve our understanding of the New Woman in fiction and in life, and of the New 2 Woman novel, by making connections between these types of dress and universal themes such as adolescence, maternity, female solidarity, and integrity. Finally, and particularly in the final chapter, I will assert that New Woman novelists attempted to revise a language of dress already at work in society in order to persuade reader‟s to the woman‟s cause. Aesthetic dress derived from the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and was characterized by loose drapery, natural colors, lack of traditional undergarments, and a vague allusion to a distant but nonspecific past. The contemporary reader might imagine those dresses worn in Pre-Raphaelite paintings. I will argue that Aesthetic dress implied a desire for freedom but a stunted emotional growth on the part of its wearer. Novels such as Vernon‟s Lee‟s Miss Brown, Sarah Grand‟s The Heavenly Twins, and Mary Ward‟s Marcella demonstrate this assertion in their depictions of their New Woman heroines either as literal artist‟s models (as in Miss Brown and Marcella) or as playing roles in tableaux vivantes or living pictures. For example, in all three of these texts, male characters use the language of art in discussing the heroines, “painting” them into roles which they will not be able to escape. The tea gown derived from the peignoir and its defining feature was the fact that it was generally worn without a corset. The most interesting connotations of the tea gown perhaps stemmed from
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Nineteenth-Century British Women Travel Writers and Sport Precious Mckenzie-Stearns University of South Florida
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2007 Venturesome women: Nineteenth-century British women travel writers and sport Precious McKenzie-Stearns University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation McKenzie-Stearns, Precious, "Venturesome women: Nineteenth-century British women travel writers and sport" (2007). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2284 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Venturesome Women: Nineteenth-Century British Women Travel Writers and Sport by Precious McKenzie-Stearns A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Pat Rogers, Ph.D. Nancy Jane Tyson, Ph.D. Regina Hewitt, Ph.D. Carolyn Eichner, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 30, 2007 Keywords: sport, bird, kingsley, savory, dixie © Copyright 2007 , Precious McKenzie-Stearns Dedication For Colby and Wyatt Acknowledgements I must begin by acknowledging the members of my committee: Professors Pat Rogers, Nancy Jane Tyson, Regina Hewitt and Carolyn Eichner. Dr. Rogers has given generously of his time throughout this project. He has kindly allowed me the freedom to pursue my academic interests and tackle a noncanonical topic. Dr. Tyson has introduced me to the New Women’s movement and its authors through both her phenomenal course on Victorian Literature and during our lively meetings.
    [Show full text]
  • Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907)
    Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 BuYun Chen All rights reserved ABSTRACT Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen During the Tang dynasty, an increased capacity for change created a new value system predicated on the accumulation of wealth and the obsolescence of things that is best understood as fashion. Increased wealth among Tang elites was paralleled by a greater investment in clothes, which imbued clothes with new meaning. Intellectuals, who viewed heightened commercial activity and social mobility as symptomatic of an unstable society, found such profound changes in the vestimentary landscape unsettling. For them, a range of troubling developments, including crisis in the central government, deep suspicion of the newly empowered military and professional class, and anxiety about waste and obsolescence were all subsumed under the trope of fashionable dressing. The clamor of these intellectuals about the widespread desire to be “current” reveals the significant space fashion inhabited in the empire – a space that was repeatedly gendered female. This dissertation considers fashion as a system of social practices that is governed by material relations – a system that is also embroiled in the politics of the gendered self and the body. I demonstrate that this notion of fashion is the best way to understand the process through which competition for status and self-identification among elites gradually broke away from the imperial court and its system of official ranks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Morgue File 2010
    the morgue file 2010 DONE BY: ASSIL DIAB 1850 1900 1850 to 1900 was known as the Victorian Era. Early 1850 bodices had a Basque opening over a che- misette, the bodice continued to be very close fitting, the waist sharp and the shoulder less slanted, during the 1850s to 1866. During the 1850s the dresses were cut without a waist seam and during the 1860s the round waist was raised to some extent. The decade of the 1870s is one of the most intricate era of women’s fashion. The style of the early 1870s relied on the renewal of the polonaise, strained on the back, gath- ered and puffed up into an detailed arrangement at the rear, above a sustaining bustle, to somewhat broaden at the wrist. The underskirt, trimmed with pleated fragments, inserting ribbon bands. An abundance of puffs, borders, rib- bons, drapes, and an outlandish mixture of fabric and colors besieged the past proposal for minimalism and looseness. women’s daywear Victorian women received their first corset at the age of 3. A typical Victorian Silhouette consisted of a two piece dress with bodice & skirt, a high neckline, armholes cut under high arm, full sleeves, small waist (17 inch waist), full skirt with petticoats and crinoline, and a floor length skirt. 1894/1896 Walking Suit the essential “tailor suit” for the active and energetic Victorian woman, The jacket and bodice are one piece, but provide the look of two separate pieces. 1859 zouave jacket Zouave jacket is a collarless, waist length braid trimmed bolero style jacket with three quarter length sleeves.
    [Show full text]
  • ' Dangers and Delusions'?
    UCL LIBRARY SERVICES ‘ Dangers and Delusions’? Perspectives on the women’s suffrage movement An exhibition of material from UCL Special Collections February – December 2018 ‘Dangers and Delusions’? Perspectives on the women’s suffrage movement An exhibition of material from UCL Special Collections February – December 2018 #dangersanddelusions Preface The movement calling for women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom was drawn out over several decades and generated intense differences of opinion, not only between those for and against electoral equality, but also within pro- and anti-suffrage campaigns. This exhibition draws on items held in UCL Special Collections – satirical commentaries, campaign literature, personal notes and petitions – to examine the actions and reactions surrounding the case for universal suffrage, from the 1860s up to the fi rst legislative step towards equality for women: the Representation of the People Act, 1918. 4 | ‘Dangers and Delusions’? Introduction | 5 Introduction Coming in to force one hundred years ago, the Representation of rejected by a vote of 194 to 73. Right up to his death a few years later Mill remained the People Act, 1918 granted the vote in Britain to some women a strong supporter of women’s suffrage, as illustrated by a letter to UCL Professor over the age of 30. The long-running suffrage campaign that led George Croom Robertson. to this change has strong resonance and interest for us today, In 1865 the National Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed to bring together although when it first began in the 1860s ‘the Cause’ was of no local suffrage societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Memorials of the Browns of Fordell, Finmount and Vicarsgrange
    wtmx a m 11 Jinmamt, mb MwTftfytanQL Sra National Library of Scotland *B000069914* / THE BROWISTS OF FORDELL. : o o y MEMORIALS OF THE BROWNS OF FORDELL FINMOUNT AND VICARSGRANGE BY ROBERT RIDDLE STODART AUTHOR OF "SCOTTISH ARMS," ETC. V EDINBURGH ~ Privately Printed by T.& A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty at the University Press MDCCCLXXXVII Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from National Library of Scotland http://www.archive.org/details/memorialsofbrownOOstod . y^u *c ' ?+s ^^f ./ - > Co m? Iftingffolft THE DESCENDANTS OF MR. JOHN BRODNE, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT ABERCORN, 1700-1743, AND CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JEAN, LADY TORPHICHEN, C^ege Genealogical ittemoriaw, THE COMPILATION OF WHICH HAS BEEN A LABOUR OF LOVE EXTENDING OVER MANY YEARS, &re fcetitcateti tig E. R. STODAET. CONTENTS. BROWN OF FORDELL, Etc., Arms, .... 1 Origin, .... 1 o I. William, . o II: Adam, of Carchrony, III. Adam, in Ayrshire, 2 IV. Sir John, Sheriff of Aberdeen, 2 V. John, of Midmar, . 4 VI. John, ,, 5 VII. George, „ 8 VIII. George, Bishop of Dunkekl, 9 VIII. (2) Richard, first of Fordell, 14 IX. Robert, of Fordell, 15 X. John, of Fordell, . 16 . XI. John, younger of Fordell, . 21 XII. John, of Fordell, . 24 XIII. Sir John, of Fordell and Rossie, 26 XIV. John, of Fordell and Rossie, 44 XIV. (2) Antonia, of Fordell and Rossie 44 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE BROWN OF FINMOUNT, Etc., . \ . 49 of . XI. David, Finmount, . .49 David, of Vicarsgrange, ...... 49 David, „ . .50 50' John, „ . XII. Eobert, of Finmount, ...... 54 XIII. Captain David, of Finmount, ..... 55 XIII.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue 3.2 (Summer 2007)
    NINETEENTH-CENTURY GENDER STUDIES ISSUE 3.2 (SUMMER 2007) The New Woman’s Work: Past, Present, and Future <1> A full generation after New Woman fiction was re-introduced to academic readers (by Elaine Showalter’s A Literature of Their Own, Lloyd Fernando’s “New Women” in the Late Victorian Novel in 1977 and Gail Cunningham’s The New Woman and The Victorian Novel in 1978) and a decade beyond outpourings of gender-inflected essays, dissertations and books aroused as the most recent fin de siècle approached, the impact of this scholarship — and of the women, the writers and the texts it studies — is far from exhausted. Although undergraduates may continue to insist that Victorian women were silent, subservient and confined to their homes, the papers from the New Woman Roundtable at the 2007 British Women Writers Conference not only reflect the conference theme, “Speaking With Authority” but also focus on the importance of work. Together, our three papers illuminate the literal work in the public sphere done by middle-class women in the 1880s and 1890s; the cultural work performed by the stereotyped “New Woman” and by the backlash against her; the twentieth-century scholarship on her that reshaped the study of modernity and examined evolving questions about gender, nationality, race, class and empire. In the early twenty-first century this work again feels urgent. Its implications fuel the search for new frames of analysis and raise complex and suggestive debates about new ways that we, collectively, might think about our own work as woman scholars and about the place of humanities in an increasingly vocational and technological system of higher education.
    [Show full text]
  • Leonard Bernstein's MASS
    27 Season 2014-2015 Thursday, April 30, at 8:00 Friday, May 1, at 8:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Saturday, May 2, at 8:00 Sunday, May 3, at 2:00 Leonard Bernstein’s MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers* Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin Texts from the liturgy of the Roman Mass Additional texts by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein For a list of performing and creative artists please turn to page 30. *First complete Philadelphia Orchestra performances This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes, and will be performed without an intermission. These performances are made possible in part by the generous support of the William Penn Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Presser Foundation. 28 I. Devotions before Mass 1. Antiphon: Kyrie eleison 2. Hymn and Psalm: “A Simple Song” 3. Responsory: Alleluia II. First Introit (Rondo) 1. Prefatory Prayers 2. Thrice-Triple Canon: Dominus vobiscum III. Second Introit 1. In nomine Patris 2. Prayer for the Congregation (Chorale: “Almighty Father”) 3. Epiphany IV. Confession 1. Confiteor 2. Trope: “I Don’t Know” 3. Trope: “Easy” V. Meditation No. 1 VI. Gloria 1. Gloria tibi 2. Gloria in excelsis 3. Trope: “Half of the People” 4. Trope: “Thank You” VII. Mediation No. 2 VIII. Epistle: “The Word of the Lord” IX. Gospel-Sermon: “God Said” X. Credo 1. Credo in unum Deum 2. Trope: “Non Credo” 3. Trope: “Hurry” 4. Trope: “World without End” 5. Trope: “I Believe in God” XI. Meditation No. 3 (De profundis, part 1) XII.
    [Show full text]
  • Maryland Historical Magazine, 1976, Volume 71, Issue No. 3
    AKfLAND •AZIN Published Quarterly by the Maryland Historical Society FALL 1976 Vol. 71, No. 3 BOARD OF EDITORS JOSEPH L. ARNOLD, University of Maryland, Baltimore County JEAN BAKER, Goucher College GARY BROWNE, Wayne State University JOSEPH W. COX, Towson State College CURTIS CARROLL DAVIS, Baltimore RICHARD R. DUNCAN, Georgetown University RONALD HOFFMAN, University of Maryland, College Park H. H. WALKER LEWIS, Baltimore EDWARD C. PAPENFUSE, Hall of Records BENJAMIN QUARLES, Morgan State College JOHN B. BOLES, Editor, Towson State College NANCY G. BOLES, Assistant Editor RICHARD J. COX, Manuscripts MARY K. MEYER, Genealogy MARY KATHLEEN THOMSEN, Graphics FORMER EDITORS WILLIAM HAND BROWNE, 1906-1909 LOUIS H. DIELMAN, 1910-1937 JAMES W. FOSTER, 1938-1949, 1950-1951 HARRY AMMON, 1950 FRED SHELLEY, 1951-1955 FRANCIS C. HABER 1955-1958 RICHARD WALSH, 1958-1967 RICHARD R. DUNCAN, 1967-1974 P. WILLIAM FILBY, Director ROMAINE S. SOMERVILLE, Assistant Director The Maryland Historical Magazine is published quarterly by the Maryland Historical Society, 201 W. Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201. Contributions and correspondence relating to articles, book reviews, and any other editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor in care of the Society. All contributions should be submitted in duplicate, double-spaced, and consistent with the form out- lined in A Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969). The Maryland Historical Society disclaims responsibility for statements made by contributors. Composed and printed at Waverly Press, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland 21202,. Second-class postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland. © 1976, Maryland Historical Society. 6 0F ^ ^^^f^i"^^lARYLA/ i ^ RECORDS LIBRARY \9T6 00^ 26 HIST NAPOLIS, M^tl^ND Fall 1976 #.
    [Show full text]
  • AN ANALYSIS of the MUSICAL INTERPRETATIONS of NINA SIMONE by JESSIE L. FREYERMUTH B.M., Kansas State University, 2008 a THESIS S
    AN ANALYSIS OF THE MUSICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF NINA SIMONE by JESSIE L. FREYERMUTH B.M., Kansas State University, 2008 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MUSIC Department of Music College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2010 Approved by: Major Professor Dale Ganz Copyright JESSIE L. FREYERMUTH 2010 Abstract Nina Simone was a prominent jazz musician of the late 1950s and 60s. Beyond her fame as a jazz musician, Nina Simone reached even greater status as a civil rights activist. Her music spoke to the hearts of hundreds of thousands in the black community who were struggling to rise above their status as a second-class citizen. Simone’s powerful anthems were a reminder that change was going to come. Nina Simone’s musical interpretation and approach was very unique because of her background as a classical pianist. Nina’s untrained vocal chops were a perfect blend of rough growl and smooth straight-tone, which provided an unquestionable feeling of heartache to the songs in her repertoire. Simone also had a knack for word painting, and the emotional climax in her songs is absolutely stunning. Nina Simone did not have a typical jazz style. Critics often described her as a “jazz-and-something-else-singer.” She moved effortlessly through genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, folk, classical, and even European classical. Probably her biggest mark, however, was on the genre of protest songs. Simone was one of the most outspoken and influential musicians throughout the civil rights movement. Her music spoke to the hundreds of thousands of African American men and women fighting for their rights during the 1960s.
    [Show full text]
  • Strong Start for Lady 'Gades
    BAKERSFIELD COLLEGE Vol. 83 · No. 13 www.therip.com Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Strong start Teaching students for Lady 'Gades to be By Esteban Ramirez a 28-point and 13- rebound per­ Reporter formance against LATTC, gave her thoughts on how the team The Bakersfield College wom­ played. en's basketball team started off "We did really good against leaders its season with a win at College Allan Hancock and it was a good of the Sequoias and then two team effort, but I think we had By Keith Kaczmarek more victories at the Crossover a test against LATTC because Reporter Tournament at BC on Nov. 10- they were more athletic, and we 11. were tired from last night;' Mo- Becky Bell, the creator According to BC rales said. "That game and founder of Step Up!, a women's basketball showed us we college leadership program, coach Paula Dahl, Basketball's needed to work came to Bakersfield College to preview the program for there wasn't a Hot Start on our defense champion and and running BC's athletic program and usually four Nov.8 BC 73, Sequoias 64 our offense the Student Government As­ teams com- Nov. 10 BC 1 01 , Hancock 5 0 better." sociation. pete, but due Nov. 11 BC 76, LATIC 69 She added The program is focused on to a schedul- that everyone "people who step up;' a tag ing problem more feeds off each oth­ line for intervention in prob­ lems that affect students. teams showed up. er and when someone BC beat Allan Hancock 101- does something good, everyone "No matter the group, by­ 50 and Los Angeles Trade-Tech tries to do the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Edwardian England
    Edwardian Beverley: a snapshot in time How much do you know about the Edwardian era in England? Strictly, it was the time of King Edward VII’s brief reign from 1901 to 1910, but is usually considered to extend up to the start of war in 1914. It is often seen as a ‘golden age’, when the world paused between the busy industrialisation of the Victorians and the chaos of global war, after which life changed forever. However, although the Edwardian period was short it was a time of great change, from social reforms to fashion trends and technological advances. One of the key technological developments of the period was the introduction of Kodak’s Brownie camera in 1900, which enabled everybody to make their own record of their surroundings. There is therefore a wonderful photographic record of life in Beverley from the turn of the century, which we have drawn upon in this exhibition as we attempt to put the town into the context of the wider world. Museum Group Collection Online. Science (Y1988.43.3) Creative Commons Licence. 1900 Box Brownie camera Introduction to Edwardian England Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian era as a “leisurely time when There were significant technological advancements, especially in mass women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not communication (the first wireless signal across the Atlantic was sent in ashamed to live conspicuously and the sun really never set on the British 1901), leisure and entertainment, particularly with the development of the flag”. This perception of a romantic age of long summer afternoons and cinema.
    [Show full text]
  • Mary Somerville's Vision of Science
    Mary Somerville’s vision of science James Secord Citation: Physics Today 71, 1, 46 (2018); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.3817 View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3817 View Table of Contents: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/71/1 Published by the American Institute of Physics ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN Earth’s skin is an interdisciplinary laboratory Physics Today 71, 22 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3813 Crystal growth in ice and snow Physics Today 71, 34 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3844 Commentary: Thinking differently about science and religion Physics Today 71, 10 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3831 Gender matters Physics Today 71, 40 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3870 Discovering Earth’s radiation belts Physics Today 70, 46 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3791 The relentless pursuit of hypersonic flight Physics Today 70, 30 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3762 MARY SOMERVILLE (1780–1872), mathematician and writer. Portait by Thomas Phillips (1834). James Secord is a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge in the UK. This article is adapted from his book, Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age (2014). Mary Somerville’s vision of science James Secord The Scottish mathematician and writer shaped the way we think about science and carved a place for herself in the intellectual world of the 19th century. n 1834 mathematician and author Mary Somerville published On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, a work that was instrumental in the making of modern physics as a discipline.
    [Show full text]