John Munson/Cornell University
Julia Gardner, head of research services for the library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, uses an overhead document camera to show a 15th-century book of sermons, originally attached to a lectern by a chain. From vaults to virtual classes, library archives enrich teaching
January 21, 2021
In the spring of 2020, Denise Green thought she had the fall 2020 semester all figured out.
An associate professor of fiber science and apparel design in the College of Human Ecology, Green had been awarded a Society for the Humanities fellowship to teach a class on curating fashion exhibitions. Her students would do hands-on research in the archival collections of Cornell University Library, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and the Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection, which she directs.
The practice of white wedding dresses likely dates back more than 2 000 years, with roots in the Roman Republic when brides wearing a white tunic was fashionable.
After Queen Victoria wore white at her wedding in 1840, white wedding dresses became a sign of wealth and status rather than virginity.
Although the first records of brides in white go far back into history, it only became standard fashion choice over the last 80 years.
For most brides in the U.S, [and South Africa] that dream is realised in a beautiful white wedding gown. It’s a seemingly timeless tradition that is often the center point of little girls’ wedding fantasies. In 2018, about 83 percent of brides wore white dresses on their big day, according to a survey by Brides Magazine. Such an overwhelming statistic begs the question: Why do we associate white with wedding gowns? And how long has this tradition existed?
Doctoral College
Summary
Ulster’s ready-made shirt making industry, located largely in the north west of Northern Ireland, was an important but little known industry. Its origins lie in the early 19th century, when local man William Scott established a shirt making enterprise in Derry in 1831. Having spotted a demand, among fashionable society, for cotton shirts with embroidered linen fronts, he expanded his making, via outstations, into manufacture and by 1850 was thought to have one of the highest wage bills in the city. His early success paved the way for others, who took an industrial approach to shirt making.
Technological advances, such as the introduction of the sewing machine, allowed further investment in the city and industrialists to construct purpose built factories. The Tillie & Henderson factory at 19,000 sq ft, opened in 1856, was the largest of its kind in the world. By the 1902, there were 38 shirt factories in Derry, employing 18,000 workers and 80,000 outworke