Fashion Across Borders and Seas: Print Culture, Women's Networks, and the Creation of Feminine Identities in the British Atlantic World, 1750-1900

Fashion Across Borders and Seas: Print Culture, Women’s Networks, and the Creation of Feminine Identities in the British Atlantic World, 1750-1900 examines the diverse media through which women learned about fashion, and how ideas of fashion were circulated around and between Britain and the United States from the time of the enigmatic fashion doll, to the birth of modern advertising. 

This project considers how the circulation of visual and material sources for fashion information such as fashion dolls, portraits, fashion illustrations, cartes-de-visite and advertisements, as well as fashion accessories created through reproductive processes such as fans and shawls, was as much a process of learning as it was of sharing. The circulation of these objects enabled women to form valuable networks whereby ideas of femininity, politics, national identity and imperialism were created, solidified and challenged.