Member Book Review

A Resource for Costuming 1900-1950

by Sarah Uthoff

Are you trying to portray a particular time in your school between 1900 and
1950? Then this book should be on your shelf.

Children’s Fashions 1900-1950: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs, edited by JoAnne Olian
Dover Publications, 2003, ISBN 0486423255, $14.95

A recurring problem for people who bring students in to their museum is that the students want to dress up, but have no idea how people dressed during your time period. Here in the Midwest the problem is often students who seem to think some warped version of the prairie era, when little girls wore long skirts and boys wore rope belts, lasted all through the 20th century. This summer I learned that east coast school museums have a similar problem with colonial misses in mob caps,so teaching about what children were actually
wearing is important not only because it’s something children are curious about, but also is a subject about which they know next to nothing. This book can be a help for school museums set in the first half of the 20th century.

The book is full of pages taken from various Sears Catalogs by editor JoAnne Olian of the Costume Collection of the Museum of the City of New York. After a three page introduction about the Sears catalog and popular clothing trends in general, Olian contents herself with showing full pages from the catalog, modified only by new page number and year it appeared. Each year is not represented, but almost all those that are feature four or so pages. For instance the first few years represented are 1901, 1902, 1906, 1908, 1909, and 1912. Allowing that most fashions for everyday people would be worn a few years after they were ordered or made, I think most schools could find a close match to peek into the students closets. Olian strikes a good balance showing boys and girls, summer clothing and winter clothing, even shoes, sweaters, and coats. I can think of several activities that could be created for students using the information in this book. I’d prefer to see whole copies of the catalogs reproduced, but until someone wises up and decides that would make a dandy paid database, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. This volume can serve as a useful tool until then.

I should also mention that the while the cover is in full color, all 120 pages inside are in black and white. Also, while the pages are ample at 12 inches by 9, the number of pages make it a skinny book.

You may also wish to explore a companion edition: Children's Fashions 1860-1912, edited by JoAnne Olian