The Sewing Academy

The Pioneer’s Home on the Western Frontier (1867, published by Currier & Ives; Frances Flora Bond Palmer)

Living history is a different sort of hobby. Whenever we claim an aspect of ‘educating the public,’ we take on a burden of academic support for the things we share: are we sharing historical reality, or fantasy? If we claim to educate, we need to share reality in all its mess and variability. People can get fantasy and fiction anywhere! Accessing history through hands-on, personal connection is a unique thing, worthy of our efforts.

So, let’s talk a little bit about some concepts we can use to enhance and inform our living history. Understanding and using these concepts can help us when interacting with academic historians, as well, which is grand! (Let’s be honest, people who dress up and pretend we live in another era? We’re a little odd in a lot of ways, and that makes academic historians a bit nervous sometimes!)

Research
Asking questions and seeking answers to those questions.

It’s truly no more complex than that: we have questions, and we seek answers, even if they are only partial answers. What did they do, have, think, understand, value, engage with? How did historical experiences fit into the wider context of the world at that time? What did people of that time say about their own experiences?

Research is something anyone who has ever had a question can engage in, and ought to be encouraged in. Our research will not be perfect. We can revisit it as we gain skills, as we become aware of new supporting or conflicting sources, or as our interests shift and deepen. It is ongoing inquiry into a myriad of topics!

Application
Putting research into practice for any reason.

We might replicate objects or ideas to experience them ourselves, or help others experience and interact with them. We might use original practice for a sewing project, or grow historical food varieties in order to taste the flavors for ourselves, or recreate historical musical pedagogy to see if the resulting performance of a historical musical piece is similar to or different from what we’d expect to hear in modern life.

Just like our research practices, our application practices will hopefully be refined, enlarged, honed, and deepened over time. It is fine to start applying what we know now, and adapt our application over time as we know more. Perfection from the start is impossible and unneeded. Progress over time is fantastic.

Documentation
Material that provides information, evidence, or serves as a record; information that supports answers to inquiry. Also, the process of noting and classifying information or objects, such as gathering text or visual references to document that a specific object is typical or atypical for an era.

Why do we think what we think about an item or concept? We can gather supporting evidence for an idea or object from primary sources (see below) to support it as typical or atypical to an era, to support our replication of a portion or segment of historical life, to keep track of what we’ve learned or are learning in our research, or to share more in-depth information with others.

A request for documentation is not an aggressive challenge to your knowledge, authority, or ego.

(Well, some people use it that way, but it’s fine to assume a productive intent, versus a passive-aggressive intent, and sharing positively is a great way to short-circuit the passive-aggressive sorts with kindness.)

Documentation and our understanding of it changes over time, as more sources and informational bits become available. If your inquiry hasn’t brought you any conflicts in years, you’re not asking the right questions! Continual inquiry, being open to the new information, and synthesizing or adapting our understanding to harmonize with new documentation is a normal part of an evolving practice, and it’s great!

If you are earnestly asking for additional documentation from another person, it can be very useful to share information back. “I’ve looked at Ballymore’s sketches and Fortland’s detail study of the Shenanigator, but I’ve not come across a reference to Shenanigators having multiple hum-whipples as a regular thing. When you have a moment, could you point me in a good direction to learn more? Do you recall where you found the hum-whipples information, please?”

A collegial attitude and positive intent can garner excellent results and expand your own inquiry in ways you never expected.

(Documentation of the image used in this post includes multiple dated publications from the era that list the title, artist, and “pop culture” publisher. With all of that on just the one lithograph, it’s pretty securely documented as a period image!)

Provenance
A record of origin and ownership over time, to help place an object or idea in historical context and confirm its place on a timeline. Provenance can be biased through “family lore” or “donor lore”: mistaken information that becomes part of the record over time, via repetition or assertion without documentary support.

Putting an object or concept into historical context is really vital, and it’s also a neat puzzle to try to solve or support. Identifying stylistic elements or construction techniques or technologies that help date or establish the origin story can be highly satisfying, even when that process takes a long time.

Annotation
A note of explanation or context added to an object or piece of information

This might be a summary of what you found useful or not useful in a written source, information pointing toward additional referenced sources, or things you want to notice or keep track of for additional inquiry. Annotation is particularly helpful with booklists or text sources. You may not easily remember why you liked or disliked a text source, or what you gained from it, without your personal note. Annotations to physical objects can add measurements, materials, and technique notes, provenance notes, connections with textual documentation (primary or secondary) or visual documentation (other examples from the period). Annotations can be refined and updated over time, as well.

(If I add my own commentary to the image attached to this post, that’s annotating it. I could talk about artistic romanticism, pop culture development, artistic presentations of normative clothing, botany, weapons, household goods… anything I might ascribe to the image can be added in annotation. I’d want to back up any assertions with documentation, sources, and citations for my assertions to be the most valuable to others, of course!)

Citation
A reference to a source; naming a source or author whose information you are using or sharing.

Citations help us sharing information in an organized, thorough way. Being able to say, “Ah, yes, this image in my computer was saved from the MET collection, item 148902, so if you’d like to see more, you can use that item in the MET’s online collection search tool and see everything they have, including much larger images,” helps people do their own inquiry with those sources.

Citation is more than “Found it on Ebay” or “From Pinterest”–unless you have annotations from the ebay listing that add context (such as collection or de-accession notes, measurements, fiber content, etc), or your Pinterest pins have tracked back to the originating sources directly (such as linking to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, versus someone else’s pin of a pin of a pin of a google search that brought up that gorgeous collar in the Boston MFA collection).

(Citing the image above, I can tell you I found the color lithograph version in a google image search on-line, but there is a published black engraved version available to examine in the Library of Congress, linked here. Now you have three ways to find it: by the author, title, and publisher in the caption/annotation, by an image search, and by a link to a public repository.)

Attribution
Acknowledging by name the creator of physical, digital, or intellectual properties.

Citing the authorship of concepts or words you are sharing that did not originate in your own brain is just good scholarship. If I’m sharing a technique I learned from another researcher or creator, it’s fair play to mention them and recommend them as a source. If I’m quoting from another author, I can put that quote in quotes, and identify the originator, and even link readers over to that originator as a source.

Using others’ work without attribution is bad karma, poor scholarship, and an all-around jerk move. So don’t do that. Give credit where credit is due! (And if you’re wanting to share more than a short quote from someone, ask their permission and abide by their yea or nay and any attribution notes they’d like to have attached. Creators have the right to specify how the work of their hands and brains is shared, or if it is shared at all!)

Primary Source
Information created contemporaneous to another source or object. May still be filtered or biased, but it displays historical filters or biases, versus modern.

Sometimes, multiple individuals will examine similar or the same sets of primary sources, and reach very different conclusions regarding what those sources show us. This is pretty normal! We all research with our own set of experience bias, informational bias, context bias, and generational bias, and we may or may not be aware of all the ways those biases can influence our summaries or understanding.

When questioning someone’s summaries of sources, it can be useful to share your own summary first. “This is interesting… when I started looking at Hoobitory practices, I assumed This Thing, but as I found more about Accessory Hoobitory Things, it really shifted my thinking toward That Thing. May I ask what led you to Other Thing Entirely? It sounds like you have found information I’ve not seen yet.” This lets them know you’re open to more information and greater context, and invites sharing freely and safely.

(The artist created the piece prior to its publication in 1867; wide and easy accessible publication information supports it as a primary source, created during my target era, and illustrating something valuable to those of the era–that last bit is a personal annotation, not a primary source.)

Original Practice
Techniques, processes, or habits of a specific time period. We may or may not have all the context we need to explain an original practice–but then, sometimes those in the Original Cast lacked that, too! They may have followed an original practice because “that’s just the way it’s done.”

Not everyone has a goal to replicate original practice.

I think they ought to, but I’m not in charge of everyone else.

It is spectacularly unuseful to browbeat others with our own goals. It is more useful to share what we personally get out of original practices.

For instance, some sewists use modern zig-zag-over-a-cord to gather, or assume that basting drapery tapes to the waist of a skirt will let them “gauge” a skirt. Me freaking out at them for blaspheming original practice is not useful. Me sharing the context of why I use original practice for those two things (hand-gathering allows a much higher ratio of fullness, to hit historical ratios of fullness, without machined bulk; gauging by hand takes repetition to be comfortable, but creates a minimal bulk, maximal boof, giving me the same result as original dresses have) lets them know there are valid reasons to use original practice, and gives them the space to update their own process in their own time, to meet their own goals.

Secondary Source
Information that references or summarizes one or more primary sources. Be aware of bias, and look for good source citations to track back.

Tertiary Source
Information that references or summarizes one or more secondary sources. Be aware of concept dilution or conflation, and look for good source citations to track back.

Experiential Archaeology (object experiences) or Anthropology (social experiences)
Studying something by replicating as far as possible original practices, and experiencing the thing for yourself. It is a not a perfect replication of the historical experience, because we still come with our modern experience bias, physical limitations, restricted context, and other “baggage”, but it holds value because we then have different informational context than we might gain from reading or viewing sources alone, separate from personal experience.

When we experience things first hand, even if the period setting is compromised by some modern intrusions (power lines, indoor flush toilets, electrical outlets), we have a better angle on what the Original Cast may have experienced, and can share our experience with others going forward. We can speak more confidently and describe experiences in richer detail when operating in any interpretive voice and any interpretive setting.

Knowing What You Know
How you keep track of what you know and what you’re exploring is entirely up to you. Notebooks, binders, a physical card file, book lists (annotated book lists are awesome), digital files, databases and spreadsheets, digital pin-boards (with attributions!), online collection trackers like Zotero, programs like Evernote, personal collections with notes attached… use what works best for you. What matters is that you can add your notes and re-find your information as easily as possible, and if it’s digital, that you keep backups in case of data loss.

It can be useful to review your research resources now and then, and refresh your summarized information as needed. This keeps things updated, and keeps you asking questions and questioning your application.

Sharing What You Know
No one is obligated to turn over every speck of information they’ve ever amassed for every topic they’ve ever considered, let alone turning it over for free. In a field (living history) where sharing information is pretty key to raising the threshold and getting the best results, it’s lovely to have access to free resources and free sharing.

Personally, this whole site exists because I like sharing useful things with people, and feel it’s about the only way I can “pay it forward” from the mentors who’ve helped and guided me for so many years. I’ve taken cues from those mentors, and I choose what to share and how to share it–many things entirely free, and other things at a reasonable cost that allows me to continue to research and bring more information (free and paid) to more people.

You, too, get to decide how and what you will share. If there are things you are not willing to or cannot share without contravening someone else’s permissions, it comes off better to keep silent in a discussion, versus making vague references to sources you cannot or will not disclose. If you’re able to share, consider having a small stack of sources in public access spaces that you can link to, so others can add to their own knowledge without you retyping a master’s dissertation each time. The more documentation, provenance, attribution, and primary source support you can share for your assertions, the more valuable your information and opinions become.

Happy Researching!