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Reviews
Reviews
Alexander spent eight years researching [Treasures Afoot], which examines eighteenth-century shoes from thirty different collections, plus thousands of original letters, inventories and other manuscripts. Each shoe or pair of shoes is the catalyst for a story of how it was made, sold and worn, told in astonishing depth and detail.
Very engagingly written... Shoe history is a very popular field, and [Treasures Afoot] deserves to be widely read, as it is an excellent contribution to the histories of material culture and transatlantic consumerism.
This impeccably researched, written and illustrated book is enough on its own as a study of surviving luxury objects from almost a century of American history.
[Treasures Afoot] is well written and easy to read... an interesting addition to the very limited number of works specifically about eighteenth century shoes.
This is a book that will intrigue students and scholars of American and Material Culture Studies, as well as anyone interested in fashion, history, or—what else?—shoes! It is well researched, accessible, and it interweaves history, biography, and engaging shoe stories in a brilliant manner, doing justice to all the strands in draws to it. It would be a delight to see more endeavors like this one undertaken by and circulating among Americanists.
In this richly illustrated volume, Kimberly S. Alexander focuses on footwear as a way to nuance and enrich our understanding of key themes in eighteenth-century British American history and culture. By tracing the production, sale, and (re)use of shoes, she revisits the development and maturation of gentility, consumer culture, and production networks across the latter decades of empire and the early years of the republic. In doing so, her study illuminates new facets of familiar dynamics, such as colonial American utilization of consumer items to craft social identities. The work also brings fresh attention to less familiar areas, such as how early American habits of recycling certain consumer items helped define class identities, familial relationships, and economic habits. As a result, much in this study will interest a broad range of scholars of early American society and culture.
Treasures Afoot illuminates the production and consumption of shoes in eighteenth-century colonial America, by examining the complexities of individual and national concerns, challenging longstanding assumptions and unearthing intriguing characters. Alexander's fascinating book is highly recommended.
Alexander's use of selected surviving shoes to tell historical stories, as well as her considerable research to document the tales she spins out, makes this book accessible for both casual audiences and historians.
A fresh approach that provides a good bridge between scholarship and people-stories that bring artifacts to life.
In this lavishly illustrated, meticulously researched book, Kimberly Alexander tells the fascinating, hitherto untold story of the shoe in early America—of the cordwainers who made them, the factors who advertised and sold them, the men and women who bought them, and, eventually, the museums that catalogued and displayed them. Treasures Afoot is a must-read for anyone interested in the material culture of the founding era.
Treasures Afoot is a much-needed work on Georgian shoes, blending historic research and biography with material objects, elevating the importance of footwear from a dress accessory to a central element of an entire wardrobe. Alexander's book is a must-read for costume and shoe historians and sets a precedent for future scholars.
Kimberly Alexander brings the history of Georgian era shoes to vivid life in prose as lively as the purple silk and red wool used to make them. She traces shoemakers from London to the colonies, to sophisticated American consumers as bold in their fashion choices as their politics. A must read in eighteenth-century fashion history.
Alexander’s book is a time machine that transports the reader, vividly evoking the workshops of the finest shoemakers of eighteenth-century London, then following their coveted shoes across the Atlantic to explore the lives of those who longed for, bought, and wore their fine footwear. Treasures Afoot is a glinting mine, a trove rich with photographs and illustrations of sumptuous shoes and silks. I didn’t know how good a history book could be until I read this one.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x 9.25
Pages
248
ISBN
9781421425849
Illustration Description
99 color photos, 10 b&w illus.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Cordwainers
Chapter 2. Wedding Shoes
Chapter 3. The Value of a London Label
Chapter 4. Coveting Calamancos: From London to Lynn
Chapter 5. The Cordwainer's
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Cordwainers
Chapter 2. Wedding Shoes
Chapter 3. The Value of a London Label
Chapter 4. Coveting Calamancos: From London to Lynn
Chapter 5. The Cordwainer's Lament: Benjamin Franklin and John Hose Testify on the Effects of the Stamp Act
Chapter 6. "For My Use, Four Pair of Neat Shoes": George Washington, Virginia Planter, and Mr. Didsbury, Boot- and Shoemaker of London
Chapter 7. Boston's Cordwainers Greet President Washington, 1789
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendixes
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Featured Contributor
Kimberly S. Alexander
Historian Kimberly S. Alexander, a former curator at the MIT Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, and Strawbery Banke, teaches material culture and museum studies at the University of New Hampshire.Resources
