Fashion Plate Collections
University of Washington
The original fashion plates collected by Blanche Payne and others have been cataloged and carefully stored for preservation purposes in archival housing. Many of these plates are from some of the leading French, British, American, and other continental fashion journals of the 19th century and early 20th century: Belle assemblée; Le bon ton; Le Follet, courrier des salons; Journal des dames and des modes; Godey's lady's book and magazine, and others. They are primarily hand-colored engravings although some of the plates after 1885 are colored lithographs. A project was undertaken by the Digital Initiatives Program to digitize and provide online access to selections from this collection. The 417 digital images cover many stylistic periods in French and English history. These include the Empire (1806-1813), Georgian (1806-1836), Regency (1811-1820), Romantic (1825-1850), Victorian (1837-1859), Late Victorian (1860-1900) and Edwardian (1901-1915). Although the original items are available for viewing by appointment through the Special Collections Division, providing web access increases the visibility and use of such unique resources.
Blanche Payne taught historic costume and apparel design in the School of Home Economics at the University of Washington. She joined the University faculty in 1927. Engaged in intensive research on clothing and historic costume, she supervised work on the Textile Costume Study Collection housed in the Home Economics Department. As part of her studies of non-Western folk dress and embroidery technique, she traveled extensively in Europe, collecting original ethnic costumes, textile and embroidery examples. Her primary interest was Eastern Europe. She considered the Balkan countries a valuable source for studying ethnic dress in its original context and wanted to provide her students with primary source material for the study of modern costume construction and fine craftsmanship. Unfortunately, her Yugoslavian research failed to result in a full length publication because of the prohibitive costs of publishing and destruction of some of the color plates during the war years.
One of her subsequent accomplishments, however, was the completion of a book entitled "History of Costume", a college textbook describing the evolution of fashion from 3000 B.C. to 1900. Published in 1965, it contains detailed descriptions of historical and cultural fashion along with renditions of small-scale garment patterns that she meticulously drafted from various museum collections. To research her book, she spent two years avidly collecting illustrations: photographs, postcards, art prints, and fashion plates. Her book is still considered today a foremost resource in the study of costume history. It reflects her teaching philosophy that the study of original artifacts is of essential importance in the understanding of good design.
Blanche Payne retired from the University of Washington faculty in 1966. The textile and ethnic dress samples she purchased from funds from the School of Home Economics were bequeathed to the Henry Art Gallery Textile Collection. Her collection of costume and textile books, as well as the archival photographic material, fashion plates, drawing and garment patterns she researched for her publications remain as part of the UW Libraries Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives. Manuscripts relating to the Eastern European costume, including her travel journal through the Balkan countries and notes for her book "History of Costume" are also available to researchers through the University Archives.
Additional Information:
University of Washington
Suzzallo Library
University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections
Women's Studies Department
PO Box 352900
Seattle, WA 98195-2900
Contacts
Cassandra Hartnett
U.S. Documents & Women Studies Librarian
Government Publications (206) 685-3130
FAX: (206) 685-8049
Carla Rickerson
Head, Special Collections
(206) 543-1929
FAX: (206) 543-1931
Ann Lally
Head, Digital Libraries Initiative
(206) 685-1473