Progress and Development of the Research Project: Haberdashery and its
use in Clothing, 1500-1800
Polly Hamilton
This paper examines how a research project now in progress could be used
either for educational purposes, or as a prototype for other projects.
The project itself studies the provision, availability and use of
haberdashery in clothing as evidence of changing consumption in England from
the mid-sixteenth century to the late eighteenth.
Three issues are addressed:
- how socially and economically significant wares developed over time
- how to move away from focused studies into a survey of national breadth
- how computer based contextual analysis of documentation and image may
contribute depth and formal historical credence to the study of clothing.