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Mar. 7th, 2007 05:52 pmToday is full of linky goodness. It was either that or angst about teaching. I refuse to angst about teaching so early in the year.
The first link is to a National Library of Australia online exhibition on dress. Think of it as an almost gender neutral entry into Women's History Month. There are men's clothes as well as women's, after all. This exhibition reminds me that when my time machine is up and running I will take a very close look at women's clothed profiles before I travel to a particular time, so I don't have to live my life with my figure bent awry by fearsome fashion when my time machine breaks (as time machines inevitably do).
While I remember, historical fiction writers please take particular note of Australian wedding dresses and the commentary thereon. Like many other wedding dresses, they were not necessarily white until fairly recently. I am a bit tired of white wedding dresses being given to women going far, far back in time. It's the thought of all the washing that the poor woman must do the the dress when she wears it as her 'good' dress subsequently that tires me, I think.
The next NLA exhibition I want to introduce you to is called Beyond the Picket Fence. It's a selection of women's art in the National Library's collection. I love this exhibition because it shows the world from the eyes of a range of women. Eirene Mort's bookplate is covetable. Sophia Campbell gives a very domestic sketch of Newcastle round 1818 - it looks far less adventurous than the bark huts and slab cottages we associate with early settlers. Anne Higgins has a picture of a slab cottage (Shan-a-cawbeen) from 1881, which can tangle the uncareful mind (real houses in early settlement, slab cottages much later? oh! the horror!).
If you want to carry the notion of Australian history seen through women's eyes a little further, check out this page on Nora Heysen and Ellis Rowan's amazing flower paintings. I grew up looking at copies of Rowan's paintings, so it's through her eyes that I learned to see Australian bushflowers.
Since it's also Women's History Month in the US, here is the official US site at the Library of Congress. Lots of series of photos reflecting some very interesting women and their doings.
The first link is to a National Library of Australia online exhibition on dress. Think of it as an almost gender neutral entry into Women's History Month. There are men's clothes as well as women's, after all. This exhibition reminds me that when my time machine is up and running I will take a very close look at women's clothed profiles before I travel to a particular time, so I don't have to live my life with my figure bent awry by fearsome fashion when my time machine breaks (as time machines inevitably do).
While I remember, historical fiction writers please take particular note of Australian wedding dresses and the commentary thereon. Like many other wedding dresses, they were not necessarily white until fairly recently. I am a bit tired of white wedding dresses being given to women going far, far back in time. It's the thought of all the washing that the poor woman must do the the dress when she wears it as her 'good' dress subsequently that tires me, I think.
The next NLA exhibition I want to introduce you to is called Beyond the Picket Fence. It's a selection of women's art in the National Library's collection. I love this exhibition because it shows the world from the eyes of a range of women. Eirene Mort's bookplate is covetable. Sophia Campbell gives a very domestic sketch of Newcastle round 1818 - it looks far less adventurous than the bark huts and slab cottages we associate with early settlers. Anne Higgins has a picture of a slab cottage (Shan-a-cawbeen) from 1881, which can tangle the uncareful mind (real houses in early settlement, slab cottages much later? oh! the horror!).
If you want to carry the notion of Australian history seen through women's eyes a little further, check out this page on Nora Heysen and Ellis Rowan's amazing flower paintings. I grew up looking at copies of Rowan's paintings, so it's through her eyes that I learned to see Australian bushflowers.
Since it's also Women's History Month in the US, here is the official US site at the Library of Congress. Lots of series of photos reflecting some very interesting women and their doings.