Kate Strasdin

A lovely bit of social and material history centered on the "dress diary" kept by one English woman during the 19th century. Anne Sykes is not ordinarily the kind of person about whom a work of history would be written—she wasn't a public figure or a member of a great family, wasn't caught up in some famous historical event, wasn't the author of great literature or even a surviving cache of letters. We have no photos of her, and much of what we know of her life comes from terse references in official records or census returns.

But her "dress diary"—a scrapbook containing hundreds of swatches of fabric from clothing and other items owned by Anne, her friends and family—survives, each with a brief annotation in tiny copperplate writing. Anne kept her diary for decades, and it travelled with her from England to Singapore and China and back again, as her husband's business required.

Kate Strasdin does a great job of piecing together the clues provided by the diary to fill out as much as she can about the Sykes, thinking through what a historian can or cannot know—we can touch samples of the same cloth that touched Anne's skin or covered her armchairs, for instance, an odd kind of intimacy, but we will likely never know if her marriage was a happy one or what she thought of her world travels. Strasdin also uses individual fabric swatches as jumping off points to talk about the broader history of the 19th century, everything from the invention of aniline dyes to Borneo pirates. There are a couple of places where she's briefly giving deeper historical background on certain topics where she bobbles things a bit—Sir John Mandeville didn't see cotton in India in the 14th century because he was a fictional character/persona—but on the whole I found this an engaging and multifaceted read.… (more)

I really enjoyed this nonfiction book. The author comes upon a "dress diary" - a journal with over 2000 small swatches of fabric that are described briefly. Sometimes the description says who wore the dress, the event it was worn for, or what the fabric was used for (usually women's dresses, sometimes a man's vest, or upholstery). [[Strasdin]] is able to figure out the owner of the book, Anne Sykes, from one of the entries. After finding her name, she begins to piece together tidbits about this Victorian-Era woman's life. British Anne Sykes spent time in Singapore and China with her husband. Her journal is filled with swatches of fabric that her friends and family wore.

In addition to try to illuminate Anne Sykes life, Strasdin uses the book to other aspects of life for Victorian women. She explores the textile industry, laundering/mending clothes, dyeing practices, friendship, living abroad, mourning rituals, etc.

The information is a bit light on depth - but it gave me a lot to think about and I was fascinated by the idea of this journal existing and being studied so many years later. I definitely recommend.… (more)