Early American Children's Clothing and Textiles: Clothing a Child 1600-1800 Carey Blackerby Hanson 9781032136912

Early American Children's Clothing and Textiles: Clothing a Child 1600 to 1800 explores the life experiences of Indigenous, Anglo-European, African, and mixed-race children in colonial America, their connections to textile production, the process of textile production, the textiles created, and the clothing they wore.

The book examines the communities and social structure of early America, the progression of the colonial textile industry, and the politics surrounding textile production beginning in the 1600's, with particular focus on the tasks children were given in the development of the American textile industry. The publication discusses the concept of childhood in society during this time frame, together with documented stories of individual children. The discussion of early American childhood and textile production is followed by extant clothing samples for both boys and girls, ranging from upper class children's wear to children's wear of more humble means. With over 180 illustrations, the book includes images of textile production tools, inventions, and practices, extant textile samples, period portraits of children, and handmade extant clothing items worn by children during this time period.

Early American Children's Clothing and Textiles: Clothing a Child 1600 to 1800 will be of interest to working costume designers and technicians looking for primary historical and visual information for Early American productions, costume design historians, early American historians, students of costume design, and historical re-enactment costume designers, technicians, and hobbyists.

Carey Blackerby Hanson is a Professor of Costume Design at the University of Mississippi. Her costume experience has covered a wide range of theatre, musical theatre, opera, dance, and theatre for youth. Carey has worked professionally with The Santa Fe Opera, Utah Opera, Sundance Summer Theatre, Old Lyric Repertory Company, Unicorn Theatre, The Pink Garter Theatre, and Playmill Theatre-Jackson. She is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and the Costume Society of America. As a costume historian, her research focus is early American children and textile production. She has travelled abroad as well as throughout the Eastern and Southern United States to gather primary information for her continuing research. With the support of the University of Mississippi department of Theatre and Film and the College of Liberal Arts, Carey is in the process of developing a historical clothing collection for students interested in studying extant garments.