Reigning Fashion: Victoria and the Queen, 1837 – 1901, Presented by Lynne Z. Bassett

Join renowned costume and textile historian Lynne Z. Bassett for a fascinating discussion linking popular culture to our exhibit Victorian Fashion Crosses the Pond, 1840-1900. The popular new PBS series, Victoria, examines the life of Great Britain’s nineteenth-century queen. The dazzling costumes worn by the actors prompts this lecture’s examination of the cultural history of clothing in the Victorian era. What was the inspiration for women’s dress styles in the period? How was clothing made and who did the work? What was Queen Victoria’s role as a fashion leader? And, how authentic are the costumes worn in the PBS series?

More about presenter Lynne Z. Bassett:
Lynne Z. Bassett is an independent scholar specializing in historic costume and textiles. From 1995-2000 she was the curator of textiles and fine arts at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. As an independent consultant, Bassett has undertaken major projects, including: Modesty Died When Clothes Were Born: Costume in the Life and Literature of Mark Twain (2004, Mark Twain House & Museum) and Gothic to Goth: Romantic Era Fashion & Its Legacy (2016, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art). Bassett has also written for White House History, The Magazine Antiques, the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, and PieceWork. Her recent publications include “Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War” (co-authored with Madelyn Shaw in 2012), “Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth” (2009); and book chapters in “Picturing Victorian America: Prints by the Kellogg Brothers of Hartford, Connecticut” (2009); and “Cultivating a Past: Essays in the History of Hadley, Massachusetts” (2009). Forthcoming at the end of 2017 are her 27 essays for the International Quilt Study Center’s American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1750‒1870. Her lectures for institutions including Colonial Williamsburg, the American Folk Art Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Winterthur, Historic Deerfield, the Peabody Essex Museum, and numerous local libraries and historical societies have covered a range of topics in the field of costume and textiles.

Tickets are $8 for CMCH members and $12 for non-members. Space is limited, reservations required at rsvp@chs.org or 860-236-5621 x238.

Image: Queen Victoria, Printed by E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, Published by E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, Published by Kelloggs & Thayer, Published by D. Needham, Gift of Samuel St. John Morgan, CMCH Collection.