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== WikiEducator has closed ==
Some of you may know of a similar project to Wikiversity, called [https://wikieducator.org/Main_Page WikiEducator], championed by [https://oerfoundation.org/about/staff/wayne-mackintosh/ Wayne Mackintosh][https://www.linkedin.com/posts/waynemackintosh_important-notice-about-the-oer-foundation-activity-7405113051688931329-Nhm9/][https://openeducation.nz/killed-not-starved/].
It seems [https://openeducation.nz/terminating-oer-foundation their foundation has closed] and they are no longer operating.
They had done quite a bit of outreach (e.g., in the Pacific and Africa) to get educators using wiki.
The WikiEducator content is still available in MediaWiki - and potentially could be imported to Wikiversity ([https://wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:Copyrights CC-BY-SA] is the default license).
The closing of WikiEducator arguably makes the nurturing of Wikiversity even more important.
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:09, 1 April 2026 (UTC)
:I was never active there. If anyone has an account or is otherwise in contact, we may want to copy relevant information here or even at [[:outreach:]]. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 04:46, 1 April 2026 (UTC)
:: I reached out to [[User:Mackiwg~enwikiversity|Wayne]] in January, and he responded briefly but positively (while travelling). I wrote to the low-traffic wikieducator mailing list today and got a nice [https://groups.google.com/g/wikieducator/c/r_yIyUw6ZIA reply] from [[user:SteveFoerster|Steve Foerster]] who's interested in helping. If we can figure out a migration path it would be great to adopt at least the main namespace pages here.
:: A few questions that come to mind:
:: - would people want to create matching user accounts
:: - are there any namespaces (user/talk?) that should not be moved over
:: We could look at how this was done for the [[m:Wikivoyage/Migration]] wikivoyage migration. <span style="padding:0 2px 0 2px;background-color:white;color:#bbb;">–[[User:Sj|SJ]][[User Talk:Sj|<span style="color:#ff9900;">+</span>]]</span> 04:27, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
:::That's fantastic, SJ, that you've reached out and that Wayne, Steve, and Jim are receptive—and that you can help! -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:52, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
::::A matching accound makes sense to give credits to the original authors and keep a clean chain of versions. The initial commit into wikiversity could have a "marker with timestamp" similar to signature with a reference where the content's source or a Web archive. This would allow authors to continue there work on wikiversity if they wish. [[User:Bert Niehaus|Bert Niehaus]] ([[User talk:Bert Niehaus|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bert Niehaus|contribs]]) 06:30, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
== Wikinews is ending ==
Apparently mainly due to low editorial activity, low public interest, but also failure to achieve the goals from the proposal for the creation of the project, the Wikinews project is ending after years of discussions ([[Meta:Proposal for Closing Wikinews|some reading]]).
And I would be interested to see how Wikiversity is doing in the monitored metrics. We probably have more editors than Wikinews had, but what about consumers and achieving the goals? [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 19:14, 1 April 2026 (UTC)
:Wikiversity's biggest issue in recent times was the hosting of low-quality, trash content. Thankfully we've done a great job in removing pseudoscience and other embarrassingly trash content (Wikidebates, for example), but the biggest concern moving forward is proper maintenance IMO. I've caught several pseudoscience pages being created within the last few months that could easily have flown under the radar (ex, [[The Kelemen Dilemma: Causal Collapse and Axiomatic Instability]]), so I'd urge our custodians/curators to be on the lookout for this type of content. Usually an AI-overview can point this type of content out relatively well.
:In terms of visibility, I believe Wikiversity is a high-traffic project. I remember my [[Mathematical Properties]] showing up on the first page of Google when searching up "math properties" for the longest time (and is still showing up in the first page 'till this day!). Besides, Wikinews hosted a lot of short-term content (the nature of news articles), while Wikiversity hosts content that can still be useful a decade later (ex, [[A Reader's Guide to Annotation]]).
:I think we are on a better path than we were a few months ago, and I do want to thank everyone here who has been helping out with maintaining our website! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 20:48, 1 April 2026 (UTC)
:For what it's worth, the group that did that study has since disbanded, so no one is monitoring the other sister projects in the same way. Additionally, Wikinews had some catastrophic server issues due to the maintenance of [[:m:Extension:DynamicPageList]] which don't apply here. Your questions are still worth addressing, but I just wanted to cut off any concern at the pass about Wikiversity being in the same precarious situation. Wikiversity is definitely the biggest "lagging behind" or "failure" project now that Wikinews is being shuttered, but I don't see any near- or medium-term pathway to closing Wikiversity. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 00:46, 2 April 2026 (UTC)
:[[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-03-31/News and notes|Entirety of Wikinews to be shut down]] (Wikipedia Signpost) -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:03, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
: [[w:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Serendipity|Wikinews: Into the Wikiverse]] (Wikipedia Signpost, 22 May 2026)
: [[w:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Special report|Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years]] (Wikipedia Signpost, 22 May 2026)
: -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 13:48, 25 May 2026 (UTC)
== Add some user rights to the curator user group? ==
By default, only custodians have the ability to mark new pages as patrolled (<code>patrol</code>) and have their own page creations automatically marked as patrolled (<code>autopatrol</code>). I am proposing both of the following:
* Curators can mark new pages as patrolled, helping on reducing the backlog of new, unpatrolled pages.
* New pages made by curators will be automatically marked as patrolled by the MediaWiki software.
Before we implement this, I would suggest implementing a proposed guideline for marking new pages as patrolled for curators and custodians.
Thoughts? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:32, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
:Agree, <s>also can we also allow curators to undelete pages since they already have the rights to delete them?</s> [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 02:54, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
::I think the requirement that undelete NOT be included came from above (meta / stewards / central office). Having access to the undelete page gives access to information that is restricted by their policies to admins (custodians and bureaucrats). -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 20:12, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
::: [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]], unless if requests for curator and custodian should be RfA-like processes (that is, including voting and comments), then I have to agree with Dave above. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 22:03, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
::::Oh, I didn’t realise that. Withdrawing my comment.. [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 00:08, 19 April 2026 (UTC)
:{{support}} Seems reasonable and would reduce overhead. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 14:35, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
:'''Agree''', implement it also to [[Wikiversity:Curators]] proposal please. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 17:11, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
: I went ahead and filed [[phab:T424445]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 15:39, 26 April 2026 (UTC)
: This was completed on 30 April.
: Perhaps we could benefit from some documentation (e.g., [[Wikiversity:Patrol]] or [[Wikiversity:Patrolling]]?) and updates to the curator, custodian, bureaucrat pages? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 01:49, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Yes, but I would recommend [[Wikiversity:Patrolling]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 02:26, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
: I created [[Wikiversity:Patrolling]] with assistance of ChatGPT. Please review and improve. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:04, 25 May 2026 (UTC)
== Is anyone interested in Neurodiversity? ==
Is anyone interested in Neurodiversity? Is there anyone here who is interested for Neurodiversity to be "something more" than it already is? Does anyone here consider Neurodiversity one of the "harder topics" to work on or discuss? Does anyone here have an opinion about the [[Neurodiversity Movement]]? So these questions don't appear like "out of a vacuum" I can tell you a bit about my background:
Many years ago I got a psychiatric diagnosis "Asperger's". After I stepped out of the office and my Äsperger's was 'concluded', I stepped out into the street and thought my first negative thought(but the positive thought followed after). The thought was about concentration camps in the second world war and that the world seemed to be going into the direction of "labeling others". I was unsure whether this was "real science" and sort of "challenged myself" to make up my own mind after meeting people that had been given this diagnosis. The more adults with this diagnosis I met the more I started seeing "patterns".
Was it a coincidence that the first person with Asperger's I met reminded me about my father later after I had plenty of times of experience with interacting with him? None of the people I interacted with online through IRC text chat...I felt I got any clue about how "their brains work". Only when I met one person from the Asperger's chat community in person we both realized that whatever we experienced was akin to the "chaos theory". He told me about "chaos theory" while I didn't know even what that term meant but I guess I 'read between the lines'. My question that I linger on still today is "did he understand about me what I think I understood about him?"? That our brains had the same configuration? Most autistic adults who meet other autistic adults usually get disappointed. They think the diagnosis will help them meet somebody like themselves and then they realize the great diversity in the autistic spectrum created by Psychiatry.
I later stopped interacting with autistic communities that much, I felt that it did not benefit me. Also Neurodiversity's "neurotypes" interested me for a while until I realized I had "misunderstood everything" about them and how they are used in the Neurodiversity Movement or "Neurodiversity community" if that even can precisely be defined? I doubt it but if you want to contribute to the [[Neurodiversity Movement]]. My previous attempts failed as I got more and more confused. I think a community project needs a community. With a lack of that I don't think it is worth my time. If any of you would like to work on that project let me know on my talk page.
So I was kinda lost and was talking to my friend and psychologist and I realized if I never talk about my idea to anyone in a "comprehensive way" or show that it matters to me nothing is going to ever happen. So I started talking about my "idea" more. Nobody could understand the "idea" because I had not developed my skills regarding where to start...although the process had already started "automatically" and that's why I often think of "well my brain sort of activated me". I don't feel like I did have a plan and this idea happened. It happened "by itself". My brain reacted to what I was seeing in a video or stream.
I value interaction highly in this idea. I think it would be helpful to make a community of people who are not paranoid about stuff that can express itself like "don't analyze me!", "don't compare me to anyone!".
On the contrary, more often than not those adults who were diagnosed were actually openly comparing themselves with each other and I think that is healthy in a "science" way if done the "right way" which probably means "Do no harm".
I found video material is important but I'm very unsure if uploading own video material to Wikimedia Commons would constitute a "reasonable" use of the resources there. Maybe somebody here needs to ask more questions to me that I should answer before that happens. I also know the '''be bold''' so I could just do what I think might be ok. Though I work better in a group as long as I know what "group configurations" help me. This is in a non-profit way. Since the state supported me this might be a way I am trying to "give back" to the state and "the world". May seem overly ambitious and crazy but this thing gives me energy. It gives me hope when trying to develop this idea. [[User:ThinkingScience|ThinkingScience]] ([[User talk:ThinkingScience|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/ThinkingScience|contribs]]) 10:47, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
:Thanks for sharing. There is plenty of room for neurodiversity community learning. However, the challenge I think is that the intersection of those interested in (a) ND, and (b) English Wikiversity might be very small (e.g., 1!) at this point in time.
:But don't give up hope. For example, Wikipedia has many more ND-interested editors; maybe consider reaching out to see who might be interested:
:[[w:Category:Wikipedians interested in neurodiversity]]
:You could also start an equivalent category here:
:[[:Category:Wikiversitarians interested in neurodiversity]] -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 04:46, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
== Request for comment (global AI policy) ==
<bdi lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">A [[:m:Requests for comment/Artificial intelligence policy|request for comment]] is currently being held to decide on a global AI policy. {{int:Feedback-thanks-title}} [[User:MediaWiki message delivery|MediaWiki message delivery]] ([[User talk:MediaWiki message delivery|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MediaWiki message delivery|contribs]]) 00:58, 26 April 2026 (UTC)</bdi>
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== Language learning ==
toki! I am trying to add or see what the toki pona language learning stuff on here is but I don't see anything that is language learning for anything. [[User:Jan Imon|Jan Imon]] ([[User talk:Jan Imon|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Jan Imon|contribs]]) 23:13, 2 May 2026 (UTC) —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 17:29, 3 May 2026 (UTC)
:We have language materials ([[:Category:Languages]], [[World Languages]], [[Portal:Foreign Language Learning]], [[Portal:Multilingual Studies]]). They are not as developed as I think we would all like and there's not any coverage of Toki Pona, but in principle, we could and would like that. You can also see [[:b:Subject:Languages]] at our sister project Wikibooks. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 17:33, 3 May 2026 (UTC)
== Timeline format? ==
I’ve been working on the World War II articles, including the [[World War II/Timeline|timeline]], and is there a specific timeline format that should be used? Right now it’s just a table, and there’s no separation between different periods/phases of the war.
I don’t want to use [[mw:Extension:EasyTimeline]] because this will be displaying dates and not time periods. [[User:PhilDaBirdMan|PhilDaBirdMan]] ([[User talk:PhilDaBirdMan|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PhilDaBirdMan|contribs]]) 01:35, 4 May 2026 (UTC)
:I dont think we have a policy or guideline, how to format a timeline. But you may try to browes wikiversity by Google if someone was dealing with this in the past somewhow @[[User:PhilDaBirdMan|PhilDaBirdMan]]. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 12:23, 5 May 2026 (UTC)
::+1 - there's no specific guideline on how to format a timeline, it's really up to you. In my opinion I think the timeline is good. I'd personally bold the dates just to make it easier to separate it from the event description, but that's my personal 2 cents. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 14:18, 5 May 2026 (UTC)
:::I’ll probably remove links to the dates/years, they’re just Wikipedia pages that shouldn’t be over linked to. [[User:PhilDaBirdMan|PhilDaBirdMan]] ([[User talk:PhilDaBirdMan|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PhilDaBirdMan|contribs]]) 00:39, 6 May 2026 (UTC)
== Reminder about custodian-related pages ==
I would like to remind the community about what the following custodian pages are:
* [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]] is for requesting actions to be done by custodians, and
* [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]] is for notices of interest to custodians, like an administrator's noticeboard
Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 14:12, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:Thanks - I needed this reminder :) -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 22:21, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
== [[MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext#Protected edit request on 11 December 2025]] ==
I posted an edit request there 5 months ago, so I’ll be taking it to this page. [[Special:Contributions/~2026-28640-56|~2026-28640-56]] ([[User talk:~2026-28640-56|talk]]) 23:33, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:What exactly is the problem? I don't understand what needs to change and why. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 23:35, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
: Pinging @[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]], @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] and @[[User:Juandev|Juandev]] for further input. Someone is requesting a modification to [[MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext]] to use {{tlx|Protected page text}}, but we might need to discuss whether to use the template. In the meantime, I'll start a sandbox version of the protected page text template. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 23:19, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
::Sounds good -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 04:13, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
:::+1 Jtneill. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:59, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
== Create a pseudo-bot user group? ==
{{tracked|T426882|resolved}}
I would like to propose adding a new user group to Wikiversity: Pseudo-bot (<code>flood</code>). This will allow users to perform repetitive actions without flushing the recent changes feed (with only the <code>bot</code> user right). However, I would suggest that for the pseudo-bot user group:
* It can be granted and revoked by custodians. <s>However, can curators add and remove pseudo-bot from their own accounts (and not others)?</s>
* Users can remove themselves from it.
* A guideline might be necessary about the information and usage of it.
Thoughts? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 03:31, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:This sounds good. Which other wiki could we model this user group on? e.g., [[b:Wikibooks:Pseudo-bots]]? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 04:19, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
::@[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] Wikiquote has a similar group: [[:wikiquote:Special:ListGroupRights]] [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 04:25, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
: Should we allow curators to add and remove themselves from the pseudobot user group (from their own account) as well? I see no objections to creating the user group. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 23:20, 18 May 2026 (UTC)
::My thinking is perhaps not curators by default because there should be clear visibility about their actions until they are well trusted. Let's draft a guideline or proposed policy ([[Wikiversity:Pseudo-bots]]) for the proposed user group. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 23:39, 18 May 2026 (UTC)
::: A solution is that they can ask any custodian to grant that group, and to remove themselves when done. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 00:17, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
:::: Yes, that sounds good. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 01:12, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
: I'll file a Phabricator task by tomorrow if there are no objections. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 22:01, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
::{{done}}. [[User:Neriah|Neriah]] ([[User talk:Neriah|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Neriah|contribs]]) 13:23, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
== Coming over From wikinews ==
Any chance someone could help me if you are allowed to write news articles here since wikinews is going read only mode soon, thank you! [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 22:43, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
:The scope of Wikiversity is very broad and is basically about more-or-less any learning material. We have made it a point to not have duplicative content of other WMF projects, but since Wikinews is being shuttered, I personally am fine with writing news articles here. One thing that is not controversial at all is a learning resource <em>about</em> how to write news: that could be hugely useful here and could involve the process of writing news stories to learn and to share back and forth with an editor or fact-checker. In fact, I'd support an entire namespace dedicated to keeping the notion of Wikinews alive here. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 23:38, 1 May 2026 (UTC)
::Thank you so much! How do I start? Cheers! @[[User:Koavf|Koavf]] [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 01:07, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
:::I think it's premature to start just making news articles en masse, but if you want to start discussing the topic of citizen journalism, you can do that now. [[:Category:Journalism]] already has some material, so you can start by seeing what we already have, how you can refine that, etc. You can definitely have learning resources with collaborators who want to learn about journalism ASAP. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 01:24, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
::::thanks. [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 01:38, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
::::If I could try and start one News Article could you please tell me how to go about it? Like what style of writing like Wikinews or something else? Thank you Justin! @[[User:Koavf|Koavf]] [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 01:48, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
:::::Honestly, there are very few policies and guidelines here. I think the best way to write a news story would be in a manner that is obvious and instructive. So, for instance, it's common to use the "pyramid style" when you're writing news, so if you were to write a story that makes it very clear that you are using that approach, that would be helpful. —[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''vf</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 02:08, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
::::::cool thanks. [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 02:13, 2 May 2026 (UTC)
::::::im ready to write @[[User:Koavf|Koavf]] [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 21:30, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
:::::::I think we should get more local consensus for a big project like including the entirety of the scope of Wikinews here. Again, I support it personally. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 21:55, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
::::::::ok lets begin. [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 22:15, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
== Proposal to rehost Wikinews here ==
As many of you know, and mentioned here at the Colloquium, our sister project Wikinews recently closed, with all 31 active editions made read-only. [[User:BigKrow]] has asked about the prospect of writing news stories here and I suggested that since we already have [[School:Journalism]] and some resources related to the [[:Category:Journalism|broader topic of journalism]]. I would like to propose that we have continued and indefinite space for {{w|citizen journalism}} by essentially repurposing Wikinews into a sub-project here. The only special infrastructure that Wikinews required was [[:mw:Extension:DynamicPageList]], which was deactivated and caused issues due to a lack of maintenance.
I will add this proposal to the site banner, but I recognize that that may be a conflict of interest, so if anyone requests that I remove it, I will. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 05:30, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:I would like to see this conversation go for at least 30 days to establish a consensus. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 05:35, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
===Votes===
*{{support}} as proposer (with BK's inspiration). I think that an ongoing experiment in citizen journalism is a fit and appropriate use of this site. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 05:35, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{support}}, hope to seeing ideas about this, and thank you @[[User:Koavf|Koavf]] [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 11:08, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{support}} Other than perhaps inflating the total number of pages reported, I see the idea of "practicing journalism" a worthy and relevant activity within the domain of Wikiversity. [[User:IanVG|IanVG]] ([[User talk:IanVG|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/IanVG|contribs]]) 21:41, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{support}} Conditional on development of (a) community guidelines that ensure alignment with Wikiversity's purpose, and (b) clear, nested page-naming structures for projects. More detail below. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:48, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{contra}} This proposal doesn't seem interested in expanding educational materials in journalism, but rather in providing space and protection for Wikinews contributors. But this is contrary to the goals of Wikiversity, and I'm not sure it's a good idea, even with regard to WMF. If WMF decides to close a project and another community lets it run on its domain, that's a bit of an undermining of WMF's and the community's decisions. Given that Wikiversity has had several conflicts with other communities and WMF in its history, I'm against it.--[[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 18:59, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
===Comments and questions===
:Definitely worthy of discussion, so I have no problem with the proposal in the sitenotice.
:Initial questions:
:* Does this proposal include importing English Wikinews content e.g., to [[Wikinews]] subpages?
:* What are "active editions"?
:* How can Wikiversity navigate the concerns that lead to the closure of Wikinews?
:* Are any changes to the scope of Wikinews proposed?
:* How does [[Wikinews]] fit with the [[Wikiversity:Mission]]? What aligns well? Where might there be tension?
:** e.g., I'm not sure that a page like [[User:BigKrow/Manchester City moves two points behind Arsenal]] in and of itself will serve as an educational resource.
:-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 05:52, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:* Does this proposal include importing English Wikinews content e.g., to [[Wikinews]] subpages?
::*No, not at this time.
:* What are "active editions"?
::*There were 30 other active editions of Wikinews in addition to English (e.g. [[:n:es:]]) at the time of universal closure (2026-05-04).
:* How can Wikiversity navigate the concerns that lead to the closure of Wikinews?
::*One of the biggest issues was the problems with DPL, which is now irrelevant. Another was the lack of activity, which can be ameliorated by having it be part of an existing project instead of its own domain (e.g. some editions of Wikipedia host their own Wikinews already and those projects were not impacted by the closure).
:* Are any changes to the scope of Wikinews proposed?
::*Not at this juncture. I would also propose as far as implemention goes that we would request a new namespace and that the material be more-or-less sequestered into its own ongoing project, like Wikijournal is or like the Cookbook and Wikijunior are at our sister [[:b:]].
:* How does [[Wikinews]] fit with the [[Wikiversity:Mission]]? What aligns well? Where might there be tension?
:** e.g., I'm not sure that a page like [[Story/Manchester City moves two points behind Arsenal]] in and of itself will serve as an educational resource.
::*The process of citizen journalists practicing their craft in real-time and collaborating with others to do so is itself an education activity. We would essentially be hosting a real-time experiment in citizen journalism, online communities, and collaborative learning in addition to the prospect of spreading educational information from someone actually reading the news. I would propose that we could also make a more deliberate attempt to engage with learning <em>about</em> what does and doesn't work with collaborative news writing by experimentation (e.g. audio news, syndicating to other sites, incorporating freely-licensed news from other sources, writing hyper-local news, writing briefs versus longer-term reportage) and also seeing if the problems noted in the Task Force report that recommended closure can be overcome. Note that we have already done some local investigation about and learning about wiki-based journalism on Wikinews here at [[Journalism studies and Wikinews]]. We could continue that learning and refine the process, including incorporating journalism students from universities. As for tensions, Wikinews is the only sister project that must be done with a quick turn-around: if you take a long time to [[:s:|transcribe a book]], that's just how long it takes, but if you take a long time to write news, it ceases to be news entirely. Wikiversity has been a very slow-growing project that has definitely had some successes but has generally come together over a long period with most learning resources being individual passion projects (or sometimes, frankly, crankery) which would not work with collaborative news that requires more than just a single editor writing whatever he feels like.
::Please let me know any other questions/concerns and any other editors feel free to give your own perspective. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 06:13, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:::Thanks, Justin — it is food for thought.
:::In attempting to understand how we've arrived here, I've summarised some of the background on this page: [[Wikinews]].
:::Perhaps it could be helpful to flesh out more of the vision / ideas / possibilities / challenges on that page? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:49, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
:::*Having given it some thought, in principle, I support hosting [[citizen journalism]] on Wikiversity where it is clearly connected to a learning project and/or constitutes original research, both of which align strongly with [[Wikiversity:Mission|Wikiversity’s educational mission]].
:::*My chief concern is the potential for news content that is not clearly linked to the purpose of Wikiversity. To avoid this, some community-agreed guidelines would be prudent. These need not be overly restrictive; they should support boldness and experimentation while helping ensure alignment with Wikiversity's purpose.
:::*Given the reported low and declining activity on Wikinews, it seems unlikely that English Wikiversity would be overwhelmed by an influx of news-related editing. My impression is that English Wikinews was the most active edition, but even so, many contributors are likely to disperse to other projects or cease editing altogether. A modest migration of interested editors to Wikiversity seems manageable.
:::*At this stage, I do not think a dedicated namespace is necessary. Subpages under [[Wikinews]] or nested pages under relevant learning or research projects, or user-space draft pages should be suitable. I agree that [[Wikijournal]] offers a useful model, as do several existing course structures on Wikiversity.
:::*I support [[User:Koavf]]’s suggestions about framing Wikinews activity explicitly around learning. This would create a distinctive space for experimenting with collaborative news production in ways that are pedagogically meaningful. I agree that the [[journalism studies and Wikinews]] project developed by David and Leigh Blackall through the University of Wollongong is an excellent example of the intersection between Wikiversity and Wikinews. The [[Wikinews]] page could evolve into a hub for such projects.
:::*I've tidied the [[:Category:Wikinews|Wikinews category]] and merged some content into the [[Wikinews]] page. As part of a reinvigoration effort, please review these and related resources such as [[:Category:Journalism]] and [[School:Journalism]].
:::*A further argument in favour of this initiative is that Wikipedia explicitly excludes both news reporting and original research. So, there is value in maintaining spaces within the Wikimedia ecosystem where these forms of knowledge production can be openly developed and curated. Such work can, in turn, generate valuable evidence and source material that may later inform Wikipedia articles.
:::*The closure of WMF-hosted Wikinews does not imply that open wiki-based news curation lacks value. Indeed, the closure documentation appears supportive of experimentation with alternative news models across Wikimedia projects, including through Wikipedia and Wikidata. In that context, Wikiversity seems a natural home for a Wikinews experiment, provided it is clearly grounded in learning and/or research.
:::-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:39, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
My understanding towards Wikinews' failure is that everything takes too long to be approved for the publish status, which means that any breaking news would have already become days-old stale news. Wikinews has a brand recognition (for right or wrong reasons) than Wikiversity and I wonder how effective Wikiversity can attract the "Wikinews refugees" to edit here. And just a quick note on the governance. Since each Wikiversity language operates independently, each language has to vote & adopt this proposal independently. [[User:OhanaUnited|<b><span style="color: #0000FF;">OhanaUnited</span></b>]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|<b><span style="color: green;"><sup>Talk page</sup></span></b>]] 13:47, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
:Your assessment about Wikinews is partially correct. I referenced it earlier, but to be explicit, there is a [[:m:Proposal for Closing Wikinews|report by a task force on sister projects]] that outlines their concerns. There are a few, one of which was the nature of the staleness of news. Thanks also for clarifying that this proposal is only relevant to en.wv and is not binding or even proposed for other editions of Wikiversity. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 18:54, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
*Note: I am not a regular here, and just visit Wikiversity for the WikiJournal project. Challenges of Wikinews included that it required timely reporting and fact-checking processes which differed greatly from the well-established ones in Wikipedia. Here in Wikiversity, there is the WikiJournal project, and that can take some some forms of journalism, just not breaking news reporting. I am in favor of salvaging parts of Wikinews if helpful. Could it, would it be feasible to adapt Wikijournal to accept some forms of news journalism, but just not the timed news reporting? For example, WikiJournal already is doing conference proceedings, and could likely do related event reports even months after the event ended. It could probably accept long-form investigative reporting, which is a sort of news that is not breaking news. I am not sure what the possibilities are, but I would prefer to build up systems that already work rather than import systems which had problems elsewhere. Thanks. [[User:Bluerasberry|<span style="background:#cedff2;color:#11e">''' Blue Rasberry '''</span>]][[User talk:Bluerasberry|<span style="cursor:help"><span style="background:#cedff2;color:#11e">(talk)</span></span>]] 19:17, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
*:I agree that there are certain kinds of journalism that are perfectly valid and not time-bound like breaking news reporting, so that won't suffer from the issues noted before. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 21:15, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
== Inactivity policy for Curators ==
I was wondering if there is a specific inactivity polity for curators (semi-admins) as I am pretty sure the global policy does not apply to them as they are not ''fully'' sysops. [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 03:20, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
:Unfortunately, I don't see an inactivity policy, but if we were to create such a new policy for curators, it should be the same for custodians (administrators). [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:45, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
::@[[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] There is currently none, that I could find, for custodians either. [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 00:47, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
:::I think we should propose a local inactivity policy for custodians (and by extension, curators), which should be at least one year without any edits ''and'' logged actions. However, I don't know which page should it be when the inactivity removal procedure starts. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 00:53, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
::::@[[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] In theory, there should be a section added at [[WV:Candidates for custodianship]] [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 00:55, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
::::: To be consistent with the [[meta:Admin activity review|global period of 2 years inactivity]] for en.wv [[Wikiversity:Custodianship#Notes|Custodians]] and [[Wikiversity:Bureaucratship#How are bureaucrats removed?|Bureaucrats]] we could add something like this to [[Wikiversity:Curators]]:
::::::The maximum time period of inactivity <u>without community review</u> for curators is two years (consistent with the [[:meta:Category:Global policies|global policy]] described at [[meta:Admin activity review|Admin activity review]] which applies for [[Wikiversity:Custodianship#Notes|Custodians]] and [[Wikiversity:Bureaucratship|Bureaucrats]]). After that time a custodian will remove the rights.
::::: -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:51, 27 March 2026 (UTC)
:::::Yup, I agree with Jtneill, there is a policy proposal for Wikiversity:Curators, where it should be logically deployed. The question is if we are ready to aprove the policy. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 17:43, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
:::::: I agree, but we should notify the colloquium about inactive curators, just like a steward would do for inactive custodians and bureaucrats per [[:m:Admin activity review|AAR]]. What is the minimum timeframe an inactive curator should receive so they can respond they would keep their rights? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 17:49, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
:I incorporated these suggestions into the proposed curators policy. Please review/comment/improve. Summary: 2 years, notify curator's user page, then remove rights after 1 month: [[Wikiversity:Curators#Inactivity]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 08:59, 24 April 2026 (UTC)
:: @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] I created [[Template:Inactive curator]] for this. Feel free to make any changes or improvements. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 14:29, 24 April 2026 (UTC)
:::Wondering, should we also have:
:::* {{tl|Inactive custodian}}
:::* {{tl|Inactive bureaucrat}}
:::or perhaps just a single template with a parameter(s) for the user right(s)/role(s)? e.g.,
:::* if a custodian is inactive for 2 years, then custodian and curator rights are to be removed and
:::* if a bureaucrat is inactive for 2 years, then bureaucrat, custodian, and curator rights are to to be removed.
:::-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 09:58, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
:::: I would probably modify that template when we actually develop our own inactivity policy, because we're currently under the AAR (a steward notifies the colloquium with [[m:Admin activity review/Notice to communities]], and inactive advanced right holders with [[m:Admin activity review/Notice to inactive right holders]]). [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 15:16, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
:::::Ah, I see. Yes, that makes sense. Thankyou. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 04:21, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
: In that case, should we develop our own inactivity policy (e.g. on [[Wikiversity:Inactivity policy]] or [[Wikiversity:Support staff/Inactivity]])? I would list the general inactivity part, the process, etc. Once it's approved as a policy, I will [[m:Stewards' noticeboard|notify the stewards]]. Thoughts? [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 15:30, 16 May 2026 (UTC)
::Originally, I would have thought that, for a small wiki like en.wv, it made sense to leave inactivity monitoring to the stewards. However, with the creation of the curator user group, we have already taken on local responsibility for monitoring inactivity in at least one advanced-rights group. Extending this to custodians and bureaucrats would not add much additional overhead and would provide a more consistent and transparent local administrative process.
::One option would be to develop a single, centralised policy covering all advanced-rights groups.
::An alternative would be to include an ==Inactivity== section on each relevant policy page (e.g., we already have [[Wikiversity:Curatorship#Inactivity]], but not yet in the custodianship, and bureaucratship policy pages). This approach would allow some flexibility because different user groups may warrant different criteria (such as inactivity thresholds, qualifying activity, or review procedures).
::A hybrid approach may be best: maintain separate inactivity sections within each user-group policy page, while transcluding these into a central overview page such as Codename Noreste suggests. This would preserve clarity at the local policy level while also providing a single reference point for consistency and oversight. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 23:09, 16 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I would suggest we develop a centralized inactivity policy page, and include a short summarized section of that page, on the support staff user group pages. We must also include a link to that policy page if we were to add <nowiki>== Inactivity ==</nowiki> to each of those user group pages. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:48, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
== Inactive curators ==
Hello, even though [[Wikiversity:Curators]] is not a policy yet, there are curators listed here that have been inactive for two years or more:
* {{user|Cody naccarato}} (last edit on 13 Dec 2022, last logged action on 10 Dec 2022)
* {{user|Praxidicae}} (last edit on 10 Sep 2022, last logged action on 12 Sep 2022)
[[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 21:14, 19 April 2026 (UTC)
:Yup, I would remove the rights. To get the rights back if theyll come back should not be a big deal. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 20:08, 24 April 2026 (UTC)
:: When they don't reply by May 19, feel free (or any custodian) to do so. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 00:28, 25 April 2026 (UTC)
==Curator inactivity review==
These curators haven't been active for > 2 years. As per the [[Wikiversity:Curatorship|curatorship policy]]:
* [[Special:Log/Cody naccarato]] was notified on their talk page by [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] on 24 Apr 2026
* [[Special:Log/Praxidicae]] was notified on their talk page by [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] on 24 Apr 2026
* [[Special:Log/Tegel]] was notified on their talk page by [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] notified their talk page on 16 May 2026
The policy allows a month to hear from these users. If no response, a custodian will remove their curator rights.
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 06:14, 16 May 2026 (UTC)
: For Cody naccarato and Praxidicae, their rights are to be removed by the 19th of May if they don't respond either here or on their talk page. For Tegel, the removal will happen on the 16th of June, probably. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 15:13, 16 May 2026 (UTC)
::Should be 24 May for Cody naccarato and Praxidicae? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 23:11, 16 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I made [[#Inactive curators]] on the 19th of April. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 03:18, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
::::OK, I see (had missed that thread, sorry - I've now moved the the 3 inactivity topics to be adjacent).
::::I'm thinking the curator policy indicates one month from user talk page notification? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 06:44, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
::::: Yes. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:49, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
: @[[User:Juandev|Juandev]] and @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]]: feel free to remove Cody naccarato and Praxidicae's curator permissions. They have not responded at all after one month. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 17:29, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
::I've gone ahead and removed their rights due to 2+ year inactivity and no response to the initial notice. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 13:36, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
== [[Wikiversity:Deletion policy]] proposed as policy ==
[[Wikiversity:Deletions]] has been operating as a [[Wikiversity:Guidelines|guideline]]. It has been revised and moved to [[Wikiversity:Deletion policy]], consistent with naming conventions used across sister projects such as Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Wikiquote. The speedy deletion criteria have also been updated for consistency with [[MediaWiki:Deletereason-dropdown]].
This proposal is for the page to be formally adopted as [[Wikiversity:Policies|Wikiversity policy]].
Community feedback is invited, including suggestions for further improvements that may strengthen the proposed policy.
=== Voting ===
*{{support}} Seems reasonable. If there's somehow something missed here, we can just amend it later. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 05:33, 18 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{support}} I don't see any issues with the policy. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 16:07, 18 May 2026 (UTC)
=== Comments ===
== May 2026 Wikimedia Café meetups regarding the Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan ==
<div class="border-box" style="background-color: var(--background-color-warning-subtle, #f8eaba); max-width: 875px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px; color: var(--clr-dark)">
<div class="box" style="float:left; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 15px;">[[File:Wikimedia Café logo in plain SVG format.svg|75px|alt=The logo for the Wikimedia Café]]</div>
Hello! There will be two '''[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Caf%C3%A9 Wikimedia Café]''' discussion opportunities during the last weekend of May. Both sessions will focus on the [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027 the 2026-2027 Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan]. Participants may attend either or both sessions.
#'''Saturday, 30 May 2026 at 15:00 UTC''' ([https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1780153200 timestamp converter]), at a time friendly to the Americas, Africa, and Europe
#'''Sunday, 31 May 2026 at 05:00 UTC''' ([https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1780203600 timestamp converter]), at a time friendly to Asia and the Pacific
Café participants are highly encouraged to read in advance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sohom_Datta/annual_plan_guide at least this summary of the plan]. Optionally, Café participants are encouraged to read portions of the plan that interest them and [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027 ask questions or provide feedback on the Annual Plan talk page].
Please see the Café page for more information, including [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Caf%C3%A9#May_2026_meetings_with_a_focus_on_Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2026-2027 tables of timestamp conversions for both sessions], [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Caf%C3%A9#Agenda._This_will_be_an_approximately_1_hour_Caf%C3%A9_session,_and_is_extendible_for_an_additional_30_minutes_if_needed. the agenda], and [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Caf%C3%A9#How_to_attend_the_session how to register]!
<br />
[[File:Buntstifte Eberhard Faber crop 64h.jpg|860px|alt=cropped image of colored pencils]]</div>
<span style="white-space:nowrap;">[[User:Pine|<span style="color:#01796f; text-shadow:#00BFFF 0 0 1.0em">↠Pine</span>]] [[User talk:Pine|<span style="color:DeepSkyBlue">(<b style="color:#FFDF00;text-shadow:#FFDF00 0 0 1.0em">✉</b>)</span>]]</span> 19:46, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
== Vote now in the 2026 U4C election ==
<section begin="announcement-content" />
Eligible voters are asked to participate in the 2026 [[m:Special:MyLanguage/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Coordinating_Committee|Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee]] election. More information–including an eligibility check, voting process information, candidate information, and a link to the vote–are available on Meta at the [[m:Special:MyLanguage/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Coordinating_Committee/Election/2026|2026 Election information page]]. The vote closes on 2 June 2026 at [https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1780358400 00:00 UTC].
Please vote if your account is eligible. Results will be available by 14 June 2026. -- In cooperation with the U4C,<section end="announcement-content" />
[[m:User:Keegan (WMF)|Keegan (WMF)]] ([[m:User talk:Keegan (WMF)|talk]]) 17:15, 27 May 2026 (UTC)
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Wikiversity:Notices for custodians
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Codename Noreste
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== Call for custodians and bureaucrats ==
<div class="cd-moveMark">''Moved from [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Call for custodians and bureaucrats]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:46, 12 May 2026 (UTC)''</div>
Can I encourage currently active [[Wikiversity:Curators|curators]] to consider putting themselves forward for [[Wikiversity:Custodianship|custodianship]] and/or [[Wikiversity:Bureaucrat|bureaucratship]]. We have a productive, capable group of [[Wikiversity:Staff|staff]] at the moment who should probably have more rights to better support the project and we are light on for active custodians and bureaucrats. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:34, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
: I'm willing to do so. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 11:48, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
::Awesome. Could you self-nominate at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:59, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I filed my nomination, but according to the custodianship policy, I am running for probationary custodianship, and after a period of four weeks, I will run again for permanent custodianship to determine if I have performed well and professionally. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 19:00, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:I'm also willing to run for bureaucratship as I imagine my activity levels should remain sufficient. I could put in a nomination within the next week or so. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:55, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::Wonderful. [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:09, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:Would also like to help! [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 23:25, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
::Merci beaucoup :) When you're ready, you can self-nominate for probationary custodianship at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:08, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
: Would an uninvolved bureaucrat close the following discussions? Roughly a week has passed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:53, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Ping @[[User:Guy vandegrift|Guy vandegrift]] @[[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] @[[User:Mu301|Mu301]]: Two probationary custodian nominations are ready for closing if you're available. Also note that there are two bureaucrat nominations that should stay open for another week or so. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:57, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:::{{done}} --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] <sup>[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]</sup> 16:51, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
== Call for custodian mentors==
If you have more than 3 months experience as a custodian, please consider listing yourself as potential mentor for probationary custodians: [[Wikiversity:List of custodian mentors]]
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 22:27, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
== 2FA requirement for bureaucrats ==
Per [[Special:ListGroupRights#bureaucrat]] and per [[phab:T423120|T423120]], you'll notice that two-factor authentication is required to use bureaucrat permissions (and will soon be enforced). Our existing bureaucrats should take a moment to verify and utilize two-factor authentication. Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 22:31, 27 May 2026 (UTC)
1of0hv367a978rrqizoqzcj3didmu03
2811752
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Jtneill
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/* Call for custodians and bureaucrats */ reply to Mu301 ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]])
2811752
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{{/Header}}
== Call for custodians and bureaucrats ==
<div class="cd-moveMark">''Moved from [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Call for custodians and bureaucrats]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:46, 12 May 2026 (UTC)''</div>
Can I encourage currently active [[Wikiversity:Curators|curators]] to consider putting themselves forward for [[Wikiversity:Custodianship|custodianship]] and/or [[Wikiversity:Bureaucrat|bureaucratship]]. We have a productive, capable group of [[Wikiversity:Staff|staff]] at the moment who should probably have more rights to better support the project and we are light on for active custodians and bureaucrats. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:34, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
: I'm willing to do so. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 11:48, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
::Awesome. Could you self-nominate at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:59, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I filed my nomination, but according to the custodianship policy, I am running for probationary custodianship, and after a period of four weeks, I will run again for permanent custodianship to determine if I have performed well and professionally. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 19:00, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:I'm also willing to run for bureaucratship as I imagine my activity levels should remain sufficient. I could put in a nomination within the next week or so. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:55, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::Wonderful. [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:09, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:Would also like to help! [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 23:25, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
::Merci beaucoup :) When you're ready, you can self-nominate for probationary custodianship at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:08, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
: Would an uninvolved bureaucrat close the following discussions? Roughly a week has passed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:53, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Ping @[[User:Guy vandegrift|Guy vandegrift]] @[[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] @[[User:Mu301|Mu301]]: Two probationary custodian nominations are ready for closing if you're available. Also note that there are two bureaucrat nominations that should stay open for another week or so. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:57, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:::{{done}} --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] <sup>[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]</sup> 16:51, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:::: Thanks, Mike, appreciate it.
:::: It's now been a couple of weeks for the two bureaucrat nominations, so I think they could be closed. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:10, 28 May 2026 (UTC)
== Call for custodian mentors==
If you have more than 3 months experience as a custodian, please consider listing yourself as potential mentor for probationary custodians: [[Wikiversity:List of custodian mentors]]
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 22:27, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
== 2FA requirement for bureaucrats ==
Per [[Special:ListGroupRights#bureaucrat]] and per [[phab:T423120|T423120]], you'll notice that two-factor authentication is required to use bureaucrat permissions (and will soon be enforced). Our existing bureaucrats should take a moment to verify and utilize two-factor authentication. Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 22:31, 27 May 2026 (UTC)
in7ib8ip4s2tg19plz5tgyywt8yuwr9
2811753
2811752
2026-05-28T02:13:15Z
Jtneill
10242
/* 2FA requirement for bureaucrats */ reply ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]])
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{{/Header}}
== Call for custodians and bureaucrats ==
<div class="cd-moveMark">''Moved from [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action#Call for custodians and bureaucrats]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:46, 12 May 2026 (UTC)''</div>
Can I encourage currently active [[Wikiversity:Curators|curators]] to consider putting themselves forward for [[Wikiversity:Custodianship|custodianship]] and/or [[Wikiversity:Bureaucrat|bureaucratship]]. We have a productive, capable group of [[Wikiversity:Staff|staff]] at the moment who should probably have more rights to better support the project and we are light on for active custodians and bureaucrats. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:34, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
: I'm willing to do so. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 11:48, 9 May 2026 (UTC)
::Awesome. Could you self-nominate at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:59, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::: I filed my nomination, but according to the custodianship policy, I am running for probationary custodianship, and after a period of four weeks, I will run again for permanent custodianship to determine if I have performed well and professionally. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 19:00, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:I'm also willing to run for bureaucratship as I imagine my activity levels should remain sufficient. I could put in a nomination within the next week or so. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:55, 11 May 2026 (UTC)
::Wonderful. [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:09, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
:Would also like to help! [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 23:25, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
::Merci beaucoup :) When you're ready, you can self-nominate for probationary custodianship at [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:08, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
: Would an uninvolved bureaucrat close the following discussions? Roughly a week has passed. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:53, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Ping @[[User:Guy vandegrift|Guy vandegrift]] @[[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] @[[User:Mu301|Mu301]]: Two probationary custodian nominations are ready for closing if you're available. Also note that there are two bureaucrat nominations that should stay open for another week or so. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:57, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:::{{done}} --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] <sup>[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]</sup> 16:51, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:::: Thanks, Mike, appreciate it.
:::: It's now been a couple of weeks for the two bureaucrat nominations, so I think they could be closed. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:10, 28 May 2026 (UTC)
== Call for custodian mentors==
If you have more than 3 months experience as a custodian, please consider listing yourself as potential mentor for probationary custodians: [[Wikiversity:List of custodian mentors]]
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 22:27, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
== 2FA requirement for bureaucrats ==
Per [[Special:ListGroupRights#bureaucrat]] and per [[phab:T423120|T423120]], you'll notice that two-factor authentication is required to use bureaucrat permissions (and will soon be enforced). Our existing bureaucrats should take a moment to verify and utilize two-factor authentication. Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 22:31, 27 May 2026 (UTC)
: Thanks for the reminder. Bureaucrats should have received emails. I switched it on recently. Relatively painless and hasn't disrupted workflow, so seems to be well implemented. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:13, 28 May 2026 (UTC)
toroovh3l2jqgldt9cg9c6ha3tevx2q
Wikiversity:Requests for Deletion
4
1791
2811713
2811481
2026-05-27T18:06:21Z
Codename Noreste
2969951
/* Korean/Words */ Deleted. (using [[wikt:MediaWiki:Gadget-AjaxEdit.js|AjaxEdit]])
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{{/header}}
== [[Korean/Words]] ==
{{archive top|All deleted per consensus below. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:06, 27 May 2026 (UTC)}}
(I go to RfD instead of ''proposed deletion'' since many pages are affected.)
I proposed to quasi-delete, i.e. '''move to userspace''' of the main (or sole?) creator, {{User|KYPark}}.
The page is organized a little bit like a dictionary. It makes it redundant to Wiktionary except that Wikiversity allows original research and there does seem to be original research there. Thus, its being organized as a dictionary would alone not necessarily be a problem.
Where I see a problem is in the organization and execution/implementation. Consider [[Korean/Words/가다]], which seems rather typical of the subpages (some subpages are like categories and transclude the pages for individual words):
* On the putative definition line, there is this: "한곳에서 다른 곳으로 장소를 이동하다", apparently(?) in Korean. That does not seem to fit well into the ''English'' Wikiversity.
* There seems to be some original research into etymological relations between Korean and European languages in the "Comparatives" section (from what I recall, the English Wiktionary rejected this kind of content from KYPark). Admittedly, it is marked using "This is a primary, secondary and/or original Eurasiatic research project at Wikiversity", so it could be tolerable, but even so, one has to wonder whether Wikiversity wants this kind of fringe science/research or outright pseudo-science.
** Fringe science: fringe physics has been moved to user space before. This would be fringe etymology. But then, original research is allowed.
Deletion is not required; moving to user space suffices, I think. Alternatively, one could at least rename the pages to make it clear from the title that this is not Wikiversity voice but rather KYPark voice, e.g. "Korean/Words (KYPark)/..." or "Korean/Words/KYPark/..." (recall the "Fedosin" pages featuring the name "Fedosin").
Methodology: I see almost no methodological notes spanning the words at [[Korean/Words]]. And yet, if this is original research inventing new etymological connections, surely there should be some general considerations/analysis on how to proceed and how that manner of procedure differs from mainstream etymology?
Prefix index (max 200 items?):
{{collapse top}}
{{Small START}}
{{Special:Prefixindex/Korean/Words}}
{{Small END}}
{{Collapse bottom}}
--[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 09:33, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
:I would keep it. If there is a course of Korean, why not to have a resesearch on Korean vocabulary? [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 19:53, 16 October 2025 (UTC)
:: I propose to dismiss the above input: 1) it does not contain any argument, except for a question, and a question is not an argument (it can be so reinterpreted, but that includes additional burden on the interpreters, in interpreting it the wrong way); 2) it ignores all the issues I have raised, including that there is something like definition lines in Korean, in this ''English'' Wikiversity. To answer the question asked: there can be a research on Korean vocabulary in the mainspace, but not one showing the defects I identified above. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 05:35, 15 November 2025 (UTC)
:I've reviewed a sample of approximately 20 of the Korean/Words sub-pages and lean towards moving to user space because:
:* The pages appear to be an idiosynchratic collection of etymological pages about Korean language
:* There is minimal English instruction which is problematic for English Wikiversity
:* There is no explanation of research method
:* There is no educational rationale
:-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:31, 22 November 2025 (UTC)
:Well, since the original creator has indef I change my mind and I would '''delete''' it. The case is nobody knows how to continue with the research and if we move it to the userspace, the user cannot improve it eihter. What the original user can do to request admin, to send them a contentent to their email for example if they really want to improve the resource elsewhere. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 08:38, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
I think the consensus here is delete. {{U|Codename Noreste}} do you know an efficient way to mass delete these pages? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:49, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
: I would use a script, but I would probably not delete those pages yet until we have the pseudobot user group. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 16:53, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
{{archive bottom}}
== [[IMHA Research Archives]] ==
I propose to '''move to userspace''', including the subpages. I struggle to understand how Wikiversity readers are supposed to benefit from the material here and in the subpages. In the log, there is e.g. '10 February 2019 Marshallsumter discuss contribs deleted page IMHA Research Archives (content was: "{<nowiki/>{Delete|Author request}} Thanks! -")', so the page was deleted before, but not the subpages.
We could also delete all the material if we have strong enough suspicion too much of it is copyright violation. In any case, moving to user space improves the matter a little by moving the content away from Google search. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 13:38, 9 November 2025 (UTC)
:Looking at some sub-pages, they can be deleted e.g., because they only consist of broken links or are largely empty. I deleted a couple but haven't been through all to check. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:27, 10 November 2025 (UTC)
As an example, let me give the wikitext content of [[IMHA Research Archives/3. Scientific litterature search, storage and use]]:
<pre>
==[[/Medicina Maritima - the Spanish scientific maritime health journal/]]==
==[[/PubMed/]]==
==[[/Google and Google Scholar/]]==
==[[/Zotero/]]==
==[https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d91z7bcyelfvk42/AAAkIvjtBnnFMbiU9ZLOdVL9a/Andrioti_database%20sources0310.pptx?dl=0 Maritime health web portal ressources ]==
</pre>
The wikilinks are red; the external link to dropbox says "You don't have access". This was made in 2016. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 09:04, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
:I suggest delete -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 03:27, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:: I think we should avoid deletion as much as possible, instead moving to user space (bar copyvio, ethics violation, etc.). This is a good general principle. It greatly improves auditability and makes it so much easier for anyone to request undeletion since they know what content they are requesting for undeletion. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 09:52, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:::Do not recreate Wikiversity from the educational and research project to the personal blog. That will lead to the cancelation of it by WMF. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 21:44, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:::: The English Wikiversity has a long tradition of moving problematic content to user space, as per evidence collected at [[User:Dan_Polansky/About Wikiversity#Moving pages to userspace]]. If Wikimedia Foundation finds this problematic, they can start a discussion in Colloquium and state their concerns. They do not need to make explicit threats at first; they can start a discussion and explain why it is problematic. They can even do it from an anonymous IP and provide a well-articulated reasoning. And anyone else can start a discussion in Colloquium to change this tradition. I do not see why we should not want to change that tradition based on well-articulated, compelling reasoning. I see no reason why Juandev should be making threats instead of them, on a per RFD basis. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 05:58, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
:::: If Juandev is ''sincere'' about deleting very-low-value items ''from user space'', he should perhaps demonstrate that by asking his pages like [[:cs:Uživatel:Juandev/Problémy/Kov/Repase dvířek elektroskříně]] to be deleted; otherwise, I register a ''glaring inconsistence''. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 07:43, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
::What was the original delate page about @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]]? I guess that would be crucial for the decission. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 21:48, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:::@[[User:Juandev|Juandev]] the couple of pages I checked and deleted were much like @[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] posted above i.e., headings with empty sections and/or broken links but no substantive content. But I think each sub-page needs checking. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 21:59, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
::::So I'm saying that the main page usually determines what the other pages are for. But if I don't know the page because it's been deleted, or why was deleted (deletion based on the founder's request is probably not the rule), it's hard to judge. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 22:16, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:::::I've pasted the original content of the root page: [[IMHA Research Archives#Original page]] (i.e., prior to the content being removed and deletion requested) to help understand the context for the sub-pages. In 2018, Saltrabook blanked the page, indicating that the content had been moved elsewhere, and requested page deletion. Marshallsumter then deleted the main page but not the sub-pages. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 01:58, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
::::::I see, so if those subpages are usefull I would keept them, if not I would delete them. I dont see a point of providing free hosting to sombody, by moving many pages to their user space. The question is if we want to host (i.e. to have in the main ns) lists of links elsewhere. I have no opinion on that. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 10:11, 22 November 2025 (UTC)
: Let me clarify that while many of the subpages are like the example above, [[IMHA Research Archives/Scientific litterature search, storage and use/Zotero]] is different:
:: "A continuous critical and evidence based learning is a core issue in clinical practice, research, teaching, publication and prevention activities. The Zotero Program is just one of many scientific literature management programs, that should be used for these purposes. Of course one can live without such a database but it helps a lot and can save a lot of time that could be used for more interesting issues. Not only that, but it helps to create better publications and knowledge. Without this program it can be very time consuming to publish a scientific article with the requested style for the references. Further in daily practice when you want to collect and cite a few references for a specific evidence in a clinical colloquium and discussion, this program is excellent. Therefore we strongly recommend that all maritime health persons learn how to use this excellent tool in their daily maritime health practice of all different types. There are good online courses for self-instruction on how to use Zotero. For example this one: Zotero fast online course But in order to increase IMHAR´s collective scientific strength in the use of EBM we would like to give training sessions in every possible opportunity, IMHA Symposia, seminars and other types of meetings. The database is useful for personal purposes but especially also for collaborative aims. At the IMHAR meeting in Paris Oct 7th 2016 we will give an introduction to the program by showing how it can be used in the daily practice and discuss strength and weaknesses compared to other similar databases."
: Even longer is e.g. [[IMHA Research Archives/Scientific litterature search, storage and use/Medicina Maritima - the Spanish scientific maritime health journal]].
: However, that does not mean these should be salvaged. --[[User:Dan Polansky|Dan Polansky]] ([[User talk:Dan Polansky|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dan Polansky|contribs]]) 07:53, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
:{{ping|Saltrabook}} I'm wondering if you can respond here to help us decide about whether to delete the IMHA Research Archives sub-pages or perhaps move them to your user space? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 11:58, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
: [[Special:Diff/2811248]] provides confirmation from Saltrabook to go ahead and delete these archives -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 12:56, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
== Undeletion request ==
It was deleted by an admin without discussion and with untrue rationale. If people take offense with the question that doesn't mean it's not a valid question and the page was good. Please undelete the Wikidebate page [https://web.archive.org/web/20250810030352/https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Is_it_likely_that_Earth_has_been_visited_by_aliens_millions_of_years_ago%3F Is it likely that Earth has been visited by aliens millions of years ago?]
There are lots of sources on the subject, the wikidebate is sourced very well compared to other wikidebates and wikiversity pages, and the page is educational, useful and of good quality. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Prototyperspective|contribs]]) 23:57, 10 April 2026 (UTC)
:Page: [[Is it likely that Earth has been visited by aliens millions of years ago?]]
:Ping: [[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 00:21, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
:There is no need for a discussion for straight garbage-level, pseudoscientific content.
:For '''Is it likely that Earth has been visited by aliens millions of years ago?''', the flaws for this page wouldn't even take someone more than a few minutes to assess:
:* Essentially, the "pro" arguments unproven claims being derived from irrelevant, established facts (basically: "it is likely aliens have came because Earth has existed for so long [sources proving Earth's longevity]"). These are not serious, scientifically-backed arguments - these are non sequiturs. It's as if I said Wikipedia has existed longer than my existence on Earth ([https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/74351725/eyJoIjogImZiODhmYzNkODU1N2UxMWExYzUyODJiYzgzZTRmZDM4OTBjODY5YWMzMjA3NDNmOWEyZTA0ZTU3ZGYwZjAyYTkiLCAidSI6ICJodHRwczovL3B1cmUuaHZhLm5sL3dz-libre.pdf?1636354596=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DCritical_Point_of_View_A_Wikipedia_Reade.pdf&Expires=1775872055&Signature=GqbUZboYRvUYWi~aW40LT5eZSHrLuDL3o0-DxAH8vSvcJcGAuyByZWLF2oHTY6GlB72TqvZxpE-v9d4gvsA6myriYqO~QQQZgWxjT2JXjUWC-yiPcTF4l~lroJSi4dY0v9eKiBcU03l-aeUdrX8~UPfi0TfW0IhsmzH-VBR6X6FrzRpIqc6uM6n9YXfr5FRB3aCqqokU690af3n0Hguaub1Zgmh9qjYYqzBS0VOOHjKTTEQnDuadX3jl5CQeXYTaeCC3H0hMeVwHlratbrnuFEKC1aN0-5znCUoSzMEg21ECzGPTrSDM1W05dcK-u0ZTCeUGKAuC-2yRFL3sY46MIw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=157 reputable source proving ''this'' fact]), therefore it's likely that my birth took place solely for the sake of me experiencing Wikipedia (0 backing). It makes no sense and no person with at least a high school-level of intelligence would take this seriously.
:* What is worse is that the user is being misleading with their "[the page is] sourced very well" claim. The sources ''themselves'' don't even back up the claims. It's just used as proof for an established concept, where the user then uses this established concept to jump to an unsupported, laughable conclusion that is pulled out of thin air. It's utterly ridiculous to even consider such a page for mainspace since it clearly violates our [[Wikiversity:Verifiability]] policy. This is, once again, pseudoscientific content that has caused our website to reduce in quality over the last few years.
:* Going source by source, we can see that:
:#[https://web.archive.org/web/20250918011642/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/thebigd/compress-earths-history-into-24-hrs-humans-came-at-1158-pm-yet-killed-70-of-wildlife/ ‘Compress Earth’s history into 24 hrs. Humans came at 11:58 pm, yet killed 70% of wildlife’] is literally just a blog post which doesn't even mention aliens or extraterrestrial life. It just talks about Earth's history in accordance with the 24-hour metric of time, and the author tries to use this article as a 'piece in the puzzle' of aliens "possibly" visiting Earth... which, once again, is unsupported and is not backed up anywhere in the article.
:#[https://web.archive.org/web/20250808053249/https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/11/jurassic-worlds-might-be-easier-spot-modern-earth The Cornell article does not even remotely support the idea that "aliens visited Earth"]. It mentions a ''chance'' of "life there [a habitable exoplanet] might not be limited to microbes, but could include creatures as large and varied as the megalosauruses or microraptors that once roamed Earth.", but again, no justification to take this article as proof that "aliens may have visited us!". There's no mention of aliens visiting Earth anywhere in the article. Once again this is only proving the background premise, but not the unsupported, nonsensical "alien likelihood" argument that the author of this garbage page is trying to push so desperately.
:#The Parker Solar Probe WP article does not even mention aliens either. It follows the same issues as the previous argument.
:And the other page this user complained about [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User_talk:Atcovi#Deletion_of_educational_page_because_of_personal_opinion on my talk page] holds almost similar, maybe even more fatal mistakes, than this one. It has nothing to do with "taking offense", this is just low-quality, garbage content. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 00:56, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
::Why do you think pro claims are required to be proven? It's possible to object to them and these are arguments, not contextualized to be statements of proven facts. And it's not a strange or unreasonable argument to make that since Earth has existed for long, it's more likely that aliens have come here in the past than in recent times or the near future. Instead of insulting others' intelligence, maybe engage with the actual reasoning rather than censoring it away. And there are lots of sources, such as [https://interestingengineering.com/science/alien-civilizations-may-have-visited-earth-millions-of-years-ago-study-says Alien Civilizations May Have Visited Earth Millions of Years Ago, Study Says] etc etc. The sources are used for the arguments themselves individually. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Prototyperspective|contribs]]) 12:30, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
:::Because, once again, this is not a site that caters to rampant debating for the sake of "we need to employ rationality and logic to solve the world's problems", we have policies that we need to fulfill. The claims made in the pro argument clearly do not meet [[Wikiversity:Verifiability]], since you cannot verify these arguments with the sources because they are not relevant.
:::''"And it's not a strange or unreasonable argument to make that since Earth has existed for long, it's more likely that aliens have come here in the past than in recent times or the near future."'' The point being is that these arguments are not supported by the sources. Even the article you mention poses the idea as a hypothetical model. This is just you twisting the article to fit your unsupported narrative. I'll bring direct quotes for you to show why the linked article does not help you:
:::* ''One problem the researchers do make sure to point out is that '''they are working with only one data point: our own behaviors and capabilities for space exploration'''. “We tried to come up with a model that would involve the fewest assumptions about sociology that we could,” Carroll-Nellenback told Business Insider. '''We have no real way of knowing the motivations of an alien civilization'''.'' --> proves that this is just speculation and no evidence-based arguments have been provided for the idea that aliens likely visited Earth.
:::And I'm not sure if you read my entire response, but I ''did'' engage with your "actual reasoning" and exposed its weaknesses and lack of adherence to Wikiversity policies. If we allowed content that was just filled with non sequiturs we would have content that fails Wikiversity's educational objectives and reduces the overall quality of this website, hence why such a harsh stance needs to be taken. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 13:50, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
::::Thanks for proving that the Wikimedia ecosystem is unfit to deliberate on controversial topics. The question is entirely valid and the content is far better sourced than nearly all Wikidebates and has no genuine flaws. The only possible issue with it as far as I can see is that now that Wikidebates has been paused people can't add objections if they do have sth specific to say about the topic that's not already included on that page which already had plenty of Cons and objections.
::::The page was more educational than most of Wikiversity and it was well-sourced – wikidebates was for arguments so people were invited to make arguments based on sourced things or outlined logic and the page met [[WV:V]] and most pages on Wikiversity aren't sourced as good. Doesn't look like people can see beyond their biases and personal views here but that's more evident in the marginalization and deletion of wikidebates and the low activity in that project than these selective deletions. A constructive thing to do would be to add reasoned Cons and objections not yet on the page and people had plenty of time to do that. There are and will be other sites for free constructive rational adversarial deliberation (not a big loss in that sense). [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Prototyperspective|contribs]]) 16:31, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
:::::Thank you for failing to address any of my arguments and going on an unrelated, nonsensical tangent that has nothing to do with the discussion. Once you start producing work that aligns with Wikiversity's content policies instead of typing up laughable, pseudoscientific garbage, then maybe your work can be accepted and not removed. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 16:59, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
::::::I suggest you stop ridiculing things and learn respectfully forming genuine points about the subject at hand. {{tq|the idea as a hypothetical model}} but please learn first about what arguments are and why they're not the same as a statement of objective proven fact. [[User:Prototyperspective|Prototyperspective]] ([[User talk:Prototyperspective|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Prototyperspective|contribs]]) 17:18, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
==Pages by Harold Foppele==
[[User:Harold Foppele]] is locally blocked indefinitely and globally banned for sockpuppetry. There were also WMF and local community concerns expressed about copyright violation and AI (over)use. As a result, I think the Wikiversity pages created by this account warrant review with regard what should be deleted, what should be retained etc.:
* [[Completing the square]]
* [[Number of independent spatial modes in a spherical volume]]
* [[Quantum]]
** [[Quantum/Andrew N. Jordan]]
* [[Quantum A Matter Of Size]]
* [[Quantum A Spooky Action at a Distance]]
* [[Quantum: A Walk Through the Universe]]
* [[Quantum Computing Algorithms in the NISQ Era]]
* [[Quantum Formulas Collection]]
* [[Quantum harmonic oscillator]]
* [[Quantum Matter Elements and Particles]]
* [[Quantum mechanics]]
** [[Quantum mechanics/Timeline]]
* [[Quantum mechanics learning module]]
* [[Quantum mechanics measurements]]
* [[Quantum Noisy Qubits]]
* [[Quantum optics beam splitter experiments]]
* [[Quantum: The Secret of Cohesion: How Waves Hold Matter Together]]
* [[Quantum Ultra fast lasers]]
* [[Speed of sound experiments]]
* [[User:Harold Foppele]]
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 08:12, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Delete all''' Not worth keeping. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 08:27, 17 May 2026 (UTC)
== [[Classical guitar pedagogy]] ==
According to the talk page, the author of this page intended to create this page for Wikipedia. At this moment in time (nearly 20 years later), the page is still riddled with red links and doesn't seem to fit Wikiversity's learning modules. Therefore, I propose that this page should be deleted. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 13:03, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Weak delete''' This at least has <em>something</em> that someone could use, but agreed that it's not particularly useful and not likely to be developed. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 00:25, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
: '''Move''' to [[w:User:Grégory Leclair/Classical guitar pedagogy]] -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 13:18, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
== [[Film writing]] ==
Undeveloped since 2007. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 13:05, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Delete''' Nothing here. Great idea in principle, tho. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 00:25, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
: '''Keep''' as part of [[:Category:Film]] resources. I've tidied the page, so it looks less abandoned. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:57, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
==[[United States UFO files]]==
Seems to be WP-like; material copied from [[w:United States UFO files]] -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 01:46, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Delete''', but why would a PROD template not suffice? My logic was that it is a newly created page (made just today), and isn't a big project/difficult page to deal with. Do we not deal with newly created pages that appear to not satisfy Wikiversity's objectives/mission with a PROD template? Wouldn't we best reserve RFDs for long-standing pages (like the two pages above this section being listed for deletion) or ''after'' the PROD template isn't enough to determine the fate of such pages (per [[Wikiversity:Deletion policy#Proposed deletion (prod)|here]]: "Anyone still considering that the resource should be deleted [after the placement of the PROD template] may discuss deletion.")? A PROD template may also be useful in this case to alert the author that the page is not compatible with Wikiversity's learning objectives and communicates a concise opportunity to refine the page with the 90-day limit. Maybe even in this case, a speedy would've been enough (possibly fitting [[Wikiversity:Deletion policy#Criteria for speedy deletion|#12]]: "No research objectives or discussion in history. Welcome users and resources when likely to be expanded shortly.").
:Interested to hear your thoughts as I want to make sure this is clear, as I've been cleaning up a lot of 'dead' pages around Wikiversity and find myself confused on whether to use PROD or RFD. Thanks, —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 02:08, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
: Yes, could be speedy deleted. Otherwise, I don't know about the merits about leaving it around for 90 days, hence me bringing it to here. There is some comment in [[Wikiversity:Deletion policy]] about the specific deletion templates not being so important. More important I think is to flag for discussion. However, we could also improve the proposed policy to make the process clearer. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 02:20, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
: Ping {{u|User:Realcosmixyt}} for comment -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 12:54, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
== [[Emergency Operation Centre GIS]] ==
Undeveloped for over a decade (only thing present is just an outline). —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 14:44, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
:*'''Delete'''
:―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 15:59, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
:* '''Delete'''. Insufficiently developed. Was moved from [[b:Emergency Operation Centre GIS]].
: -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 13:13, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
==[[Mippedia]] ==
I propose the deletion of the page "[[Mippedia]]", due to the subject not being backed by reputable sources. Pages with the same subject has been deleted multiple times on the Indonesian Wikipedia. The original writer of the page did it solely to promote his wiki site. [[User:ANNAFscience|ANNAFscience]] ([[User talk:ANNAFscience|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/ANNAFscience|contribs]]) 10:39, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
: {{ping|Sevent Me}} any comment? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 13:10, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Delete''' I don't know what the point of this is. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 16:26, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
: '''Delete'''. Advertising. Points to a non-English, copyright restricted website. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 12:58, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
==[[Wikiphilosophers]]==
Moving from {{tl|prod}} by {{at|Atcovi}}: "similar "philosophy"-related content has been removed in the past [issue of pseudoscience] + very little moderation (mirroring the issues of [[Wikidebates]]) + lacks educational value." The project has also been nominated for deletion on its talk page: [[Talk:Wikiphilosophers]]. There are many subpages:
{{Special:PrefixIndex/Wikiphilosophers/}}
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 13:45, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
:'''Delete'''. Unfortunately, this project wasn't as successful as I had hoped. Kind regards, [[User:Perquirius|Perquirius]] ([[User talk:Perquirius|overleg]] • [[Special:Contributions/Perquirius|bijdragen]]) 14:29, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
::Don't forget to delete [[Template:Wikiphilosophers]], [[Template:Wikiphilosophers/doc]] and [[Template:Wikiphilosophers topics]] also. [[User:Perquirius|Perquirius]] ([[User talk:Perquirius|overleg]] • [[Special:Contributions/Perquirius|bijdragen]]) 14:30, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
jbnq0rin4n7o7mceitg81jg7i9toc3z
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{{Ambox
| type = notice
| image = [[File:Ambox warning yellow.svg|40px]]
| text = '''This article discusses a legacy technology.''' ActionScript is officially deprecated and no longer actively used or supported following the **End-of-Life (EOL) of Adobe Flash Player on 31 December 2020**. Content built using ActionScript has been **blocked from running in Flash Player since 12 January 2021**, and all major web browsers have completely removed support in favour of open standards like [[TypeScript]], [[JavaScript_Programming|Javascript]] and WebAssembly.
}}
{{rightTOC}}
Welcome to Adobe Flash [[w:ActionScript|ActionScript]]! I'm glad you've decided to try and learn ActionScript, it is truly a wonderful programming language with plenty of potential in the domain of interactive media.
Firstly, I would like to introduce myself, as teachers do. I am Raven Storm, a young Canadian programmer who has been working in ActionScript for over three years. I have plenty of free time that I've turned into a lot of experience. As an active member of the WikiMedia community, I would like to contribute in whatever way I can by creating this basic tutorial.
So let's get started, shall we?
==Prerequisites==
Since ActionScript is a basic scripting language, there is no real need for any programming experience prior to this tutorial. Basic knowledge of HTML and computers in general are a plus!
==[[Portal:Learning Projects|Learning Projects]]==
Learning materials and [[Portal:Learning Projects|learning projects]] are located in the main Wikiversity namespace. Simply make a [[link]] to the name of the learning project (learning projects are independent pages in the [[Wikiversity:Namespaces|main namespace]]) and start writing!
* ...
===ActionScript tutorial===
This tutorial will cover everything you need to get started. There are plenty of tutorials out there that cover complex and specific engines created in ActionScript: this is not (yet) a congolomeration of these tutorials (see websites like [http://www.kirupa.com/ Kirupa.com], [http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/ Flashkit Tutorials], [http://www.actionscript.org/resources/categories/Tutorials/ ActionScript.org Tutorials]) but an introduction to ActionScript so that you can understand those tutorials!
*[[ActionScript:Introduction]]
==Enrolled==
Please sign below if you are participating in this topic. Use 4 tildes (~) to sign.
*[[User:Ravenstorm|Ravenstorm]] 01:20, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
*[[User:88.207.191.72|88.207.191.72]] 17:55, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
*--[[User:Xora K Joken|Xora]] 18:34, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
*--[[User:Kortex|Kortex]] 20:54, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
*--[[User:Cecil|Cecil]] 00:29, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
*--[[User:Gazooks113|Gazooks113]] 01:35, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
*''Eternal.hazard''
*--Thomas Bebbington[[Special:Contributions/97.118.217.119|97.118.217.119]] 06:23, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
*--k.krishnakanth reddy
*[[User:Hughveal|Hughveal]] ([[User talk:Hughveal|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Hughveal|contribs]]) 16:28, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[[User:hughveal|hughveal]]12:27, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
==See also==
*[[b:Programming:Action script|Programming:Action script]] - at Wikibooks
[[Category:Flash ActionScript]]
[[Category:Adobe]]
80pl9xx4whrnhc8xgb6axsjbbzvfs9s
Japanese Language/Basic Greetings
0
9038
2811741
2712947
2026-05-27T22:12:38Z
~2026-31737-88
3084483
Grammar
2811741
wikitext
text/x-wiki
Greetings are very important to know in Japan. It is something even Japanese people don't truly master, and yet it is a huge and important subject. This short lesson will go over the easier and more useful forms of address and greetings. Literal meanings are given in parentheses ().
__TOC__
===Hello===
Saying hello takes many different forms, depending on the time of day. The Japanese have no one word for hello, they instead have three major greetings based on morning, afternoon, and evening, and a form used when speaking on the telephone.
Use "Ohayou" from the moment you wake up, to about 12:00, "Konnichiwa" until dusk, "Konbanwa" throughout the evening, and "Oyasumi" only before bed or sleeping.
;Good Morning!
:「おはようございます」 "Ohayou-gozaimasu!" or simply "Ohayou!" (it is early)
;Good Afternoon!
:「こんにちは」 "Konnichiwa!" (this day)
;Good Evening!
:「こんばんは」 "Konbanwa!" (this night)
Now that wasn't too painful, was it? There's one more thing you should know how to say along these lines, and that's good night, used before someone goes to bed.
;Good Night
:「おやすみなさい」 "Oyasuminasai" or just "おやすみ" "Oyasumi!" (Take a rest!)
;Hello? (Answering a telephone)
:「もしもし」 "Moshi moshi"
Avoid the common mistake of saying 「むしむし」 "Mushi mushi" which actually means "bugs bugs" or "ignore and ignore".
Yes is Hai and No is Iie(iie)...
===Saying Goodbye!===
Goodbye is done in two ways. Say "Sayounara" for goodbyes that are more formal or more permanent. A simple informal "bai bai" ("bye bye") is fine for friends. Occasionally you will hear friends use "Ja ne," which is tough to translate. Literally, it is probably more akin to "Well, all right then," but it is employed in the same way as English speakers would say "bye bye", or "see you."
===Please and Thank you===
''Please'' has multiple ways of manifesting itself, as does ''Thank you'', but we will learn only the two simple forms of these terms until the Honourifics section.
*Please is "Kudasai" or "Onegaishimasu."
*Thank you is "Arigatou."
Further expansion on this subject of thanks and requests will be dealt with in the Honourifics section as the giving and receiving of gifts is an important part of Japanese culture, and the language thereof is both more slightly complex and very flowery.
== See Also ==
* https://web.archive.org/web/http://ownarticles.com/how-do-you-say-hello-in-japanese/
{{dfoot|Japanese}}
[[Category:Japanese]]
[[Category:Greetings]]
And teacher means "Sensei" and student means "Gakusei".
btlym8n5f64k7nlqgkd16rqdkxtjbq6
Portal:Spanish/Courses and Projects
102
31641
2811704
2795968
2026-05-27T15:05:20Z
CJ5518
3084265
Fix broken MIT links
2811704
wikitext
text/x-wiki
__NOTOC__<!--NOTOC disables the table of contents-->
''The Spanish Language Division offers courses, projects and resources both for beginners, and those of high proficiency. Courses are in three categories reflecting the [[w:Common European Framework of Reference for Languages#Common reference levels|Common European Framework of Reference for Languages]].''
====== Introduction to Spanish ======
Yet to be created
====== Elementary Spanish ======
* '''[[Spanish/Spanish One|Spanish One]]:''' A course of Spanish language which has reached in summer 2006 has been reopened. It is based on a live communication with a teacher via [[w:Skype|Skype]]. As a methodology, a Spanish book developed on Wikibooks is used. This course is focused on beginners.
====== Intermediate Spanish ======
* '''[[Spanish 2|Spanish Two]]:''' Spanish Two continues to introduce the Spanish language to students with commitment to learn this language. After completing the course, students should be able to communicate without the need to think extensively. This is the precursor to more advanced classes for fluent speakers.
====== Proficient Spanish ======
* [https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/El_ingenioso_hidalgo_Don_Quijote_de_la_Mancha Don Quixote in the original Spanish]
* [[v:es:Español para hablantes de otras lenguas|Español para hablantes de otras lenguas]]: Page in the Spanish Wikiversity with resources to learn Spanish.
====== Other ======
The following courses have been created by members of the Spanish Division, or the Wikimedia Foundation, and are unique in their method and scope.
* [[b:Spanish|a Spanish Wikibook]]
====== Off site ======
These courses were not created by members of the Wikimedia Foundation, nor are they hosted by Wikimedia.
* [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21g-701-spanish-i-fall-2003/ MIT OpenCourseWare for Spanish I]
* [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21g-702-spanish-ii-spring-2004/ MIT OpenCourseWare for Spanish II]
* [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21g-703-spanish-iii-spring-2006/ MIT OpenCourseWare for Spanish III]
* [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21g-704-spanish-iv-spring-2005/ MIT OpenCourseWare for Spanish IV]
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ Learn Spanish from the BBC]
*[https://www.duolingo.com/ Duolingo]
<div style="border: 1px solid red">
''<small>These courses were abandoned during construction and/or might be merged/ing</small>''
* ''<small>[[Spanish/Spanish One|Spanish One]]</small>''
* ''<small>[[Spanish/Spanish One/Vocabulary|Vocabulary]]</small>''
* ''<small>[[Spanish/Spanish Two|Spanish Two]]</small>''
* ''<small>[[Spanish/Spanish Three/Exact pronunciation|Exact pronunciation]]</small>''
</div>
mg2j903xyplw1n0po74s6jiecdmkauw
User:Jtneill/Wikiversity
2
56061
2811762
2810374
2026-05-28T10:28:20Z
Jtneill
10242
[[wikiversity:User:Jtneill|Wikiversitan]] since March, 2008
2811762
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{TOCright}}
[[wikiversity:User:Jtneill|Wikiversitan]] since March, 2008
''A loose, personal (i.e., somewhat idiosynchratic) organisation of Wikiversity-related how-tos and links.''
==To sort==
{|style="background:transparent;"
|valign=top|
* [http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/commonshelper.php commonshelper]
* [[User:Jtneill/Wikification|Wikification]]
* [[w:Help:Interwiki_linking#Project_titles_and_shortcuts|Interwiki linking]]
* [[Wikiversity:Activity bars]]
* [[Wikiversity:Percent complete]]
|valign=top|
* [[Wikiversity:Import|import]]
* [[Wikiversity:Maintenance]]
* [[Wikiversity:Namespaces]]
* [[Wikiversity:Naming conventions]]
|valign=top|
* [[Wikiversity:Participants]]
* [[Wikiversity:Peer review]]
* [[Wikiversity:Review board]]
* [[Wikiversity:Searching]]
* [[How to be a Wikimedia sysop]]
|}
==Anchor==
* [[Template:Anchor]], e.g., [[#test]] will go to <code><nowiki>{{anchor|test}}</nowiki></code> or <code><nowiki>{{anchor|anchor=test}}</nowiki></code> (should go to end of page)
==Archiving==
* Example of autoarchiving: [[User talk:Terra]]
==Blogging==
* [[Wikiversity Blog howto]]
==Boxes==
[[User:Jtneill/Sandbox/Tables and boxes]]
The simplest of boxes
{| class="messagebox"
|-
| ABC
XYZ
|}
<blockquote style="padding-left:1.0em; padding-right:1.0em; background-color:#eaf8f4;">
Its good that it works in practice, because it certainly doesn’t work in theory[https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2007/10/14/the-thing-about-wikipedia-is-that-it-only-works-in-practice-in-theory-it-can-never-work/]
</blockquote>
==Categories==
It is possible to change the order in which a page’s categories are displayed. By default, categories are displayed in the order they appear in the wikitext. Wikis with a consensus to do so can [[m:Special:MyLanguage/Requesting wiki configuration changes|request]] a configuration change to display them in alphabetical order. [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T373480]
Using titleparts
<nowiki>[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|1}}]]</nowiki>
==[[/Centering/]]==
{{User:Jtneill/Wikiversity/Centering}}
==Chat==
* [[irc:wikiversity-en|#wikiversity-en]]
==Citations and referencing==
* [[w:Help:Citation tools|Citation tools]]
* [[:Category:Citation templates]]
* [[mw:Help:Cite]]
* [[Template:Citation]]
* [[WV:REF]]
* Example: Outward Bound Process Model<ref>Walsh, V., & Golins, G. L. (1976). ''[http://wilderdom.com/theory/OutwardBoundProcessModel.html The exploration of the Outward Bound process]''. Denver, CO: Colorado Outward Bound School.</ref>
;References
{{reflist|1}}
==Collapse boxes==
{{collapse top|Mary had a little lamb}}
Mary had a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go
It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play,
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school
And so the teacher turned it out,
Turned it out, turned it out,
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near
And waited patiently about,
Patiently about, patiently about,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
Love Mary so? Love Mary so?
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
Loves the lamb, you know, loves the lamb, you know
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply
{{collapse bottom}}
==Colour==
* [[Wikiversity web page colors|Color tables]] | [[Wikiversity:Color names|Color names]]
* e.g., Font: {{font|color=green|Green}}, Background: <span style="background:hotpink; color:white;">Pink</span>
==Columns==
===Column breaks===
{|
|-
| Works on all browsers (col-begin/break/end):
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
* Col1
{{col-break}}
* Col2
{{col-break}}
* Col3
{{col-end}}
Works on all browsers (col/break/colend):
{{col}}
{{break}}
* Col1
{{break}}
* Col2
{{break}}
* Col3
{{col/end}}
|}
===Moz-column===
Easier to use, but doesn't work on all browsers:
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
* Ant
* Bee
* Buzzard
* Cat
* Dog
* Egret
* Elephant
* Tiger
* Whale
* Worm
</div>
==Conversions==
===HTML===
* [[w:Wikipedia:Tools/Editing_tools#From_HTML]]
* [http://www.ebruni.it/en/software/os/i_love_wiki/index.mpl i love wiki]
* {{tick}} [http://diberri.dyndns.org/wikipedia/html2wiki/index.html HTML::WikiConverter]
* {{tick}} [http://openfacts2.berlios.de/html2wiki/index.php HTML::WikiConverter]] Add URL
==CSS==
* [[MediaWiki:Common.css]]
==Custodianship==
* [[Wikiversity:Custodianship]]
** [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]
** [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]]
** [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]]
** [[:Category:Wikiversity custodians]]
==Edit page==
Create an internal link to the edit source page using:
[[Special:EditPage/{{FULLPAGENAME}}|Edit source]]
<nowiki>
{{edit page}}
</nowiki>
gives:
{{edit page}}
<nowiki>
{{edit page box}}
</nowiki>
gives:
{{edit page box}}
==Extensions==
* [[Special:Version#Extensions]]
* [[/CategoryTree|CategoryTree]]
* [http://www.sandboxserver.org/wiki/index.php?title=Testing_Mediawiki_extensions Sandbox server - testing extensions]
* [[User:Jtneill/WYSIWIG|WYSIWIG]]
==Font==
<p>{{font|face="courier"|size=medium|courier size 3}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="verdana"|size=large|verdana size 4}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="arial"|size=x-large|arial size 5}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="times new roman"|size=xx-large|times new roman size 6}}</p>
<p><b>{{font|face="verdana"|size=xx-large|verdana bold size 6}}</b></p>
<p>{{font|face="lucida calligraphy"|size=xx-large|lucida calligraphy size 7}}</p>
==Formatting==
===Justification===
<div style="text-align: justify"> This text is right justified (but it doesn't look like unless the paragraph is long enough to go over one line on the page, so this is intentionally a particularly and unnecessarily long sentence in order to demonstrate right justification using <nowiki><div style="text-align: justify">...</div></nowiki>).</div>
==Line height==
{{center top}}<p style="line-height: 36px;">
<big><big><big><big>This uses a<br>line height of 36px</big></big></big></big></p>
<pre><p style="line-height: 36px;">...</p></pre>
{{center bottom}}
===Mouse-over===
* [[Help:Mouse-over]]
* [[Template:H:title]]
==Getting started==
* [[Wikiversity:Guided tour|Guided tour]]
* [[Wikiversity:Introduction|Introduction]] (Wikiversity)
* [[/Introduction|Introduction]] (Jtneill)
* [[/Welcome|Welcome]] (Jtneill)
* [[Introduction to Wiki]] - [[Wiki 101]]
* [[How to use wiki technology as a free learner]]
* [[:Image:Short.ogg|Wikiversity - short intro]] (10 sec. video)
* [[:Image:Editing_tutorial-large.ogg|Wikiversity editing tutorial]] (2 min video)
* [[Wikiversity:Community Portal]]
* [[Wikiversity:Content development]]
* [[Help:Edit summary]]
* [[Making links]]
==Good design==
* [[User:Jtneill/Good design]]
==Icons==
* [[Help:Icons]]
* [[User:McCormack/icons]]
==Images==
===[[Template:Gallery|Gallery]]===
{{Gallery
|title=Gallery of images
|footer=Uses this [[Template:Gallery|template]]
|width=150
|lines=2
||Comment
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|[[Help:Contents/Links|Links]] can be put in captions.
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|Full [[MediaWiki]]<br />[[syntax]] may be used…
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|
}}
<!-- Fixed image in bottom right which is linked -->
<div id="template-navbar" style="position: fixed; left:1; right:0; bottom:0; padding:0; font-size:122%;">[[Image:Happy.png|right|50px|link=en:Happiness|Happiness]]</div>
===ImageMap===
* [[mw:Extension:ImageMap|Extension ImageMap]] e.g.,
{{center top}}
<imagemap>File:Treasurchest.svg|center|80px
default [[Special:Random/|Random Wikiversity mainspace page]]
desc none</imagemap>Click the treasure box to go to a random [[Wikiversity]] page{{center bottom}}
;Explanation
The ImageMap extension allows, among other things, an image to link directly to a page e.g., as an internal link:
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2015|Motivation and emotion Book - 2015]]
</imagemap>
The syntax is:
<pre style="overflow:auto">
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2015|Motivation and emotion Book - 2015]]
</imagemap>
</pre>
or as an external link:
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation Motivation (Psychology Today)]
</imagemap>
The syntax is:
<pre style="overflow:auto">
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation Motivation (Psychology Today)]
</imagemap>
</pre>
==Integrations==
I'm interested to explore possible connections between WV and:
* [http://archive.org Archive.org]
* [[w:Citizendium|Citizendium]]
* [[w:Google Groups]]
* [[Moodle]]
* [[Open University]]
* [http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=Cohere Cohere]
* [[WikiMedia Sister Projects]], particularly:
** [[Wikibooks]]
** [[Wikipedia]]
** [[Simple Wikipedia]]
==Licensing==
* My teaching materials are licensed under [[Wikiversity:License tags#Free licenses|creative commons attribution 2.5]] and hosted either on http://wilderdom.com or http://ucspace.canberra.edu.au. I am thinking I should be dual licensing, but am still coming to grips with trying to understand the licensing similarities, differences, and issues.
* I plan to gradually transfer most of my teaching materials to the various [[w:WikiMedia Foundation|WikiMedia Foundation]] wiki projects, particularly wikiversity. [[m:Polls|Let's just hope Jimbo doesn't put adds on these sites]], otherwise I will be transferring the materials somewhere else (again).
* [http://beta.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:IRC_meeting:New_licence_for_Wikiversity_Beta New_licence_for_Wikiversity_Beta]
* {{tl|db-copyvio}}
* {{tl|hangon}}
* [[:Category:Astronomy Images]]
==Links==
* Plain links: e.g., <span class="plainlinks">[http://archive.org http://archive.org]</span>: <br><nowiki><span class="plainlinks"> ... </span></nowiki>
* [[mw:Manual:Opening external links in a new window]]
==Long page warning==
* [[MediaWiki:Longpagewarning]]
==[[Main page]]==
* [[:Category:Main page templates]]
* [[Main Page/Layout 0.5]]
* <span class="plainlinks">[http://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity:Main_Page&oldid=209253 Main page]</span> (old)
==Map==
<mapframe latitude="-28.420391" longitude="136.757813" zoom="2" width="200" height="109" align="right">{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": {},
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [
149.12419,
-35.308275
]
}
}
]
}</mapframe>
==Namespaces==
* [[Special:NamespaceInfo]]
==Navigation==
{{nav|User:Jtneill}}
* [[Template:nav]]
==Notes==
Small e.g.,
{{attention}} <small>For calendar due dates, see unit outline.</small>
Notice templates
{{Notice|{{tl|Notice}}}}
{{Note|{{tl|Note}}}}
==Notifications==
* [[Help:Notifications]]
==Pages==
* [[Special:AllPages]]
* Number of pages in category: <nowiki>{{PAGESINCATEGORY:User:Jtneill}}</nowiki>
* {{hitcounter}} - <nowiki>{{hitcounter}}</nowiki>
==[[Project:Participants|Participants]]==
*[[Wikiversity:Support staff]]
===Users===
*{{Participant|CQ}} - see Person of the Hour script
*{{Participant|Donek}}
*{{Participant|Dan Polansky}}
==Pedagogy==
* [[Learning by doing]]
* [[Wikiversity:Project incubator]]
==Policy==
* [[w:Wikipedia:Contributing_FAQ#Is_there_a_minimum_age_requirement_to_contribute_or_register.3F|Is there a minimum age requirement?]]
{{Official policies}}
{{Proposed policies}}
==Project boxes==
* [[Help:Resource attribution]]
==Purge==
To purge the cache for a given page, append this to the URL:
?action=purge
[[mw:Manual:Purge]]
==Quotes==
* [[Template:Quote]]
*
==[[Quizzes]]==
* [[Help:Quiz-Simple]]
* [http://www.qedoc.org/en/index.php?title=User:Jtneill My Qedoc user page]
** [http://eduforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=1138 Qedoc now exports quizzes to Wikiversity]
==Referencing==
* [[meta:WMDE Technical Wishes/Sub-referencing]]
==Sandbox==
* http://www.sandboxserver.org/
* [[Wikiversity:Sandbox Server]]
* [[Topic:Sandbox Server 0.5]]
* [http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Scratchpad_Wiki_Labs Scratchpad]
* [[../Sandbox]]
==Searching==
* [[Help:Google]]
* [[Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/April 2008#Google search|Google search]] - <nowiki>[[google:wikiversity]]</nowiki> [[google:wikiversity]]
* Use a + instead of a space
==Search multiple categories==
;Dual category search including one category with subcategories
Search for chapters which [[Template:Clarification templates|need clarification]]:
<inputbox>
type=search
width=33
default=incategory:"Resources needing clarification"
namespaces=Main**
prefix=Motivation and emotion/Book
searchbuttonlabel=Search book chapters
bgcolor=transparent
break=no
</inputbox>
==Sitenotice==
* [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]]
* [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice id]]
==Size==
===Big/small===
* Use <code><nowiki><big>...</big> - could be also <big><big>...</big></big> etc. and also <small>...</small></nowiki></code>
===CSS===
<div style="font-size: 200%">200% text</div><code><nowiki><div style="font-size: 200%">200% text</div></nowiki></code>
<div style="font-size: 150%">150% text</div><code><nowiki><div style="font-size: 150%">150% text</div></nowiki></code>
==Special==
* [[Special:SpecialPages]]
* Abuse
** [[Special:AbuseFilter]]
** [[Special:AbuseLog]]
* [[Special:AccountSecurity]]
* [[Special:Allpages]]
* [https://auth.wikimedia.org/enwikiversity/wiki/Special:CreateAccount Create account]
* [[meta:Special:GlobalWatchlist]]
* [[Special:ListGroupRights]]
* [[Special:PermanentLink]]
* [[Random]] - [[Special:Random]] - [[Wikiversity:Random]]
* [[Special:ShortPages]]
* [[Special:Version#Installed extensions]]
==Strategy==
* [[Wikiversity:Publicity]]
* [[Wikiversity:Vision]]
* [[Wikiversity:Vision 2009]]
==Statistics==
* [[Wikiversity:Statistics]]
* [[Google Search and Wikiversity]]
* [http://wikistics.falsikon.de/latest/wikiversity/en/ Monthly page hits for wikiversity.en]
* [http://gtools.org/tool/wikipedia-edit-counter/?str=jtneill&project=en.wikiversity Jtneill edit count]
* https://xtools.wmcloud.org/pageinfo/en.wikiversity.org/
* [[Special:Impact]] - [[w:Special:Impact]]
==Sub-pages==
* [[Special:Prefixindex/User:Jtneill]]
* Transclude:
** <code><nowiki>{{Special:Prefixindex/User:Jtneill}}</nowiki></code>
** <code><nowiki>{{Special:Prefixindex/{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}}}</nowiki></code>
==Stubs==
* [[:Category:Stub templates]]
==Structure==
* [[Wikiversity:Browse/Concept]]
==Symbols==
🟨🟡⭐💛🟥⭕️❌🟦🔵🟩🟢✅
* [[User:VeronicaJeanAnderson]]
==System messages==
* [[Special:AllMessages]]
* [[#Sitenotice|Site notice]]
==Style==
* [[MoS]]
* [[MediaWiki:Common.css]]
==Tables==
* [[Help:Table]]
* [[User:Jtneill/Sandbox/Tables and boxes]]
==Tagging/notification==
* <nowiki>@[[User:UserName|UserName]]</nowiki>
* <nowiki>{{ping|UserName}}</nowiki>
==Templates==
===Page development===
* {{tl|welcome and expand}} - {{tl|we}}
* {{tl|main welcome}}
* {{tl|search}}
* {{tl|draft}}
* {{tl|underconstruction}}
* {{tl|Learning project boilerplate}}
* {{tl|info}}
* {{tl|note}}
* {{tl|notice}}
* {{tl|Nutshell}}
* <nowiki>{{notice|{{findsources}}}}</nowiki>
===Page navigation===
* [[Template:EasyNavBar]]
* [[Template:Recovery psychology]] (example)
* [[Workshop for Australian education policy]] (example)
===Sister projects===
* [[Template:Sisterprojectsearch]]
* [[Template:Wikibooks]]
* [[Template:Wikipedia]]
* [[Template:Wikiversity]]
===User talk===
* {{tl|Welcomeip}}
* {{tl|Welcome}}
* {{tl|Talk header}}
* [[:Category:User warning templates]]
===Administrative===
* [[Template:Category redirect]]
* [[Template:Warning]]
==Theory==
* [[Learning by engagement]]
* [[User:JWSchmidt/Wiki Scholar]]
==Thoughts==
* [[Red link]]s are doorways to the infinite library ([[w:The Library of Babel|Library of Babel]])
==Tooltips==
{{Tooltip|Tooltips allow additional text to be displayed when cursor hovers over|Pretty cool, eh?}}
==User==
* [[w:Special:GlobalRenameRequest]]
* [[Special:UserGroupRights]]
* [[Special:UserRights]]
* [[m:Steward requests/Permissions]]
* [[meta:Help:Two-factor authentication]]
==Usability==
* [[Wikiversity:Usability]]
* http://usability.wikimedia.org - [http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jtneill Jtneill]
==Video==
* .ogg files can be uploaded and embedded
* See [[/Video]] for examples
==wikEd==
* [[w:User_talk:Cacycle/wikEd]]
==Wiki2Reveal==
* [[Wiki2Reveal]] (slides on the fly from MediaWiki page)
==x Test anchor==
<!-- Test anchor - don't delete! -->
{{anchor|test}}
==See also==
* [[User:Jade Knight/Tools]]
jbip257fb4ru4v4xn8ejlme7r12j2tm
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{{TOCright}}
[[:Category:Wikiversitans|Wikiversitan]] since March, 2008
''A loose, personal (i.e., somewhat idiosynchratic) organisation of Wikiversity-related how-tos and links.''
==To sort==
{|style="background:transparent;"
|valign=top|
* [http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/commonshelper.php commonshelper]
* [[User:Jtneill/Wikification|Wikification]]
* [[w:Help:Interwiki_linking#Project_titles_and_shortcuts|Interwiki linking]]
* [[Wikiversity:Activity bars]]
* [[Wikiversity:Percent complete]]
|valign=top|
* [[Wikiversity:Import|import]]
* [[Wikiversity:Maintenance]]
* [[Wikiversity:Namespaces]]
* [[Wikiversity:Naming conventions]]
|valign=top|
* [[Wikiversity:Participants]]
* [[Wikiversity:Peer review]]
* [[Wikiversity:Review board]]
* [[Wikiversity:Searching]]
* [[How to be a Wikimedia sysop]]
|}
==Anchor==
* [[Template:Anchor]], e.g., [[#test]] will go to <code><nowiki>{{anchor|test}}</nowiki></code> or <code><nowiki>{{anchor|anchor=test}}</nowiki></code> (should go to end of page)
==Archiving==
* Example of autoarchiving: [[User talk:Terra]]
==Blogging==
* [[Wikiversity Blog howto]]
==Boxes==
[[User:Jtneill/Sandbox/Tables and boxes]]
The simplest of boxes
{| class="messagebox"
|-
| ABC
XYZ
|}
<blockquote style="padding-left:1.0em; padding-right:1.0em; background-color:#eaf8f4;">
Its good that it works in practice, because it certainly doesn’t work in theory[https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2007/10/14/the-thing-about-wikipedia-is-that-it-only-works-in-practice-in-theory-it-can-never-work/]
</blockquote>
==Categories==
It is possible to change the order in which a page’s categories are displayed. By default, categories are displayed in the order they appear in the wikitext. Wikis with a consensus to do so can [[m:Special:MyLanguage/Requesting wiki configuration changes|request]] a configuration change to display them in alphabetical order. [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T373480]
Using titleparts
<nowiki>[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|1}}]]</nowiki>
==[[/Centering/]]==
{{User:Jtneill/Wikiversity/Centering}}
==Chat==
* [[irc:wikiversity-en|#wikiversity-en]]
==Citations and referencing==
* [[w:Help:Citation tools|Citation tools]]
* [[:Category:Citation templates]]
* [[mw:Help:Cite]]
* [[Template:Citation]]
* [[WV:REF]]
* Example: Outward Bound Process Model<ref>Walsh, V., & Golins, G. L. (1976). ''[http://wilderdom.com/theory/OutwardBoundProcessModel.html The exploration of the Outward Bound process]''. Denver, CO: Colorado Outward Bound School.</ref>
;References
{{reflist|1}}
==Collapse boxes==
{{collapse top|Mary had a little lamb}}
Mary had a little lamb,
Little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go
It followed her to school one day
School one day, school one day
It followed her to school one day
Which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play, laugh and play,
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school
And so the teacher turned it out,
Turned it out, turned it out,
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near
And waited patiently about,
Patiently about, patiently about,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
Love Mary so? Love Mary so?
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
Loves the lamb, you know, loves the lamb, you know
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply
{{collapse bottom}}
==Colour==
* [[Wikiversity web page colors|Color tables]] | [[Wikiversity:Color names|Color names]]
* e.g., Font: {{font|color=green|Green}}, Background: <span style="background:hotpink; color:white;">Pink</span>
==Columns==
===Column breaks===
{|
|-
| Works on all browsers (col-begin/break/end):
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
* Col1
{{col-break}}
* Col2
{{col-break}}
* Col3
{{col-end}}
Works on all browsers (col/break/colend):
{{col}}
{{break}}
* Col1
{{break}}
* Col2
{{break}}
* Col3
{{col/end}}
|}
===Moz-column===
Easier to use, but doesn't work on all browsers:
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
* Ant
* Bee
* Buzzard
* Cat
* Dog
* Egret
* Elephant
* Tiger
* Whale
* Worm
</div>
==Conversions==
===HTML===
* [[w:Wikipedia:Tools/Editing_tools#From_HTML]]
* [http://www.ebruni.it/en/software/os/i_love_wiki/index.mpl i love wiki]
* {{tick}} [http://diberri.dyndns.org/wikipedia/html2wiki/index.html HTML::WikiConverter]
* {{tick}} [http://openfacts2.berlios.de/html2wiki/index.php HTML::WikiConverter]] Add URL
==CSS==
* [[MediaWiki:Common.css]]
==Custodianship==
* [[Wikiversity:Custodianship]]
** [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship]]
** [[Wikiversity:Notices for custodians]]
** [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action]]
** [[:Category:Wikiversity custodians]]
==Edit page==
Create an internal link to the edit source page using:
[[Special:EditPage/{{FULLPAGENAME}}|Edit source]]
<nowiki>
{{edit page}}
</nowiki>
gives:
{{edit page}}
<nowiki>
{{edit page box}}
</nowiki>
gives:
{{edit page box}}
==Extensions==
* [[Special:Version#Extensions]]
* [[/CategoryTree|CategoryTree]]
* [http://www.sandboxserver.org/wiki/index.php?title=Testing_Mediawiki_extensions Sandbox server - testing extensions]
* [[User:Jtneill/WYSIWIG|WYSIWIG]]
==Font==
<p>{{font|face="courier"|size=medium|courier size 3}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="verdana"|size=large|verdana size 4}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="arial"|size=x-large|arial size 5}}</p>
<p>{{font|face="times new roman"|size=xx-large|times new roman size 6}}</p>
<p><b>{{font|face="verdana"|size=xx-large|verdana bold size 6}}</b></p>
<p>{{font|face="lucida calligraphy"|size=xx-large|lucida calligraphy size 7}}</p>
==Formatting==
===Justification===
<div style="text-align: justify"> This text is right justified (but it doesn't look like unless the paragraph is long enough to go over one line on the page, so this is intentionally a particularly and unnecessarily long sentence in order to demonstrate right justification using <nowiki><div style="text-align: justify">...</div></nowiki>).</div>
==Line height==
{{center top}}<p style="line-height: 36px;">
<big><big><big><big>This uses a<br>line height of 36px</big></big></big></big></p>
<pre><p style="line-height: 36px;">...</p></pre>
{{center bottom}}
===Mouse-over===
* [[Help:Mouse-over]]
* [[Template:H:title]]
==Getting started==
* [[Wikiversity:Guided tour|Guided tour]]
* [[Wikiversity:Introduction|Introduction]] (Wikiversity)
* [[/Introduction|Introduction]] (Jtneill)
* [[/Welcome|Welcome]] (Jtneill)
* [[Introduction to Wiki]] - [[Wiki 101]]
* [[How to use wiki technology as a free learner]]
* [[:Image:Short.ogg|Wikiversity - short intro]] (10 sec. video)
* [[:Image:Editing_tutorial-large.ogg|Wikiversity editing tutorial]] (2 min video)
* [[Wikiversity:Community Portal]]
* [[Wikiversity:Content development]]
* [[Help:Edit summary]]
* [[Making links]]
==Good design==
* [[User:Jtneill/Good design]]
==Icons==
* [[Help:Icons]]
* [[User:McCormack/icons]]
==Images==
===[[Template:Gallery|Gallery]]===
{{Gallery
|title=Gallery of images
|footer=Uses this [[Template:Gallery|template]]
|width=150
|lines=2
||Comment
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|[[Help:Contents/Links|Links]] can be put in captions.
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|Full [[MediaWiki]]<br />[[syntax]] may be used…
|File:Wikiversity-logo-Snorky.svg|
}}
<!-- Fixed image in bottom right which is linked -->
<div id="template-navbar" style="position: fixed; left:1; right:0; bottom:0; padding:0; font-size:122%;">[[Image:Happy.png|right|50px|link=en:Happiness|Happiness]]</div>
===ImageMap===
* [[mw:Extension:ImageMap|Extension ImageMap]] e.g.,
{{center top}}
<imagemap>File:Treasurchest.svg|center|80px
default [[Special:Random/|Random Wikiversity mainspace page]]
desc none</imagemap>Click the treasure box to go to a random [[Wikiversity]] page{{center bottom}}
;Explanation
The ImageMap extension allows, among other things, an image to link directly to a page e.g., as an internal link:
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2015|Motivation and emotion Book - 2015]]
</imagemap>
The syntax is:
<pre style="overflow:auto">
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2015|Motivation and emotion Book - 2015]]
</imagemap>
</pre>
or as an external link:
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation Motivation (Psychology Today)]
</imagemap>
The syntax is:
<pre style="overflow:auto">
<imagemap>
File:Treasurchest.svg|center|150px|alt=Alt text
default [https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation Motivation (Psychology Today)]
</imagemap>
</pre>
==Integrations==
I'm interested to explore possible connections between WV and:
* [http://archive.org Archive.org]
* [[w:Citizendium|Citizendium]]
* [[w:Google Groups]]
* [[Moodle]]
* [[Open University]]
* [http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?name=Cohere Cohere]
* [[WikiMedia Sister Projects]], particularly:
** [[Wikibooks]]
** [[Wikipedia]]
** [[Simple Wikipedia]]
==Licensing==
* My teaching materials are licensed under [[Wikiversity:License tags#Free licenses|creative commons attribution 2.5]] and hosted either on http://wilderdom.com or http://ucspace.canberra.edu.au. I am thinking I should be dual licensing, but am still coming to grips with trying to understand the licensing similarities, differences, and issues.
* I plan to gradually transfer most of my teaching materials to the various [[w:WikiMedia Foundation|WikiMedia Foundation]] wiki projects, particularly wikiversity. [[m:Polls|Let's just hope Jimbo doesn't put adds on these sites]], otherwise I will be transferring the materials somewhere else (again).
* [http://beta.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:IRC_meeting:New_licence_for_Wikiversity_Beta New_licence_for_Wikiversity_Beta]
* {{tl|db-copyvio}}
* {{tl|hangon}}
* [[:Category:Astronomy Images]]
==Links==
* Plain links: e.g., <span class="plainlinks">[http://archive.org http://archive.org]</span>: <br><nowiki><span class="plainlinks"> ... </span></nowiki>
* [[mw:Manual:Opening external links in a new window]]
==Long page warning==
* [[MediaWiki:Longpagewarning]]
==[[Main page]]==
* [[:Category:Main page templates]]
* [[Main Page/Layout 0.5]]
* <span class="plainlinks">[http://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity:Main_Page&oldid=209253 Main page]</span> (old)
==Map==
<mapframe latitude="-28.420391" longitude="136.757813" zoom="2" width="200" height="109" align="right">{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"properties": {},
"geometry": {
"type": "Point",
"coordinates": [
149.12419,
-35.308275
]
}
}
]
}</mapframe>
==Namespaces==
* [[Special:NamespaceInfo]]
==Navigation==
{{nav|User:Jtneill}}
* [[Template:nav]]
==Notes==
Small e.g.,
{{attention}} <small>For calendar due dates, see unit outline.</small>
Notice templates
{{Notice|{{tl|Notice}}}}
{{Note|{{tl|Note}}}}
==Notifications==
* [[Help:Notifications]]
==Pages==
* [[Special:AllPages]]
* Number of pages in category: <nowiki>{{PAGESINCATEGORY:User:Jtneill}}</nowiki>
* {{hitcounter}} - <nowiki>{{hitcounter}}</nowiki>
==[[Project:Participants|Participants]]==
*[[Wikiversity:Support staff]]
===Users===
*{{Participant|CQ}} - see Person of the Hour script
*{{Participant|Donek}}
*{{Participant|Dan Polansky}}
==Pedagogy==
* [[Learning by doing]]
* [[Wikiversity:Project incubator]]
==Policy==
* [[w:Wikipedia:Contributing_FAQ#Is_there_a_minimum_age_requirement_to_contribute_or_register.3F|Is there a minimum age requirement?]]
{{Official policies}}
{{Proposed policies}}
==Project boxes==
* [[Help:Resource attribution]]
==Purge==
To purge the cache for a given page, append this to the URL:
?action=purge
[[mw:Manual:Purge]]
==Quotes==
* [[Template:Quote]]
*
==[[Quizzes]]==
* [[Help:Quiz-Simple]]
* [http://www.qedoc.org/en/index.php?title=User:Jtneill My Qedoc user page]
** [http://eduforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=1138 Qedoc now exports quizzes to Wikiversity]
==Referencing==
* [[meta:WMDE Technical Wishes/Sub-referencing]]
==Sandbox==
* http://www.sandboxserver.org/
* [[Wikiversity:Sandbox Server]]
* [[Topic:Sandbox Server 0.5]]
* [http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Scratchpad_Wiki_Labs Scratchpad]
* [[../Sandbox]]
==Searching==
* [[Help:Google]]
* [[Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/April 2008#Google search|Google search]] - <nowiki>[[google:wikiversity]]</nowiki> [[google:wikiversity]]
* Use a + instead of a space
==Search multiple categories==
;Dual category search including one category with subcategories
Search for chapters which [[Template:Clarification templates|need clarification]]:
<inputbox>
type=search
width=33
default=incategory:"Resources needing clarification"
namespaces=Main**
prefix=Motivation and emotion/Book
searchbuttonlabel=Search book chapters
bgcolor=transparent
break=no
</inputbox>
==Sitenotice==
* [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]]
* [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice id]]
==Size==
===Big/small===
* Use <code><nowiki><big>...</big> - could be also <big><big>...</big></big> etc. and also <small>...</small></nowiki></code>
===CSS===
<div style="font-size: 200%">200% text</div><code><nowiki><div style="font-size: 200%">200% text</div></nowiki></code>
<div style="font-size: 150%">150% text</div><code><nowiki><div style="font-size: 150%">150% text</div></nowiki></code>
==Special==
* [[Special:SpecialPages]]
* Abuse
** [[Special:AbuseFilter]]
** [[Special:AbuseLog]]
* [[Special:AccountSecurity]]
* [[Special:Allpages]]
* [https://auth.wikimedia.org/enwikiversity/wiki/Special:CreateAccount Create account]
* [[meta:Special:GlobalWatchlist]]
* [[Special:ListGroupRights]]
* [[Special:PermanentLink]]
* [[Random]] - [[Special:Random]] - [[Wikiversity:Random]]
* [[Special:ShortPages]]
* [[Special:Version#Installed extensions]]
==Strategy==
* [[Wikiversity:Publicity]]
* [[Wikiversity:Vision]]
* [[Wikiversity:Vision 2009]]
==Statistics==
* [[Wikiversity:Statistics]]
* [[Google Search and Wikiversity]]
* [http://wikistics.falsikon.de/latest/wikiversity/en/ Monthly page hits for wikiversity.en]
* [http://gtools.org/tool/wikipedia-edit-counter/?str=jtneill&project=en.wikiversity Jtneill edit count]
* https://xtools.wmcloud.org/pageinfo/en.wikiversity.org/
* [[Special:Impact]] - [[w:Special:Impact]]
==Sub-pages==
* [[Special:Prefixindex/User:Jtneill]]
* Transclude:
** <code><nowiki>{{Special:Prefixindex/User:Jtneill}}</nowiki></code>
** <code><nowiki>{{Special:Prefixindex/{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}}}</nowiki></code>
==Stubs==
* [[:Category:Stub templates]]
==Structure==
* [[Wikiversity:Browse/Concept]]
==Symbols==
🟨🟡⭐💛🟥⭕️❌🟦🔵🟩🟢✅
* [[User:VeronicaJeanAnderson]]
==System messages==
* [[Special:AllMessages]]
* [[#Sitenotice|Site notice]]
==Style==
* [[MoS]]
* [[MediaWiki:Common.css]]
==Tables==
* [[Help:Table]]
* [[User:Jtneill/Sandbox/Tables and boxes]]
==Tagging/notification==
* <nowiki>@[[User:UserName|UserName]]</nowiki>
* <nowiki>{{ping|UserName}}</nowiki>
==Templates==
===Page development===
* {{tl|welcome and expand}} - {{tl|we}}
* {{tl|main welcome}}
* {{tl|search}}
* {{tl|draft}}
* {{tl|underconstruction}}
* {{tl|Learning project boilerplate}}
* {{tl|info}}
* {{tl|note}}
* {{tl|notice}}
* {{tl|Nutshell}}
* <nowiki>{{notice|{{findsources}}}}</nowiki>
===Page navigation===
* [[Template:EasyNavBar]]
* [[Template:Recovery psychology]] (example)
* [[Workshop for Australian education policy]] (example)
===Sister projects===
* [[Template:Sisterprojectsearch]]
* [[Template:Wikibooks]]
* [[Template:Wikipedia]]
* [[Template:Wikiversity]]
===User talk===
* {{tl|Welcomeip}}
* {{tl|Welcome}}
* {{tl|Talk header}}
* [[:Category:User warning templates]]
===Administrative===
* [[Template:Category redirect]]
* [[Template:Warning]]
==Theory==
* [[Learning by engagement]]
* [[User:JWSchmidt/Wiki Scholar]]
==Thoughts==
* [[Red link]]s are doorways to the infinite library ([[w:The Library of Babel|Library of Babel]])
==Tooltips==
{{Tooltip|Tooltips allow additional text to be displayed when cursor hovers over|Pretty cool, eh?}}
==User==
* [[w:Special:GlobalRenameRequest]]
* [[Special:UserGroupRights]]
* [[Special:UserRights]]
* [[m:Steward requests/Permissions]]
* [[meta:Help:Two-factor authentication]]
==Usability==
* [[Wikiversity:Usability]]
* http://usability.wikimedia.org - [http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jtneill Jtneill]
==Video==
* .ogg files can be uploaded and embedded
* See [[/Video]] for examples
==wikEd==
* [[w:User_talk:Cacycle/wikEd]]
==Wiki2Reveal==
* [[Wiki2Reveal]] (slides on the fly from MediaWiki page)
==x Test anchor==
<!-- Test anchor - don't delete! -->
{{anchor|test}}
==See also==
* [[User:Jade Knight/Tools]]
ocpyeh8vx4sp8u2z4rblg4vtswrpw6x
Comparative law and justice/Nigeria
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Part of the [[Comparative law and justice]] Wikiversity Project
{{Comparative law and justice project|region=Africa}}
<![[User:Justin Corso|Justin Corso]] 16:27, 29 November 2010 (UTC)!>
[[Image: Nuvola_Nigerian_flag.svg |thumb|230px|left|A left-aligned thumbnail image.]]
== Basic Information ==
'''Nigeria'''
:'''Region''': West Africa
:'''Population''': 140,003,542 as at 2006, estimated by The National Population Commission (NPC)
:'''Area Total''': 923,770 km2
:'''Area Land''': 910,770 km 2
:'''Capital''': Abuja
:'''Climate''': Varies: equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in north
:'''Major Languages''':
*English (official)
*Hausa
*Yoruba
*Igbo
<ref>http://www.nhcuk.org/about-nigeria</ref>
:'''Nigeria’s 2 major religions''':
*Islam
*Christianity
<ref>http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/nigeria-1.htm</ref>
:'''Ethnic groups''':(the seven most populous; Nigeria contains over 400 ethnic groups)
*Hausa and Fulani 29%
*Yoruba 21%
*Igbo 18%
*Ijaw 10%
*Kanuri 4%
*Ibibio 3.5%
*Tiv 2.5%
<ref>http://www.indexmundi.com/nigeria/ethnic_groups.html</ref>
'''Rivers and Lakes''':
"The Niger River and its tributaries—principally the Benue, Kaduna, and Sokoto rivers—drain most of Nigeria. In the northeast, the rivers drain into Lake Chad. Navigation is restricted by rapids and seasonal fluctuations in depth."
<ref>http://www.internationaleducationmedia.com/nigeria/</ref>
'''PEOPLE''':
The most populous country in Africa, Nigeria accounts for over half of West Africa's population. Although less than 25% of Nigerians are urban dwellers, at least 24 cities have populations of more than 100,000. The variety of customs, languages, and traditions among Nigeria's 250 ethnic groups gives the country a rich diversity. The dominant ethnic group in the northern two-thirds of the country is the Hausa-Fulani, most of whom are Muslim. Other major ethnic groups of the north are the Nupe, Tiv, and Kanuri. The Yoruba people are predominant in the southwest.
About half of the Yorubas are Christian and half Muslim. The predominantly Catholic Igbo are the largest ethnic group in the southeast, with the Efik, Ibibio, and Ijaw comprising a substantial segment of the population in that area. Persons of different language backgrounds most commonly communicate in English, although knowledge of two or more Nigerian languages is widespread. Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Kanuri are the most widely used Nigerian languages.<ref>
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
'''LEGAL SYSTEM REVIEW'''
::1. Political System.
"Nigeria is a federation of thirty six states and a Federal Capital Territory. The Nigerian Constitutions of 1979 and 1999 provide for a House of Representatives and a Senate at the federal level. At the state level, there exists a House of Assembly. The Constitution also provide for a President to be the Nigerian Head of State and Head of Governmen and for a State Governor in each of the 36 states except for the FCT which is administered by a federal minister. There are separate federal and state courts and one Supreme Court.
Every state is divided into counties generally called local government areas. Each local government area is administered by a chairman and a council of an average of ten members. The courts in each state are controlled by the state judiciary. Each state has a Chief Judge and a commissioner of Justice appointed by the state governor to also act as the State Attorney General. There are essentially two types of Chief Justices: 1) the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court and 2) the Chief Justice of the Nigerian Federation.
::2. Legal System.
Nigeria inherited the English common law tradition. However, since Nigeria has a tripartite judicial system, the common law
tradition applies only at the English law (Colonial) based courts. The common law does not
apply to the Islamic and customary law courts of Nigeria.
Nigerian criminal procedure is based on an adversarial approach with the burden of proof most
commonly placed on the accused. The Islamic (Muslim) courts and customary courts use an inquisitorial approach in their criminal
procedures."<ref> http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
==Brief History==
'''HISTORY''':
"In the northern cities of Kano and Katsina, recorded history dates back to about 1000 AD. In the centuries that followed, these Hausa kingdoms and the Bornu empire near Lake Chad prospered as important terminals of north-south trade between North African Berbers and forest people who exchanged slaves, ivory, and kola nuts for salt, glass beads, coral, cloth, weapons, brass rods, and cowrie shells used as currency."
[[Image:Abuja-collage.png|thumb|350px|right|Abuja-collage.]]
"In the southwest, the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo was founded about 1400, and at its height from the 17th to 19th centuries attained a high level of political organization and extended as far as modern Togo. In the south central part of present-day Nigeria, as early as the 15th and 16th centuries, the kingdom of Benin had developed an efficient army; an elaborate ceremonial court; and artisans whose works in ivory, wood, bronze, and brass are prized throughout the world today. In the 17th through 19th centuries, European traders established coastal ports for the increasing traffic in slaves destined for the Americas. Commodity trade, especially in palm oil and timber, replaced slave trade in the 19th century, particularly under anti-slavery actions by the British Navy. In the early 19th century the Fulani leader, Usman dan Fodio, promulgated Islam and brought most areas in the north under the loose administrative control of an empire centered in Sokoto."
<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
==Economic Development, Health, and Education==
'''Economy'''/
'''Trade''':
"Nigeria is the United States' largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, largely due to the high level of petroleum imports from Nigeria, which supply 8% of U.S. oil imports--nearly half of Nigeria's daily oil production. Nigeria is the fifth-largest exporter of oil to the United States. Two-way trade in 2008 was valued at more than $42 billion, an 18% increase over 2007 data. Led by machinery, wheat, and motor vehicles, U.S. goods exports to Nigeria in 2008 were worth more than $4 billion. In 2008, U.S. imports from Nigeria were over $38 billion, consisting predominantly of oil. However, rubber products, cocoa, gum arabic, cashews, coffee, and ginger constituted over $70 million of U.S. imports from Nigeria in 2007. The U.S. trade deficit with Nigeria was $21 billion in 2007. Nigeria is the 50th-largest export market for U.S. goods and the 14th-largest exporter of goods to the United States. The United States is Nigeria's largest trading partner after the United Kingdom. Although the trade balance overwhelmingly favors Nigeria, thanks to oil exports, a large portion of U.S. exports to Nigeria is believed to enter the country outside of the Nigerian Government's official statistics, due to importers seeking to avoid Nigeria's excessive tariffs.
The United States is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria. The stock of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria in 2006 was $339 million, down from $2 billion in 2004. U.S. FDI in Nigeria is concentrated largely in the petroleum/mining and wholesale trade sectors. Exxon-Mobil and Chevron are the two largest U.S. corporate players in offshore oil and gas production.
In March 2009, the United States and Nigeria met under the existing Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) to advance the ongoing work program and to discuss improvements in Nigerian trade policies and market access. Among the topics discussed were cooperation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), market access, export diversification, intellectual property protection and enforcement, commercial issues, trade capacity building and technical assistance, infrastructure, and investment issues."
<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
'''Economy'''
"GDP (2008): $183 billion (agriculture 33%; industry 39%; services 28%).
Real GDP growth rate (2009): 4.4%. Oil growth: -18%. Non-oil growth: 3%.
Per capita GDP (2009): $1,418.
Inflation (2009): 11.5%.
Natural resources: Oil and natural gas (37% of 2006 GDP), tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc.
Agriculture: Products--cocoa, palm oil, yams, cassava, sorghum, millet, corn, rice, livestock, groundnuts, cotton.
Industry: Types--textiles, cement, food products, footwear, metal products, lumber, beer, detergents, car assembly.
Trade (2007): Exports--$65.5 billion: fuels and mining products (97%); agricultural products (cocoa, rubber, oil, nuts) (2.2%); manufactures (0.8%). Partners--United States (38.3%); European Union (21.8%); India (9.9%); Brazil (6.8%); Japan (4%). Imports--$29.5 billion: machinery; chemicals; transport equipment; manufactured goods (72.3%); agricultural products (23.7%), fuels and mining products (4%). Partners--European Union (33.2%); United States (15.6%); China 7.2%; Korea (2.8%); U.A.E. (2.6%); others (15%).
Foreign direct investment (FDI, 2008): 29.5% of GDP.
Official development assistance (2006): $11.434 billion.
Currency: Naira (150 Naira = U.S. $1 as of March 23, 2010)."
<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
'''Education''':
Old Koranic schools are widespread throughout the north, and missionaries brought Western education to the coastal areas as early as the 1830s. Until the 1970s, enrollment in Western-oriented schools was significantly higher in the south. In 1976 free primary education was established throughout Nigeria. Educational facilities are lacking, however, and the adult illiteracy rate remains above 50 percent. By the mid-1980s, some 13.6 million pupils were enrolled each year in primary schools, and more than 3.1 million students attended secondary schools. Under a new educational system introduced in 1982, primary schooling (officially compulsory) takes six years to complete. Secondary schooling is organized in two successive phases of three years each. Western higher education, begun in 1948 with the founding of the University of Ibadan, is found throughout the country. Other major institutions include Ahmadu Bello University (1962), in Zaria; the Obafemi Awolowo University (1961), in Ife; the University of Lagos (1962); and the University of Nigeria (1960), in Nsukka. British-style universities have been augmented by a growing system of American-influenced teachers colleges and technical colleges.
In (1993) AISA (American International School Abuja) was established, This school is Private and goes from Pre-school up until 12 grade. The staff at this school come from ten different nations.The word Abuja is the federal capital of Nigeria.
Abuja-collage. <ref>http://www.internationaleducationmedia.com/nigeria/</ref>
==Governance==
===Government===
'''President:''' Bola Ahmed Tinubu (2023)
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/687505-tinubu-appoints-new-board-for-nigerias-securities-and-exchange-commission.html|title=Tinubu appoints new board for Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission|last=Release|first=Press|date=2024-04-19|website=Premium Times Nigeria|language=en-GB|access-date=2024-04-22}}</ref>
'''Government Type''':"Federal republic.
Independence: October 1, 1960.
Constitution: The 1999 constitution (based largely on the 1979 constitution) was promulgated by decree on May 5, 1999 and came into force on May 29, 1999.
Subdivisions: 36 states plus Federal Capital Territory (Abuja); states divided into a total of 774 local government areas.
Budget (2009): $21.3 billion, of which recurrent expenditures constitute $11.1 billion, capital expenditures $7 billion, statutory transfers $1.1 billion, and debt service $2 billion. Critical sectors--security and the Niger Delta (20%); education (8%); transportation (7%); agriculture and water (5%); and energy (5%).
Indebtedness, including federal/state government debt, as percentage of GDP: 3%"
<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
"The 2011 elections present Nigeria with an opportunity to turn the page on the legacy of electoral fraud, political violence and stalled democratic development that has marred the past decade of civilian rule in the country. With its vibrant civil society and increasingly independent legislative and judicial branches of government, Nigeria has the essential ingredients for democracy to take root. However, since the end of military rule in 1999, successive civilian governments have done little to translate the country's immense natural wealth into tangible gains for the majority of Nigerian citizens, more than half of whom subsist on less than a dollar a day. Instability in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, failing infrastructure, the lack of political will to address governance challenges and the continuing nexus of violence, corruption and politics, threaten the development of the country's democratic institutions.
The appointment of a widely-respected new chair of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and President Goodluck Jonathan's public assurances that his government will ensure a transparent and credible electoral process have rekindled hope among Nigerians eager to see the end to the poor governance and entrenched corruption at the national, state and local levels in Nigeria. Along with important opportunities, the 2011 electoral process also carries considerable risks. The slow pace of implementation of the new constitutional amendments and the electoral reforms; concerns over INEC's ability to conduct a credible voter registration process; divisive debates over the selection of party candidates; and growing fears that too little time is available to effectively plan, prepare and conduct credible elections in early 2011 have contributed to growing concerns in Nigeria and internationally that another flawed electoral process would lead to further disillusionment with elected government by Nigeria's citizenry and could stoke political violence and endanger prospects for continuing civilian governance."
<ref> http://www.ndi.org/content/nigeria</ref>
'''Government''': Federal republic under strong presidential administration,Became parliamentary democracy at independence; under military rule 1966 to 1979, 1983- . Constitution of 1979 amended February 1984. New constitution promulgated 1989 and scheduled to take effect January 1993; provides for three independent branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial. National Assembly dissolved in 1983, had not been reinstated as of mid-1991. Transition to civilian rule scheduled to be completed January 1993.
'''Administrative Divisions:''' Thirty six states divided into local councils; Federal Capital Territory of Abuja projected to become partially operational as national capital in 1991 as federal departments transfer from Lagos.
'''Judicial System:''' Legal system based on English common law modified by Nigerian rulings, constitution of 1979, legislative enactments, and decrees of military government in effect. Draft constitution of 1989 to take effect at start of Third Republic. Customary and Muslim sharia law recognized in personal status matters. Federal system included Supreme Court, federal courts of appeal, and federal high courts. Supreme Court had original jurisdiction in constitutional disputes.
'''Politics:''' In 1989 two political parties established by government: National Republican Convention, slightly right of center, and Social Democratic Party, slightly left of center. Presidential elections scheduled for December 1992.
File:Election in Nigeria 1999.jpg
[[Image:Election in Nigeria 1999.jpg|thumb|270px|right|The Election in 1999.]]
'''Foreign Relations:''' Nonaligned; active member of United Nations, Organization of African Unity, Commonwealth of Nations, and Economic Community of West African States. Main principles of foreign policy: noninterference in internal affairs and inviolability of national borders in Africa.<ref>http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ng0009)</ref>
'''Conducted Elections:'''
"The National Assembly agreed to amend sections of the 2010 Electoral Act to make it lawful to shift next year's elections forward. The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) had voiced its fears that the original January dates which it earlier set for elections into various offices were unrealistic. INEC suggested that if the elections were shifted to April 2010, the additional time would afford adequate arrangements for the polls, including the compilation of a credible voters' register". <ref>http://allafrica.com/stories/201009290526.html</ref>
===Elections===
===Judicial Review===
This 36-state federation, a member of the Commonwealth, is Africa's biggest country, with 140 million residents. It has for all practical purposes two legal systems, one in the mainly Moslem north, the other covering the mainly Christian south.
This north-south divide dates back into history: there were two separate British colonial territories, Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria, until they were merged in 1914.<ref>http://www.corpun.com/rules2.htm#ngj</ref>
==Courts and Criminal Law==
'''Judges Appointments and qualifications'''.
*"The 1979Constitution requires appointments to the Supreme
Court to get the approval of both Houses of the
Legislature. The judges are appointed by the
President of Nigeria. The judges must be
certified lawyers who have served as judges at the
federal or state court levels for a minimum of ten
years (Kasumu, 1978).
*All the judges of the Federal High
Court/Federal Court of Appeals are appointed by
the President of Nigeria with the approval of the
Senate. Ten years of experience on the bench is
required before a lawyer is appointed judge to
this court.
*The Chief Justice of the state High Court is
appointed by the State Governor. The other judges
are appointed in the same manner as the Chief
Justice but the appointments have to be made in
accordance with the advice of the appropriate
Judicial Service Commission. During the military
regime (1966-1979), the Chief Justice of the
Federal and each State High Court, as well as
other court judges, were appointed by the Supreme
Military Council after consultation with the
Advisory Judicial Committee. During that time,
the Nigerian Supreme Court was suspended and the
Federal High Court was positioned as the highest
court.
*The judges for the Sharia Court of Appeal are
appointed by the president after consultation with
the Advisory Judicial Committee. The judges of
all customary courts, including Sharia Courts, are
all lay-judges with no formal legal training.
The Public Service Commission of each state has
the authority to appoint magistrates for the
Magistrate Courts. The magistrates are all
certified lawyers with at least five years of
experience on the bench. The judges of the Area
Courts in the Northern States are also appointed
by the State's Public Service Commission.
*In Bendel, the Chief Justice is empowered to
appoint persons as presidents or members of a
Customary Court upon the recommendation of the
Advisory Judicial Committee (Elias, 1972)".<ref>http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
'''Key Actors''': "Because of Nigeria's role as a regional power, leading oil exporter, and major contributor of troops to United Nations peacekeeping missions, foreign governments-including the United States and the United Kingdom-have been reluctant to publicly criticize Nigeria's poor human rights record.
Although US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out forcefully against endemic government corruption during her August visit to Nigeria, she was unwilling to publicly condemn the serious abuses committed by Nigeria's security forces. The UK government continued to play a leading role in international efforts to combat money laundering by corrupt Nigerian officials. However, in fiscal year 2009 it provided £132 million in aid to Nigeria, including security sector aid, without demanding accountability for Nigerian officials and members of the security forces implicated in corrupt practices or serious human rights abuses"
<ref>http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87680</ref>
'''Role of Judges''': "The role and place of the judiciary in the scheme of things are pretty well-known in any system of democratic governance. As I once observed, a political system can be considered as democratic on the basis of the extent to which the judicial arm is permitted to hold the scales of justice over and above the other arms of government…For, if good governance has become a modern day desideratum, human ingenuity is yet to devise a better means of preventing arbitrariness and ensuring social well-being than that of separation of powers, due process of law and independence of the judiciary which, taken together, constitute the hallmarks of a well functioning democratic system.’"
<ref>http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/akin-oyebode/the-role-of-the-judiciary-in-the-electoral-process-in-nigeria.html</ref>
'''Elected''': The Judges in Nigeria are elected by State parties.
'''Jurys''': The only area in Nigeria which has adopted trial by jury is Lagos.
'''Lawyers''': "A lawyer is a member of a versatile, learned and honourable profession. He may be a Judge, a Teacher of Law in a University, a Company Director or Secretary, a Civil Servant, an Office-Holder in any capacity, a Solicitor and Advocate, an Arbitrator entering into negotiations on behalf of his clients. The most popular one in Nigeria is to be a Solicitor and Advocate, preparing documents and appearing in wig and gown before the court of law to defend a client in a civil suit or on a criminal charge." <ref>http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/tribune-law/4570-the-legal-profession-and-role-of-lawyers-in-nigerian-politics</ref>
"In Nigeria, the education of a lawyer starts properly at the University. Faculties of Law are to be found in the Universities all over Nigeria. The conditions or qualification for admission to study law are usually as published by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Act. A prospective lawyer may also chose to study in a foreign University.
The content of the course of study leading to the award of a law degree whether from a Nigeria or foreign University must be approved by the Council of Legal Education. Only foreign Universities in common law countries or teaching common law courses are approved by the Council. The Council usually insists that the subjects taken must include Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Law of Contract, Tort, Land Law, Equity & Trust, Commercial Law, Law of Evidence."<ref>http://www.nigeria-law.org/Legal%20Education.htm</ref>
===Punishment===
'''Nigeria: Judicial CP'''
"Anderson (1970) noted that such punishments had to be confirmed by the Emir or district officer before being carried out. He added that it was "important [...] to distinguish the lashes imposed under the Shari'a from any form of corporal punishment permitted under the Criminal Code. The former must be inflicted with a cowhide whip held only between certain fingers of the hand, while the one who inflicts it must also hold some object under his arm throughout. It is clear, therefore, that this punishment at least in modern Nigeria is to be regarded as a disgrace [...] rather than a very severe physical ordeal".
'''Sharia Law''' is usually for minor offences, these are possibly always administered in public. The public whippings are to the clothed buttocks or sometimes whipping on the bare upper back.
For the more serious offenses the comporal punishment also comes along with a prison senetence,this corpal punishment is strokes of a cane.<ref>http://www.corpun.com/rules2.htm</ref>
'''Sanctions''': The sanctions put on Nigeria by the United States and other nations were, restrictions on travel by government officials and their families and suspension of arms sales and military assistance. Anything sanctions added on after this was because Nigeria failed to gain full certification for its counter narcotics efforts.<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2836.htm</ref>
'''Corporal punishment''': Yes, Corporal punishment is used in Nigeria. "Both issues are seen as global problems, especially given the fact that despite the 1989 United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child in Africa, as well as other continents, corporal punishment and violence against children still go on uninhibited. Studies show that today's children and youths are subject to such punishments as beatings with sticks, whips or belts, though the physical and psychological injuries and the lasting damage these punishments inflict are well known."<ref>http://allafrica.com/stories/201003030154.html</ref>
'''Capital punishment''': Yes, Capital punishment is used.
===Legal Personnel===
===Law Enforcement===
*At the head of the Nigerian police force is the Inspector-General.
Deputy Inspector-General,Assistant Inspector-General,
Commissioner ofPolice, Deputy Commissioner of Police,
AssistantCommissioner of Police, Chief Superintendent
of Police, Superintendent of Police, Deputy Superintendent
of Police, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Chief
Inspector, Inspector,Sub-Inspector, Cadet Sub-Inspector,
SergeantMajor, Sergeant, Corporal, Constable, and Recruit.<ref>http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
'''Training and Qualifications'''
"Police recruits undergo a six to nine month
training session at one of the police colleges
located in each of the four geographic regions of
Nigeria (north, east, west, and midwest) and the
national capital of Lagos. (Editor's note: In
1991, the capital of Nigeria was transferred to
Abuja. Most criminal justice agencies originally
located in Lagos have remained there.) Most
recruits are expected to have a senior school certificate (high school
diploma) in order to be admitted into the Recruit
grade of the police force. However, some recruits
have first school leaving certificates
(equivalent to an 8th Grade education in the U.S.)
or a West African school certificate (equivalent
to a high school diploma).
Police officer cadets are trained at the
Nigerian Police Academy in Lagos. The length of training at the police
academy ranges from one to three years, depending
on the cadet's previous level of education.
Persons with a university degree such as a
Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science spend less
than three years in training before they are
commissioned Assistant Superintendent. Officers
of the Nigerian police force were
recruited among university graduates until the recent eestablishment of an academy in Wudil, Kano State to trail officers. <ref>http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
'''Neighbourhood Policing'''
*Community Policing Developers (CPD)
*Community Safety Officers (CSOs)
*Human Rights Officers (HROs)
*Community Policing Officers (CPOs)
*Neighbourhood Watch Officers (NWOs)
*Vigilante Support Officers (VSOs)
*Divisional Intelligence Officers (DIOs)
*Conflict Resolution Officers (CROs)
===Crime Rates and Public Opinion===
'''CRIME'''
1. Classification of Crimes.
* "Legal classification. Crimes in Nigeria are
classified by the severity of the offense into
felonies (very serious) and misdemeanors (less
serious). Examples of felonious offenses are
armed robbery, arson, auto theft, burglary, child-
stealing, counterfeiting, conspiracy, drug
offenses, forgery, fraud, kidnapping, murder,
rape, smuggling contraband, theft of an object of
high value, and treason. All other offenses are
considered misdemeanors.
The Nigerian police also classify crimes into
offenses against persons, offenses against
property, other offenses (crimes without victims),
and offenses against local ordinances.
* Age of criminal responsibility. Any person
seventeen years or older is considered an adult.
Persons 12 to 16 years-old are treated as
juveniles while 7 to 11 year-olds are considered
children. The offenses of both children and
juveniles are handled at the juvenile courts.
Juvenile courts are generally ad hoc and
informally administered. They are presided over
by the county magistrate, a layman and a laywoman
(Ebbe, 1988).
* Drug offenses. Drug offenses in Nigeria include
the possession or selling of cocaine, heroin, and
marijuana. Barbiturates and amphetamines are
legal drugs which can be purchased as
over-the-counter medicines.
* Crime regions. The Nigerian police annual
reports have no records of crimes according to
regions, states or cities. However, it is
generally known in Nigeria that property crimes
are perpetrated more in the Southern states than
in the Northern states. This may be due to
greater business activity in the South".<ref>http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
*Whose the victims? There is no report on who gets victimized by crime in Nigeria, although from some information gathered in the prison reports it is known that most of these crimes actually within the same ethnicity. Also, more often than not the males are more likely to be victims and offenders then females.<ref>http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/WFBCJNIG.TXT</ref>
'''Homicide rate''': 17.70 per 100,000 person
<ref>http://chartsbin.com/view/ueh</ref>
:"'''Prisoners'''
40,447 prisoners [32nd of 168]
:'''Prisoners''' > Female
1.9% [113rd of 134]
:'''Prisoners''' > Per capita
33 per 100,000 people [149th of 164]
:'''Prisoners''' > Pre-trial detainees
63% [17th of 143]
:'''Prisoners''' > Share of prison capacity filled
101.5% [89th of 128]
:Software piracy rate
82% [19th of 107]"
<ref>http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ni-nigeria/cri-crime</ref>
==Rights==
===Family Law===
'''Adoption''': "Nigerian adoption laws are complex and the system is not transparent. In general, foreigners who intend to adopt a specific child must first obtain temporary custody of the child (i.e., foster care). Foster care requirements differ from Nigerian state to state, and can be as long as one year before an adoption will be granted. Other states have citizenship or other requirements to adopt. Prospective adoptive parents are advised to obtain more information on adopting in individual states through their Nigerian attorneys or Social Welfare offices for the state where the adoption will take place". <ref>http://www.adoptionnews.com/international-adoption-nigeria.html</ref>
'''Marriage''':
Two major types of marriage exist in Nigeria: monogamy, a marriage of one man to one woman, and polygyny, a marriage of one man to two or more wives. In most cultural groups in Nigeria, traditional marriage is usually an arrangement between two families as opposed to an arrangement between two individuals. Accordingly, there is pressure on the bride and bridegroom to make the marriage work as any problem will usually affect both families and strain the otherwise cordial relationship between them. In most Nigerian cultures, the man usually pays the dowry or bride-price and is thus considered the head of the family. Adultery has no punishment for men, but forbidden for women. Marriage ceremonies vary among Nigerian cultures." <ref>http://family.jrank.org/pages/1211/Nigeria-Marriages-in-Nigeria.html</ref>
'''Divorce''':
===Social Inequality===
===Human Rights===
"The National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria was established by the National Human Rights Act, 1995 in line with the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations which enjoins all member States to establish Human Rights Institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. The Commission serves as a mechanism for the enhancement of the enjoyment of human rights. Its establishment is aimed at creating an enabling environment for extra-judicial recognition, promotion and protection and enforcement of human rights, treaty obligations and providing a forum for public enlightenment and dialogue on human rights issues thereby limiting controversy and confrontation." <ref>http://www.nigeriarights.gov.ng/</ref>
'''Fact''': In Nigeria about 70 per cent of those living in poverty are women.
'''2008 Human Rights report:Nigeria''': "The government's human rights record remained poor, and government officials at all levels continued to commit serious abuses. The most significant human rights problems included the abridgement of citizens' right to change their government; extrajudicial killings by security forces; the use of lethal and excessive force by security forces; vigilante killings; impunity for abuses by security forces; torture, rape, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees, and criminal suspects; harsh and life‑threatening prison and detention center conditions; arbitrary arrest and prolonged pretrial detention; executive influence on the judiciary and judicial corruption; infringement on privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, and movement; domestic violence and discrimination against women; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse and child sexual exploitation; societal violence; ethnic, regional, and religious discrimination; trafficking in persons for the purpose of prostitution and forced labor; and child labor."<ref>http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119018.htm</ref>
===Works Cited===
<references />
[[Category:Nigerian Law]]
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Help:Blog
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{{more consensus}}
A '''blog''' is an educational resource type which you can add to your '''''personal user namespace''''' at Wikiversity. A '''blog''', like a paper, reflects the work and views of a single individual and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. However the blog is usually in the personal User namespace of a particular registered Wikiversity user and conforms to the style of a "[[w:blog|blog]]" (e.g. shorter; lower level of formality; stronger opinions; somewhat journalistic).
== Distinguished from related resource types ==
The following are more formal opinion-pieces, which can be published in the main namespace of Wikiversity.
* '''[[Help:essay|Essays]]''': an '''essay''' (or '''term paper'''), like a '''[[Help:paper|paper]]''', reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. It may be one of the following:
** an opinion piece of writing which is not on a sufficiently "academic" topic to be considered an "academic paper", or where the degree of formality is lower than a paper, or where the author simply prefers the designation "essay";
** a piece of writing set as an assignment in a course.
* '''[[Help:Papers|Papers]]''': a paper is an '''academic article''' or academic paper (or draft thereof) which has been published or is being drafted on Wikiversity. A paper typically reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors. A paper may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor.
== How to create a blog ==
Your [[Help:User page|user page]] (or a subpage of it) should be used as blog's homepage, and your blog posts all created as [[Help:Subpages|subpages]] of it. To set this up, place the {{tl|Blog}} template on your user page—this will create a form like the one below, allowing you to easily add new blog posts. You will also get an [[Wikipedia:RSS|RSS feed]] of your posts.
To create a blog post now, simply enter the post's title in the box below, and a page (such as <code>User:<u>Username</u>/Blog/{{green|My first blog post}}</code>) will be created.
<inputbox>
type=create
width=80
preload=Template:Blog post/preload
editintro=
buttonlabel=New blog post
searchbuttonlabel=
break=no
prefix=Special:Mypage/Blog/
placeholder=Enter title here
</inputbox>
The input box above pre-loads the {{tl|blog post}} template; if you manually create blog pages, you should use this template at the top (it defines certain metadata for the page, such as post date, and will also categorise your posts).
== General guidelines relating to opinion pieces on Wikiversity ==
# The author(s) should always be clearly identified '''at the top'''.
# It should be possible to contact the authors - e.g. Wikiversity username given.
# Disclosures:
#* Either: the resource should very clearly be of a type in which readers would expect to find views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus (e.g. in an academic field)
#* Or: the resource should be clearly tagged '''at the top''' with a tag which warns readers that the resource may contain views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus.
# If the resource contains multiple pages, the points above (1-3) should be repeated on every page of the resource.
# Wikiversity contributors not named as an author should, as a matter of [[Wikiversity:civility|civility]], refrain from editing the resource itself. However it should be possible for all Wikiversity contributors to '''comment and discuss''' the piece of writing '''on the page itself''' (rather than resorting to the talk page). A discussion section at the bottom of the page is recommended. This is effectively an exchange for other contributors refraining from editing the authored section of the resource. Comments and discussions should be signed in the normal wiki manner.
== Relevant policies and proposed policies ==
[[Image:Donation stele with curse inscription.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Example of a 2800-year-old curse. Your username will be attached forever to your blog.]] Although a blog may be the most unregulated form of opinion-piece which you can write on Wikiversity, this does not excuse from basic moral and legal restrictions. At one end of the scale, a blog can just be a personal diary of thoughts, or an expression of frustrations. At the other end of the scale, there are blogs which are so well-researched and well-written that they are almost works of literature or almost publishable research articles. Wherever your blog lies on the scale, remember that blogging is a form of '''publication''', and that - unlike graffiti - your (user)name will be attached forever to your words.
* [[Wikiversity:Civility|Civility policy]]
* [[Wikiversity:Reliable sources|Reliable sources]]
* [[Wikiversity:Verifiability|Verifiability]]
* [[Wikiversity:Privacy policy|Privacy policy]]
== Distinguish from related topics ==
[[:Category:blogging]] is a category of Wikiversity resources related to the learning about or researching into blogging as a form of internet communication, particular in the context of web learning.
== Templates and Categories ==
Templates:
* {{tl|blog}} for the front page of a blog;
* {{tl|blog post}} at the top of each post; and
* {{tl|blog post comments}} at the bottom of each post (if desired).
All blog-related content should be under [[:Category:Blogging]]:
<categorytree showcount="on" hideroot="on">Blogging</categorytree>
== See also ==
* [[Blogging]] — overview of Wikiversity's coverage of blogging
* [[Help:Resources by type]] — help pages about other types of content on Wikiversity
== External links ==
{{wikipedia}} {{wikiquote}}
* [[w:Blog|Wikipedia article about blogs]]
* [[w:Category:Blogging|Wikipedia 'blogging' category]] — further illustrates the extent of the vast topic coverage on Wikipedia
* The Learning Circuits Blog (October 2006), [http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2006/10/big-question-for-october-should-all_04.html Should All Learning Professionals be Blogging?]
{{rtnav}}
[[Category:Help]]
[[Category:Learning]]
[[Category:Blogs]]
j0lt74jsnu7tnxmeztmohjegkg7ellp
VHDL programming in plain view
0
121359
2811743
2811665
2026-05-27T22:58:31Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Data */
2811743
wikitext
text/x-wiki
<!---------------------------------------------------------------------->
== Flip Flop and Latch ==
* FFLatch.Overview.1.A ([[Media:FFLatch.Overview.1.A.20111103.pdf|pdf]])
* Counter.74LS193.1.A ([[Media:Counter.74LS193.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Clock.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Clock.Overview.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Function.Overview.1.A.20111201.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Versions of VHDL ==
* VHDL Versions ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Versions.20120619.pdf|pdf]])
* VHDL Libraries ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Libraries.20140219.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Basic Features of VHDL ==
==== Data ====
* Data Objects ([[Media:Data.Object.1A.20260526.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Object.1B.20260526.pdf|B]])
* Data Types ([[Media:Data.Type.2A.20260521.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Type.2B.20260521.pdf|B]])
* Packages ([[Media:Data.Package.3A.20251206.pdf|pdf]])
* Signal Types ([[Media:Signal.Type.1A.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Attributes ([[Media:Data.4.A.Attribute.20251021.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Signals & Variables ====
* Signals & Variables ([[Media:Signal.1A.SigVar.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.4A.Sequential.20250612.pdf|pdf]])
* Concurrent & Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.1.A.ConSeq.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Inertial & Transport Delay Models ([[Media:Signal.2.A.InertTrans.20120704.pdf|pdf]])
* Simulation & Synthesis ([[Media:Signal.3.A.SimSyn.20120504.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Structure ====
* Component ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Component.20120804.pdf|pdf]])
* Configuration ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Configuration.20121003.pdf|pdf]])
* Generic ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Generic.20120802.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
==== Entity and Architecture ====
<br>
==== Block Statement ====
<br>
==== Process Statement ====
<br>
==== Operators ====
<br>
==== Assignment Statement ====
<br>
==== Concurrent Statement ====
<br>
==== Sequential Control Statement ====
<br>
==== Function ====
* Function.1.A Usage ([[Media:Function.1.A.Usage.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.2.A Conversion Function ([[Media:Function.2.A.Conversion.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.3.A Resolution Function ([[Media:Function.3.A.Resolution.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Procedure ====
<br>
==== Package ====
</br>
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:VHDL]]
[[Category:FPGA]]
kygl0kb5m2al90km41kaioeb84u5m3o
2811745
2811743
2026-05-27T23:00:38Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Basic Features of VHDL */
2811745
wikitext
text/x-wiki
<!---------------------------------------------------------------------->
== Flip Flop and Latch ==
* FFLatch.Overview.1.A ([[Media:FFLatch.Overview.1.A.20111103.pdf|pdf]])
* Counter.74LS193.1.A ([[Media:Counter.74LS193.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Clock.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Clock.Overview.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Function.Overview.1.A.20111201.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Versions of VHDL ==
* VHDL Versions ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Versions.20120619.pdf|pdf]])
* VHDL Libraries ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Libraries.20140219.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Basic Features of VHDL ==
==== Data ====
* Data Objects ([[Media:Data.Object.1A.20260526.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Object.1B.20260526.pdf|B]])
* Data Types ([[Media:Data.Type.2A.20260521.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Type.2B.20260525.pdf|B]])
* Packages ([[Media:Data.Package.3A.20251206.pdf|pdf]])
* Signal Types ([[Media:Signal.Type.1A.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Attributes ([[Media:Data.4.A.Attribute.20251021.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Signals & Variables ====
* Signals & Variables ([[Media:Signal.1A.SigVar.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.4A.Sequential.20250612.pdf|pdf]])
* Concurrent & Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.1.A.ConSeq.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Inertial & Transport Delay Models ([[Media:Signal.2.A.InertTrans.20120704.pdf|pdf]])
* Simulation & Synthesis ([[Media:Signal.3.A.SimSyn.20120504.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Structure ====
* Component ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Component.20120804.pdf|pdf]])
* Configuration ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Configuration.20121003.pdf|pdf]])
* Generic ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Generic.20120802.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
==== Entity and Architecture ====
<br>
==== Block Statement ====
<br>
==== Process Statement ====
<br>
==== Operators ====
<br>
==== Assignment Statement ====
<br>
==== Concurrent Statement ====
<br>
==== Sequential Control Statement ====
<br>
==== Function ====
* Function.1.A Usage ([[Media:Function.1.A.Usage.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.2.A Conversion Function ([[Media:Function.2.A.Conversion.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.3.A Resolution Function ([[Media:Function.3.A.Resolution.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Procedure ====
<br>
==== Package ====
</br>
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:VHDL]]
[[Category:FPGA]]
9awjaa7ce8mttrip8z9888tq0wk5bwu
2811748
2811745
2026-05-27T23:02:11Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Data */
2811748
wikitext
text/x-wiki
<!---------------------------------------------------------------------->
== Flip Flop and Latch ==
* FFLatch.Overview.1.A ([[Media:FFLatch.Overview.1.A.20111103.pdf|pdf]])
* Counter.74LS193.1.A ([[Media:Counter.74LS193.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Clock.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Clock.Overview.1.A.20111108.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.Overview.1.A ([[Media:Function.Overview.1.A.20111201.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Versions of VHDL ==
* VHDL Versions ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Versions.20120619.pdf|pdf]])
* VHDL Libraries ([[Media:VHDL.1.A.Libraries.20140219.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
== Basic Features of VHDL ==
==== Data ====
* Data Objects ([[Media:Data.Object.1A.20260526.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Object.1B.20260526.pdf|B]])
* Data Types ([[Media:Data.Type.2A.20260526.pdf|A]], [[Media:Data.Type.2B.20260526.pdf|B]])
* Packages ([[Media:Data.Package.3A.20251206.pdf|pdf]])
* Signal Types ([[Media:Signal.Type.1A.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Attributes ([[Media:Data.4.A.Attribute.20251021.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Signals & Variables ====
* Signals & Variables ([[Media:Signal.1A.SigVar.20250614.pdf|pdf]])
* Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.4A.Sequential.20250612.pdf|pdf]])
* Concurrent & Sequential Signal Assignments ([[Media:Signal.1.A.ConSeq.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Inertial & Transport Delay Models ([[Media:Signal.2.A.InertTrans.20120704.pdf|pdf]])
* Simulation & Synthesis ([[Media:Signal.3.A.SimSyn.20120504.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Structure ====
* Component ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Component.20120804.pdf|pdf]])
* Configuration ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Configuration.20121003.pdf|pdf]])
* Generic ([[Media:Struct.1.A.Generic.20120802.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
==== Entity and Architecture ====
<br>
==== Block Statement ====
<br>
==== Process Statement ====
<br>
==== Operators ====
<br>
==== Assignment Statement ====
<br>
==== Concurrent Statement ====
<br>
==== Sequential Control Statement ====
<br>
==== Function ====
* Function.1.A Usage ([[Media:Function.1.A.Usage.20120611.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.2.A Conversion Function ([[Media:Function.2.A.Conversion.pdf|pdf]])
* Function.3.A Resolution Function ([[Media:Function.3.A.Resolution.pdf|pdf]])
<br>
==== Procedure ====
<br>
==== Package ====
</br>
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:VHDL]]
[[Category:FPGA]]
ioe3dwigtz8eejsgrt0cdjypugr0llh
Understanding Arithmetic Circuits
0
139384
2811694
2811582
2026-05-27T13:41:29Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Adder */
2811694
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== Adder ==
* Binary Adder Architecture Exploration ( [[Media:Adder.20131113.pdf|pdf]] )
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Adder type !! Overview !! Analysis !! VHDL Level Design !! CMOS Level Design
|-
| '''1. Ripple Carry Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1A.RCA.20250522.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:Adder.rca.20140313.pdf|pdf]]
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1D.RCA.CMOS.20211108.pdf|pdf]]
|-
| '''2. Carry Lookahead Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CLA.20260109.pdf|org]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.2A.CLA.20260527.pdf|A]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.2B.CLA.20260527.pdf|B]] ||
|| [[Media:Adder.cla.20140313.pdf|pdf]]||
|-
| '''3. Carry Save Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CSave.20151209.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''4. Carry Select Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CSelA.20191002.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''5. Carry Skip Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.5A.CSkip.20250405.pdf|A]]||
||
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.5D.CSkip.CMOS.20211108.pdf|pdf]]
|-
|| '''6. Carry Chain Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6A.CCA.20211109.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6C.CCA.VHDL.20211109.pdf|pdf]], [[Media:Adder.cca.20140313.pdf|pdf]]
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6D.CCA.CMOS.20211109.pdf|pdf]]
|-
|| '''7. Kogge-Stone Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.KSA.20140315.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:Adder.ksa.20140409.pdf|pdf]]||
|-
|| '''8. Prefix Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.PFA.20140314.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''9.1 Variable Block Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1A.VBA.20221110.pdf|A]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1B.VBA.20230911.pdf|B]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1C.VBA.20240622.pdf|C]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1C.VBA.20250218.pdf|D]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''9.2 Multi-Level Variable Block Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.VBA-Multi.20221031.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|}
</br>
=== Adder Architectures Suitable for FPGA ===
* FPGA Carry-Chain Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.FPGA-CCA.20210421.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Carry Select Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.B.FPGA-CarrySelect.20210522.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Variable Block Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.C.FPGA-VariableBlock.20220125.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Carry Lookahead Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.D.FPGA-CLookahead.20210304.pdf|pdf]])
* Carry-Skip Adder
</br>
== Barrel Shifter ==
* Barrel Shifter Architecture Exploration ([[Media:Bshift.20131105.pdf|bshfit.vhdl]], [[Media:Bshift.makefile.20131109.pdf|bshfit.makefile]])
</br>
'''Mux Based Barrel Shifter'''
* Analysis ([[Media:Arith.BShfiter.20151207.pdf|pdf]])
* Implementation
</br>
== Multiplier ==
=== Array Multipliers ===
* Analysis ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.Mult.20151209.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
=== Tree Mulltipliers ===
* Lattice Multiplication ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.LatticeMult.20170204.pdf|pdf]])
* Wallace Tree ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.WallaceTree.20170204.pdf|pdf]])
* Dadda Tree ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.DaddaTree.20170701.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
=== Booth Multipliers ===
* [[Media:RNS4.BoothEncode.20161005.pdf|Booth Encoding Note]]
* Booth Multiplier Note ([[Media:BoothMult.20160929.pdf|H1.pdf]])
</br>
== Divider ==
* Binary Divider ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.Divider.20131217.pdf|pdf]])</br>
</br>
</br>
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:Digital Circuit Design]]
[[Category:FPGA]]
6v8sbrcl2wv4km6u1nwrcfldkh56i9i
2811765
2811694
2026-05-28T11:04:31Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Adder */
2811765
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== Adder ==
* Binary Adder Architecture Exploration ( [[Media:Adder.20131113.pdf|pdf]] )
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Adder type !! Overview !! Analysis !! VHDL Level Design !! CMOS Level Design
|-
| '''1. Ripple Carry Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1A.RCA.20250522.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:Adder.rca.20140313.pdf|pdf]]
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1D.RCA.CMOS.20211108.pdf|pdf]]
|-
| '''2. Carry Lookahead Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CLA.20260109.pdf|org]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.2A.CLA.20260528.pdf|A]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.2B.CLA.20260528.pdf|B]] ||
|| [[Media:Adder.cla.20140313.pdf|pdf]]||
|-
| '''3. Carry Save Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CSave.20151209.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''4. Carry Select Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.CSelA.20191002.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''5. Carry Skip Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.5A.CSkip.20250405.pdf|A]]||
||
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.5D.CSkip.CMOS.20211108.pdf|pdf]]
|-
|| '''6. Carry Chain Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6A.CCA.20211109.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6C.CCA.VHDL.20211109.pdf|pdf]], [[Media:Adder.cca.20140313.pdf|pdf]]
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.6D.CCA.CMOS.20211109.pdf|pdf]]
|-
|| '''7. Kogge-Stone Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.KSA.20140315.pdf|A]]||
|| [[Media:Adder.ksa.20140409.pdf|pdf]]||
|-
|| '''8. Prefix Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.PFA.20140314.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''9.1 Variable Block Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1A.VBA.20221110.pdf|A]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1B.VBA.20230911.pdf|B]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1C.VBA.20240622.pdf|C]], [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1C.VBA.20250218.pdf|D]]||
|| ||
|-
|| '''9.2 Multi-Level Variable Block Adder'''
|| [[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.VBA-Multi.20221031.pdf|A]]||
|| ||
|}
</br>
=== Adder Architectures Suitable for FPGA ===
* FPGA Carry-Chain Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.FPGA-CCA.20210421.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Carry Select Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.B.FPGA-CarrySelect.20210522.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Variable Block Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.C.FPGA-VariableBlock.20220125.pdf|pdf]])
* FPGA Carry Lookahead Adder ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.D.FPGA-CLookahead.20210304.pdf|pdf]])
* Carry-Skip Adder
</br>
== Barrel Shifter ==
* Barrel Shifter Architecture Exploration ([[Media:Bshift.20131105.pdf|bshfit.vhdl]], [[Media:Bshift.makefile.20131109.pdf|bshfit.makefile]])
</br>
'''Mux Based Barrel Shifter'''
* Analysis ([[Media:Arith.BShfiter.20151207.pdf|pdf]])
* Implementation
</br>
== Multiplier ==
=== Array Multipliers ===
* Analysis ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.Mult.20151209.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
=== Tree Mulltipliers ===
* Lattice Multiplication ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.LatticeMult.20170204.pdf|pdf]])
* Wallace Tree ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.WallaceTree.20170204.pdf|pdf]])
* Dadda Tree ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.DaddaTree.20170701.pdf|pdf]])
</br>
=== Booth Multipliers ===
* [[Media:RNS4.BoothEncode.20161005.pdf|Booth Encoding Note]]
* Booth Multiplier Note ([[Media:BoothMult.20160929.pdf|H1.pdf]])
</br>
== Divider ==
* Binary Divider ([[Media:VLSI.Arith.1.A.Divider.20131217.pdf|pdf]])</br>
</br>
</br>
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:Digital Circuit Design]]
[[Category:FPGA]]
e93dc3oca1itdjm01ibzoinvo48trtr
Complex analysis in plain view
0
171005
2811699
2811591
2026-05-27T13:56:12Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Geometric Series Examples */
2811699
wikitext
text/x-wiki
Many of the functions that arise naturally in mathematics and real world applications can be extended to and regarded as complex functions, meaning the input, as well as the output, can be complex numbers <math>x+iy</math>, where <math>i=\sqrt{-1}</math>, in such a way that it is a more natural object to study. '''Complex analysis''', which used to be known as '''function theory''' or '''theory of functions of a single complex variable''', is a sub-field of analysis that studies such functions (more specifically, '''holomorphic''' functions) on the complex plane, or part (domain) or extension (Riemann surface) thereof. It notably has great importance in number theory, e.g. the [[Riemann zeta function]] (for the distribution of primes) and other <math>L</math>-functions, modular forms, elliptic functions, etc. <blockquote>The shortest path between two truths in the real domain passes through the complex domain. — [[wikipedia:Jacques_Hadamard|Jacques Hadamard]]</blockquote>In a certain sense, the essence of complex functions is captured by the principle of [[analytic continuation]].{{mathematics}}
==''' Complex Functions '''==
* Complex Functions ([[Media:CAnal.1.A.CFunction.20140222.Basic.pdf|1.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.1.B.CFunction.20140111.Octave.pdf|1.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.1.C.CFunction.20140111.Extend.pdf|1.C.pdf]])
* Complex Exponential and Logarithm ([[Media:CAnal.5.A.CLog.20131017.pdf|5.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.5.A.Octave.pdf|5.B.pdf]])
* Complex Trigonometric and Hyperbolic ([[Media:CAnal.7.A.CTrigHyper..pdf|7.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.7.A.Octave..pdf|7.B.pdf]])
'''Complex Function Note'''
: 1. Exp and Log Function Note ([[Media:ComplexExp.29160721.pdf|H1.pdf]])
: 2. Trig and TrigH Function Note ([[Media:CAnal.Trig-H.29160901.pdf|H1.pdf]])
: 3. Inverse Trig and TrigH Functions Note ([[Media:CAnal.Hyper.29160829.pdf|H1.pdf]])
==''' Complex Integrals '''==
* Complex Integrals ([[Media:CAnal.2.A.CIntegral.20140224.Basic.pdf|2.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.2.B.CIntegral.20140117.Octave.pdf|2.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.2.C.CIntegral.20140117.Extend.pdf|2.C.pdf]])
==''' Complex Series '''==
* Complex Series ([[Media:CPX.Series.20150226.2.Basic.pdf|3.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.3.B.CSeries.20140121.Octave.pdf|3.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.3.C.CSeries.20140303.Extend.pdf|3.C.pdf]])
==''' Residue Integrals '''==
* Residue Integrals ([[Media:CAnal.4.A.Residue.20140227.Basic.pdf|4.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.4.B.pdf|4.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.4.C.Residue.20140423.Extend.pdf|4.C.pdf]])
==='''Residue Integrals Note'''===
* Laurent Series with the Residue Theorem Note ([[Media:Laurent.1.Residue.20170713.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series with Applications Note ([[Media:Laurent.2.Applications.20170327.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series and the z-Transform Note ([[Media:Laurent.3.z-Trans.20170831.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series as a Geometric Series Note ([[Media:Laurent.4.GSeries.20170802.pdf|H1.pdf]])
=== Laurent Series and the z-Transform Example Note ===
* Overview ([[Media:Laurent.4.z-Example.20170926.pdf|H1.pdf]])
====Geometric Series Examples====
* Causality ([[Media:Laurent.5.Causality.1.A.20191026n.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Causality.1.B.20191026.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Time Shift ([[Media:Laurent.5.TimeShift.2.A.20191028.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.TimeShift.2.B.20191029.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Reciprocity ([[Media:Laurent.5.Reciprocity.3A.20191030.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Reciprocity.3B.20191031.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Combinations ([[Media:Laurent.5.Combination.4A.20200702.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Combination.4B.20201002.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Properties ([[Media:Laurent.5.Property.5A.20220105.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Property.5B.20220126.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Permutations ([[Media:Laurent.6.Permutation.6A.20230711.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6B.20251225.pdf|B.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6C.20260527.pdf|C.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6C.20240528.pdf|D.pdf]])
* Applications ([[Media:Laurent.5.Application.6B.20220723.pdf|A.pdf]])
* Double Pole Case
:- Examples ([[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleEx.7A.20220722.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleEx.7B.20220720.pdf|B.pdf]])
:- Properties ([[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleProp.5A.20190226.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleProp.5B.20190228.pdf|B.pdf]])
====The Case Examples====
* Example Overview : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.0.A.20171208.pdf|0A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.6.CaseExample.0.B.20180205.pdf|0B.pdf]])
* Example Case 1 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.1.A.20171107.pdf|1A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.1.B.20171227.pdf|1B.pdf]])
* Example Case 2 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.2.A.20171107.pdf|2A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.2.B.20171227.pdf|2B.pdf]])
* Example Case 3 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.3.A.20171017.pdf|3A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.3.B.20171226.pdf|3B.pdf]])
* Example Case 4 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.4.A.20171017.pdf|4A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.4.B.20171228.pdf|4B.pdf]])
* Example Summary : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.5.A.20171212.pdf|5A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.5.B.20171230.pdf|5B.pdf]])
==''' Conformal Mapping '''==
* Conformal Mapping ([[Media:CAnal.6.A.Conformal.20131224.pdf|6.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.6.A.Octave..pdf|6.B.pdf]])
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:Complex analysis]]
8k08fhp2ugyiwmdmzvzxs57aom9a5pe
2811770
2811699
2026-05-28T11:26:37Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Geometric Series Examples */
2811770
wikitext
text/x-wiki
Many of the functions that arise naturally in mathematics and real world applications can be extended to and regarded as complex functions, meaning the input, as well as the output, can be complex numbers <math>x+iy</math>, where <math>i=\sqrt{-1}</math>, in such a way that it is a more natural object to study. '''Complex analysis''', which used to be known as '''function theory''' or '''theory of functions of a single complex variable''', is a sub-field of analysis that studies such functions (more specifically, '''holomorphic''' functions) on the complex plane, or part (domain) or extension (Riemann surface) thereof. It notably has great importance in number theory, e.g. the [[Riemann zeta function]] (for the distribution of primes) and other <math>L</math>-functions, modular forms, elliptic functions, etc. <blockquote>The shortest path between two truths in the real domain passes through the complex domain. — [[wikipedia:Jacques_Hadamard|Jacques Hadamard]]</blockquote>In a certain sense, the essence of complex functions is captured by the principle of [[analytic continuation]].{{mathematics}}
==''' Complex Functions '''==
* Complex Functions ([[Media:CAnal.1.A.CFunction.20140222.Basic.pdf|1.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.1.B.CFunction.20140111.Octave.pdf|1.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.1.C.CFunction.20140111.Extend.pdf|1.C.pdf]])
* Complex Exponential and Logarithm ([[Media:CAnal.5.A.CLog.20131017.pdf|5.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.5.A.Octave.pdf|5.B.pdf]])
* Complex Trigonometric and Hyperbolic ([[Media:CAnal.7.A.CTrigHyper..pdf|7.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.7.A.Octave..pdf|7.B.pdf]])
'''Complex Function Note'''
: 1. Exp and Log Function Note ([[Media:ComplexExp.29160721.pdf|H1.pdf]])
: 2. Trig and TrigH Function Note ([[Media:CAnal.Trig-H.29160901.pdf|H1.pdf]])
: 3. Inverse Trig and TrigH Functions Note ([[Media:CAnal.Hyper.29160829.pdf|H1.pdf]])
==''' Complex Integrals '''==
* Complex Integrals ([[Media:CAnal.2.A.CIntegral.20140224.Basic.pdf|2.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.2.B.CIntegral.20140117.Octave.pdf|2.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.2.C.CIntegral.20140117.Extend.pdf|2.C.pdf]])
==''' Complex Series '''==
* Complex Series ([[Media:CPX.Series.20150226.2.Basic.pdf|3.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.3.B.CSeries.20140121.Octave.pdf|3.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.3.C.CSeries.20140303.Extend.pdf|3.C.pdf]])
==''' Residue Integrals '''==
* Residue Integrals ([[Media:CAnal.4.A.Residue.20140227.Basic.pdf|4.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.4.B.pdf|4.B.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.4.C.Residue.20140423.Extend.pdf|4.C.pdf]])
==='''Residue Integrals Note'''===
* Laurent Series with the Residue Theorem Note ([[Media:Laurent.1.Residue.20170713.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series with Applications Note ([[Media:Laurent.2.Applications.20170327.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series and the z-Transform Note ([[Media:Laurent.3.z-Trans.20170831.pdf|H1.pdf]])
* Laurent Series as a Geometric Series Note ([[Media:Laurent.4.GSeries.20170802.pdf|H1.pdf]])
=== Laurent Series and the z-Transform Example Note ===
* Overview ([[Media:Laurent.4.z-Example.20170926.pdf|H1.pdf]])
====Geometric Series Examples====
* Causality ([[Media:Laurent.5.Causality.1.A.20191026n.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Causality.1.B.20191026.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Time Shift ([[Media:Laurent.5.TimeShift.2.A.20191028.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.TimeShift.2.B.20191029.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Reciprocity ([[Media:Laurent.5.Reciprocity.3A.20191030.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Reciprocity.3B.20191031.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Combinations ([[Media:Laurent.5.Combination.4A.20200702.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Combination.4B.20201002.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Properties ([[Media:Laurent.5.Property.5A.20220105.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Property.5B.20220126.pdf|B.pdf]])
* Permutations ([[Media:Laurent.6.Permutation.6A.20230711.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6B.20251225.pdf|B.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6C.20260528.pdf|C.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.Permutation.6C.20240528.pdf|D.pdf]])
* Applications ([[Media:Laurent.5.Application.6B.20220723.pdf|A.pdf]])
* Double Pole Case
:- Examples ([[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleEx.7A.20220722.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleEx.7B.20220720.pdf|B.pdf]])
:- Properties ([[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleProp.5A.20190226.pdf|A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.5.DPoleProp.5B.20190228.pdf|B.pdf]])
====The Case Examples====
* Example Overview : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.0.A.20171208.pdf|0A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.6.CaseExample.0.B.20180205.pdf|0B.pdf]])
* Example Case 1 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.1.A.20171107.pdf|1A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.1.B.20171227.pdf|1B.pdf]])
* Example Case 2 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.2.A.20171107.pdf|2A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.2.B.20171227.pdf|2B.pdf]])
* Example Case 3 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.3.A.20171017.pdf|3A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.3.B.20171226.pdf|3B.pdf]])
* Example Case 4 : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.4.A.20171017.pdf|4A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.4.B.20171228.pdf|4B.pdf]])
* Example Summary : ([[Media:Laurent.4.Example.5.A.20171212.pdf|5A.pdf]], [[Media:Laurent.4.Example.5.B.20171230.pdf|5B.pdf]])
==''' Conformal Mapping '''==
* Conformal Mapping ([[Media:CAnal.6.A.Conformal.20131224.pdf|6.A.pdf]], [[Media:CAnal.6.A.Octave..pdf|6.B.pdf]])
go to [ [[Electrical_%26_Computer_Engineering_Studies]] ]
[[Category:Complex analysis]]
kqs1urpxy5ohuhqy0vuxecmj3jl7ziw
Plant tissues
0
228772
2811755
2456604
2026-05-28T05:23:13Z
~2026-31729-14
3084632
/* Meristematic Tissue */
2811755
wikitext
text/x-wiki
A tissue is a group of cells which are similar in structure and origin and perform a similar function.
Plant tissue - plant tissue is a collection of similar cells performing an organized function for the plant. Each plant tissue is specialized for a unique purpose,and can be combined with other tissues to create organs such as flowers,leaves,stems and roots
Plant tissues are of two based on division of cell types:
# Meristematic tissue
# Permanent tissue
== '''''<u><big>Meristematic Tissue</big></u>''''' ==
'''''<u><big>The cells of this tissue have the ability to divide and redivide to form new cells (mitosis). The newly formed cells are similar to the parent cell but as they grow their characteristics change and they differentiate. These cells, found in growing areas of plants, help in increase of length and width of plants</big></u>'''''.
=== <u>Types Of Meristematic Tissue</u>: -===
==== 1. Apical Meristem:- ====
Apical Meristem is present at the growing tips of stems and roots and increases the length of the stem and the root.
==== 2.Lateral Meristem:- ====
The girth of the stem or root increases due to Lateral Meristem(cambium).
==== 3. Axillary Meristem (or intercalary meristem):-====
Intercalary Meristem seen in some plants is located near the node and helps to increase the length of two nodes.
== '''PERMANENT TISSUE''' ==
These are matured meristematic tissue. The meristematic cells form permanent tissue once they lose the ability to divide. The process by which cells arise from meristematic tissue and take up a permanent shape, size and function is called differentiation.
Permanent tissues are of three types,
# Simple permanent tissue.
# Protective permanent tissue.
# Complex permanent tissue.
=Two of them are:=
=== '''SIMPLE PERMANENT TISSUE''' ===
This type of tissue are made of one type of cells, which are similar in origin, structure and function. Simple permanent tissues are of three types,
# Parenchyma
# Collenchyma
# Sclerenchyma
==== ''PARENCHYMA'' ====
'''CHARACTERISTICS'''- it is the basic packaging tissue that fills the spaces between other tissues and is found most abundantly in plants. They have unspecialized/ undifferentiated cells with thin cell walls made of cellulose. they have large intercellular spaces as the cells are loosely packed. Cells have dense cytoplasm and nucleus and large vacuole.
'''FUNCTION-''' This tissue provide support to plants and parenchyma of stem and roots stores nutrients and water and is called as STORAGE PARENCHYMA. when it contains chloroplast having chlorophyll and performs photosynthesis, it is called CHLORENCHYMA. In aquatic plants, parenchyma has large air spaces to provide buoyancy to plants to help them float and exchange gases, it is called AERENCHYMA. Isolated parenchyma cell or group of cells are capable of producing the whole plants.
'''LOCATION'''- This type of tissue found in non woody or soft parts of roots, stem, flowers, leaves and fruits.
==== ''COLLENCHYMA'' ====
'''CHARACTERISTICS'''- The cells are living, elongated and irregularly thick at the corners made of cellulose or pectin they have very less or no intercellular spaces. The cells have a nucleus, dense cytoplasm and Large. the wall has large amount of hemicellulose and pectin in addition to cellulose. The lignin is not present.
'''FUNCTIONS'''- These cells provide flexibility (elasticity) and mechanical support to the aerial parts of the plants and allows them to bend.
'''LOCATION'''- This type of tissue is found in leaf stalks, below epidermis of leaves and stem.
==== ''SCLERENCHYMA'' ====
'''CHARACTERISTICS'''- The cells are long, narrow thick walled due to deposition of lignin. Such cell walls are called as lignified walls and have pits. These cells lack intercellular spaces due to deposition of lignin. The cells do not have a nucleus and cytoplasm and are dead.
'''FUNCTIONS''' -These cells provide rigidity and strength to plants and makes it hard and can bear stress and strains.
'''LOCATION-''' This type of cells are found in stems, around vascular bundles, in the veins of leaves.
=== '''COMPLEX PERMANENT TISSUE''' ===
This type of tissue is made up of more than one type of cells that have a common origin and work together to do a common function. Its function is to transport water, minerals and food to all parts of the plant. Complex permanent tissue is of two types,
# XYLEM
# PHLOEM
==== ''1. XYLEM'' ====
The cells have thick walls. Elements are tracheids, vessels, xylem parenchyma, and xylem fibers Vessels are the most important elements and are shorter and wider than tracheids. Vessels and tracheids have tube like structures that help in transporting water and minerals vertically efficiently. Conduction takes place in one direction. Xylem parenchyma stores food and helps in lateral conduction of water. In addition to transporting water and mineral salts from roots to leaves, xylem also provides support to plants and trees because of its tough lignified vessels. In xylem, only the Xylem parenchyma is living and all other elements are dead.
[[File:Lamium sp., stalk, Etzold green 5.jpg|center|thumb|336x336px|Bigger pink cells - Old xylem(meta xylem)
Small pink cells - new xylem(proto xylem)
]]
==== ''2.PHLOEM'' ====
Elements of phloem are sieve tubes, companion cells, phloem parenchyma and phloem fibers. Sieve tubes are tube like structures, The end walls are called sieve plates and are perforated due to presence of pores. Companion cells help in efficient functioning of sieve tubes. Phloem transports the prepared food from leaves to storage organ and from storage organ to growing regions. Hence the conduction is bi directional. In phloem all the elements are living except the phloem fibers.
[[File:Phloem cells.svg|center|thumb|386x386px|phloem]]
2kx7l9nxedfufv1j0xtam1a6581w42x
C language in plain view
0
285380
2811697
2811587
2026-05-27T13:46:31Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Applications */
2811697
wikitext
text/x-wiki
=== Introduction ===
* Overview ([[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.B.20170901.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.C.20170904.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Number System ([[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.A.20171023.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.B.20170909.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.C.20170914.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Memory System ([[Media:C01.Intro2.Memory.1.A.20170907.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro3.Memory.1.B.20170909.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro3.Memory.1.C.20170914.pdf |C.pdf]])
=== Handling Repetition ===
* Control ([[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.B.20170918.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.C.20170926.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Loop ([[Media:C02.Repeat2.Loop.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat2.Loop.1.B.20170918.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling a Big Work ===
* Function Overview ([[Media:C03.Func1.Overview.1.A.20171030.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func1.Oerview.1.B.20161022.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Variables ([[Media:C03.Func2.Variable.1.A.20161222.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func2.Variable.1.B.20161222.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Pointers ([[Media:C03.Func3.Pointer.1.A.20161122.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func3.Pointer.1.B.20161122.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Recursions ([[Media:C03.Func4.Recursion.1.A.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func4.Recursion.1.B.20161214.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling Series of Data ===
==== Background ====
* Background ([[Media:C04.Series0.Background.1.A.20180727.pdf |A.pdf]])
==== Basics ====
* Pointers ([[Media:C04.S1.Pointer.1A.20240524.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series2.Pointer.1.B.20161115.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Arrays ([[Media:C04.S2.Array.1A.20240514.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series1.Array.1.B.20161115.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Array Pointers ([[Media:C04.S3.ArrayPointer.1A.20240208.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series3.ArrayPointer.1.B.20181203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Multi-dimensional Arrays ([[Media:C04.Series4.MultiDim.1.A.20221130.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series4.MultiDim.1.B.1111.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Array Access Methods ([[Media:C04.Series4.ArrayAccess.1.A.20190511.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series3.ArrayPointer.1.B.20181203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Structures ([[Media:C04.Series3.Structure.1.A.20171204.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series2.Structure.1.B.20161130.pdf |B.pdf]])
==== Examples ====
* Spreadsheet Example Programs
:: Example 1 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.1.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.1.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Example 2 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.2.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.2.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Example 3 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.3.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.3.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Bubble Sort ([[Media:C04.Series7.BubbleSort.1.A.20171211.pdf |A.pdf]])
==== Applications ====
* Address-of and de-reference operators ([[Media:C04.SA0.PtrOperator.1A.20260527.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Pointers ([[Media:C04.SA1.AppPointer.1A.20241121.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Arrays ([[Media:C04.SA2.AppArray.1A.20240715.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Array Pointers ([[Media:C04.SA3.AppArrayPointer.1A.20240210.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Multi-dimensional Arrays ([[Media:C04.Series4App.MultiDim.1.A.20210719.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Array Access Methods ([[Media:C04.Series9.AppArrAcess.1.A.20190511.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Structures ([[Media:C04.Series6.AppStruct.1.A.20190423.pdf |A.pdf]])
=== Handling Various Kinds of Data ===
* Types ([[Media:C05.Data1.Type.1.A.20180217.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data1.Type.1.B.20161212.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Typecasts ([[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.A.20180217.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.B.20161216.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Operators ([[Media:C05.Data3.Operators.1.A.20161219.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data3.Operators.1.B.20161216.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Files ([[Media:C05.Data4.File.1.A.20161124.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data4.File.1.B.20161212.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling Low Level Operations ===
* Bitwise Operations ([[Media:BitOp.1.B.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:BitOp.1.B.20161203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Bit Field ([[Media:BitField.1.A.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:BitField.1.B.20161202.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Union ([[Media:Union.1.A.20161221.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Union.1.B.20161111.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Accessing IO Registers ([[Media:IO.1.A.20141215.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:IO.1.B.20161217.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Declarations ===
* Type Specifiers and Qualifiers ([[Media:C07.Spec1.Type.1.A.20171004.pdf |pdf]])
* Storage Class Specifiers ([[Media:C07.Spec2.Storage.1.A.20171009.pdf |pdf]])
* Scope
=== Class Notes ===
* TOC ([[Media:TOC.20171007.pdf |TOC.pdf]])
* Day01 ([[Media:Day01.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day01.B.20171209.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day01.C.20171211.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (1) Standard Library
* Day02 ([[Media:Day02.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day02.B.20171209.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day02.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (2) Basic Elements
* Day03 ([[Media:Day03.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day03.B.20170908.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day03.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (3) Numbers
* Day04 ([[Media:Day04.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day04.B.20170915.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day04.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structured Programming (1) Flowcharts
* Day05 ([[Media:Day05.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day05.B.20170915.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day05.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structured Programming (2) Conditions and Loops
* Day06 ([[Media:Day06.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day06.B.20170923.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day06.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Program Control
* Day07 ([[Media:Day07.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day07.B.20170926.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day07.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (1) Definitions
* Day08 ([[Media:Day08.A.20171028.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day08.B.20171016.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day08.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (2) Storage Class and Scope
* Day09 ([[Media:Day09.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day09.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day09.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (3) Recursion
* Day10 ([[Media:Day10.A.20171209.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day10.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day10.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Arrays (1) Definitions
* Day11 ([[Media:Day11.A.20171024.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day11.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day11.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Arrays (2) Applications
* Day12 ([[Media:Day12.A.20171024.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day12.B.20171020.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day12.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Pointers (1) Definitions
* Day13 ([[Media:Day13.A.20171025.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day13.B.20171024.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day13.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Pointers (2) Applications
* Day14 ([[Media:Day14.A.20171226.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day14.B.20171101.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day14.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C String (1)
* Day15 ([[Media:Day15.A.20171209.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day15.B.20171124.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day15.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C String (2)
* Day16 ([[Media:Day16.A.20171208.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day16.B.20171114.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day16.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C Formatted IO
* Day17 ([[Media:Day17.A.20171031.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day17.B.20171111.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day17.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structure (1) Definitions
* Day18 ([[Media:Day18.A.20171206.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day18.B.20171128.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day18.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structure (2) Applications
* Day19 ([[Media:Day19.A.20171205.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day19.B.20171121.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day19.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Union, Bitwise Operators, Enum
* Day20 ([[Media:Day20.A.20171205.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day20.B.20171201.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day20.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Linked List
* Day21 ([[Media:Day21.A.20171206.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day21.B.20171208.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day21.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... File Processing
* Day22 ([[Media:Day22.A.20171212.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day22.B.20171213.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day22.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Preprocessing
<!---------------------------------------------------------------------->
</br>
See also https://cprogramex.wordpress.com/
== '''Old Materials '''==
until 201201
* Intro.Overview.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Overview.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Intro.Memory.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Memory.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Intro.Number.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Number.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Repeat.Control.1.A ([[Media:C.Repeat.Control.1.A.20120109.pdf |pdf]])
* Repeat.Loop.1.A ([[Media:C.Repeat.Loop.1.A.20120113.pdf |pdf]])
* Work.Function.1.A ([[Media:C.Work.Function.1.A.20120117.pdf |pdf]])
* Work.Scope.1.A ([[Media:C.Work.Scope.1.A.20120117.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Array.1.A ([[Media:Series.Array.1.A.20110718.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Pointer.1.A ([[Media:Series.Pointer.1.A.20110719.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Structure.1.A ([[Media:Series.Structure.1.A.20110805.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.Type.1.A ([[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.A.20130813.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.TypeCast.1.A ([[Media:Data.TypeCast.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.Operators.1.A ([[Media:Data.Operators.1.A.20110712.pdf |pdf]])
<br>
until 201107
* Intro.1.A ([[Media:Intro.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Control.1.A ([[Media:Control.1.A.20110706.pdf |pdf]])
* Iteration.1.A ([[Media:Iteration.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Function.1.A ([[Media:Function.1.A.20110705.pdf |pdf]])
* Variable.1.A ([[Media:Variable.1.A.20110708.pdf |pdf]])
* Operators.1.A ([[Media:Operators.1.A.20110712.pdf |pdf]])
* Pointer.1.A ([[Media:Pointer.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Pointer.2.A ([[Media:Pointer.2.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Array.1.A ([[Media:Array.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Type.1.A ([[Media:Type.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Structure.1.A ([[Media:Structure.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
go to [ [[C programming in plain view]] ]
[[Category:C programming language]]
</br>
7qnozcvoiowt6ymrs840i1ps71692na
2811768
2811697
2026-05-28T11:18:14Z
Young1lim
21186
/* Applications */
2811768
wikitext
text/x-wiki
=== Introduction ===
* Overview ([[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.B.20170901.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro1.Overview.1.C.20170904.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Number System ([[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.A.20171023.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.B.20170909.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro2.Number.1.C.20170914.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Memory System ([[Media:C01.Intro2.Memory.1.A.20170907.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro3.Memory.1.B.20170909.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C01.Intro3.Memory.1.C.20170914.pdf |C.pdf]])
=== Handling Repetition ===
* Control ([[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.B.20170918.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat1.Control.1.C.20170926.pdf |C.pdf]])
* Loop ([[Media:C02.Repeat2.Loop.1.A.20170925.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C02.Repeat2.Loop.1.B.20170918.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling a Big Work ===
* Function Overview ([[Media:C03.Func1.Overview.1.A.20171030.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func1.Oerview.1.B.20161022.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Variables ([[Media:C03.Func2.Variable.1.A.20161222.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func2.Variable.1.B.20161222.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Pointers ([[Media:C03.Func3.Pointer.1.A.20161122.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func3.Pointer.1.B.20161122.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Functions & Recursions ([[Media:C03.Func4.Recursion.1.A.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C03.Func4.Recursion.1.B.20161214.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling Series of Data ===
==== Background ====
* Background ([[Media:C04.Series0.Background.1.A.20180727.pdf |A.pdf]])
==== Basics ====
* Pointers ([[Media:C04.S1.Pointer.1A.20240524.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series2.Pointer.1.B.20161115.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Arrays ([[Media:C04.S2.Array.1A.20240514.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series1.Array.1.B.20161115.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Array Pointers ([[Media:C04.S3.ArrayPointer.1A.20240208.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series3.ArrayPointer.1.B.20181203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Multi-dimensional Arrays ([[Media:C04.Series4.MultiDim.1.A.20221130.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series4.MultiDim.1.B.1111.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Array Access Methods ([[Media:C04.Series4.ArrayAccess.1.A.20190511.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series3.ArrayPointer.1.B.20181203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Structures ([[Media:C04.Series3.Structure.1.A.20171204.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series2.Structure.1.B.20161130.pdf |B.pdf]])
==== Examples ====
* Spreadsheet Example Programs
:: Example 1 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.1.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.1.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Example 2 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.2.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.2.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Example 3 ([[Media:C04.Series7.Example.3.A.20171213.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C04.Series7.Example.3.C.20171213.pdf |C.pdf]])
:: Bubble Sort ([[Media:C04.Series7.BubbleSort.1.A.20171211.pdf |A.pdf]])
==== Applications ====
* Address-of and de-reference operators ([[Media:C04.SA0.PtrOperator.1A.20260528.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Pointers ([[Media:C04.SA1.AppPointer.1A.20241121.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Arrays ([[Media:C04.SA2.AppArray.1A.20240715.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Array Pointers ([[Media:C04.SA3.AppArrayPointer.1A.20240210.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Multi-dimensional Arrays ([[Media:C04.Series4App.MultiDim.1.A.20210719.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Array Access Methods ([[Media:C04.Series9.AppArrAcess.1.A.20190511.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Applications of Structures ([[Media:C04.Series6.AppStruct.1.A.20190423.pdf |A.pdf]])
=== Handling Various Kinds of Data ===
* Types ([[Media:C05.Data1.Type.1.A.20180217.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data1.Type.1.B.20161212.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Typecasts ([[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.A.20180217.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.B.20161216.pdf |A.pdf]])
* Operators ([[Media:C05.Data3.Operators.1.A.20161219.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data3.Operators.1.B.20161216.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Files ([[Media:C05.Data4.File.1.A.20161124.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:C05.Data4.File.1.B.20161212.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Handling Low Level Operations ===
* Bitwise Operations ([[Media:BitOp.1.B.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:BitOp.1.B.20161203.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Bit Field ([[Media:BitField.1.A.20161214.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:BitField.1.B.20161202.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Union ([[Media:Union.1.A.20161221.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Union.1.B.20161111.pdf |B.pdf]])
* Accessing IO Registers ([[Media:IO.1.A.20141215.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:IO.1.B.20161217.pdf |B.pdf]])
=== Declarations ===
* Type Specifiers and Qualifiers ([[Media:C07.Spec1.Type.1.A.20171004.pdf |pdf]])
* Storage Class Specifiers ([[Media:C07.Spec2.Storage.1.A.20171009.pdf |pdf]])
* Scope
=== Class Notes ===
* TOC ([[Media:TOC.20171007.pdf |TOC.pdf]])
* Day01 ([[Media:Day01.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day01.B.20171209.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day01.C.20171211.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (1) Standard Library
* Day02 ([[Media:Day02.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day02.B.20171209.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day02.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (2) Basic Elements
* Day03 ([[Media:Day03.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day03.B.20170908.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day03.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Introduction (3) Numbers
* Day04 ([[Media:Day04.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day04.B.20170915.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day04.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structured Programming (1) Flowcharts
* Day05 ([[Media:Day05.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day05.B.20170915.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day05.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structured Programming (2) Conditions and Loops
* Day06 ([[Media:Day06.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day06.B.20170923.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day06.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Program Control
* Day07 ([[Media:Day07.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day07.B.20170926.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day07.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (1) Definitions
* Day08 ([[Media:Day08.A.20171028.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day08.B.20171016.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day08.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (2) Storage Class and Scope
* Day09 ([[Media:Day09.A.20171007.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day09.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day09.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Function (3) Recursion
* Day10 ([[Media:Day10.A.20171209.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day10.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day10.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Arrays (1) Definitions
* Day11 ([[Media:Day11.A.20171024.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day11.B.20171017.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day11.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Arrays (2) Applications
* Day12 ([[Media:Day12.A.20171024.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day12.B.20171020.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day12.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Pointers (1) Definitions
* Day13 ([[Media:Day13.A.20171025.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day13.B.20171024.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day13.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Pointers (2) Applications
* Day14 ([[Media:Day14.A.20171226.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day14.B.20171101.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day14.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C String (1)
* Day15 ([[Media:Day15.A.20171209.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day15.B.20171124.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day15.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C String (2)
* Day16 ([[Media:Day16.A.20171208.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day16.B.20171114.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day16.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... C Formatted IO
* Day17 ([[Media:Day17.A.20171031.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day17.B.20171111.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day17.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structure (1) Definitions
* Day18 ([[Media:Day18.A.20171206.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day18.B.20171128.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day18.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Structure (2) Applications
* Day19 ([[Media:Day19.A.20171205.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day19.B.20171121.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day19.C.20171209.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Union, Bitwise Operators, Enum
* Day20 ([[Media:Day20.A.20171205.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day20.B.20171201.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day20.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Linked List
* Day21 ([[Media:Day21.A.20171206.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day21.B.20171208.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day21.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... File Processing
* Day22 ([[Media:Day22.A.20171212.pdf |A.pdf]], [[Media:Day22.B.20171213.pdf |B.pdf]], [[Media:Day22.C.20171212.pdf |C.pdf]]) ...... Preprocessing
<!---------------------------------------------------------------------->
</br>
See also https://cprogramex.wordpress.com/
== '''Old Materials '''==
until 201201
* Intro.Overview.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Overview.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Intro.Memory.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Memory.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Intro.Number.1.A ([[Media:C.Intro.Number.1.A.20120107.pdf |pdf]])
* Repeat.Control.1.A ([[Media:C.Repeat.Control.1.A.20120109.pdf |pdf]])
* Repeat.Loop.1.A ([[Media:C.Repeat.Loop.1.A.20120113.pdf |pdf]])
* Work.Function.1.A ([[Media:C.Work.Function.1.A.20120117.pdf |pdf]])
* Work.Scope.1.A ([[Media:C.Work.Scope.1.A.20120117.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Array.1.A ([[Media:Series.Array.1.A.20110718.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Pointer.1.A ([[Media:Series.Pointer.1.A.20110719.pdf |pdf]])
* Series.Structure.1.A ([[Media:Series.Structure.1.A.20110805.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.Type.1.A ([[Media:C05.Data2.TypeCast.1.A.20130813.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.TypeCast.1.A ([[Media:Data.TypeCast.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Data.Operators.1.A ([[Media:Data.Operators.1.A.20110712.pdf |pdf]])
<br>
until 201107
* Intro.1.A ([[Media:Intro.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Control.1.A ([[Media:Control.1.A.20110706.pdf |pdf]])
* Iteration.1.A ([[Media:Iteration.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Function.1.A ([[Media:Function.1.A.20110705.pdf |pdf]])
* Variable.1.A ([[Media:Variable.1.A.20110708.pdf |pdf]])
* Operators.1.A ([[Media:Operators.1.A.20110712.pdf |pdf]])
* Pointer.1.A ([[Media:Pointer.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Pointer.2.A ([[Media:Pointer.2.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Array.1.A ([[Media:Array.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Type.1.A ([[Media:Type.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
* Structure.1.A ([[Media:Structure.1.A.pdf |pdf]])
go to [ [[C programming in plain view]] ]
[[Category:C programming language]]
</br>
iqk8ddl5hssouwu8kx51kv7mm8jugax
Social Victorians/Terminology
0
285723
2811714
2811514
2026-05-27T18:13:50Z
Scogdill
1331941
2811714
wikitext
text/x-wiki
Especially with respect to fashion, the newspapers at the end of the 19th century in the UK often used specialized terminology. The definitions on this page are to provide a sense of what someone in the late 19th century might have meant by the term rather than a definition of what we might mean by it today. In the absence of a specialized glossary from the end of the 19th century in the U.K., we use the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' because the senses of a word are illustrated with examples that have dates so we can be sure that the senses we pick are appropriate for when they are used in the quotations we have.
We also sometimes use the French ''Wikipédia'' to define a word because many technical terms of fashion were borrowings from the French. Also, often the French ''Wikipédia'' provides historical context for the uses of a word similar to the way the ''OED'' does.
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Men's ==
[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|Men's military uniforms]] are discussed below.
=== À la Romaine ===
[[File:Johann Baptist Straub - Mars um 1772-1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Old and damaged marble statue of a Roman god of war with flowing cloak, big helmet with a plume on top, and armor|Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 ''à la romaine'' ''Mars'']]
A few people who attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball in 1897]] personated Roman gods or people. They were dressed not as Romans, however, but ''à la romaine'', which was a standardized style of depicting Roman figures that was used in paintings, sculpture and the theatre for historical dress from the 17th until the 20th century. The codification of the style was developed in France in the 17th century for theatre and ballet, when it became popular for masked balls.
Women as well as men could be dressed ''à la romaine'', but much sculpture, portraiture and theatre offered opportunities for men to dress in Roman style — with armor and helmets — and so it was most common for men. In large part because of the codification of the style as well as the painting and sculpture, the style persisted and remained influential into the 20th century and can be found in museums and galleries and on monuments.
For example, Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 statue of Mars (left), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, missing part of an arm, shows Mars ''à la romaine''. In London, an early 17th-century example of a figure of Mars ''à la romaine'', with a helmet, is "at the foot of the Buckingham tomb in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey."<ref>Webb, Geoffrey. “Notes on Hubert Le Sueur-II.” ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 52, no. 299 (1928): 81–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/863535.</ref>{{rp|81, Col. 2c}}
[[File:Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of 2 men flamboyantly and stylishly dressed in colorful silk, with white lace, high-heeled boots and long hair|Van Dyck's c. 1638 painting of cavaliers Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart]]
[[File:Frans_Hals_-_The_Meagre_Company_(detail)_-_WGA11119.jpg|thumb|Frans Hals - The Meagre Company (detail) - WGA11119.jpg]]
=== Cavalier ===
As a signifier in the form of clothing of a royalist political and social ideology begun in France in the early 17th century, the cavalier style established France as the leader in fashion and taste. Adopted by [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|wealthy royalist British military officers]] during the time of the Restoration, the style signified a political and social position, both because of the loyalty to Charles I and II as well the wealth required to achieve the cavalier look. The style spread beyond the political, however, to become associated generally with dress as well as a style of poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-25|title=Cavalier poet|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier_poet&oldid=1151690299|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_poet.</ref>
Van Dyck's 1638 painting of two brothers (right) emphasizes the cavalier style of dress.
The cavalier style included gloves with large gauntlets, lace on boots, more loosely fitted breeches, coats or doublets, which were slashed so the shirt beneath was visible. Men who dressed in cavalier style also wore large and, later, powdered wigs, like those of Louis XIV, having taken the French style back to Britain.
Neck treatments in the cavalier style were falling bands, wide lace collars and jabots. These were all looser, unsupported with wires, the way the earlier ruffs were, and unstarched.
=== Coats ===
==== Doublet ====
* In the 19th-century newspaper accounts we have seen that use this word, doublet seems always to refer to a garment worn by a man, but historically women may have worn doublets. In fact, a doublet worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the golden doublet — exists and is in the Elizabeth Day McCormick collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (but no image of it is in the public domain).
* Technically doublets were long sleeved, although we cannot be certain what this or that Victorian tailor would have done for a costume. For example, the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball|Duke of Devonshire's costume as Charles V]] shows long sleeves that may be part of the surcoat but should be the long sleeves of the doublet.
==== Pourpoint ====
A padded doublet worn under armor to protect the warrior from the metal chafing. A pourpoint could also be worn without the armor.
==== Surcoat ====
Sometimes just called ''coat''.
[[File:Oscar Wilde by Sarony 1882 18.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photograph of a young man wearing a velvet jacket, knee breeches, silk hose and shiny pointed shoes with bows, seated on a sofa and leaning on his left hand and holding a book in his right| Oscar Wilde, 1882, by Napoleon Sarony]]
=== Hose, Stockings and Tights ===
Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century of men's clothing use the term ''hose'' for what we might call stockings or tights.
In fact, the terminology is specific. ''Stockings'' is the more general term and could refer to hose or tights. With knee breeches men wore hose, which ended above the knee, and women wore hose under their dresses.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines tights as "Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and still forming part of court-dress."<ref>“Tights, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2693287467.</ref> By 1897, the term was in use for women's stockings, which may have come up only to the knee. Tights were also worn by dancers and acrobats. This general sense of ''tights'' does not assume that they were knitted.
''Clocking'' is decorative embroidery on hose, usually, at the ankles on either the inside or the outside of the leg. It started at the ankle and went up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee. On women's hose, the clocking could be quite colorful and elaborate, while the clocking on men's hose was more inconspicuous.
In many photographs men's hose are wrinkled, especially at the ankles and the knees, because they were shaped from woven fabric. Silk hose were knitted instead of woven, which gave them elasticity and reduced the wrinkling.
The famous Sarony carte de visite photograph of Oscar Wilde (right) shows him in 1882 wearing knee breeches and silk hose, which are shiny and quite smoothly fitted although they show a few wrinkles at the ankles and knees. In the portraits of people in costume at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the men's hose are sometimes quite smooth, which means they were made of knitted silk and may have been smoothed for the portrait.
In painted portraits the hose are almost always depicted as smooth, part of the artist's improvement of the appearance of the subject.
=== Shoes and Boots ===
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Women's ==
=== '''Chérusque''' ===
According to the French ''Wikipedia'', ''chérusque'' is a 19th-century term for the kind of standing collar like the ones worn by ladies in the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-06-26|title=Collerette (costume)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collerette_(costume)&oldid=184136746|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collerette_(costume)#Au+xixe+siècle+:+la+Chérusque.</ref>
=== Corsage ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the corsage is the "'body' of a woman's dress; a bodice."<ref>"corsage, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/42056. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> This sense is well documented in the ''OED'' for the mid and late 19th-century, used this way in fiction as well as in a publication like ''Godey's Lady's Book'', which would be expected to use appropriate terminology associated with fashion and dress making.
The sense of "a bouquet worn on the bodice" is, according to the ''OED'', American.
=== Décolletage ===
=== Girdle ===
=== Mancheron ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a ''mancheron'' is a "historical" word for "A piece of trimming on the upper part of a sleeve on a woman's dress."<ref>"mancheron, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/113251. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> At the present, in French, a ''mancheron'' is a cap sleeve "cut directly on the bodice."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-28|title=Manche (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manche_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=199054843|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manche_(v%C3%AAtement).</ref>
=== Paletot ===
A cloak or jacket worn by both women and men in different periods. In the late 19th century, we see Victoria wearing them frequently, sometimes dressed for outdoors but not always.
Paletot-redingote:<blockquote>United Kingdom. Introduced in 1867, ladies' fitted long coat cut without a waist seam. It had revers and buttoned down the front. They sometimes had capes.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|217}}</blockquote>
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a paletot is longer than hip length, has long sleeves, opens in the front.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-02-20|title=Manteau (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manteau_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=233467144|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
=== Petticoat ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a petticoat is a <blockquote>skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented); an outer skirt; a decorative underskirt. Frequently in ''plural'': a woman's or girl's upper skirts and underskirts collectively. Now ''archaic'' or ''historical''.<ref>“petticoat, n., sense 2.b”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1021034245></ref> </blockquote>This sense is, according to the ''O.E.D.'', "The usual sense between the 17th and 19th centuries." However, while petticoats belong in both outer- and undergarments — that is, meant to be seen or hidden, like underwear — they were always under another garment, for example, underneath an open overskirt. The primary sense seems to have shifted through the 19th century so that, by the end, petticoats were underwear and the term ''underskirt'' was used to describe what showed under an open overskirt.
In the 19th century, women wore their chemises, bloomers and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|hoops]] under their petticoats.
=== Stomacher ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a stomacher is "An ornamental covering for the chest (often covered with jewels) worn by women under the lacing of the bodice,"<ref>“stomacher, n.¹, sense 3.a”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169498955></ref> although by the end of the 19th century, the bodice did not often have visible laces. Some stomachers were so decorated that they were thought of as part of the jewelry.
=== Train ===
A train is
The Length of the Train
'''For the monarch [or a royal?]'''
According to Debrett's,<blockquote>A peeress's coronation robe is a long-trained crimson velvet mantle, edged with miniver pure, with a miniver pure cape. The length of the train varies with the rank of the wearer:
* Duchess: for rows of ermine; train to be six feet
* Marchioness: three and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and three-quarters feet
* Countess: three rows of ermine; train to be three and a half feet
* Viscountess: two and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and a quarter feet
* Baroness: two rows of ermine; train to be three feet<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes|website=debretts.com|language=en-US|access-date=2023-07-27}} https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/.</ref>
</blockquote>The pattern on the coronet worn was also quite specific, similar but not exactly the same for peers and peeresses. Debrett's also distinguishes between coronets and tiaras, which were classified more like jewelry, which was regulated only in very general terms.
Peeresses put on their coronets after the Queen or Queen Consort has been crowned. ['''peers?''']
== Hats, Bonnets and Headwear ==
=== Women's ===
The dresses in the 1892 production of Reyer's Salammbo, based on the Flaubert novel, were influential and occasioned a lot of newspaper coverage:<blockquote>Among the concessions to women made recently in Paris, and over which old-fashioned folk shake their heads as being a terrible innovation, is the permission given to sit in the orchestra stalls at the theatre. Though only in the two last rows of the spectators, women of the first class had place, they are still obliged to appear in demi-toilette, which includes the wearing of a bonnet. It was on the occasion of the first performance of “Salammbo” that the change was allowed, and there are not wanting people who think that after such a departure a deluge, or some such visitation, may be looked for.<ref>"Ladies Column." ''Kilburn Times'' 8 July 1892, Friday: 7 [of 8], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001813/18920708/175/0007. Print title: ''The Kilburn Times, Hampstead and North-Western Post'', p. 7</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Gwendolen Bourke]] was dressed as Salammbo at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]].
==== Fontanges ====
[[File:Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg|thumb|Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg]][[File:Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg|none|thumb|Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg]]
==== Widow's Cap ====
or mourning bonnet
According to Kate Strasdin, widow's caps were "white crinkled crape [sic] objects with long streamers flowing down the back, ... customarily worn by single old women who had never remarried."<ref>Strasdin, Kate. ''The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe''. Pegasus, 2023.</ref>{{rp|734 of 1124}}
[[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Widow's Cap|Queen Victoria's widow's caps]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Headdresses|other headdresses]] are discussed on her page.
=== Men's ===
== Cinque Cento ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''Cinque Cento'' is a shortening of ''mil cinque cento'', or 1500.<ref>"cinquecento, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/33143. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> The term, then would refer, perhaps informally, to the sixteenth century.
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset - MET 1972.209.49a, b.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|none]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":11" />{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Court Dress ==
Also Levee and drawing-room
== Crevé ==
''Creve'', without the accent, is an old word in English (c. 1450) for burst or split.<ref>"creve, v." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44339. Accessed 8 February 2023.</ref> ['''With the acute accent, it looks like a past participle in French.''']
== Elaborations ==
In her 1973 ''The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and the Season'', Leonore Davidoff notes that women’s status was indicated by dress and especially ornament: “Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration,” she says, “symbolised some status category for the female wearer.”<ref name=":1">Davidoff, Leonore. ''The Best Circles: Society Etiquette and the Season''. Intro., Victoria Glendinning. The Cressett Library (Century Hutchinson), 1986 (orig 1973).</ref>{{rp|93}}
Looking at these elaborations as meaningful rather than dismissing them as failed attempts at "historical accuracy" reveals a great deal about the individual women who wore or carried them — and about the society women and political hostesses in their roles as managers of the social world. In her review of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', Mary Frances Gormally says,<blockquote>In a socially regulated year, garments custom made with a Worth label provided women with total reassurance, whatever the season, time of day or occasion, setting them apart as members of the “Best Circles” dressed in luxurious, fashionable and always appropriate attire (Davidoff 1973). The woman with a Worth wardrobe was a woman of elegance, lineage, status, extreme wealth and faultless taste.<ref>Gormally, Mary Frances. Review essay of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (V&A Publishing, 2014). ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21, 1): 109–126. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1179400.</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
[[File:Aglets from Spanish portraits - collage by shakko.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage of 12 different ornaments typically worn by elite people from Spain in the 1500s and later|Aglets — Detail from Spanish Portraits]]
=== Aglet, Aiglet ===
Historically, an aglet is a "point or metal piece that capped a string [or ribbon] used to attach two pieces of the garment together, i.e., sleeve and bodice."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|4}} Although they were decorative, they were not always visible on the outside of the clothing. They were often stuffed inside the layers at the waist (for example, attaching the bodice to a skirt or breeches).
Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (above right, in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#16th Century|Hoops section]]) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour," with "handsome aiglets cascad[ing] down center front."<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|315}}
=== Berthe ===
Can be spelled ''bertha''.
A wide collar made of lace and gathered at the neckline, sometimes covering the arms. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Wide collar popular on women's gowns. Accented dropped shoulder line. Often made of lace.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|29}}</blockquote>
=== Dags ===
Popular in European dress 1450–1550, dagging was a "hanging end or shred" decoration on the edges of outer clothing, with a similar term used for "a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-14|title=dag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=dag&oldid=90785397|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> Often dagging would be used to hem the bottom edges of hoods, doublets, tabards and chain mail.
=== Flounce ===
A ruffle that is gathered on one edge, the bottom edge is free. Flounces are typically part of the decoration on a skirt.
=== Frou-frou ===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|left|thumb|Bernhardt, 1881]]
In French, ''frou-frou'' or, spelled as ''froufrou'', is the sound of the rustling of silk or sometimes of fabrics in general.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-25|title=frou-frou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frou-frou&oldid=32508509|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou.</ref> The first use the French ''Wiktionnaire'' lists is Honoré Balzac, ''La Cousine Bette'', 1846.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-03|title=froufrou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=froufrou&oldid=32330124|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/froufrou.</ref> ''Frou-frou'' is also a 1869 French drawing-room comedy by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-19|title=Henri Meilhac|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Meilhac&oldid=1286340698|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and performed by Sarah Bernhardt in London in 1881 (Bernhardt, left, in costume ['''conflicting info, is a photo of Bernhardt in ''La Dame aux Camélias'' instead'''?]).
''Frou-frou'' is a term clothing historians use to describe decorative additions to an article of clothing; often the term has a slight negative connotation, suggesting that the additions are superficial and, perhaps, excessive.
=== Plastics ===
Small poufs of fabric connected in a strip in the 18th century, Rococo styles.
=== Pouf, Puff, Poof ===
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a pouf was, beginning in 1744, a "kind of women's hairstyle":<blockquote>The hairstyle in question, known as the “pouf”, had launched the reputation of the enterprising Rose Bertin, owner of the Grand Mogol, a very prominent fashion accessories boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1774. Created in collaboration with the famous hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, the pouf was built on a scaffolding of wire, fabric, gauze, horsehair, fake hair, and the client's own hair held up in an almost vertical position. — (Marie-Antoinette, ''Queen of Fashion'', translated from the American by Sylvie Lévy, in ''The Rules of the Game'', n° 40, 2009)</blockquote>''Puff'' and ''poof'' are used to describe clothing.
=== Shirring ===
''Shirring'' is the gathering of fabric to make poufs or puffs. The 19th century is known for its use of this decorative technique. Even men's clothing had shirring: at the shoulder seam.
=== Sequins ===
Sequins, paillettes, spangles
Sequins — or paillettes — are "small, scalelike glittering disks."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|216}} The French ''Wiktionnaire'' defines ''paillette'' as "Lamelle de métal, brillante, mince, percée au milieu, ordinairement ronde, et qu’on applique sur une étoffe pour l’orner [A strip of metal, shiny, thin, pierced in the middle, usually round, and which is applied to a fabric in order to decorate it.]"<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|date=2024-03-18|title=paillette|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=paillette&oldid=33809572|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillette.</ref>
According to the ''OED'', the use of ''sequin'' as a decorative device for clothing (as opposed to gold coins minted and used for international trade) goes back to the 1850s.<ref>“Sequin, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4074851670.</ref> The first instance of ''spangle'' as "A small round thin piece of glittering metal (usually brass) with a hole in the centre to pass a thread through, used for the decoration of textile fabrics and other materials of various sorts" is from c. 1420.<ref>“Spangle, N. (1).” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4727197141.</ref> The first use of ''paillette'' listed in the French ''Wiktionnaire'' is in Jules Verne in 1873 to describe colored spots on icy walls.<ref name=":8" />
Currently many distinguish between sequins (which are smaller) and paillettes (which are larger).
Before the 20th century, sequins were metal discs or foil leaves, and so of course if they were silver or copper, they tarnished. It is not until well into the 20th century that plastics were invented and used for sequins.
=== Trim and Lace ===
''A History of Feminine Fashion'', published sometime before 1927 and probably commissioned by [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Worth, of Paris|the Maison Worth]], describes Charles Frederick Worth's contributions to the development of embroidery and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Passementerie|passementerie]] (trim) from about the middle of the 19th century:<blockquote>For it must be remembered that one of M. Worth's most important and lasting contributions to the prosperity of those who cater for women's needs, as well as to the variety and elegance of his clients' garments, was his insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description. In his endeavours to restore in Paris the splendours of the days of La Pompadour, and of Marie Antoinette, he found himself confronted at the outset with a grave difficulty, which would have proved unsurmountable to a man of less energy, resource and initiative. The magnificent materials of those days were no longer to be had! The Revolution had destroyed the market for beautiful materials of this, type, and the Restoration and regime of Louis Philippe had left a dour aspect in the City of Light. ... On parallel lines [to his development of better [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Satin|satin]]], [Worth] stimulated also the manufacture of embroidery and ''passementerie''. It was he who first started the manufacture of laces copied from the designs of the real old laces. He was the / first dressmaker to use fur in the trimming of light materials — but he employed only the richer furs, such as sable and ermine, and had no use whatever for the inferior varieties of skins.<ref name=":9">[Worth, House of.] {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfFeminineFashion|title=A History Of Feminine Fashion (1800s to 1920s)}} Before 1927. [Likely commissioned by Worth. Link is to Archive.org; info from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worth_Biarritz_salon.jpg.]</ref>{{rp|6–7}}</blockquote>
==== Gold and Silver Fabric and Lace ====
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on gold and silver fabric, threads and lace attached to the article on gold. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>GOLD AND SILVER LACE. Under this heading a general account may be given of the use of the precious metals in textiles of all descriptions into which they enter. That these metals were used largely in the sumptuous textiles of the earliest periods of civilization there is abundant testimony; and to this day, in the Oriental centres whence a knowledge and the use of fabrics inwoven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver first spread, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still most strongly and generally prevalent. The earliest mention of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3) — "And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." In both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' distinct allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered golden textiles. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver originated in India, where it is still principally prosecuted, and that from one great city to another the practice travelled westward, — Babylon, Tarsus, Baghdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Con- / stantinople and Venice, all in the process of time becoming famous centres of these much prized manufactures. Alexander the Great found Indian kings and princes arrayed in robes of gold and purple; and the Persian monarch Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle of cloth of gold, on which were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. There is reason, according to Josephus, to believe that the “royal apparel" worn by Herod on the day of his death (Acts xii. 21) was a tissue of silver. Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, had a robe woven entirely of gold, and from that period downwards royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decorations. In England, at different periods, various names were applied to cloths of gold, as ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekiu or baldachin, Cyprus damask, and twssewys or tissue. The thin flimsy paper known as tissue paper, is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold "tissue" to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. At what time the drawing of gold wire for the preparation of these textiles was first practised is not accurately known. The art was probably introduced and applied in different localities at widely different dates, but down till mediaeval times the method graphically described in the Pentateuch continued to be practised with both gold and silver.
Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the "gold wire" of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India soniri, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhábs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. "Gold and silver," says Dr Birdwood in his ''Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition'', 1878, "are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured ''mashrus'' at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccau; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly."
Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds — 1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India, — round wire, flat wire, thread made of flat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as "orris," fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.
The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.<ref>William Chandler Roberts-Austen and H. Bauerman [W.C.R. — H.B.]. "Gold and Silver Lace." In "Gold." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. 10 (X). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%2010%20%28G-GOT%29%20193592738.23/page/753/mode/1up (accessed January 2023): 753, Col. 2c – 754, Cols. 1a–b – 2a–b.</ref></blockquote>
==== Honiton Lace ====
Kate Stradsin says,<blockquote>Honiton lace was the finest English equivalent of Brussels bobbin lace and was constructed in small ‘sprigs, in the cottages of lacemakers[.'] These sprigs were then joined together and bleached to form the large white flounces that were so sought after in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>Strasdin, Kate. "Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research." ''The Court Historian'' 24.2 (2019): 181-196. Rpt http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3762/15/Rediscovering%20Queen%20Alexandra%27s%20Wardrobe.pdf: 13, and (for the little quotation) n. 37, which reads "Margaret Tomlinson, ''Three Generations in the Honiton Lace Trade: A Family History'', self-published, 1983."</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Strook in Alençon naaldkant, 1750-1775.jpg|thumb|alt=A long piece of complex white lace with garlands, flowers and bows|Point d'Alençon lace, 1750-1775]]
==== Passementerie ====
''Passementerie'' is the French term for trim on clothing or furniture. The 19th century (especially during the First and Second Empire) was a time of great "''exubérance''" in passementerie in French design, including the development and widespread use of the Jacquard loom.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-10|title=Passementerie|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Passementerie&oldid=205068926|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passementerie.</ref>
==== Point d'Alençon Lace ====
A lace made by hand using a number of complex steps and layers. The lacemakers build the point d'Alençon design on some kind of mesh and sometimes leave some of the mesh in as part of the lace and perhaps to provide structure.
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines point d'Alençon lace and Alençon lace separately. Point lace is needlepoint lace,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|233}} so Alençon point is "a two thread [needlepoint] lace."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}} Alençon lace has a "floral design on [a] fine net ground [and is] referred to as [the] queen of French handmade needlepoint laces. The original handmade Alençon was a fine needlepoint lace made of linen thread."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}}
The sample of point d'Alençon lace (right), from 1750–1775, shows the linen mesh that the lace was constructed on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689|title=MoMu - Open Fashion|website=openfashion.momu.be|access-date=2024-02-26}} ModeMuseum Antwerpen. http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689.</ref> The consistency in this sample suggests it may have been made by machine.
== Elastic ==
Elastic had been invented and was in use by the end of the 19th century. For the sense of "Elastic cord or string, usually woven with india-rubber,"<ref name=":6">“elastic, adj. & n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1199670313>.</ref> the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has usage examples beginning in 1847. The example for 1886 is vivid: "The thorough-going prim man will always place a circle of elastic round his hair previous to putting on his college cap."<ref name=":6" />
== Fabric ==
=== Brocatelle ===
Brocatelle is a kind of brocade, more simple than most brocades because it uses fewer warp and weft threads and fewer colors to form the design. The article in the French ''Wikipédia'' defines it like this:<blockquote>La '''brocatelle''' est un type de tissu datant du <abbr>xvi<sup>e</sup></abbr> siècle qui comporte deux chaînes et deux trames, au minimum. Il est composé pour que le dessin ressorte avec un relief prononcé, grâce à la chaîne sur un fond en sergé. Les brocatelles les plus anciennes sont toujours fabriquées avec une des trames en lin.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-01|title=Brocatelle|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brocatelle&oldid=204796410|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocatelle.</ref></blockquote>Which translates to this:<blockquote>Brocatelle is a type of fabric dating from the 16th century that has two warps and two wefts, at a minimum. It is composed so that the design stands out with a pronounced relief, thanks to the weft threads on a twill background. The oldest brocades were always made with one of the wefts being linen.</blockquote>The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says, brocatelle is an "imitation of brocade, usually made of silk or wool, used for tapestry, upholstery, etc., now also for dresses. Both the nature and the use of the stuff have changed" between the late 17th century and 1888, the last time this definition was revised.<ref>"brocatelle, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/23550. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Broché ===
Lewandowski says, "to be woven with a raised figure or to be embossed."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|39}} In English, the word might be spelled with or without the acute accent on the final ''e''. Generally, the term was used loosely to describe fabric with a pattern woven into it, either in the same color or a color different from that of the background. That is, the weave that produces the pattern is different from the weave that produces the background.
S. F. A. Caulfeild and B. C. Saward published this definition of ''broché'' in their 1887 ''Dictionary of Needlework'', according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (the ''face'' being the side of the fabric facing the viewer):<blockquote>Broché. A French term denoting a velvet or silk textile, with a satin figure thrown up on the face.<ref>“Broché, Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1054215522.</ref></blockquote>
=== Chiffon ===
A lightweight, somewhat sheer silk fabric, chiffon would have been worn only by the social elite at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal|date=2025-10-12|title=Chiffon (fabric)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chiffon_(fabric)&oldid=1316464288|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Synthetic fibers were not invented until the 20th century — nylon chiffon in 1938 and polyester chiffon not until 1958.<ref name=":25" />
=== Ciselé ===
=== Crape ===
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' distinguishes the use of ''crêpe'' (using a circumflex rather than an acute accent over the first ''e'') from ''crape'' in textiles, saying ''crêpe'' is "often borrowed [from the French] as a term for all crapy fabrics other than ordinary [[Social Victorians/Mourning|black mourning crape]],"<ref name=":24">"crêpe, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44242. Accessed 10 February 2023.</ref> with usage examples ranging from 1797 to the mid 20th century. This distinction seems more prescriptive than descriptive since texts from the 19th century to now do not make it reliably. Sometimes 19th-century newspapers put an acute accent on the ''e'' and spelled it crépe.
The fabric used for full mourning was black crape, a fabric with a dull texture, but writers continue to vary in how to spell it. Julia Baird uses ''crêpe'', defining it as "a thick black rustling material made of silk, crimped to make it look dull."<ref>Baird, Julia. ''Victoria the Queen, an Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire''. Random House, 2016. https://books.apple.com/us/book/victoria-the-queen/id953835024.</ref>{{rp|584 of 1203}}
However it is spelled, crêpe is<blockquote>Any number of fabrics with characteristic crinkled or puckered surface.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>
==== Crepe de Chine ====
Crêpe de chine, the ''OED'' says, is "a white or other coloured crape made of raw silk."<ref name=":24" /> Lewandowski defines it as "a very lightweight, fine, plain weave silk fabric. ... Introduced in 1866, China crepe with soft, silky surface."<ref name=":7" /> (77)
==== Crepon de Chine ====
Crepon is a fabric heavier than the usual crape but treated like crape to be crinkly. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Introduced in 1882, wool, silk, or blend fabric like very heavy crepe. ... Gay Nineties (1890–1900 C.E.). Popular in 1890s, woolen fabric creped to appear puffed between stripes [or] squares.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>According to Lewandowski, ''crepon'' can also be another word for bustle (1865–1890 C.E. to present).<ref name=":7" /> (77)
=== Crinoline ===
Technically, crinoline was a fabric made mostly of horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, similar to buckram today, used in men's military collars and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinolines|women's foundation garments]]. Lewandowski defines crinoline as <blockquote>(1840–1865 C.E.). France. Originally horsehair cloth used for officers' collars. Later used for women's underskirts to support skirts. Around 1850, replaced by many petticoats, starched and boned. Around 1856, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|light metal cage]] was developed.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>The term has been used so consistently for the cage first introduced in the 1850s that held the skirt out from the body, however, that it is important to say ''crinoline cage'' or ''crinoline fabric'' or ''crinoline petticoat'' to be clear.
=== Épinglé Velvet ===
Often spelled ''épingle'' rather than ''épinglé'', this term appears to have been used for a fabric made of wool, or at least wool along with linen or cotton, that was heavier and stiffer than silk velvet. It was associated with outer garments and men's clothing. Nowadays, épinglé velvet is an upholstery fabric in which the pile is cut into designs and patterns, and the portrait of [[Social Victorians/People/Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton|Mary, Duchess of Hamilton]] shows a mantle described as épinglé velvet that does seem to be a velvet with a woven pattern perhaps cut into the pile.
=== Lace ===
While lace also functioned sometimes as fabric — at the décolletage, for example, on the stomacher or as a veil — here we organize it as a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Trim and Lace|part of the elaboration of clothing]].
=== Liberty Fabrics ===
=== Lisse ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''lisse'' as a "kind of silk gauze" was used in the 19th-century UK and US.<ref>"lisse, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108978. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Muslin ===
=== Satin ===
The pre-1927 ''History of Feminine Fashion'', probably commissioned by Charles Frederick Worth's sons, describes Worth's "insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description" at the beginning of his career in the mid 19th century:<blockquote>When Worth first entered the business of dressmaking, the only materials of the richer sort used for woman's dress were velvet, faille, and watered silk. Satin, for example, was never used. M. Worth desired to use satin very extensively in the gowns he designed, but he was not satisfied with what could be had at the time; he wanted something very much richer than was produced by the mills at Lyons. That his requirements entailed the reconstruction of mills mattered little — the mills were reconstructed under his directions, and the Lyons looms turned out a richer satin than ever, and the manufacturers prospered accordingly.<ref name=":9" />{{rp|6 in printed, 26 in digital book}}</blockquote>
=== Selesia ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''silesia'' is "A fine linen or cotton fabric originally manufactured in Silesia in what is now Germany (''Schlesien'').<ref>"Silesia, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/179664. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> It may have been used as a lining — for pockets, for example — in garments made of more luxurious or more expensive cloth. The word ''sleazy'' — "Of textile fabrics or materials: Thin or flimsy in texture; having little substance or body."<ref>"sleazy, adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/181563. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> — may be related.
=== Shot Fabric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "Of a textile fabric: Woven with warp-threads of one colour and weft-threads of another, so that the fabric (usually silk) changes in tint when viewed from different points."<ref>“Shot, ''Adj.''” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2977164390.</ref> A shot fabric might also be made of silk and cotton fibers.
=== Tissue ===
A lightly woven fabric like gauze or chiffon. The light weave can make the fabric translucent and make pleating and gathering flatter and less bulky. Tissue can be woven to be shot, sheer, stiff or soft.
Historically, the term in English was used for a "rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold or silver" or "various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture."<ref>“Tissue, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5896731814.</ref>
=== Tulle ===
In the 19th century, tulle — a very fine net — was a sheer woven tissue made of linen or silk. Tulle looms were invented in the late 18th century,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-04|title=Tulle (tissu)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(tissu)&oldid=228712045|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> and the fabric "first made by machine in 1768 in Nottingham."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|299}} By 1802 English tulle was recognized as higher quality than French tulle, even though the fabric is named for the French city.<ref name=":23" />
Tulle is still used today, but it is usually made of synthetic fabric.<blockquote>It is a finer textile than the textile referred to as "net". ...
It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, polyester and rayon. Polyester is the most common fibre used for tulle.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-05|title=Tulle (netting)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(netting)&oldid=1304416320|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Victorian silk tulle would not have been stiff unless it was treated with sizing.
== Fan ==
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on the fan. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>FAN (Latin, ''vannus''; French, ''éventail''), a light implement used for giving motion to the air. ''Ventilabrum'' and ''flabellum'' are names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attributes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyptian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day.
Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached — of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul’s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supreme pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or ''mundus muliebris'', of ancient Roman ladies.
Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used—a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to invite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while working with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held together by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals.
Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de’ Medici, probably from Italy, then in advance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII.’s reign in England were used to handling fans, A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round leather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the ''Spectator'' humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes.
The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the decorations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly ''chicken skin'', but not correctly), — a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edicts at various times to regulate the manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called “Vernis Martin,” after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were exhibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the / 17th century. Cano de Arevalo, a Spanish painter of the 17th century devoted himself to fan painting. Some harsh expressions of Queen Christina to the young ladies of the French court are said to have caused an increased ostentation in the splendour of their fans, which were set with jewels and mounted in gold. Rosalba Carriera was the name of a fan painter of celebrity in the 17th century. Lebrun and Romanelli were much employed during the same period. Klingstet, a Dutch artist, enjoyed a considerable reputation for his fans from the latter part of the 17th and the first thirty years of the 18th century.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes drove many fan-makers out of France to Holland and England. The trade in England was well established under the Stuart sovereigns. Petitions were addressed by the fan-makers to Charles II. against the importation of fans from India, and a duty was levied upon such fans in consequence. This importation of Indian fans, according to Savary, extended also to France. During the reign of Louis XV. carved Indian and China fans displaced to some extent those formerly imported from Italy, which had been painted on swanskin parchment prepared with various perfumes.
During the 18th century all the luxurious ornamentation of the day was bestowed on fans as far as they could display it. The sticks were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill in France, Italy, England, and other countries. They were painted from designs of Boucher, Watteau, Lancret, and other "genre" painters, Hébert, Rau, Chevalier, Jean Boquet, Mad. Verité, are known as fan painters. These fashions were followed in most countries of Europe, with certain national differences. Taffeta and silk, as well as fine parchment, were used for the mounts. Little circles of glass were let into the stick to be looked through, and small telescopic glasses were sometimes contrived at the pivot of the stick. They were occasionally mounted with the finest point lace. An interesting fan (belonging to Madame de Thiac in France), the work of Le Flamand, was presented by the municipality of Dieppe to Marie Antoinette on the birth of her son the dauphin. From the time of the Revolution the old luxury expended on fans died out. Fine examples ceased to be exported to England and other countries. The painting on them represented scenes or personages connected with political events. At a later period fan mounts were often prints coloured by hand. The events of the day mark the date of many examples found in modern collections. Amongst the fanmakers of the present time the names of Alexandre, Duvelleroy, Fayet, Vanier, may be mentioned as well known in Paris. The sticks are chiefly made in the department of Oise, at Le Déluge, Crèvecœur, Méry, Ste Geneviève, and other villages, where whole families are engaged in preparing them; ivory sticks are carved at Dieppe. Water-colour painters of distinction often design and paint the mounts, the best designs being figure subjects. A great impulse has been given to the manufacture and painting of fans in England since the exhibition which took place at South Kensington in 1870. Other exhibitions have since been held, and competitive prizes offered, one of which was gained by the Princess Louise. Modern collections of fans take their date from the emigration of many noble families from France at the time of the Revolution. Such objects were given as souvenirs and occasionally sold by families in straitened circumstances. A large number of fans of all sorts, principally those of the 18th century, French, English, German, Italian Spanish, &c., have been lately bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.
Regarding the different parts of folding fans it may be well to state that the sticks are called in French ''brins'', the two outer guards ''panaches'', and the mount ''feuille''.<ref>J. H. Pollen [J.H.P.]. "Fan." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. '''10''' ('''X'''). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%209%20%28FAL-FYZ%29%20193323016.23/page/26/mode/2up (accessed January 2023): 27, Col. 1b – 28, Col. 1c.</ref></blockquote>Folding fans were available and popular early and are common accessories in portraits of fashionable women through the centuries.
== Costumes for Theatre and Fancy Dress ==
Fancy-dress (or costume) balls were popular and frequent in the U.K. and France as well as the rest of Europe and North America during the 19th century. The themes and styles of the fancy-dress balls influenced those that followed.
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the guests came dressed in costume from times before 1820, as instructed on '''the invitation''', but their clothing was much more about late-Victorian standards of beauty and fashion than the standards of whatever time period the portraits they were copying or basing their costumes on.
=== Fancy Dress ===
In her ''Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898'', Cynthia Cooper describes the resources available to those needing help making a costume for a fancy-dress ball:<blockquote>There were a number of places eager ballgoers could turn for assistance and inspiration. Those with a scholarly bent might pore over history books or study pictures of paintings or other works of art. For more direct advice, one could turn to the barrage of published information specifically on fancy dress. Women’s magazines such as ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' and ''The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine'' sometimes featured fancy dress designs and articles, and enticing specialized books were available with extensive recommendations for choosing fancy dress. By far the most complete sources were the books by [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], a prolific British authority on the subject. Holt’s book for women, ''Fancy Dresses Described, or What to Wear at Fancy Balls'' (published in six editions between 1879 and 1896), began with the query, ‘‘But what are we to wear?” Holt’s companion book, ''Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress:'' ''How to Choose It'', was also published in six editions from 1882 to 1905. Other prominent authorities included Mrs. Aria’s ''Costume: Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical'' and, in the US, the Butterick Company’s ''Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes''. The Butterick publication relied heavily on Holt, copying large sections of the introduction outright and paraphrasing other sections.<ref name=":16">Cooper, Cynthia. ''Magnificent entertainments: fancy dress balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898''.Fredericton, N.B.; Hull, Quebec: Goose Lane Editions and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1997. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/magnificententer0000coop/.</ref>{{rp|28–29}}</blockquote>
Cynthia Cooper discusses how "historical accuracy" works in historical fiction and historical dress: <blockquote>A seemingly accurate costume and coiffure bespoke a cultured individual whose most gratifying compliment would be “historically correct.” Those who were fortunate enough to own actual clothing from an earlier period might wear it with pride as a historical relic, though they would generally adapt or remake it in keeping with the aesthetics of their own period. Historical accuracy was always in the eye of beholders inclined to overlook elements of current fashion in a historical costume. Theatre had long taught the public that if a costume appeared tasteful and attractive, it could be assumed to be accurate. Even at Queen Victoria’s fancy dress balls, costume silhouette was always far more like the fashionable dress of the period than of the time portrayed. For this reason, many extant eighteenth-century dresses show evidence of extensive alterations done in the nineteenth century, no doubt for fancy dress purposes.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>
The newspaper ''The Queen'' published dress and fashion information and advice under the byline of [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], who regularly answered questions from readers about fashion as well as about fancy dress. Holt also wrote entire articles with suggestions for what might make an appealing fancy-dress costume as well as pointing readers away from costumes that had been worn too frequently. The suggestions for costumes are based on familiar types or portraits available to readers, similar to Holt's books on fancy dress, which ran through a number of editions in the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy-dress questions sometimes asked for details about costumes worn in theatrical or operatic productions, which Holt provides.
In November 1897, Holt refers to the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July ball: "Since the famous fancy ball, given at Devonshire House during this year, historical fancy dresses have assumed a prominence that they had not hitherto known."<ref>Holt, Ardern. "Fancy Dress a la Mode." The ''Queen'' 27 November 1897, Saturday: 94 [of 145 in BNA; print p. 1026], Col. 1a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18971127/459/0094.</ref> Holt goes on to provide a number of ideas for costumes for historical fancy dress, as always with a strong leaning toward Victorian standards of beauty and style and away from any concern for historical accuracy.
As Leonore Davidoff says, "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration symbolised some status category for the female wearer."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} [handled under [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Elaborations|Elaborations]]]
=== Historical Accuracy ===
Many of the costumes at the ball were based on portraits, especially when the guest was dressed as a historical figure. If possible, we have found the portraits likely to have been the originals, or we have found, if possible, portraits that show the subjects from the two time periods at similar ages.
The way clothing was cut changed quite a bit between the 18th and 19th centuries. We think of Victorian clothing — particularly women's clothing, and particularly at the end of the century — as inflexible and restrictive, especially compared to 20th- and 21st-century customs permitting freedom of movement. The difference is generally evolutionary rather than absolute — that is, as time has passed since the 18th century, clothing has allowed an increasingly greater range of movement, especially for people who did not do manual labor.
By the end of the 19th century, garments like women's bodices and men's coats were made fitted and smooth by attention to the grain of the fabric and by the use of darts (rather than techniques that assembled many small, individual pieces of fabric).
* clothing construction and flat-pattern techniques
* Generally, the further back in time we go, the more 2-dimensional the clothing itself was.
==== Women's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
As always with this ball, whatever historical accuracy might be present in a woman's costume is altered so that the wearer is still a fashionable Victorian lady. What makes the costumes look "Victorian" to our eyes is the line of the silhouette caused by the foundation undergarments as well as the many "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}}, mostly in the decorations, trim and accessories.
Also, the clothing hangs and drapes differently because the fabric was cut on grain and the shoulders were freed by the way the sleeves were set in.
==== Men's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
Because men were not wearing a Victorian foundation garment at the end of the century, the men's costumes at the ball are more historically accurate in some ways.
* Trim
* Mixing neck treatments
* Hair
* Breeches
* Shoes and boots
* Military uniforms, arms, gloves, boots
== Feathers and Plumes ==
=== Aigrette ===
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines ''aigrette'' as "France. Feather or plume from an egret or heron."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|5}} Sometimes the newspapers use the term to refer to an accessory (like a fan or ornament on a hat) that includes such a feather or plume. The straight and tapered feathers in an aigrette are in a bundle.
=== Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes ===
The feathers in an aigrette came from egrets and herons; Prince of Wales's feathers came from ostriches. A fuller discussion of Prince of Wales's feathers and the white ostrich plumes worn at court appears on [[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|Victorian Things]].
For much of the late 18th and 19th centuries, white ostrich plumes were central to fashion at court, and at a certain point in the late 18th century they became required for women being presented to the monarch and for their sponsors. Our purpose here is to understand why women were wearing plumes at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] as part of their costumes.
First published in 1893, [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Colin Campbell|Lady Colin Campbell]]'s ''Manners and Rules of Good Society'' (1911 edition) says that<blockquote>It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.
White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/|title=The Court Presentation|last=Holl|first=Evangeline|date=2007-12-07|website=Edwardian Promenade|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-18}} https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/.</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|This fashion was imported from France]] in the mid 1770s.<ref>"Abstract" for Blackwell, Caitlin. "'<nowiki/>''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright''': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. ''Wiley Online'' DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x (accessed November 2022).</ref>
Separately, a secondary heraldic emblem of the Prince of Wales has been a specific arrangement of 3 ostrich feathers in a gold coronet<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-07|title=Prince of Wales's feathers|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers&oldid=1120556015|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers.</ref> since King Edward III (1312–1377<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-12-14|title=Edward III of England|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_III_of_England&oldid=1127343221|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England.</ref>).
Some women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] wore white ostrich feathers in their hair, but most of them are not Prince of Wales's feathers. Most of the plumes in these portraits are arrangements of some kind of headdress to accompany the costume. A few, wearing what looks like the Princes of Wales's feathers, might be signaling that their character is royal or has royal ancestry. '''One of the women [which one?] was presented to the royals at this ball?'''
Here is the list of women who are wearing white ostrich plumes in their portraits in the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball/Photographs|''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball'' album of 286 photogravure portraits]]:
# Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, the [[Social Victorians/People/Newcastle|Duchess of Newcastle]]
# [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Luise Cavendish]], the Duchess of Devonshire
# Jesusa Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urritio (née Bellido), [[Social Victorians/People/Santurce|Marquisa de Santurce]]
# Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Farquhar|Emilie Farquhar]]
# Princess (Laura Williamina Seymour) Victor of [[Social Victorians/People/Gleichen#Laura%20Williamina%20Seymour%20of%20Hohenlohe-Langenburg|Hohenlohe Langenburg]]
# Louisa Acheson, [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Lady Gosford]]
# Alice Emily White Coke, [[Social Victorians/People/Leicester|Viscountess Coke]]
# Lady Mary Stewart, Helen Mary Theresa [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Vane-Tempest-Stewart]]
#[[Social Victorians/People/Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill|Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill]], Duchess of [[Social Victorians/People/Marlborough|Marlborough]], dressed as the wife of the French Ambassador at the Court of Catherine of Russia (not white, but some color that reads dark in the black-and-white photograph)
#Mrs. Mary [[Social Victorians/People/Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] (at 491), wearing white plumes, as Madame d'Epinay
#Lady Clementine [[Social Victorians/People/Tweeddale|Hay]] (at 629), wearing white plumes, as St. Bris (''Les Huguenots'')
#[[Social Victorians/People/Meysey-Thompson|Lady Meysey-Thompson]] (at 391), wearing white plumes, as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Grosvenor|Algernon (Catherine) Grosvenor]] (at 510), wearing white plumes, as Marie Louise
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ancaster|Evelyn Ewart]], at 401), wearing white plumes, as the Duchess of Ancaster, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, 1757, after a picture by Hudson
#[[Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton|Edith Sophy Balfour Lyttelton]] (at 580), wearing what might be white plumes on a large-brimmed white hat, after a picture by Romney
#[[Social Victorians/People/Yznaga|Emilia Yznaga]] (at 360), wearing what might be white plumes, as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ilchester|Muriel Fox Strangways]] (at 403), wearing what might be two smallish white plumes, as Lady Sarah Lennox, one of the bridesmaids of Queen Charlotte A.D. 1761
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Violet Bingham]] (at 586), wearing perhaps one white plume in a headdress not related to the Prince of Wales's feathers
#Rosamond Fellowes, [[Social Victorians/People/de Ramsey|Lady de Ramsey]] (at 329), wearing a headdress that includes some white plumes, as Lady Burleigh
#[[Social Victorians/People/Dupplin|Agnes Blanche Marie Hay-Drummond]] (at 682), in a big headdress topped with white plumes, as Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney A.D. 1775
#Florence Canning, [[Social Victorians/People/Garvagh|Lady Garvagh]] (at 336), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#[[Social Victorians/People/Suffolk|Marguerite Hyde "Daisy" Leiter]] (at 684), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Spicer|Margaret Spicer]] (at 281), wearing one smallish white and one black plume, as Countess Zinotriff, Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Catherine of Russia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Cavendish Bentinck|Arthur James]] (at 318), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes, as Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Bess of Hardwick
#Nellie, [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Countess of Kilmorey]] (at 207), wearing three tall plumes, 2 white and one dark, as Comtesse du Barri
#Daisy, [[Social Victorians/People/Warwick|Countess of Warwick]] (at 53), wearing at least 1 white plume, as Marie Antoinette
More men than women were wearing plumes reminiscent of the Prince of Wales's feathers:
*
==== Bibliography for Plumes and Prince of Wales's Feathers ====
* Blackwell, Caitlin. "'''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright'<nowiki/>'': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." Journal for ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. Wiley Online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x.
* "Prince of Wales's feathers." ''Wikipedia'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers (accessed November 2022). ['''Add women to this page''']
* Simpson, William. "On the Origin of the Prince of Wales' Feathers." ''Fraser's magazine'' 617 (1881): 637-649. Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79253140&view=1up&seq=643&q1=feathers (accessed December 2022). Deals mostly with use of feathers in other cultures and in antiquity; makes brief mention of feathers and plumes in signs and pub names that may not be associated with the Prince of Wales. No mention of the use of plumes in women's headdresses or court dress.
[[File:Prince Albert - Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842.jpg|thumb|1842 Winterhalter portrait of Prince Albert wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1842|alt=1842 Portrait of Prince Albert by Winterhalter, wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece]]
== Honors ==
=== The Bath ===
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCB or DCB, Knight or Dame Commander; CB, Companion)
[[File:The Golden Fleece - collar exhibited at MET, NYC.jpg|thumb|The Golden Fleece collar and pendant for the 2019 "Last Knight" exhibition at the MET, NYC.|alt=Recent photograph of a gold necklace on a wide band, with a gold skin of a sheep hanging from it as a pendant|left]]
=== The Golden Fleece ===
To wear the golden fleece is to wear the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, said to be "the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world" because of its long history and strict limitations on membership.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=2020-09-25|title=Order of the Golden Fleece|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece&oldid=980340875|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> The monarchs of the U.K. were members of the originally Spanish order, as were others who could afford it, like the Duke of Wellington,<ref name=":12">Thompson, R[obert]. H[ugh]. "The Golden Fleece in Britain." Publication of the ''British Numismatic Society''. 2009 https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2009_BNJ_79_8.pdf (accessed January 2023).</ref> the first Protestant to be admitted to the order.<ref name=":10" /> Founded in 1429/30 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the order separated into two branches in 1714, one Spanish and the other Austrian, still led by the House of Habsburg.<ref name=":10" />
The photograph (upper left) is of a Polish badge dating from the "turn of the XV and XVI centuries."<ref>{{Citation|title=Polski: Kolana orderowa orderu Złotego Runa, przełom XV i XVI wieku.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg|date=2019-11-10|accessdate=2023-01-10|last=Wulfstan}}. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg.</ref> The collar this Golden Fleece is hanging from might be similar to the one the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#The Insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece|Duke of Devonshire is wearing in the 1897 Lafayette portrait]].
The badges and collars that Knights of the Order actually wore vary quite a bit.
The 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter portrait (upper right) of Prince Consort Albert, Victoria's husband and father of the Prince of Wales, shows him wearing the Golden Fleece on a red ribbon around his neck and the star of the Garter on the front of his coat.<ref>Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. ''Prince Albert''. {{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61|title=Explore the Royal Collection Online|website=www.rct.uk|access-date=2023-01-16}} https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61.</ref>[[File:Order of the Garter badge sash (United Kingdom) - Tallinn Museum of Orders.jpg|alt=Recent photograph of a gold medal on a wide blue ribbon|thumb|Order of the Garter Badge and Sash]]
=== The Order of the Garter ===
The Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter (KG, Knight Companion; LG, Lady Companion). Gold badge on the typical royal-blue sash (bottom right).
=== Royal Victorian Order ===
(GCVO, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCVO or DCVO, Knight or Dame Commander; CVO, Commander; LVO, Lieutenant; MVO, Member)
=== St. John ===
The Order of the Knights of St. John
=== Star of India ===
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI, Knight Grand Commander; KCSI, Knight Commander; CSI, Companion)
=== Thistle ===
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used for petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's''' skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.[[File:Chaise à crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.[[File:Vermeer Lady Seated at a Virginal.jpg|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal|left]]Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.[[File:Pedro García de Benabarre St John Retable Detail.jpg|thumb|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":7" />''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.<p></p>
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.[[File:Alonso Sánchez Coello 011.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}}</blockquote>
In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.[[File:Queen Elizabeth I ('The Ditchley portrait') by Marcus Gheeraerts the YoungerFXD.jpg|thumb|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592|left]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).[[File:Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The Vanity of Women Masks and Bustles MET DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>
Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
<br>Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
<br>Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
<br>Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
<br>Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
<br>De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
<br>S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":20" /></blockquote>
Which translates, roughly, into
<blockquote>
Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
<br>For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
<br>Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
<br>Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
<br>No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
<br>Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
<br>Go with the devils to the burning hell.
</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).[[File:The Vanity of Women Masks and Bustles MET DT4982 (detail of padded rolls or French farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":7" />{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.[[File:Princess Teresa Pamphilj Cybo, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar Netscher - Girl Standing before a Mirror - 1925.718 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror|left]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band. [[File:Michiel van Mierevelt - Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), circa 1629.jpg|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629|left]][[File:Attributed to Voet - Portrait of Anna Pamphili, misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers 1.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers|left]][[File:Hoop petticoat and corset England 1750-1780 LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?''']
The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)[[File:Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine1 copy.jpg|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760|left]]In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them.
France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.[[File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)[[File:Queen Charlotte, by studio of Thomas Gainsborough.jpg|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781|left]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|438}} </blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could be.[[File:Marie Antoinette in a Park Met DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La laitiere. G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame A. Aughié, Friend of Queen Marie Antoinette, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon - Nationalmuseum - 21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}</blockquote>[[File:Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle, G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, ooo 356 Grand habit de bal a la Cour (..), RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise|left]]The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.) [[File:Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 Robe de Cour à la Turque (..), RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>
Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Francais, 1787, ooo.359, Habit de Cour en hyver (titel op object), RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.[[File:Crinoline era3.gif|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure|left]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":11" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":7" /> (46)</blockquote>
R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>
The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>
The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":202">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.[[File:Miss Victoria Stuart-Wortley, later Victoria, Lady Welby (1837-1912) 1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices.
In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.[[File:Elisabeth Franziska wearing a crinoline and feathered hat.jpg|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s|left]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her Majesty the Queen Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.[[File:Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s|left]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.[[File:Queen Emma of Hawaii, photograph by John & Charles Watkins, The Royal Collection Trust (crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>
This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.[[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (1 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view|left]][[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (4 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>
Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>
When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":13" /> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>
Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La Gazette rose, 16 Mai 1874; robe à tournure.jpg|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874|left]]In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":7" /> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this''']. [[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.[[File:Elizabeth Alice Austen in June 1888.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888|left]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]]. [[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf 33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Jewelry and Stones ==
=== Cabochon ===
This term describes both the treatment and shape of a precious or semiprecious stone. A cabochon treatment does not facet the stone but merely polishes it, removing "the rough parts" and the parts that are not the right stone.<ref>"cabochon, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/25778. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> A cabochon shape is often flat on one side and oval or round, forming a mound in the setting.
=== Cairngorm ===
=== Ferronnière ===
A revival of a Renaissance fashion for controlling the hair and headdress. Usually made of a filet, often with a single pendant stone in the center of the forehead, although the Victorians' ferronnières were often elaborate and encrusted with jewels.<ref>Boyington, Amy. "Ferronnière." ''History with Amy'' 5 November 2025.
Website fb.watch/FBMyC7bqde [links to fb.watch not allowed].</ref>
=== Half-hoop ===
Usually of a ring or bracelet, a precious-metal band with a setting of stones on one side, covering perhaps about 1/3 or 1/2 of the band. Half-hoop jewelry pieces were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Jet ===
=== ''Orfèvrerie'' ===
Sometimes misspelled in the newspapers as ''orvfèvrerie''. ''Orfèvrerie'' is the artistic work of a goldsmith, silversmith, or jeweler.
=== Ribbon Necklace ===
=== Solitaire ===
A solitaire is a ring with a single stone set as the focal point. Solitaire rings were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Turquoise ===
== Mantle, Cloak, Cape ==
In 19th-century newspaper accounts, these terms are sometimes used without precision as synonyms. These are all outer garments. Although the terms were (and are) often used generically, a short outer wrap would be a cape, a longer one would be a cloak and, after the 17th century, a full-length one possibly buttoned down the front would be a mantle.
=== '''Mantle''' ===
A mantle — often a long outer garment — might have elements like a train, sleeves, collars, revers, fur, and a cape. A late-19th-century writer making a distinction between a mantle and a cloak might use ''mantle'' if the garment is more voluminous.
== Military ==
Several men from the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]] were dressed in military uniforms, some historical and some, possibly, not.
=== Armor ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], much of the armor was fictional, not located in historical time and place. Helmets, ditto.
==== Chain Mail ====
chausses, mitons, hauberk, mail coif,
==== Armor ====
greaves, gauntlet
* '''Cuirass''': According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''cuirass'' is "A piece of armour for the body (originally of leather); ''spec.'' a piece reaching down to the waist, and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate, buckled or otherwise fastened together ...."<ref>"cuirass, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/45604. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref>
[[File:Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt - Ritratto di giovane - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Old painting of a young man wearing metal collar armor around his neck|thumb|''Tronie of a Young Man in a Gorget and Cap'', attributed to Rembrandt (c. 1639)]]
* '''Gorget''': By the Elizabethan age in western Europe, the gorget was the piece of plate armor that protected the neck.
<blockquote>At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a separate mail collar to fully protect the neck, the developed gorget was worn under the cuirass and was intended to cover a larger area of the neck, nape, shoulders and upper chest, from which the edges of the backplate and breastplate had receded.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-02|title=Gorget|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gorget&oldid=1346732005|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The only visible armor worn by the subject in Rembrandt's c. 1639 portrait (right) is his gorget.
*.
==== Over-clothing ====
(fabric or leather): tunic, cloak, mantle
=== Baldric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''baldric'' is "A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm, and used to support the wearer's sword, bugle, etc."<ref>"baldric, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/14849. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref> This sense has been in existence since c. 1300. A baldric could be worn over armor or court dress. The ribbon worn across the chest for honors is called a sash.
[[File:Knötel IV, 04.jpg|thumb|alt=An Old drawing in color of British soldiers on horses brandishing swords in 1815.|1890 illustration of the Household Cavalry (Life Guard, left; Horse Guard, right) at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815]]
=== Household Cavalry ===
The Royal Household contains the Household Cavalry, a corps of British Army units assigned to the monarch. It is made up of 2 regiments, the Life Guards and what is now called The Blues and Royals, which were formed around the time of "the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660."<ref name=":3">Joll, Christopher. "Tales of the Household Cavalry, No. 1. Roles." The Household Cavalry Museum, https://householdcavalry.co.uk/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Household-Cavalry-Museum-video-series-large-print-text-Tales-episode-01.pdf.</ref>{{rp|1}} Regimental Historian Christopher Joll says, "the original Life Guards were formed as a mounted bodyguard for the exiled King Charles II, The Blues were raised as Cromwellian cavalry and The Royals were established to defend Tangier."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|1–2}} The 1st and 2nd Life Guards were formed from "the Troops of Horse and Horse Grenadier Guards ... in 1788."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} The Life Guards were and are still official bodyguards of the queen or king, but through history they have been required to do quite a bit more than serve as bodyguards for the monarch.
The Household Cavalry fought in the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815 as heavy cavalry.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} Besides arresting the Cato Steet conspirators in 1820 "and guarding their subsequent execution," the Household Cavalry contributed to the "the expedition to rescue General Gordon, who was trapped in Khartoum by The Mahdi and his army of insurgents" in 1884.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} In 1887 they "were involved ... in the suppression of rioters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}}
==== Grenadier Guards ====
Three men — [[Social Victorians/People/Gordon-Lennox#Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox|Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox]], [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Edward George Villiers Stanley, Lord Stanley|Lord Stanley]], and [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley|Hon. F. C. Stanley]] — attended the ball as officers of the Grenadier Guards, wearing "scarlet tunics, ... full blue breeches, scarlet hose and shoes, lappet wigs" as well as items associated with weapons and armor.<ref name=":14">“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.</ref>{{rp|p. 34, Col. 2a}}
Founded in England in 1656 as Foot Guards, this infantry regiment "was granted the 'Grenadier' designation by a Royal Proclamation" at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Grenadier Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grenadier_Guards&oldid=1151238350|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadier_Guards.</ref> They were not called Grenadier Guards, then, before about 1815. In 1660, the Stuart Restoration, they were called Lord Wentworth's Regiment, because they were under the command of Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-07-24|title=Lord Wentworth's Regiment|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment&oldid=1100069077|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment.</ref>
At the time of Lord Wentworth's Regiment, the style of the French cavalier had begun to influence wealthy British royalists. In the British military, a Cavalier was a wealthy follower of Charles I and Charles II — a commander, perhaps, or a field officer, but probably not a soldier.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Cavalier|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier&oldid=1151166569|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier.</ref>
The Guards were busy as infantry in the 17th century, engaging in a number of armed conflicts for Great Britain, but they also served the sovereign. According to the Guards Museum,<blockquote>In 1678 the Guards were ordered to form Grenadier Companies, these men were the strongest and tallest of the regiment, they carried axes, hatches and grenades, they were the shock troops of their day. Instead of wearing tri-corn hats they wore a mitre shaped cap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/|title=Service to the Crown|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/.</ref></blockquote>The name comes from ''grenades'', then, and we are accustomed to seeing them in front of Buckingham Palace, with their tall mitre hats.
The Guard fought in the American Revolution, and in the 19th century, the Grenadier Guards fought in the Crimean War, Sudan and the Boer War. They have roles as front-line troops and as ceremonial for the sovereign, which makes them elite:<blockquote>Queen Victoria decreed that she did not want to see a single chevron soldier within her Guards. Other then [sic] the two senior Warrant Officers of the British Army, the senior Warrant Officers of the Foot Guards wear a large Sovereigns personal coat of arms badge on their upper arm. No other regiments of the British Army are allowed to do so; all the others wear a small coat of arms of their lower arms. Up until 1871 all officers in the Foot Guards had the privilege of having double rankings. An Ensign was ranked as an Ensign and Lieutenant, a Lieutenant as Lieutenant and Captain and a Captain as Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. This was because at the time officers purchased their own ranks and it cost more to purchase a commission in the Foot Guards than any other regiments in the British Army. For example if it cost an officer in the Foot Guards £1,000 for his first rank, in the rest of the Army it would be £500 so if he transferred to another regiment he would loose [sic] £500, hence the higher rank, if he was an Ensign in the Guards and he transferred to a Line Regiment he went in at the higher rank of Lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/|title=Formation and role of the Regiments|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/.</ref></blockquote>
==== Life Guards ====
[[Social Victorians/People/Shrewsbury#Reginald Talbot's Costume|General the Hon. Reginald Talbot]], a member of the 1st Life Guards, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball dressed in the uniform of his regiment during the Battle of Waterloo.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|p. 36, Col. 3b}}
At the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Life Guards were part of the 1st Brigade — the Household Brigade — and were commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=2023-09-30|title=Battle of Waterloo|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Waterloo&oldid=1177893566|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo.</ref> The 1st Life Guards were on "the extreme right" of a French countercharge and "kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes MET DPB874122.jpg|alt=Old drawing of a soldier wearing a white cuirass, a pointed helmet, thigh-high boots, carrying a long sword|thumb|Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, 1888, a Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company card]]
==== Royal Horse Guards ====
In 1650 the Regiment of Cuirassiers was "raised by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell."<ref name=":26">{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-13|title=Royal Horse Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Horse_Guards&oldid=1353961278|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> In 1660 "it became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment .... Based on the colour of their uniform, the regiment was nicknamed 'the Oxford Blues', or simply the 'Blues.' In 1750, it became the Royal Horse Guards Blue."<ref name=":26" />
The Royal Horse Guards Blue were moved to Windsor at the end of the 18th century and "acted as royal bodyguards" to George III, who liked them.<ref name=":26" /> While pay for the men "stagnated," requirements continued to rise, so that recruits had to come from wealth.<ref name=":26" /> Riding and hunting skills were helpful to the recruits, who had to provide their own horses, pay for messes and uniforms, not to mention the position itself.<ref name=":26" />
They fought in the Battle of Waterloo, with 44 dead, 50 wounded (of which only 6 died).<ref name=":26" /> With the Duke of Wellington at their head, they became part of the Household Cavalry in 1820.<ref name=":26" /> An 1890 illustration shows a member of the Royal Horse Guard (above right) fighting at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Royal Horse Guard Blue fought in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, fighting with the heavy brigades and thus were more successful than the famous light brigade, though conditions were very difficult.<ref name=":26" />
A tobacco card published in 1888 (right) shows a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, Blue, in 1879.
In 1884–85 the Blues took part in the attempt to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. They were sent to South Africa at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":26" />
For those men who were in the Royal Horse Guards at the end of the 19th century, the field marshals were
* 1869–1885: Field Marshal Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, during which time — in 1877 — the name changed to the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)."<ref name=":26" />
* 1885–1895: Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant
* 1895–1907: Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
In 1847 Edmund Packe published his ''[[iarchive:historicalrecord00packiala/|Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, or Oxford Blues]]'', which has colored images to illustrate the development of the uniform up to the middle of the 19th century (the link goes to the ''Internet Archive'').
== [[Social Victorians/Mourning|Mourning]] ==
== Peplum ==
According to the French ''Wiktionnaire'', a peplum is a "Short skirt or flared flounce layered at the waist of a jacket, blouse or dress" [translation by Google Translate].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-07-02|title=péplum|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=p%C3%A9plum&oldid=29547727|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A9plum.</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has a fuller definition, although, it focuses on women's clothing because the sense is written for the present day:<blockquote>''Fashion''. ... a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (''obsolete''). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.<ref name=":5">“peplum, n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1832614702>.</ref></blockquote>Men haven't worn peplums since the 18th century, except when wearing costumes based on historical portraits. The ''Daily News'' reported in 1896 that peplums had been revived as a fashion item for women.<ref name=":5" />
== Revers ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''revers'' are the "edge[s] of a garment turned back to reveal the undersurface (often at the lapel or cuff) (chiefly in ''plural''); the material covering such an edge."<ref>"revers, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/164777. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> The term is French and was used this way in the 19th century (according to the ''Wiktionnaire'').<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-03-07|title=revers|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=revers&oldid=31706560|journal=Wiktionnaire|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/revers.</ref>
== Traditional vs Progressive Style ==
=== Progressive Style ===
The terms ''artistic dress'' and ''aesthetic dress'' — as well as ''rational dress'' or ''dress reform'' — are not synonymous and were in use at different times to refer to different groups of people in different contexts, but we recognize them as referring to a similar kind of personal style in clothing, a style we call progressive dress or the progressive style. Used in a very precise way, ''artistic dress'' is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artists and the women in their circle beginning in the 1860s. Similarly, ''aesthetic dress'' is associated with the 1880s and 1890s and dress reform movements, as is ''rational dress'', a movement located largely among women in the middle classes from the middle to the end of the century. In general, what we are calling the progressive style is characterized by its resistance to the highly structured fashion of its day, especially corseting, aniline dyes and an extremely close fit. This group of styles was more about individual choices and approaches than the consistent vision offered by couturiers like Maison Worth.
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Ada Nettleship]]: Constance Wilde and Ellen Terry; an 1883 exhibition of dress by the Rational Dress Society featured her work, including trousers for women (with a short overskirt)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-21|title=Ada Nettleship|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ada_Nettleship&oldid=1286707541|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Alice Comyns Carr]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-06-06|title=Alice Comyns Carr|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alice_Comyns_Carr&oldid=1294283929|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* Grosvenor Gallery
=== Traditional Style ===
[[File:Victoria Hesse NPG 95941 crop.jpg|alt=Old photograph of a white woman wearing a very tight and fitted bodice with her skirts swept to the back|thumb|Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven (1863–1950), Granddaughter of Queen Victoria; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Marquess, c. 1878]]
Images
* Smooth bodice, fabric draped to the back or covering a bustle with a small cage beneath it:
By the end of the century designs from the [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#The House of Worth|House of Worth]] (or Maison Worth) define what we think of as the traditional Victorian look, which was very stylish and expensive. Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria is shown (right) wearing a traditional but very stylish c. 1878 dress like one designed by Maison Worth. Blanche Payne describes an example of the 1895 "high style" in a gown by Worth with "the idiosyncrasies of the [1890s] full blown":<blockquote>The dress is white silk with wine-red stripes. Sleeves, collars, bows, bag, hat, and hem border match the stripes. The sleeve has reached its maximum volume; the bosom full and emphasized with added lace; the waistline is elongated, pointed, and laced to the point of distress; the skirt is smooth over the hips, gradually swinging out to sweep the floor. This is the much vaunted hourglass figure.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|530}}</blockquote>
The Victorian-looking gowns at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] are stylish in a way that recalls the designs of the House of Worth. The elements that make their look so Victorian are anachronisms on the costumes representing fashion of earlier eras. The women wearing these gowns preferred the standards of beauty from their own day to a more-or-less historically accurate look. The style competing at the very end of the century with the Worth look was not the historical, however, but a progressive style called at the time ''artistic'' or ''aesthetic''.
William Powell Frith's 1883 painting ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (discussion below) pits this kind of traditional style against the progressive or artistic style.
=== The Styles ===
[[File:Frith A Private View.jpg|thumb|William Powell Frith, ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'']]
We typically think of the late-Victorian silhouette as universal but, in the periods in which corsets dominated women's dress, not all women wore corsets and not all corsets were the same, as William Powell Frith's 1883 ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (right) illustrates. Frith is clear in his memoir that this painting — "recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress" — deliberately contrasts what he calls the "folly" of the Aesthetic Dress movement and the look of the traditional corseted waist.<ref>Frith, William Powell. ''My Autobiography and Reminiscences''. 1887.</ref> Frith considered the Aesthetic Movement and Aesthetic Dress "ephemeral," but its rejection of corsetry looks far more consequential to us in hindsight than it did in the 19th century.
As Frith sees it, his painting critiques the "craze" associated with the women in this set of identifiable portraits who are not corseted, but his commitment to realism shows us a spectrum, a range, of conservatism and if not political then at least stylistic progressivism among the women. The progressives, oddly, are the women wearing artistic (that is, somewhat historical) dress, because they’re not corseted. It is a misreading to see the presentation of the women’s fashion as a simple opposition. Constance, Countess of Lonsdale — situated at the center of this painting with Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy of Art — is the most conservatively dressed of the women depicted, with her narrow sleeves, tight waist and almost perfectly smooth bodice, which tells us that her corset has eyelets so that it can be laced precisely and tightly, and it has stays (or "bones") to prevent wrinkles or natural folds in the overclothing. Lillie Langtry, in the white dress, with her stylish narrow sleeves, does not have such a tightly bound waist or smooth bodice, suggesting she may not be corseted at all, as we know she sometimes was not.['''citation'''] Jenny Trip, a painter’s model, is the woman in the green dress in the aesthetic group being inspected by Anthony Trollope, who may be taking notes. She looks like she is not wearing a corset. Both Langtry and Trip are toward the middle of this spectrum: neither is dressed in the more extreme artistic dress of, say, the two figures between Trip and Trollope.
A lot has been written about the late-Victorian attraction to historical dress, especially in the context of fancy-dress balls and the Gothic revival in social events as well as art and music. Part of the appeal has to have been the way those costumes could just be beautiful clothing beautifully made. Historical dress provided an opportunity for some elite women to wear less-structured but still beautiful and influential clothing. ['''Calvert'''<ref>Calvert, Robyne Erica. ''Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. <nowiki>https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3279/</nowiki></ref>] The standards for beauty, then, with historical dress were Victorian, with the added benefit of possibly less structure. So, at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball, "while some attendees tried to hew closely to historical precedent, many rendered their historical or mythological personage in the sartorial vocabulary they knew best. The [photographs of people in their costumes at the ball offer] a glimpse into how Victorians understood history, not a glimpse into the costume of an authentic historical past."<ref>Mitchell, Rebecca N. "The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900." ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21: 3): 291–315. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1172817.</ref>{{rp|294}}
* historical dress: beautiful clothing.
* the range at the ball, from Minnie Paget to Gwladys
* "In light of such efforts, the ball remains to this day one of the best documented outings of the period, and a quick glance at the album shows that ..."
* The costume of the Duchess of Devonshire does not have a defined waist and may suggest that she herself is not corseted, although that would be a notable departure for her.
Women had more choices about their waists than the simple opposition between no corset and tightlacing can accommodate. The range of choices is illustrated in Frith's painting, with a woman locating herself on it at a particular moment for particular reasons. Much analysis of 19th-century corsetry focuses on its sexualizing effects — corsets dominated Victorian photographic pornography ['''citations'''] and at the same time, the absence of a corset was sexual because it suggested nudity.['''citations'''] A great deal of analysis of 19th-century corsetry, on the other hand, assumes that women wore corsets for the male gaze ['''citations'''] or that they tightened their waists to compete with other women.['''citations''']
But as we can see in Frith's painting, the sexualizing effect was not universal or sweeping, and these analyses do not account for the choices women had in which corset to wear or how tightly to lace it. Especially given the way that some photographic portraits were mechanically altered to make the waist appear smaller, the size of a woman's waist had to do with how she was presenting herself to the world. That is, the fact that women made choices about the size of or emphasis on their waists suggests that they had agency that needs to be taken into account.
As they navigated the complex social world, women's fashion choices had meaning. Society or political hostesses had agency not only in their clothing but generally in that complex social world. They had roles managing social events of the upper classes, especially of the upper aristocracy and oligarchy, like the Duchess of Devonshire's ball. Their class and rank, then, were essential to their agency, including to some degree their freedom to choose what kind of corset to wear and how to wear it. Also, by the end of the century lots of different kinds of corsets were available for lots of different purposes. Special corsets existed for pregnancy, sports (like tennis, bicycling, horseback riding, golf, fencing, archery, stalking and hunting), theatre and dance and, of course, for these women corsets could be made to support the special dress worn over it.
Women's choices in how they presented themselves to the world included more than just their foundation garments, of course. "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove," that is, the trim and decorations on their garments, their jewelry and accessories — which Davidoff calls "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} — pointed to a host of status categories, like class, rank, wealth, age, marital status, engagement with the empire, how sexual they wanted to seem, political alignment and purpose at the social event. For example, when women were being presented to the monarch, they were expected to wear three ostrich plumes, often called the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes|Prince of Wales's feathers]].
Like all fashions, the corset, which was quite long-lasting in all its various forms, eventually went out of style. Of the many factors that might have influenced its demise, perhaps most important was the women's movement, in which women's rights, freedom, employment and access to their own money and children were less slogan-worthy but at least as essential as votes for women. The activities of the animal-rights movements drew attention not only to the profligate use of the bodies and feathers of birds but also to the looming extinction of the baleen whale, which made whale bone scarce and expensive. Perhaps the century's debates over corseting and especially tightlacing were relevant to some decisions not to be corseted. And, of course, perhaps no other reason is required than that the nature of fashion is to change.
== Undergarments ==
Unlike undergarments, Victorian women's foundation garments created the distinctive silhouette. Victorian undergarments included the chemise, the bloomers, the corset cover — articles that are not structural.
The corset was an important element of the understructure of foundation garments — hoops, bustles, petticoats and so on — but it has never been the only important element.
=== Undergarments ===
* Chemise
* Corset cover
* Bloomers
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|Petticoats]] (distinguish between the outer- and undergarment type of petticoat)
* Combinations
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hose, Stockings and Tights|Hose, stockings and tights]]
* Men's shirts
* Men's unders
==== Bloomers ====
==== Chemise ====
A chemise is a garment "linen, homespun, or cotton knee-length garment with [a] square neck" worn under all the other garments except the bloomers or combinations.<ref name=":7" /> (61) According to Lewandowski, combinations replaced the chemise by 1890.
==== Combinations ====
=== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|Foundation Garments]] ===
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Footnotes ==
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Especially with respect to fashion, the newspapers at the end of the 19th century in the UK often used specialized terminology. The definitions on this page are to provide a sense of what someone in the late 19th century might have meant by the term rather than a definition of what we might mean by it today. In the absence of a specialized glossary from the end of the 19th century in the U.K., we use the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' because the senses of a word are illustrated with examples that have dates so we can be sure that the senses we pick are appropriate for when they are used in the quotations we have.
We also sometimes use the French ''Wikipédia'' to define a word because many technical terms of fashion were borrowings from the French. Also, often the French ''Wikipédia'' provides historical context for the uses of a word similar to the way the ''OED'' does.
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Men's ==
[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|Men's military uniforms]] are discussed below.
=== À la Romaine ===
[[File:Johann Baptist Straub - Mars um 1772-1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Old and damaged marble statue of a Roman god of war with flowing cloak, big helmet with a plume on top, and armor|Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 ''à la romaine'' ''Mars'']]
A few people who attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball in 1897]] personated Roman gods or people. They were dressed not as Romans, however, but ''à la romaine'', which was a standardized style of depicting Roman figures that was used in paintings, sculpture and the theatre for historical dress from the 17th until the 20th century. The codification of the style was developed in France in the 17th century for theatre and ballet, when it became popular for masked balls.
Women as well as men could be dressed ''à la romaine'', but much sculpture, portraiture and theatre offered opportunities for men to dress in Roman style — with armor and helmets — and so it was most common for men. In large part because of the codification of the style as well as the painting and sculpture, the style persisted and remained influential into the 20th century and can be found in museums and galleries and on monuments.
For example, Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 statue of Mars (left), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, missing part of an arm, shows Mars ''à la romaine''. In London, an early 17th-century example of a figure of Mars ''à la romaine'', with a helmet, is "at the foot of the Buckingham tomb in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey."<ref>Webb, Geoffrey. “Notes on Hubert Le Sueur-II.” ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 52, no. 299 (1928): 81–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/863535.</ref>{{rp|81, Col. 2c}}
[[File:Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of 2 men flamboyantly and stylishly dressed in colorful silk, with white lace, high-heeled boots and long hair|Van Dyck's c. 1638 painting of cavaliers Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart]]
[[File:Frans_Hals_-_The_Meagre_Company_(detail)_-_WGA11119.jpg|thumb|Frans Hals - The Meagre Company (detail) - WGA11119.jpg]]
=== Cavalier ===
As a signifier in the form of clothing of a royalist political and social ideology begun in France in the early 17th century, the cavalier style established France as the leader in fashion and taste. Adopted by [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|wealthy royalist British military officers]] during the time of the Restoration, the style signified a political and social position, both because of the loyalty to Charles I and II as well the wealth required to achieve the cavalier look. The style spread beyond the political, however, to become associated generally with dress as well as a style of poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-25|title=Cavalier poet|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier_poet&oldid=1151690299|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_poet.</ref>
Van Dyck's 1638 painting of two brothers (right) emphasizes the cavalier style of dress.
The cavalier style included gloves with large gauntlets, lace on boots, more loosely fitted breeches, coats or doublets, which were slashed so the shirt beneath was visible. Men who dressed in cavalier style also wore large and, later, powdered wigs, like those of Louis XIV, having taken the French style back to Britain.
Neck treatments in the cavalier style were falling bands, wide lace collars and jabots. These were all looser, unsupported with wires, the way the earlier ruffs were, and unstarched.
=== Coats ===
==== Doublet ====
* In the 19th-century newspaper accounts we have seen that use this word, doublet seems always to refer to a garment worn by a man, but historically women may have worn doublets. In fact, a doublet worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the golden doublet — exists and is in the Elizabeth Day McCormick collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (but no image of it is in the public domain).
* Technically doublets were long sleeved, although we cannot be certain what this or that Victorian tailor would have done for a costume. For example, the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball|Duke of Devonshire's costume as Charles V]] shows long sleeves that may be part of the surcoat but should be the long sleeves of the doublet.
==== Pourpoint ====
A padded doublet worn under armor to protect the warrior from the metal chafing. A pourpoint could also be worn without the armor.
==== Surcoat ====
Sometimes just called ''coat''.
[[File:Oscar Wilde by Sarony 1882 18.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photograph of a young man wearing a velvet jacket, knee breeches, silk hose and shiny pointed shoes with bows, seated on a sofa and leaning on his left hand and holding a book in his right| Oscar Wilde, 1882, by Napoleon Sarony]]
=== Hose, Stockings and Tights ===
Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century of men's clothing use the term ''hose'' for what we might call stockings or tights.
In fact, the terminology is specific. ''Stockings'' is the more general term and could refer to hose or tights. With knee breeches men wore hose, which ended above the knee, and women wore hose under their dresses.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines tights as "Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and still forming part of court-dress."<ref>“Tights, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2693287467.</ref> By 1897, the term was in use for women's stockings, which may have come up only to the knee. Tights were also worn by dancers and acrobats. This general sense of ''tights'' does not assume that they were knitted.
''Clocking'' is decorative embroidery on hose, usually, at the ankles on either the inside or the outside of the leg. It started at the ankle and went up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee. On women's hose, the clocking could be quite colorful and elaborate, while the clocking on men's hose was more inconspicuous.
In many photographs men's hose are wrinkled, especially at the ankles and the knees, because they were shaped from woven fabric. Silk hose were knitted instead of woven, which gave them elasticity and reduced the wrinkling.
The famous Sarony carte de visite photograph of Oscar Wilde (right) shows him in 1882 wearing knee breeches and silk hose, which are shiny and quite smoothly fitted although they show a few wrinkles at the ankles and knees. In the portraits of people in costume at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the men's hose are sometimes quite smooth, which means they were made of knitted silk and may have been smoothed for the portrait.
In painted portraits the hose are almost always depicted as smooth, part of the artist's improvement of the appearance of the subject.
=== Shoes and Boots ===
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Women's ==
=== '''Chérusque''' ===
According to the French ''Wikipedia'', ''chérusque'' is a 19th-century term for the kind of standing collar like the ones worn by ladies in the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-06-26|title=Collerette (costume)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collerette_(costume)&oldid=184136746|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collerette_(costume)#Au+xixe+siècle+:+la+Chérusque.</ref>
=== Corsage ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the corsage is the "'body' of a woman's dress; a bodice."<ref>"corsage, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/42056. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> This sense is well documented in the ''OED'' for the mid and late 19th-century, used this way in fiction as well as in a publication like ''Godey's Lady's Book'', which would be expected to use appropriate terminology associated with fashion and dress making.
The sense of "a bouquet worn on the bodice" is, according to the ''OED'', American.
=== Décolletage ===
=== Girdle ===
=== Mancheron ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a ''mancheron'' is a "historical" word for "A piece of trimming on the upper part of a sleeve on a woman's dress."<ref>"mancheron, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/113251. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> At the present, in French, a ''mancheron'' is a cap sleeve "cut directly on the bodice."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-28|title=Manche (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manche_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=199054843|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manche_(v%C3%AAtement).</ref>
=== Paletot ===
A cloak or jacket worn by both women and men in different periods. In the late 19th century, we see Victoria wearing them frequently, sometimes dressed for outdoors but not always.
Paletot-redingote:<blockquote>United Kingdom. Introduced in 1867, ladies' fitted long coat cut without a waist seam. It had revers and buttoned down the front. They sometimes had capes.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|217}}</blockquote>
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a paletot is longer than hip length, has long sleeves, opens in the front.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-02-20|title=Manteau (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manteau_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=233467144|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
=== Petticoat ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a petticoat is a <blockquote>skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented); an outer skirt; a decorative underskirt. Frequently in ''plural'': a woman's or girl's upper skirts and underskirts collectively. Now ''archaic'' or ''historical''.<ref>“petticoat, n., sense 2.b”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1021034245></ref> </blockquote>This sense is, according to the ''O.E.D.'', "The usual sense between the 17th and 19th centuries." However, while petticoats belong in both outer- and undergarments — that is, meant to be seen or hidden, like underwear — they were always under another garment, for example, underneath an open overskirt. The primary sense seems to have shifted through the 19th century so that, by the end, petticoats were underwear and the term ''underskirt'' was used to describe what showed under an open overskirt.
In the 19th century, women wore their chemises, bloomers and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|hoops]] under their petticoats.
=== Stomacher ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a stomacher is "An ornamental covering for the chest (often covered with jewels) worn by women under the lacing of the bodice,"<ref>“stomacher, n.¹, sense 3.a”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169498955></ref> although by the end of the 19th century, the bodice did not often have visible laces. Some stomachers were so decorated that they were thought of as part of the jewelry.
=== Train ===
A train is
The Length of the Train
'''For the monarch [or a royal?]'''
According to Debrett's,<blockquote>A peeress's coronation robe is a long-trained crimson velvet mantle, edged with miniver pure, with a miniver pure cape. The length of the train varies with the rank of the wearer:
* Duchess: for rows of ermine; train to be six feet
* Marchioness: three and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and three-quarters feet
* Countess: three rows of ermine; train to be three and a half feet
* Viscountess: two and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and a quarter feet
* Baroness: two rows of ermine; train to be three feet<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes|website=debretts.com|language=en-US|access-date=2023-07-27}} https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/.</ref>
</blockquote>The pattern on the coronet worn was also quite specific, similar but not exactly the same for peers and peeresses. Debrett's also distinguishes between coronets and tiaras, which were classified more like jewelry, which was regulated only in very general terms.
Peeresses put on their coronets after the Queen or Queen Consort has been crowned. ['''peers?''']
== Hats, Bonnets and Headwear ==
=== Women's ===
The dresses in the 1892 production of Reyer's Salammbo, based on the Flaubert novel, were influential and occasioned a lot of newspaper coverage:<blockquote>Among the concessions to women made recently in Paris, and over which old-fashioned folk shake their heads as being a terrible innovation, is the permission given to sit in the orchestra stalls at the theatre. Though only in the two last rows of the spectators, women of the first class had place, they are still obliged to appear in demi-toilette, which includes the wearing of a bonnet. It was on the occasion of the first performance of “Salammbo” that the change was allowed, and there are not wanting people who think that after such a departure a deluge, or some such visitation, may be looked for.<ref>"Ladies Column." ''Kilburn Times'' 8 July 1892, Friday: 7 [of 8], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001813/18920708/175/0007. Print title: ''The Kilburn Times, Hampstead and North-Western Post'', p. 7</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Gwendolen Bourke]] was dressed as Salammbo at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]].
==== Fontanges ====
[[File:Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg|thumb|Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg]][[File:Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg|none|thumb|Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg]]
==== Widow's Cap ====
or mourning bonnet
According to Kate Strasdin, widow's caps were "white crinkled crape [sic] objects with long streamers flowing down the back, ... customarily worn by single old women who had never remarried."<ref>Strasdin, Kate. ''The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe''. Pegasus, 2023.</ref>{{rp|734 of 1124}}
[[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Widow's Cap|Queen Victoria's widow's caps]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Headdresses|other headdresses]] are discussed on her page.
=== Men's ===
== Cinque Cento ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''Cinque Cento'' is a shortening of ''mil cinque cento'', or 1500.<ref>"cinquecento, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/33143. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> The term, then would refer, perhaps informally, to the sixteenth century.
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset - MET 1972.209.49a, b.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|none]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":11" />{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Court Dress ==
Also Levee and drawing-room
== Crevé ==
''Creve'', without the accent, is an old word in English (c. 1450) for burst or split.<ref>"creve, v." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44339. Accessed 8 February 2023.</ref> ['''With the acute accent, it looks like a past participle in French.''']
== Elaborations ==
In her 1973 ''The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and the Season'', Leonore Davidoff notes that women’s status was indicated by dress and especially ornament: “Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration,” she says, “symbolised some status category for the female wearer.”<ref name=":1">Davidoff, Leonore. ''The Best Circles: Society Etiquette and the Season''. Intro., Victoria Glendinning. The Cressett Library (Century Hutchinson), 1986 (orig 1973).</ref>{{rp|93}}
Looking at these elaborations as meaningful rather than dismissing them as failed attempts at "historical accuracy" reveals a great deal about the individual women who wore or carried them — and about the society women and political hostesses in their roles as managers of the social world. In her review of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', Mary Frances Gormally says,<blockquote>In a socially regulated year, garments custom made with a Worth label provided women with total reassurance, whatever the season, time of day or occasion, setting them apart as members of the “Best Circles” dressed in luxurious, fashionable and always appropriate attire (Davidoff 1973). The woman with a Worth wardrobe was a woman of elegance, lineage, status, extreme wealth and faultless taste.<ref>Gormally, Mary Frances. Review essay of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (V&A Publishing, 2014). ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21, 1): 109–126. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1179400.</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
[[File:Aglets from Spanish portraits - collage by shakko.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage of 12 different ornaments typically worn by elite people from Spain in the 1500s and later|Aglets — Detail from Spanish Portraits]]
=== Aglet, Aiglet ===
Historically, an aglet is a "point or metal piece that capped a string [or ribbon] used to attach two pieces of the garment together, i.e., sleeve and bodice."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|4}} Although they were decorative, they were not always visible on the outside of the clothing. They were often stuffed inside the layers at the waist (for example, attaching the bodice to a skirt or breeches).
Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (above right, in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#16th Century|Hoops section]]) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour," with "handsome aiglets cascad[ing] down center front."<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|315}}
=== Berthe ===
Can be spelled ''bertha''.
A wide collar made of lace and gathered at the neckline, sometimes covering the arms. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Wide collar popular on women's gowns. Accented dropped shoulder line. Often made of lace.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|29}}</blockquote>
=== Dags ===
Popular in European dress 1450–1550, dagging was a "hanging end or shred" decoration on the edges of outer clothing, with a similar term used for "a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-14|title=dag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=dag&oldid=90785397|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> Often dagging would be used to hem the bottom edges of hoods, doublets, tabards and chain mail.
=== Flounce ===
A ruffle that is gathered on one edge, the bottom edge is free. Flounces are typically part of the decoration on a skirt.
=== Frou-frou ===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|left|thumb|Bernhardt, 1881]]
In French, ''frou-frou'' or, spelled as ''froufrou'', is the sound of the rustling of silk or sometimes of fabrics in general.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-25|title=frou-frou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frou-frou&oldid=32508509|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou.</ref> The first use the French ''Wiktionnaire'' lists is Honoré Balzac, ''La Cousine Bette'', 1846.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-03|title=froufrou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=froufrou&oldid=32330124|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/froufrou.</ref> ''Frou-frou'' is also a 1869 French drawing-room comedy by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-19|title=Henri Meilhac|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Meilhac&oldid=1286340698|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and performed by Sarah Bernhardt in London in 1881 (Bernhardt, left, in costume ['''conflicting info, is a photo of Bernhardt in ''La Dame aux Camélias'' instead'''?]).
''Frou-frou'' is a term clothing historians use to describe decorative additions to an article of clothing; often the term has a slight negative connotation, suggesting that the additions are superficial and, perhaps, excessive.
=== Plastics ===
Small poufs of fabric connected in a strip in the 18th century, Rococo styles.
=== Pouf, Puff, Poof ===
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a pouf was, beginning in 1744, a "kind of women's hairstyle":<blockquote>The hairstyle in question, known as the “pouf”, had launched the reputation of the enterprising Rose Bertin, owner of the Grand Mogol, a very prominent fashion accessories boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1774. Created in collaboration with the famous hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, the pouf was built on a scaffolding of wire, fabric, gauze, horsehair, fake hair, and the client's own hair held up in an almost vertical position. — (Marie-Antoinette, ''Queen of Fashion'', translated from the American by Sylvie Lévy, in ''The Rules of the Game'', n° 40, 2009)</blockquote>''Puff'' and ''poof'' are used to describe clothing.
=== Shirring ===
''Shirring'' is the gathering of fabric to make poufs or puffs. The 19th century is known for its use of this decorative technique. Even men's clothing had shirring: at the shoulder seam.
=== Sequins ===
Sequins, paillettes, spangles
Sequins — or paillettes — are "small, scalelike glittering disks."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|216}} The French ''Wiktionnaire'' defines ''paillette'' as "Lamelle de métal, brillante, mince, percée au milieu, ordinairement ronde, et qu’on applique sur une étoffe pour l’orner [A strip of metal, shiny, thin, pierced in the middle, usually round, and which is applied to a fabric in order to decorate it.]"<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|date=2024-03-18|title=paillette|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=paillette&oldid=33809572|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillette.</ref>
According to the ''OED'', the use of ''sequin'' as a decorative device for clothing (as opposed to gold coins minted and used for international trade) goes back to the 1850s.<ref>“Sequin, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4074851670.</ref> The first instance of ''spangle'' as "A small round thin piece of glittering metal (usually brass) with a hole in the centre to pass a thread through, used for the decoration of textile fabrics and other materials of various sorts" is from c. 1420.<ref>“Spangle, N. (1).” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4727197141.</ref> The first use of ''paillette'' listed in the French ''Wiktionnaire'' is in Jules Verne in 1873 to describe colored spots on icy walls.<ref name=":8" />
Currently many distinguish between sequins (which are smaller) and paillettes (which are larger).
Before the 20th century, sequins were metal discs or foil leaves, and so of course if they were silver or copper, they tarnished. It is not until well into the 20th century that plastics were invented and used for sequins.
=== Trim and Lace ===
''A History of Feminine Fashion'', published sometime before 1927 and probably commissioned by [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Worth, of Paris|the Maison Worth]], describes Charles Frederick Worth's contributions to the development of embroidery and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Passementerie|passementerie]] (trim) from about the middle of the 19th century:<blockquote>For it must be remembered that one of M. Worth's most important and lasting contributions to the prosperity of those who cater for women's needs, as well as to the variety and elegance of his clients' garments, was his insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description. In his endeavours to restore in Paris the splendours of the days of La Pompadour, and of Marie Antoinette, he found himself confronted at the outset with a grave difficulty, which would have proved unsurmountable to a man of less energy, resource and initiative. The magnificent materials of those days were no longer to be had! The Revolution had destroyed the market for beautiful materials of this, type, and the Restoration and regime of Louis Philippe had left a dour aspect in the City of Light. ... On parallel lines [to his development of better [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Satin|satin]]], [Worth] stimulated also the manufacture of embroidery and ''passementerie''. It was he who first started the manufacture of laces copied from the designs of the real old laces. He was the / first dressmaker to use fur in the trimming of light materials — but he employed only the richer furs, such as sable and ermine, and had no use whatever for the inferior varieties of skins.<ref name=":9">[Worth, House of.] {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfFeminineFashion|title=A History Of Feminine Fashion (1800s to 1920s)}} Before 1927. [Likely commissioned by Worth. Link is to Archive.org; info from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worth_Biarritz_salon.jpg.]</ref>{{rp|6–7}}</blockquote>
==== Gold and Silver Fabric and Lace ====
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on gold and silver fabric, threads and lace attached to the article on gold. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>GOLD AND SILVER LACE. Under this heading a general account may be given of the use of the precious metals in textiles of all descriptions into which they enter. That these metals were used largely in the sumptuous textiles of the earliest periods of civilization there is abundant testimony; and to this day, in the Oriental centres whence a knowledge and the use of fabrics inwoven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver first spread, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still most strongly and generally prevalent. The earliest mention of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3) — "And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." In both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' distinct allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered golden textiles. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver originated in India, where it is still principally prosecuted, and that from one great city to another the practice travelled westward, — Babylon, Tarsus, Baghdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Con- / stantinople and Venice, all in the process of time becoming famous centres of these much prized manufactures. Alexander the Great found Indian kings and princes arrayed in robes of gold and purple; and the Persian monarch Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle of cloth of gold, on which were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. There is reason, according to Josephus, to believe that the “royal apparel" worn by Herod on the day of his death (Acts xii. 21) was a tissue of silver. Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, had a robe woven entirely of gold, and from that period downwards royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decorations. In England, at different periods, various names were applied to cloths of gold, as ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekiu or baldachin, Cyprus damask, and twssewys or tissue. The thin flimsy paper known as tissue paper, is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold "tissue" to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. At what time the drawing of gold wire for the preparation of these textiles was first practised is not accurately known. The art was probably introduced and applied in different localities at widely different dates, but down till mediaeval times the method graphically described in the Pentateuch continued to be practised with both gold and silver.
Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the "gold wire" of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India soniri, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhábs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. "Gold and silver," says Dr Birdwood in his ''Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition'', 1878, "are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured ''mashrus'' at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccau; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly."
Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds — 1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India, — round wire, flat wire, thread made of flat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as "orris," fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.
The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.<ref>William Chandler Roberts-Austen and H. Bauerman [W.C.R. — H.B.]. "Gold and Silver Lace." In "Gold." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. 10 (X). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%2010%20%28G-GOT%29%20193592738.23/page/753/mode/1up (accessed January 2023): 753, Col. 2c – 754, Cols. 1a–b – 2a–b.</ref></blockquote>
==== Honiton Lace ====
Kate Stradsin says,<blockquote>Honiton lace was the finest English equivalent of Brussels bobbin lace and was constructed in small ‘sprigs, in the cottages of lacemakers[.'] These sprigs were then joined together and bleached to form the large white flounces that were so sought after in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>Strasdin, Kate. "Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research." ''The Court Historian'' 24.2 (2019): 181-196. Rpt http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3762/15/Rediscovering%20Queen%20Alexandra%27s%20Wardrobe.pdf: 13, and (for the little quotation) n. 37, which reads "Margaret Tomlinson, ''Three Generations in the Honiton Lace Trade: A Family History'', self-published, 1983."</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Strook in Alençon naaldkant, 1750-1775.jpg|thumb|alt=A long piece of complex white lace with garlands, flowers and bows|Point d'Alençon lace, 1750-1775]]
==== Passementerie ====
''Passementerie'' is the French term for trim on clothing or furniture. The 19th century (especially during the First and Second Empire) was a time of great "''exubérance''" in passementerie in French design, including the development and widespread use of the Jacquard loom.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-10|title=Passementerie|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Passementerie&oldid=205068926|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passementerie.</ref>
==== Point d'Alençon Lace ====
A lace made by hand using a number of complex steps and layers. The lacemakers build the point d'Alençon design on some kind of mesh and sometimes leave some of the mesh in as part of the lace and perhaps to provide structure.
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines point d'Alençon lace and Alençon lace separately. Point lace is needlepoint lace,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|233}} so Alençon point is "a two thread [needlepoint] lace."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}} Alençon lace has a "floral design on [a] fine net ground [and is] referred to as [the] queen of French handmade needlepoint laces. The original handmade Alençon was a fine needlepoint lace made of linen thread."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}}
The sample of point d'Alençon lace (right), from 1750–1775, shows the linen mesh that the lace was constructed on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689|title=MoMu - Open Fashion|website=openfashion.momu.be|access-date=2024-02-26}} ModeMuseum Antwerpen. http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689.</ref> The consistency in this sample suggests it may have been made by machine.
== Elastic ==
Elastic had been invented and was in use by the end of the 19th century. For the sense of "Elastic cord or string, usually woven with india-rubber,"<ref name=":6">“elastic, adj. & n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1199670313>.</ref> the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has usage examples beginning in 1847. The example for 1886 is vivid: "The thorough-going prim man will always place a circle of elastic round his hair previous to putting on his college cap."<ref name=":6" />
== Fabric ==
=== Brocatelle ===
Brocatelle is a kind of brocade, more simple than most brocades because it uses fewer warp and weft threads and fewer colors to form the design. The article in the French ''Wikipédia'' defines it like this:<blockquote>La '''brocatelle''' est un type de tissu datant du <abbr>xvi<sup>e</sup></abbr> siècle qui comporte deux chaînes et deux trames, au minimum. Il est composé pour que le dessin ressorte avec un relief prononcé, grâce à la chaîne sur un fond en sergé. Les brocatelles les plus anciennes sont toujours fabriquées avec une des trames en lin.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-01|title=Brocatelle|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brocatelle&oldid=204796410|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocatelle.</ref></blockquote>Which translates to this:<blockquote>Brocatelle is a type of fabric dating from the 16th century that has two warps and two wefts, at a minimum. It is composed so that the design stands out with a pronounced relief, thanks to the weft threads on a twill background. The oldest brocades were always made with one of the wefts being linen.</blockquote>The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says, brocatelle is an "imitation of brocade, usually made of silk or wool, used for tapestry, upholstery, etc., now also for dresses. Both the nature and the use of the stuff have changed" between the late 17th century and 1888, the last time this definition was revised.<ref>"brocatelle, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/23550. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Broché ===
Lewandowski says, "to be woven with a raised figure or to be embossed."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|39}} In English, the word might be spelled with or without the acute accent on the final ''e''. Generally, the term was used loosely to describe fabric with a pattern woven into it, either in the same color or a color different from that of the background. That is, the weave that produces the pattern is different from the weave that produces the background.
S. F. A. Caulfeild and B. C. Saward published this definition of ''broché'' in their 1887 ''Dictionary of Needlework'', according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (the ''face'' being the side of the fabric facing the viewer):<blockquote>Broché. A French term denoting a velvet or silk textile, with a satin figure thrown up on the face.<ref>“Broché, Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1054215522.</ref></blockquote>
=== Chiffon ===
A lightweight, somewhat sheer silk fabric, chiffon would have been worn only by the social elite at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal|date=2025-10-12|title=Chiffon (fabric)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chiffon_(fabric)&oldid=1316464288|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Synthetic fibers were not invented until the 20th century — nylon chiffon in 1938 and polyester chiffon not until 1958.<ref name=":25" />
=== Ciselé ===
=== Crape ===
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' distinguishes the use of ''crêpe'' (using a circumflex rather than an acute accent over the first ''e'') from ''crape'' in textiles, saying ''crêpe'' is "often borrowed [from the French] as a term for all crapy fabrics other than ordinary [[Social Victorians/Mourning|black mourning crape]],"<ref name=":24">"crêpe, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44242. Accessed 10 February 2023.</ref> with usage examples ranging from 1797 to the mid 20th century. This distinction seems more prescriptive than descriptive since texts from the 19th century to now do not make it reliably. Sometimes 19th-century newspapers put an acute accent on the ''e'' and spelled it crépe.
The fabric used for full mourning was black crape, a fabric with a dull texture, but writers continue to vary in how to spell it. Julia Baird uses ''crêpe'', defining it as "a thick black rustling material made of silk, crimped to make it look dull."<ref>Baird, Julia. ''Victoria the Queen, an Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire''. Random House, 2016. https://books.apple.com/us/book/victoria-the-queen/id953835024.</ref>{{rp|584 of 1203}}
However it is spelled, crêpe is<blockquote>Any number of fabrics with characteristic crinkled or puckered surface.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>
==== Crepe de Chine ====
Crêpe de chine, the ''OED'' says, is "a white or other coloured crape made of raw silk."<ref name=":24" /> Lewandowski defines it as "a very lightweight, fine, plain weave silk fabric. ... Introduced in 1866, China crepe with soft, silky surface."<ref name=":7" /> (77)
==== Crepon de Chine ====
Crepon is a fabric heavier than the usual crape but treated like crape to be crinkly. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Introduced in 1882, wool, silk, or blend fabric like very heavy crepe. ... Gay Nineties (1890–1900 C.E.). Popular in 1890s, woolen fabric creped to appear puffed between stripes [or] squares.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>According to Lewandowski, ''crepon'' can also be another word for bustle (1865–1890 C.E. to present).<ref name=":7" /> (77)
=== Crinoline ===
Technically, crinoline was a fabric made mostly of horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, similar to buckram today, used in men's military collars and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinolines|women's foundation garments]]. Lewandowski defines crinoline as <blockquote>(1840–1865 C.E.). France. Originally horsehair cloth used for officers' collars. Later used for women's underskirts to support skirts. Around 1850, replaced by many petticoats, starched and boned. Around 1856, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|light metal cage]] was developed.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>The term has been used so consistently for the cage first introduced in the 1850s that held the skirt out from the body, however, that it is important to say ''crinoline cage'' or ''crinoline fabric'' or ''crinoline petticoat'' to be clear.
=== Épinglé Velvet ===
Often spelled ''épingle'' rather than ''épinglé'', this term appears to have been used for a fabric made of wool, or at least wool along with linen or cotton, that was heavier and stiffer than silk velvet. It was associated with outer garments and men's clothing. Nowadays, épinglé velvet is an upholstery fabric in which the pile is cut into designs and patterns, and the portrait of [[Social Victorians/People/Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton|Mary, Duchess of Hamilton]] shows a mantle described as épinglé velvet that does seem to be a velvet with a woven pattern perhaps cut into the pile.
=== Lace ===
While lace also functioned sometimes as fabric — at the décolletage, for example, on the stomacher or as a veil — here we organize it as a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Trim and Lace|part of the elaboration of clothing]].
=== Liberty Fabrics ===
=== Lisse ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''lisse'' as a "kind of silk gauze" was used in the 19th-century UK and US.<ref>"lisse, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108978. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Muslin ===
=== Satin ===
The pre-1927 ''History of Feminine Fashion'', probably commissioned by Charles Frederick Worth's sons, describes Worth's "insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description" at the beginning of his career in the mid 19th century:<blockquote>When Worth first entered the business of dressmaking, the only materials of the richer sort used for woman's dress were velvet, faille, and watered silk. Satin, for example, was never used. M. Worth desired to use satin very extensively in the gowns he designed, but he was not satisfied with what could be had at the time; he wanted something very much richer than was produced by the mills at Lyons. That his requirements entailed the reconstruction of mills mattered little — the mills were reconstructed under his directions, and the Lyons looms turned out a richer satin than ever, and the manufacturers prospered accordingly.<ref name=":9" />{{rp|6 in printed, 26 in digital book}}</blockquote>
=== Selesia ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''silesia'' is "A fine linen or cotton fabric originally manufactured in Silesia in what is now Germany (''Schlesien'').<ref>"Silesia, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/179664. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> It may have been used as a lining — for pockets, for example — in garments made of more luxurious or more expensive cloth. The word ''sleazy'' — "Of textile fabrics or materials: Thin or flimsy in texture; having little substance or body."<ref>"sleazy, adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/181563. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> — may be related.
=== Shot Fabric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "Of a textile fabric: Woven with warp-threads of one colour and weft-threads of another, so that the fabric (usually silk) changes in tint when viewed from different points."<ref>“Shot, ''Adj.''” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2977164390.</ref> A shot fabric might also be made of silk and cotton fibers.
=== Tissue ===
A lightly woven fabric like gauze or chiffon. The light weave can make the fabric translucent and make pleating and gathering flatter and less bulky. Tissue can be woven to be shot, sheer, stiff or soft.
Historically, the term in English was used for a "rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold or silver" or "various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture."<ref>“Tissue, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5896731814.</ref>
=== Tulle ===
In the 19th century, tulle — a very fine net — was a sheer woven tissue made of linen or silk. Tulle looms were invented in the late 18th century,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-04|title=Tulle (tissu)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(tissu)&oldid=228712045|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> and the fabric "first made by machine in 1768 in Nottingham."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|299}} By 1802 English tulle was recognized as higher quality than French tulle, even though the fabric is named for the French city.<ref name=":23" />
Tulle is still used today, but it is usually made of synthetic fabric.<blockquote>It is a finer textile than the textile referred to as "net". ...
It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, polyester and rayon. Polyester is the most common fibre used for tulle.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-05|title=Tulle (netting)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(netting)&oldid=1304416320|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Victorian silk tulle would not have been stiff unless it was treated with sizing.
== Fan ==
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on the fan. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>FAN (Latin, ''vannus''; French, ''éventail''), a light implement used for giving motion to the air. ''Ventilabrum'' and ''flabellum'' are names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attributes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyptian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day.
Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached — of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul’s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supreme pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or ''mundus muliebris'', of ancient Roman ladies.
Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used—a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to invite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while working with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held together by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals.
Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de’ Medici, probably from Italy, then in advance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII.’s reign in England were used to handling fans, A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round leather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the ''Spectator'' humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes.
The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the decorations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly ''chicken skin'', but not correctly), — a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edicts at various times to regulate the manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called “Vernis Martin,” after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were exhibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the / 17th century. Cano de Arevalo, a Spanish painter of the 17th century devoted himself to fan painting. Some harsh expressions of Queen Christina to the young ladies of the French court are said to have caused an increased ostentation in the splendour of their fans, which were set with jewels and mounted in gold. Rosalba Carriera was the name of a fan painter of celebrity in the 17th century. Lebrun and Romanelli were much employed during the same period. Klingstet, a Dutch artist, enjoyed a considerable reputation for his fans from the latter part of the 17th and the first thirty years of the 18th century.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes drove many fan-makers out of France to Holland and England. The trade in England was well established under the Stuart sovereigns. Petitions were addressed by the fan-makers to Charles II. against the importation of fans from India, and a duty was levied upon such fans in consequence. This importation of Indian fans, according to Savary, extended also to France. During the reign of Louis XV. carved Indian and China fans displaced to some extent those formerly imported from Italy, which had been painted on swanskin parchment prepared with various perfumes.
During the 18th century all the luxurious ornamentation of the day was bestowed on fans as far as they could display it. The sticks were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill in France, Italy, England, and other countries. They were painted from designs of Boucher, Watteau, Lancret, and other "genre" painters, Hébert, Rau, Chevalier, Jean Boquet, Mad. Verité, are known as fan painters. These fashions were followed in most countries of Europe, with certain national differences. Taffeta and silk, as well as fine parchment, were used for the mounts. Little circles of glass were let into the stick to be looked through, and small telescopic glasses were sometimes contrived at the pivot of the stick. They were occasionally mounted with the finest point lace. An interesting fan (belonging to Madame de Thiac in France), the work of Le Flamand, was presented by the municipality of Dieppe to Marie Antoinette on the birth of her son the dauphin. From the time of the Revolution the old luxury expended on fans died out. Fine examples ceased to be exported to England and other countries. The painting on them represented scenes or personages connected with political events. At a later period fan mounts were often prints coloured by hand. The events of the day mark the date of many examples found in modern collections. Amongst the fanmakers of the present time the names of Alexandre, Duvelleroy, Fayet, Vanier, may be mentioned as well known in Paris. The sticks are chiefly made in the department of Oise, at Le Déluge, Crèvecœur, Méry, Ste Geneviève, and other villages, where whole families are engaged in preparing them; ivory sticks are carved at Dieppe. Water-colour painters of distinction often design and paint the mounts, the best designs being figure subjects. A great impulse has been given to the manufacture and painting of fans in England since the exhibition which took place at South Kensington in 1870. Other exhibitions have since been held, and competitive prizes offered, one of which was gained by the Princess Louise. Modern collections of fans take their date from the emigration of many noble families from France at the time of the Revolution. Such objects were given as souvenirs and occasionally sold by families in straitened circumstances. A large number of fans of all sorts, principally those of the 18th century, French, English, German, Italian Spanish, &c., have been lately bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.
Regarding the different parts of folding fans it may be well to state that the sticks are called in French ''brins'', the two outer guards ''panaches'', and the mount ''feuille''.<ref>J. H. Pollen [J.H.P.]. "Fan." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. '''10''' ('''X'''). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%209%20%28FAL-FYZ%29%20193323016.23/page/26/mode/2up (accessed January 2023): 27, Col. 1b – 28, Col. 1c.</ref></blockquote>Folding fans were available and popular early and are common accessories in portraits of fashionable women through the centuries.
== Costumes for Theatre and Fancy Dress ==
Fancy-dress (or costume) balls were popular and frequent in the U.K. and France as well as the rest of Europe and North America during the 19th century. The themes and styles of the fancy-dress balls influenced those that followed.
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the guests came dressed in costume from times before 1820, as instructed on '''the invitation''', but their clothing was much more about late-Victorian standards of beauty and fashion than the standards of whatever time period the portraits they were copying or basing their costumes on.
=== Fancy Dress ===
In her ''Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898'', Cynthia Cooper describes the resources available to those needing help making a costume for a fancy-dress ball:<blockquote>There were a number of places eager ballgoers could turn for assistance and inspiration. Those with a scholarly bent might pore over history books or study pictures of paintings or other works of art. For more direct advice, one could turn to the barrage of published information specifically on fancy dress. Women’s magazines such as ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' and ''The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine'' sometimes featured fancy dress designs and articles, and enticing specialized books were available with extensive recommendations for choosing fancy dress. By far the most complete sources were the books by [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], a prolific British authority on the subject. Holt’s book for women, ''Fancy Dresses Described, or What to Wear at Fancy Balls'' (published in six editions between 1879 and 1896), began with the query, ‘‘But what are we to wear?” Holt’s companion book, ''Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress:'' ''How to Choose It'', was also published in six editions from 1882 to 1905. Other prominent authorities included Mrs. Aria’s ''Costume: Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical'' and, in the US, the Butterick Company’s ''Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes''. The Butterick publication relied heavily on Holt, copying large sections of the introduction outright and paraphrasing other sections.<ref name=":16">Cooper, Cynthia. ''Magnificent entertainments: fancy dress balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898''.Fredericton, N.B.; Hull, Quebec: Goose Lane Editions and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1997. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/magnificententer0000coop/.</ref>{{rp|28–29}}</blockquote>
Cynthia Cooper discusses how "historical accuracy" works in historical fiction and historical dress: <blockquote>A seemingly accurate costume and coiffure bespoke a cultured individual whose most gratifying compliment would be “historically correct.” Those who were fortunate enough to own actual clothing from an earlier period might wear it with pride as a historical relic, though they would generally adapt or remake it in keeping with the aesthetics of their own period. Historical accuracy was always in the eye of beholders inclined to overlook elements of current fashion in a historical costume. Theatre had long taught the public that if a costume appeared tasteful and attractive, it could be assumed to be accurate. Even at Queen Victoria’s fancy dress balls, costume silhouette was always far more like the fashionable dress of the period than of the time portrayed. For this reason, many extant eighteenth-century dresses show evidence of extensive alterations done in the nineteenth century, no doubt for fancy dress purposes.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>
The newspaper ''The Queen'' published dress and fashion information and advice under the byline of [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], who regularly answered questions from readers about fashion as well as about fancy dress. Holt also wrote entire articles with suggestions for what might make an appealing fancy-dress costume as well as pointing readers away from costumes that had been worn too frequently. The suggestions for costumes are based on familiar types or portraits available to readers, similar to Holt's books on fancy dress, which ran through a number of editions in the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy-dress questions sometimes asked for details about costumes worn in theatrical or operatic productions, which Holt provides.
In November 1897, Holt refers to the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July ball: "Since the famous fancy ball, given at Devonshire House during this year, historical fancy dresses have assumed a prominence that they had not hitherto known."<ref>Holt, Ardern. "Fancy Dress a la Mode." The ''Queen'' 27 November 1897, Saturday: 94 [of 145 in BNA; print p. 1026], Col. 1a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18971127/459/0094.</ref> Holt goes on to provide a number of ideas for costumes for historical fancy dress, as always with a strong leaning toward Victorian standards of beauty and style and away from any concern for historical accuracy.
As Leonore Davidoff says, "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration symbolised some status category for the female wearer."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} [handled under [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Elaborations|Elaborations]]]
=== Historical Accuracy ===
Many of the costumes at the ball were based on portraits, especially when the guest was dressed as a historical figure. If possible, we have found the portraits likely to have been the originals, or we have found, if possible, portraits that show the subjects from the two time periods at similar ages.
The way clothing was cut changed quite a bit between the 18th and 19th centuries. We think of Victorian clothing — particularly women's clothing, and particularly at the end of the century — as inflexible and restrictive, especially compared to 20th- and 21st-century customs permitting freedom of movement. The difference is generally evolutionary rather than absolute — that is, as time has passed since the 18th century, clothing has allowed an increasingly greater range of movement, especially for people who did not do manual labor.
By the end of the 19th century, garments like women's bodices and men's coats were made fitted and smooth by attention to the grain of the fabric and by the use of darts (rather than techniques that assembled many small, individual pieces of fabric).
* clothing construction and flat-pattern techniques
* Generally, the further back in time we go, the more 2-dimensional the clothing itself was.
==== Women's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
As always with this ball, whatever historical accuracy might be present in a woman's costume is altered so that the wearer is still a fashionable Victorian lady. What makes the costumes look "Victorian" to our eyes is the line of the silhouette caused by the foundation undergarments as well as the many "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}}, mostly in the decorations, trim and accessories.
Also, the clothing hangs and drapes differently because the fabric was cut on grain and the shoulders were freed by the way the sleeves were set in.
==== Men's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
Because men were not wearing a Victorian foundation garment at the end of the century, the men's costumes at the ball are more historically accurate in some ways.
* Trim
* Mixing neck treatments
* Hair
* Breeches
* Shoes and boots
* Military uniforms, arms, gloves, boots
== Feathers and Plumes ==
=== Aigrette ===
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines ''aigrette'' as "France. Feather or plume from an egret or heron."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|5}} Sometimes the newspapers use the term to refer to an accessory (like a fan or ornament on a hat) that includes such a feather or plume. The straight and tapered feathers in an aigrette are in a bundle.
=== Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes ===
The feathers in an aigrette came from egrets and herons; Prince of Wales's feathers came from ostriches. A fuller discussion of Prince of Wales's feathers and the white ostrich plumes worn at court appears on [[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|Victorian Things]].
For much of the late 18th and 19th centuries, white ostrich plumes were central to fashion at court, and at a certain point in the late 18th century they became required for women being presented to the monarch and for their sponsors. Our purpose here is to understand why women were wearing plumes at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] as part of their costumes.
First published in 1893, [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Colin Campbell|Lady Colin Campbell]]'s ''Manners and Rules of Good Society'' (1911 edition) says that<blockquote>It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.
White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/|title=The Court Presentation|last=Holl|first=Evangeline|date=2007-12-07|website=Edwardian Promenade|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-18}} https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/.</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|This fashion was imported from France]] in the mid 1770s.<ref>"Abstract" for Blackwell, Caitlin. "'<nowiki/>''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright''': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. ''Wiley Online'' DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x (accessed November 2022).</ref>
Separately, a secondary heraldic emblem of the Prince of Wales has been a specific arrangement of 3 ostrich feathers in a gold coronet<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-07|title=Prince of Wales's feathers|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers&oldid=1120556015|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers.</ref> since King Edward III (1312–1377<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-12-14|title=Edward III of England|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_III_of_England&oldid=1127343221|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England.</ref>).
Some women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] wore white ostrich feathers in their hair, but most of them are not Prince of Wales's feathers. Most of the plumes in these portraits are arrangements of some kind of headdress to accompany the costume. A few, wearing what looks like the Princes of Wales's feathers, might be signaling that their character is royal or has royal ancestry. '''One of the women [which one?] was presented to the royals at this ball?'''
Here is the list of women who are wearing white ostrich plumes in their portraits in the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball/Photographs|''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball'' album of 286 photogravure portraits]]:
# Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, the [[Social Victorians/People/Newcastle|Duchess of Newcastle]]
# [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Luise Cavendish]], the Duchess of Devonshire
# Jesusa Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urritio (née Bellido), [[Social Victorians/People/Santurce|Marquisa de Santurce]]
# Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Farquhar|Emilie Farquhar]]
# Princess (Laura Williamina Seymour) Victor of [[Social Victorians/People/Gleichen#Laura%20Williamina%20Seymour%20of%20Hohenlohe-Langenburg|Hohenlohe Langenburg]]
# Louisa Acheson, [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Lady Gosford]]
# Alice Emily White Coke, [[Social Victorians/People/Leicester|Viscountess Coke]]
# Lady Mary Stewart, Helen Mary Theresa [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Vane-Tempest-Stewart]]
#[[Social Victorians/People/Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill|Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill]], Duchess of [[Social Victorians/People/Marlborough|Marlborough]], dressed as the wife of the French Ambassador at the Court of Catherine of Russia (not white, but some color that reads dark in the black-and-white photograph)
#Mrs. Mary [[Social Victorians/People/Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] (at 491), wearing white plumes, as Madame d'Epinay
#Lady Clementine [[Social Victorians/People/Tweeddale|Hay]] (at 629), wearing white plumes, as St. Bris (''Les Huguenots'')
#[[Social Victorians/People/Meysey-Thompson|Lady Meysey-Thompson]] (at 391), wearing white plumes, as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Grosvenor|Algernon (Catherine) Grosvenor]] (at 510), wearing white plumes, as Marie Louise
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ancaster|Evelyn Ewart]], at 401), wearing white plumes, as the Duchess of Ancaster, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, 1757, after a picture by Hudson
#[[Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton|Edith Sophy Balfour Lyttelton]] (at 580), wearing what might be white plumes on a large-brimmed white hat, after a picture by Romney
#[[Social Victorians/People/Yznaga|Emilia Yznaga]] (at 360), wearing what might be white plumes, as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ilchester|Muriel Fox Strangways]] (at 403), wearing what might be two smallish white plumes, as Lady Sarah Lennox, one of the bridesmaids of Queen Charlotte A.D. 1761
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Violet Bingham]] (at 586), wearing perhaps one white plume in a headdress not related to the Prince of Wales's feathers
#Rosamond Fellowes, [[Social Victorians/People/de Ramsey|Lady de Ramsey]] (at 329), wearing a headdress that includes some white plumes, as Lady Burleigh
#[[Social Victorians/People/Dupplin|Agnes Blanche Marie Hay-Drummond]] (at 682), in a big headdress topped with white plumes, as Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney A.D. 1775
#Florence Canning, [[Social Victorians/People/Garvagh|Lady Garvagh]] (at 336), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#[[Social Victorians/People/Suffolk|Marguerite Hyde "Daisy" Leiter]] (at 684), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Spicer|Margaret Spicer]] (at 281), wearing one smallish white and one black plume, as Countess Zinotriff, Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Catherine of Russia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Cavendish Bentinck|Arthur James]] (at 318), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes, as Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Bess of Hardwick
#Nellie, [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Countess of Kilmorey]] (at 207), wearing three tall plumes, 2 white and one dark, as Comtesse du Barri
#Daisy, [[Social Victorians/People/Warwick|Countess of Warwick]] (at 53), wearing at least 1 white plume, as Marie Antoinette
More men than women were wearing plumes reminiscent of the Prince of Wales's feathers:
*
==== Bibliography for Plumes and Prince of Wales's Feathers ====
* Blackwell, Caitlin. "'''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright'<nowiki/>'': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." Journal for ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. Wiley Online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x.
* "Prince of Wales's feathers." ''Wikipedia'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers (accessed November 2022). ['''Add women to this page''']
* Simpson, William. "On the Origin of the Prince of Wales' Feathers." ''Fraser's magazine'' 617 (1881): 637-649. Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79253140&view=1up&seq=643&q1=feathers (accessed December 2022). Deals mostly with use of feathers in other cultures and in antiquity; makes brief mention of feathers and plumes in signs and pub names that may not be associated with the Prince of Wales. No mention of the use of plumes in women's headdresses or court dress.
[[File:Prince Albert - Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842.jpg|thumb|1842 Winterhalter portrait of Prince Albert wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1842|alt=1842 Portrait of Prince Albert by Winterhalter, wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece]]
== Honors ==
=== The Bath ===
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCB or DCB, Knight or Dame Commander; CB, Companion)
[[File:The Golden Fleece - collar exhibited at MET, NYC.jpg|thumb|The Golden Fleece collar and pendant for the 2019 "Last Knight" exhibition at the MET, NYC.|alt=Recent photograph of a gold necklace on a wide band, with a gold skin of a sheep hanging from it as a pendant|left]]
=== The Golden Fleece ===
To wear the golden fleece is to wear the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, said to be "the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world" because of its long history and strict limitations on membership.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=2020-09-25|title=Order of the Golden Fleece|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece&oldid=980340875|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> The monarchs of the U.K. were members of the originally Spanish order, as were others who could afford it, like the Duke of Wellington,<ref name=":12">Thompson, R[obert]. H[ugh]. "The Golden Fleece in Britain." Publication of the ''British Numismatic Society''. 2009 https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2009_BNJ_79_8.pdf (accessed January 2023).</ref> the first Protestant to be admitted to the order.<ref name=":10" /> Founded in 1429/30 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the order separated into two branches in 1714, one Spanish and the other Austrian, still led by the House of Habsburg.<ref name=":10" />
The photograph (upper left) is of a Polish badge dating from the "turn of the XV and XVI centuries."<ref>{{Citation|title=Polski: Kolana orderowa orderu Złotego Runa, przełom XV i XVI wieku.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg|date=2019-11-10|accessdate=2023-01-10|last=Wulfstan}}. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg.</ref> The collar this Golden Fleece is hanging from might be similar to the one the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#The Insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece|Duke of Devonshire is wearing in the 1897 Lafayette portrait]].
The badges and collars that Knights of the Order actually wore vary quite a bit.
The 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter portrait (upper right) of Prince Consort Albert, Victoria's husband and father of the Prince of Wales, shows him wearing the Golden Fleece on a red ribbon around his neck and the star of the Garter on the front of his coat.<ref>Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. ''Prince Albert''. {{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61|title=Explore the Royal Collection Online|website=www.rct.uk|access-date=2023-01-16}} https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61.</ref>[[File:Order of the Garter badge sash (United Kingdom) - Tallinn Museum of Orders.jpg|alt=Recent photograph of a gold medal on a wide blue ribbon|thumb|Order of the Garter Badge and Sash]]
=== The Order of the Garter ===
The Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter (KG, Knight Companion; LG, Lady Companion). Gold badge on the typical royal-blue sash (bottom right).
=== Royal Victorian Order ===
(GCVO, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCVO or DCVO, Knight or Dame Commander; CVO, Commander; LVO, Lieutenant; MVO, Member)
=== St. John ===
The Order of the Knights of St. John
=== Star of India ===
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI, Knight Grand Commander; KCSI, Knight Commander; CSI, Companion)
=== Thistle ===
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
== Hoops ==
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The Vanity of Women Masks and Bustles MET DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>
Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
<br>Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
<br>Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
<br>Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
<br>Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
<br>De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
<br>S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":20" /></blockquote>
Which translates, roughly, into
<blockquote>
Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
<br>For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
<br>Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
<br>Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
<br>No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
<br>Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
<br>Go with the devils to the burning hell.
</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).[[File:The Vanity of Women Masks and Bustles MET DT4982 (detail of padded rolls or French farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":7" />{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.[[File:Princess Teresa Pamphilj Cybo, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar Netscher - Girl Standing before a Mirror - 1925.718 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror|left]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band. [[File:Michiel van Mierevelt - Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), circa 1629.jpg|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629|left]][[File:Attributed to Voet - Portrait of Anna Pamphili, misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers 1.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers|left]][[File:Hoop petticoat and corset England 1750-1780 LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?''']
The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)[[File:Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine1 copy.jpg|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760|left]]In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them.
France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.[[File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)[[File:Queen Charlotte, by studio of Thomas Gainsborough.jpg|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781|left]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|438}} </blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could be.[[File:Marie Antoinette in a Park Met DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La laitiere. G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame A. Aughié, Friend of Queen Marie Antoinette, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon - Nationalmuseum - 21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}</blockquote>[[File:Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle, G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, ooo 356 Grand habit de bal a la Cour (..), RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise|left]]The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.) [[File:Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 Robe de Cour à la Turque (..), RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>
Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Francais, 1787, ooo.359, Habit de Cour en hyver (titel op object), RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.[[File:Crinoline era3.gif|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure|left]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":11" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":7" /> (46)</blockquote>
R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>
The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>
The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":202">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.[[File:Miss Victoria Stuart-Wortley, later Victoria, Lady Welby (1837-1912) 1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices.
In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.[[File:Elisabeth Franziska wearing a crinoline and feathered hat.jpg|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s|left]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her Majesty the Queen Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.[[File:Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s|left]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.[[File:Queen Emma of Hawaii, photograph by John & Charles Watkins, The Royal Collection Trust (crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>
This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.[[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (1 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view|left]][[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (4 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>
Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>
When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":13" /> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>
Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La Gazette rose, 16 Mai 1874; robe à tournure.jpg|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874|left]]In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":7" /> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this''']. [[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.[[File:Elizabeth Alice Austen in June 1888.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888|left]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]]. [[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf 33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Jewelry and Stones ==
=== Cabochon ===
This term describes both the treatment and shape of a precious or semiprecious stone. A cabochon treatment does not facet the stone but merely polishes it, removing "the rough parts" and the parts that are not the right stone.<ref>"cabochon, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/25778. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> A cabochon shape is often flat on one side and oval or round, forming a mound in the setting.
=== Cairngorm ===
=== Ferronnière ===
A revival of a Renaissance fashion for controlling the hair and headdress. Usually made of a filet, often with a single pendant stone in the center of the forehead, although the Victorians' ferronnières were often elaborate and encrusted with jewels.<ref>Boyington, Amy. "Ferronnière." ''History with Amy'' 5 November 2025.
Website fb.watch/FBMyC7bqde [links to fb.watch not allowed].</ref>
=== Half-hoop ===
Usually of a ring or bracelet, a precious-metal band with a setting of stones on one side, covering perhaps about 1/3 or 1/2 of the band. Half-hoop jewelry pieces were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Jet ===
=== ''Orfèvrerie'' ===
Sometimes misspelled in the newspapers as ''orvfèvrerie''. ''Orfèvrerie'' is the artistic work of a goldsmith, silversmith, or jeweler.
=== Ribbon Necklace ===
=== Solitaire ===
A solitaire is a ring with a single stone set as the focal point. Solitaire rings were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Turquoise ===
== Mantle, Cloak, Cape ==
In 19th-century newspaper accounts, these terms are sometimes used without precision as synonyms. These are all outer garments. Although the terms were (and are) often used generically, a short outer wrap would be a cape, a longer one would be a cloak and, after the 17th century, a full-length one possibly buttoned down the front would be a mantle.
=== '''Mantle''' ===
A mantle — often a long outer garment — might have elements like a train, sleeves, collars, revers, fur, and a cape. A late-19th-century writer making a distinction between a mantle and a cloak might use ''mantle'' if the garment is more voluminous.
== Military ==
Several men from the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]] were dressed in military uniforms, some historical and some, possibly, not.
=== Armor ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], much of the armor was fictional, not located in historical time and place. Helmets, ditto.
==== Chain Mail ====
chausses, mitons, hauberk, mail coif,
==== Armor ====
greaves, gauntlet
* '''Cuirass''': According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''cuirass'' is "A piece of armour for the body (originally of leather); ''spec.'' a piece reaching down to the waist, and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate, buckled or otherwise fastened together ...."<ref>"cuirass, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/45604. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref>
[[File:Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt - Ritratto di giovane - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Old painting of a young man wearing metal collar armor around his neck|thumb|''Tronie of a Young Man in a Gorget and Cap'', attributed to Rembrandt (c. 1639)]]
* '''Gorget''': By the Elizabethan age in western Europe, the gorget was the piece of plate armor that protected the neck.
<blockquote>At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a separate mail collar to fully protect the neck, the developed gorget was worn under the cuirass and was intended to cover a larger area of the neck, nape, shoulders and upper chest, from which the edges of the backplate and breastplate had receded.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-02|title=Gorget|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gorget&oldid=1346732005|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The only visible armor worn by the subject in Rembrandt's c. 1639 portrait (right) is his gorget.
*.
==== Over-clothing ====
(fabric or leather): tunic, cloak, mantle
=== Baldric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''baldric'' is "A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm, and used to support the wearer's sword, bugle, etc."<ref>"baldric, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/14849. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref> This sense has been in existence since c. 1300. A baldric could be worn over armor or court dress. The ribbon worn across the chest for honors is called a sash.
[[File:Knötel IV, 04.jpg|thumb|alt=An Old drawing in color of British soldiers on horses brandishing swords in 1815.|1890 illustration of the Household Cavalry (Life Guard, left; Horse Guard, right) at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815]]
=== Household Cavalry ===
The Royal Household contains the Household Cavalry, a corps of British Army units assigned to the monarch. It is made up of 2 regiments, the Life Guards and what is now called The Blues and Royals, which were formed around the time of "the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660."<ref name=":3">Joll, Christopher. "Tales of the Household Cavalry, No. 1. Roles." The Household Cavalry Museum, https://householdcavalry.co.uk/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Household-Cavalry-Museum-video-series-large-print-text-Tales-episode-01.pdf.</ref>{{rp|1}} Regimental Historian Christopher Joll says, "the original Life Guards were formed as a mounted bodyguard for the exiled King Charles II, The Blues were raised as Cromwellian cavalry and The Royals were established to defend Tangier."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|1–2}} The 1st and 2nd Life Guards were formed from "the Troops of Horse and Horse Grenadier Guards ... in 1788."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} The Life Guards were and are still official bodyguards of the queen or king, but through history they have been required to do quite a bit more than serve as bodyguards for the monarch.
The Household Cavalry fought in the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815 as heavy cavalry.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} Besides arresting the Cato Steet conspirators in 1820 "and guarding their subsequent execution," the Household Cavalry contributed to the "the expedition to rescue General Gordon, who was trapped in Khartoum by The Mahdi and his army of insurgents" in 1884.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} In 1887 they "were involved ... in the suppression of rioters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}}
==== Grenadier Guards ====
Three men — [[Social Victorians/People/Gordon-Lennox#Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox|Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox]], [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Edward George Villiers Stanley, Lord Stanley|Lord Stanley]], and [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley|Hon. F. C. Stanley]] — attended the ball as officers of the Grenadier Guards, wearing "scarlet tunics, ... full blue breeches, scarlet hose and shoes, lappet wigs" as well as items associated with weapons and armor.<ref name=":14">“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.</ref>{{rp|p. 34, Col. 2a}}
Founded in England in 1656 as Foot Guards, this infantry regiment "was granted the 'Grenadier' designation by a Royal Proclamation" at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Grenadier Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grenadier_Guards&oldid=1151238350|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadier_Guards.</ref> They were not called Grenadier Guards, then, before about 1815. In 1660, the Stuart Restoration, they were called Lord Wentworth's Regiment, because they were under the command of Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-07-24|title=Lord Wentworth's Regiment|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment&oldid=1100069077|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment.</ref>
At the time of Lord Wentworth's Regiment, the style of the French cavalier had begun to influence wealthy British royalists. In the British military, a Cavalier was a wealthy follower of Charles I and Charles II — a commander, perhaps, or a field officer, but probably not a soldier.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Cavalier|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier&oldid=1151166569|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier.</ref>
The Guards were busy as infantry in the 17th century, engaging in a number of armed conflicts for Great Britain, but they also served the sovereign. According to the Guards Museum,<blockquote>In 1678 the Guards were ordered to form Grenadier Companies, these men were the strongest and tallest of the regiment, they carried axes, hatches and grenades, they were the shock troops of their day. Instead of wearing tri-corn hats they wore a mitre shaped cap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/|title=Service to the Crown|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/.</ref></blockquote>The name comes from ''grenades'', then, and we are accustomed to seeing them in front of Buckingham Palace, with their tall mitre hats.
The Guard fought in the American Revolution, and in the 19th century, the Grenadier Guards fought in the Crimean War, Sudan and the Boer War. They have roles as front-line troops and as ceremonial for the sovereign, which makes them elite:<blockquote>Queen Victoria decreed that she did not want to see a single chevron soldier within her Guards. Other then [sic] the two senior Warrant Officers of the British Army, the senior Warrant Officers of the Foot Guards wear a large Sovereigns personal coat of arms badge on their upper arm. No other regiments of the British Army are allowed to do so; all the others wear a small coat of arms of their lower arms. Up until 1871 all officers in the Foot Guards had the privilege of having double rankings. An Ensign was ranked as an Ensign and Lieutenant, a Lieutenant as Lieutenant and Captain and a Captain as Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. This was because at the time officers purchased their own ranks and it cost more to purchase a commission in the Foot Guards than any other regiments in the British Army. For example if it cost an officer in the Foot Guards £1,000 for his first rank, in the rest of the Army it would be £500 so if he transferred to another regiment he would loose [sic] £500, hence the higher rank, if he was an Ensign in the Guards and he transferred to a Line Regiment he went in at the higher rank of Lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/|title=Formation and role of the Regiments|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/.</ref></blockquote>
==== Life Guards ====
[[Social Victorians/People/Shrewsbury#Reginald Talbot's Costume|General the Hon. Reginald Talbot]], a member of the 1st Life Guards, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball dressed in the uniform of his regiment during the Battle of Waterloo.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|p. 36, Col. 3b}}
At the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Life Guards were part of the 1st Brigade — the Household Brigade — and were commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=2023-09-30|title=Battle of Waterloo|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Waterloo&oldid=1177893566|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo.</ref> The 1st Life Guards were on "the extreme right" of a French countercharge and "kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes MET DPB874122.jpg|alt=Old drawing of a soldier wearing a white cuirass, a pointed helmet, thigh-high boots, carrying a long sword|thumb|Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, 1888, a Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company card]]
==== Royal Horse Guards ====
In 1650 the Regiment of Cuirassiers was "raised by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell."<ref name=":26">{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-13|title=Royal Horse Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Horse_Guards&oldid=1353961278|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> In 1660 "it became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment .... Based on the colour of their uniform, the regiment was nicknamed 'the Oxford Blues', or simply the 'Blues.' In 1750, it became the Royal Horse Guards Blue."<ref name=":26" />
The Royal Horse Guards Blue were moved to Windsor at the end of the 18th century and "acted as royal bodyguards" to George III, who liked them.<ref name=":26" /> While pay for the men "stagnated," requirements continued to rise, so that recruits had to come from wealth.<ref name=":26" /> Riding and hunting skills were helpful to the recruits, who had to provide their own horses, pay for messes and uniforms, not to mention the position itself.<ref name=":26" />
They fought in the Battle of Waterloo, with 44 dead, 50 wounded (of which only 6 died).<ref name=":26" /> With the Duke of Wellington at their head, they became part of the Household Cavalry in 1820.<ref name=":26" /> An 1890 illustration shows a member of the Royal Horse Guard (above right) fighting at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Royal Horse Guard Blue fought in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, fighting with the heavy brigades and thus were more successful than the famous light brigade, though conditions were very difficult.<ref name=":26" />
A tobacco card published in 1888 (right) shows a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, Blue, in 1879.
In 1884–85 the Blues took part in the attempt to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. They were sent to South Africa at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":26" />
For those men who were in the Royal Horse Guards at the end of the 19th century, the field marshals were
* 1869–1885: Field Marshal Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, during which time — in 1877 — the name changed to the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)."<ref name=":26" />
* 1885–1895: Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant
* 1895–1907: Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
In 1847 Edmund Packe published his ''[[iarchive:historicalrecord00packiala/|Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, or Oxford Blues]]'', which has colored images to illustrate the development of the uniform up to the middle of the 19th century (the link goes to the ''Internet Archive'').
== [[Social Victorians/Mourning|Mourning]] ==
== Peplum ==
According to the French ''Wiktionnaire'', a peplum is a "Short skirt or flared flounce layered at the waist of a jacket, blouse or dress" [translation by Google Translate].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-07-02|title=péplum|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=p%C3%A9plum&oldid=29547727|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A9plum.</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has a fuller definition, although, it focuses on women's clothing because the sense is written for the present day:<blockquote>''Fashion''. ... a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (''obsolete''). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.<ref name=":5">“peplum, n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1832614702>.</ref></blockquote>Men haven't worn peplums since the 18th century, except when wearing costumes based on historical portraits. The ''Daily News'' reported in 1896 that peplums had been revived as a fashion item for women.<ref name=":5" />
== Revers ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''revers'' are the "edge[s] of a garment turned back to reveal the undersurface (often at the lapel or cuff) (chiefly in ''plural''); the material covering such an edge."<ref>"revers, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/164777. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> The term is French and was used this way in the 19th century (according to the ''Wiktionnaire'').<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-03-07|title=revers|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=revers&oldid=31706560|journal=Wiktionnaire|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/revers.</ref>
== Traditional vs Progressive Style ==
=== Progressive Style ===
The terms ''artistic dress'' and ''aesthetic dress'' — as well as ''rational dress'' or ''dress reform'' — are not synonymous and were in use at different times to refer to different groups of people in different contexts, but we recognize them as referring to a similar kind of personal style in clothing, a style we call progressive dress or the progressive style. Used in a very precise way, ''artistic dress'' is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artists and the women in their circle beginning in the 1860s. Similarly, ''aesthetic dress'' is associated with the 1880s and 1890s and dress reform movements, as is ''rational dress'', a movement located largely among women in the middle classes from the middle to the end of the century. In general, what we are calling the progressive style is characterized by its resistance to the highly structured fashion of its day, especially corseting, aniline dyes and an extremely close fit. This group of styles was more about individual choices and approaches than the consistent vision offered by couturiers like Maison Worth.
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Ada Nettleship]]: Constance Wilde and Ellen Terry; an 1883 exhibition of dress by the Rational Dress Society featured her work, including trousers for women (with a short overskirt)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-21|title=Ada Nettleship|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ada_Nettleship&oldid=1286707541|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Alice Comyns Carr]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-06-06|title=Alice Comyns Carr|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alice_Comyns_Carr&oldid=1294283929|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* Grosvenor Gallery
=== Traditional Style ===
[[File:Victoria Hesse NPG 95941 crop.jpg|alt=Old photograph of a white woman wearing a very tight and fitted bodice with her skirts swept to the back|thumb|Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven (1863–1950), Granddaughter of Queen Victoria; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Marquess, c. 1878]]
Images
* Smooth bodice, fabric draped to the back or covering a bustle with a small cage beneath it:
By the end of the century designs from the [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#The House of Worth|House of Worth]] (or Maison Worth) define what we think of as the traditional Victorian look, which was very stylish and expensive. Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria is shown (right) wearing a traditional but very stylish c. 1878 dress like one designed by Maison Worth. Blanche Payne describes an example of the 1895 "high style" in a gown by Worth with "the idiosyncrasies of the [1890s] full blown":<blockquote>The dress is white silk with wine-red stripes. Sleeves, collars, bows, bag, hat, and hem border match the stripes. The sleeve has reached its maximum volume; the bosom full and emphasized with added lace; the waistline is elongated, pointed, and laced to the point of distress; the skirt is smooth over the hips, gradually swinging out to sweep the floor. This is the much vaunted hourglass figure.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|530}}</blockquote>
The Victorian-looking gowns at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] are stylish in a way that recalls the designs of the House of Worth. The elements that make their look so Victorian are anachronisms on the costumes representing fashion of earlier eras. The women wearing these gowns preferred the standards of beauty from their own day to a more-or-less historically accurate look. The style competing at the very end of the century with the Worth look was not the historical, however, but a progressive style called at the time ''artistic'' or ''aesthetic''.
William Powell Frith's 1883 painting ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (discussion below) pits this kind of traditional style against the progressive or artistic style.
=== The Styles ===
[[File:Frith A Private View.jpg|thumb|William Powell Frith, ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'']]
We typically think of the late-Victorian silhouette as universal but, in the periods in which corsets dominated women's dress, not all women wore corsets and not all corsets were the same, as William Powell Frith's 1883 ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (right) illustrates. Frith is clear in his memoir that this painting — "recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress" — deliberately contrasts what he calls the "folly" of the Aesthetic Dress movement and the look of the traditional corseted waist.<ref>Frith, William Powell. ''My Autobiography and Reminiscences''. 1887.</ref> Frith considered the Aesthetic Movement and Aesthetic Dress "ephemeral," but its rejection of corsetry looks far more consequential to us in hindsight than it did in the 19th century.
As Frith sees it, his painting critiques the "craze" associated with the women in this set of identifiable portraits who are not corseted, but his commitment to realism shows us a spectrum, a range, of conservatism and if not political then at least stylistic progressivism among the women. The progressives, oddly, are the women wearing artistic (that is, somewhat historical) dress, because they’re not corseted. It is a misreading to see the presentation of the women’s fashion as a simple opposition. Constance, Countess of Lonsdale — situated at the center of this painting with Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy of Art — is the most conservatively dressed of the women depicted, with her narrow sleeves, tight waist and almost perfectly smooth bodice, which tells us that her corset has eyelets so that it can be laced precisely and tightly, and it has stays (or "bones") to prevent wrinkles or natural folds in the overclothing. Lillie Langtry, in the white dress, with her stylish narrow sleeves, does not have such a tightly bound waist or smooth bodice, suggesting she may not be corseted at all, as we know she sometimes was not.['''citation'''] Jenny Trip, a painter’s model, is the woman in the green dress in the aesthetic group being inspected by Anthony Trollope, who may be taking notes. She looks like she is not wearing a corset. Both Langtry and Trip are toward the middle of this spectrum: neither is dressed in the more extreme artistic dress of, say, the two figures between Trip and Trollope.
A lot has been written about the late-Victorian attraction to historical dress, especially in the context of fancy-dress balls and the Gothic revival in social events as well as art and music. Part of the appeal has to have been the way those costumes could just be beautiful clothing beautifully made. Historical dress provided an opportunity for some elite women to wear less-structured but still beautiful and influential clothing. ['''Calvert'''<ref>Calvert, Robyne Erica. ''Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. <nowiki>https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3279/</nowiki></ref>] The standards for beauty, then, with historical dress were Victorian, with the added benefit of possibly less structure. So, at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball, "while some attendees tried to hew closely to historical precedent, many rendered their historical or mythological personage in the sartorial vocabulary they knew best. The [photographs of people in their costumes at the ball offer] a glimpse into how Victorians understood history, not a glimpse into the costume of an authentic historical past."<ref>Mitchell, Rebecca N. "The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900." ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21: 3): 291–315. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1172817.</ref>{{rp|294}}
* historical dress: beautiful clothing.
* the range at the ball, from Minnie Paget to Gwladys
* "In light of such efforts, the ball remains to this day one of the best documented outings of the period, and a quick glance at the album shows that ..."
* The costume of the Duchess of Devonshire does not have a defined waist and may suggest that she herself is not corseted, although that would be a notable departure for her.
Women had more choices about their waists than the simple opposition between no corset and tightlacing can accommodate. The range of choices is illustrated in Frith's painting, with a woman locating herself on it at a particular moment for particular reasons. Much analysis of 19th-century corsetry focuses on its sexualizing effects — corsets dominated Victorian photographic pornography ['''citations'''] and at the same time, the absence of a corset was sexual because it suggested nudity.['''citations'''] A great deal of analysis of 19th-century corsetry, on the other hand, assumes that women wore corsets for the male gaze ['''citations'''] or that they tightened their waists to compete with other women.['''citations''']
But as we can see in Frith's painting, the sexualizing effect was not universal or sweeping, and these analyses do not account for the choices women had in which corset to wear or how tightly to lace it. Especially given the way that some photographic portraits were mechanically altered to make the waist appear smaller, the size of a woman's waist had to do with how she was presenting herself to the world. That is, the fact that women made choices about the size of or emphasis on their waists suggests that they had agency that needs to be taken into account.
As they navigated the complex social world, women's fashion choices had meaning. Society or political hostesses had agency not only in their clothing but generally in that complex social world. They had roles managing social events of the upper classes, especially of the upper aristocracy and oligarchy, like the Duchess of Devonshire's ball. Their class and rank, then, were essential to their agency, including to some degree their freedom to choose what kind of corset to wear and how to wear it. Also, by the end of the century lots of different kinds of corsets were available for lots of different purposes. Special corsets existed for pregnancy, sports (like tennis, bicycling, horseback riding, golf, fencing, archery, stalking and hunting), theatre and dance and, of course, for these women corsets could be made to support the special dress worn over it.
Women's choices in how they presented themselves to the world included more than just their foundation garments, of course. "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove," that is, the trim and decorations on their garments, their jewelry and accessories — which Davidoff calls "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} — pointed to a host of status categories, like class, rank, wealth, age, marital status, engagement with the empire, how sexual they wanted to seem, political alignment and purpose at the social event. For example, when women were being presented to the monarch, they were expected to wear three ostrich plumes, often called the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes|Prince of Wales's feathers]].
Like all fashions, the corset, which was quite long-lasting in all its various forms, eventually went out of style. Of the many factors that might have influenced its demise, perhaps most important was the women's movement, in which women's rights, freedom, employment and access to their own money and children were less slogan-worthy but at least as essential as votes for women. The activities of the animal-rights movements drew attention not only to the profligate use of the bodies and feathers of birds but also to the looming extinction of the baleen whale, which made whale bone scarce and expensive. Perhaps the century's debates over corseting and especially tightlacing were relevant to some decisions not to be corseted. And, of course, perhaps no other reason is required than that the nature of fashion is to change.
== Undergarments ==
Unlike undergarments, Victorian women's foundation garments created the distinctive silhouette. Victorian undergarments included the chemise, the bloomers, the corset cover — articles that are not structural.
The corset was an important element of the understructure of foundation garments — hoops, bustles, petticoats and so on — but it has never been the only important element.
=== Undergarments ===
* Chemise
* Corset cover
* Bloomers
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|Petticoats]] (distinguish between the outer- and undergarment type of petticoat)
* Combinations
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hose, Stockings and Tights|Hose, stockings and tights]]
* Men's shirts
* Men's unders
==== Bloomers ====
==== Chemise ====
A chemise is a garment "linen, homespun, or cotton knee-length garment with [a] square neck" worn under all the other garments except the bloomers or combinations.<ref name=":7" /> (61) According to Lewandowski, combinations replaced the chemise by 1890.
==== Combinations ====
=== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|Foundation Garments]] ===
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}
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Especially with respect to fashion, the newspapers at the end of the 19th century in the UK often used specialized terminology. The definitions on this page are to provide a sense of what someone in the late 19th century might have meant by the term rather than a definition of what we might mean by it today. In the absence of a specialized glossary from the end of the 19th century in the U.K., we use the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' because the senses of a word are illustrated with examples that have dates so we can be sure that the senses we pick are appropriate for when they are used in the quotations we have.
We also sometimes use the French ''Wikipédia'' to define a word because many technical terms of fashion were borrowings from the French. Also, often the French ''Wikipédia'' provides historical context for the uses of a word similar to the way the ''OED'' does.
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Men's ==
[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|Men's military uniforms]] are discussed below.
=== À la Romaine ===
[[File:Johann Baptist Straub - Mars um 1772-1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Old and damaged marble statue of a Roman god of war with flowing cloak, big helmet with a plume on top, and armor|Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 ''à la romaine'' ''Mars'']]
A few people who attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball in 1897]] personated Roman gods or people. They were dressed not as Romans, however, but ''à la romaine'', which was a standardized style of depicting Roman figures that was used in paintings, sculpture and the theatre for historical dress from the 17th until the 20th century. The codification of the style was developed in France in the 17th century for theatre and ballet, when it became popular for masked balls.
Women as well as men could be dressed ''à la romaine'', but much sculpture, portraiture and theatre offered opportunities for men to dress in Roman style — with armor and helmets — and so it was most common for men. In large part because of the codification of the style as well as the painting and sculpture, the style persisted and remained influential into the 20th century and can be found in museums and galleries and on monuments.
For example, Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 statue of Mars (left), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, missing part of an arm, shows Mars ''à la romaine''. In London, an early 17th-century example of a figure of Mars ''à la romaine'', with a helmet, is "at the foot of the Buckingham tomb in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey."<ref>Webb, Geoffrey. “Notes on Hubert Le Sueur-II.” ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 52, no. 299 (1928): 81–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/863535.</ref>{{rp|81, Col. 2c}}
[[File:Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of 2 men flamboyantly and stylishly dressed in colorful silk, with white lace, high-heeled boots and long hair|Van Dyck's c. 1638 painting of cavaliers Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart]]
[[File:Frans_Hals_-_The_Meagre_Company_(detail)_-_WGA11119.jpg|thumb|Frans Hals - The Meagre Company (detail) - WGA11119.jpg]]
=== Cavalier ===
As a signifier in the form of clothing of a royalist political and social ideology begun in France in the early 17th century, the cavalier style established France as the leader in fashion and taste. Adopted by [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|wealthy royalist British military officers]] during the time of the Restoration, the style signified a political and social position, both because of the loyalty to Charles I and II as well the wealth required to achieve the cavalier look. The style spread beyond the political, however, to become associated generally with dress as well as a style of poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-25|title=Cavalier poet|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier_poet&oldid=1151690299|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_poet.</ref>
Van Dyck's 1638 painting of two brothers (right) emphasizes the cavalier style of dress.
The cavalier style included gloves with large gauntlets, lace on boots, more loosely fitted breeches, coats or doublets, which were slashed so the shirt beneath was visible. Men who dressed in cavalier style also wore large and, later, powdered wigs, like those of Louis XIV, having taken the French style back to Britain.
Neck treatments in the cavalier style were falling bands, wide lace collars and jabots. These were all looser, unsupported with wires, the way the earlier ruffs were, and unstarched.
=== Coats ===
==== Doublet ====
* In the 19th-century newspaper accounts we have seen that use this word, doublet seems always to refer to a garment worn by a man, but historically women may have worn doublets. In fact, a doublet worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the golden doublet — exists and is in the Elizabeth Day McCormick collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (but no image of it is in the public domain).
* Technically doublets were long sleeved, although we cannot be certain what this or that Victorian tailor would have done for a costume. For example, the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball|Duke of Devonshire's costume as Charles V]] shows long sleeves that may be part of the surcoat but should be the long sleeves of the doublet.
==== Pourpoint ====
A padded doublet worn under armor to protect the warrior from the metal chafing. A pourpoint could also be worn without the armor.
==== Surcoat ====
Sometimes just called ''coat''.
[[File:Oscar Wilde by Sarony 1882 18.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photograph of a young man wearing a velvet jacket, knee breeches, silk hose and shiny pointed shoes with bows, seated on a sofa and leaning on his left hand and holding a book in his right| Oscar Wilde, 1882, by Napoleon Sarony]]
=== Hose, Stockings and Tights ===
Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century of men's clothing use the term ''hose'' for what we might call stockings or tights.
In fact, the terminology is specific. ''Stockings'' is the more general term and could refer to hose or tights. With knee breeches men wore hose, which ended above the knee, and women wore hose under their dresses.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines tights as "Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and still forming part of court-dress."<ref>“Tights, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2693287467.</ref> By 1897, the term was in use for women's stockings, which may have come up only to the knee. Tights were also worn by dancers and acrobats. This general sense of ''tights'' does not assume that they were knitted.
''Clocking'' is decorative embroidery on hose, usually, at the ankles on either the inside or the outside of the leg. It started at the ankle and went up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee. On women's hose, the clocking could be quite colorful and elaborate, while the clocking on men's hose was more inconspicuous.
In many photographs men's hose are wrinkled, especially at the ankles and the knees, because they were shaped from woven fabric. Silk hose were knitted instead of woven, which gave them elasticity and reduced the wrinkling.
The famous Sarony carte de visite photograph of Oscar Wilde (right) shows him in 1882 wearing knee breeches and silk hose, which are shiny and quite smoothly fitted although they show a few wrinkles at the ankles and knees. In the portraits of people in costume at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the men's hose are sometimes quite smooth, which means they were made of knitted silk and may have been smoothed for the portrait.
In painted portraits the hose are almost always depicted as smooth, part of the artist's improvement of the appearance of the subject.
=== Shoes and Boots ===
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Women's ==
=== '''Chérusque''' ===
According to the French ''Wikipedia'', ''chérusque'' is a 19th-century term for the kind of standing collar like the ones worn by ladies in the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-06-26|title=Collerette (costume)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collerette_(costume)&oldid=184136746|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collerette_(costume)#Au+xixe+siècle+:+la+Chérusque.</ref>
=== Corsage ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the corsage is the "'body' of a woman's dress; a bodice."<ref>"corsage, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/42056. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> This sense is well documented in the ''OED'' for the mid and late 19th-century, used this way in fiction as well as in a publication like ''Godey's Lady's Book'', which would be expected to use appropriate terminology associated with fashion and dress making.
The sense of "a bouquet worn on the bodice" is, according to the ''OED'', American.
=== Décolletage ===
=== Girdle ===
=== Mancheron ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a ''mancheron'' is a "historical" word for "A piece of trimming on the upper part of a sleeve on a woman's dress."<ref>"mancheron, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/113251. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> At the present, in French, a ''mancheron'' is a cap sleeve "cut directly on the bodice."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-28|title=Manche (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manche_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=199054843|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manche_(v%C3%AAtement).</ref>
=== Paletot ===
A cloak or jacket worn by both women and men in different periods. In the late 19th century, we see Victoria wearing them frequently, sometimes dressed for outdoors but not always.
Paletot-redingote:<blockquote>United Kingdom. Introduced in 1867, ladies' fitted long coat cut without a waist seam. It had revers and buttoned down the front. They sometimes had capes.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|217}}</blockquote>
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a paletot is longer than hip length, has long sleeves, opens in the front.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-02-20|title=Manteau (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manteau_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=233467144|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
=== Petticoat ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a petticoat is a <blockquote>skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented); an outer skirt; a decorative underskirt. Frequently in ''plural'': a woman's or girl's upper skirts and underskirts collectively. Now ''archaic'' or ''historical''.<ref>“petticoat, n., sense 2.b”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1021034245></ref> </blockquote>This sense is, according to the ''O.E.D.'', "The usual sense between the 17th and 19th centuries." However, while petticoats belong in both outer- and undergarments — that is, meant to be seen or hidden, like underwear — they were always under another garment, for example, underneath an open overskirt. The primary sense seems to have shifted through the 19th century so that, by the end, petticoats were underwear and the term ''underskirt'' was used to describe what showed under an open overskirt.
In the 19th century, women wore their chemises, bloomers and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|hoops]] under their petticoats.
=== Stomacher ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a stomacher is "An ornamental covering for the chest (often covered with jewels) worn by women under the lacing of the bodice,"<ref>“stomacher, n.¹, sense 3.a”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169498955></ref> although by the end of the 19th century, the bodice did not often have visible laces. Some stomachers were so decorated that they were thought of as part of the jewelry.
=== Train ===
A train is
The Length of the Train
'''For the monarch [or a royal?]'''
According to Debrett's,<blockquote>A peeress's coronation robe is a long-trained crimson velvet mantle, edged with miniver pure, with a miniver pure cape. The length of the train varies with the rank of the wearer:
* Duchess: for rows of ermine; train to be six feet
* Marchioness: three and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and three-quarters feet
* Countess: three rows of ermine; train to be three and a half feet
* Viscountess: two and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and a quarter feet
* Baroness: two rows of ermine; train to be three feet<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes|website=debretts.com|language=en-US|access-date=2023-07-27}} https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/.</ref>
</blockquote>The pattern on the coronet worn was also quite specific, similar but not exactly the same for peers and peeresses. Debrett's also distinguishes between coronets and tiaras, which were classified more like jewelry, which was regulated only in very general terms.
Peeresses put on their coronets after the Queen or Queen Consort has been crowned. ['''peers?''']
== Hats, Bonnets and Headwear ==
=== Women's ===
The dresses in the 1892 production of Reyer's Salammbo, based on the Flaubert novel, were influential and occasioned a lot of newspaper coverage:<blockquote>Among the concessions to women made recently in Paris, and over which old-fashioned folk shake their heads as being a terrible innovation, is the permission given to sit in the orchestra stalls at the theatre. Though only in the two last rows of the spectators, women of the first class had place, they are still obliged to appear in demi-toilette, which includes the wearing of a bonnet. It was on the occasion of the first performance of “Salammbo” that the change was allowed, and there are not wanting people who think that after such a departure a deluge, or some such visitation, may be looked for.<ref>"Ladies Column." ''Kilburn Times'' 8 July 1892, Friday: 7 [of 8], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001813/18920708/175/0007. Print title: ''The Kilburn Times, Hampstead and North-Western Post'', p. 7</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Gwendolen Bourke]] was dressed as Salammbo at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]].
==== Fontanges ====
[[File:Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg|thumb|Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg]][[File:Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg|none|thumb|Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg]]
==== Widow's Cap ====
or mourning bonnet
According to Kate Strasdin, widow's caps were "white crinkled crape [sic] objects with long streamers flowing down the back, ... customarily worn by single old women who had never remarried."<ref>Strasdin, Kate. ''The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe''. Pegasus, 2023.</ref>{{rp|734 of 1124}}
[[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Widow's Cap|Queen Victoria's widow's caps]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Headdresses|other headdresses]] are discussed on her page.
=== Men's ===
== Cinque Cento ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''Cinque Cento'' is a shortening of ''mil cinque cento'', or 1500.<ref>"cinquecento, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/33143. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> The term, then would refer, perhaps informally, to the sixteenth century.
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset - MET 1972.209.49a, b.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg|none]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":11" />{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Court Dress ==
Also Levee and drawing-room
== Crevé ==
''Creve'', without the accent, is an old word in English (c. 1450) for burst or split.<ref>"creve, v." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44339. Accessed 8 February 2023.</ref> ['''With the acute accent, it looks like a past participle in French.''']
== Elaborations ==
In her 1973 ''The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and the Season'', Leonore Davidoff notes that women’s status was indicated by dress and especially ornament: “Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration,” she says, “symbolised some status category for the female wearer.”<ref name=":1">Davidoff, Leonore. ''The Best Circles: Society Etiquette and the Season''. Intro., Victoria Glendinning. The Cressett Library (Century Hutchinson), 1986 (orig 1973).</ref>{{rp|93}}
Looking at these elaborations as meaningful rather than dismissing them as failed attempts at "historical accuracy" reveals a great deal about the individual women who wore or carried them — and about the society women and political hostesses in their roles as managers of the social world. In her review of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', Mary Frances Gormally says,<blockquote>In a socially regulated year, garments custom made with a Worth label provided women with total reassurance, whatever the season, time of day or occasion, setting them apart as members of the “Best Circles” dressed in luxurious, fashionable and always appropriate attire (Davidoff 1973). The woman with a Worth wardrobe was a woman of elegance, lineage, status, extreme wealth and faultless taste.<ref>Gormally, Mary Frances. Review essay of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (V&A Publishing, 2014). ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21, 1): 109–126. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1179400.</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
[[File:Aglets from Spanish portraits - collage by shakko.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage of 12 different ornaments typically worn by elite people from Spain in the 1500s and later|Aglets — Detail from Spanish Portraits]]
=== Aglet, Aiglet ===
Historically, an aglet is a "point or metal piece that capped a string [or ribbon] used to attach two pieces of the garment together, i.e., sleeve and bodice."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|4}} Although they were decorative, they were not always visible on the outside of the clothing. They were often stuffed inside the layers at the waist (for example, attaching the bodice to a skirt or breeches).
Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (above right, in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#16th Century|Hoops section]]) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour," with "handsome aiglets cascad[ing] down center front."<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|315}}
=== Berthe ===
Can be spelled ''bertha''.
A wide collar made of lace and gathered at the neckline, sometimes covering the arms. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Wide collar popular on women's gowns. Accented dropped shoulder line. Often made of lace.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|29}}</blockquote>
=== Dags ===
Popular in European dress 1450–1550, dagging was a "hanging end or shred" decoration on the edges of outer clothing, with a similar term used for "a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-14|title=dag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=dag&oldid=90785397|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> Often dagging would be used to hem the bottom edges of hoods, doublets, tabards and chain mail.
=== Flounce ===
A ruffle that is gathered on one edge, the bottom edge is free. Flounces are typically part of the decoration on a skirt.
=== Frou-frou ===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|left|thumb|Bernhardt, 1881]]
In French, ''frou-frou'' or, spelled as ''froufrou'', is the sound of the rustling of silk or sometimes of fabrics in general.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-25|title=frou-frou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frou-frou&oldid=32508509|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou.</ref> The first use the French ''Wiktionnaire'' lists is Honoré Balzac, ''La Cousine Bette'', 1846.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-03|title=froufrou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=froufrou&oldid=32330124|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/froufrou.</ref> ''Frou-frou'' is also a 1869 French drawing-room comedy by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-19|title=Henri Meilhac|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Meilhac&oldid=1286340698|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and performed by Sarah Bernhardt in London in 1881 (Bernhardt, left, in costume ['''conflicting info, is a photo of Bernhardt in ''La Dame aux Camélias'' instead'''?]).
''Frou-frou'' is a term clothing historians use to describe decorative additions to an article of clothing; often the term has a slight negative connotation, suggesting that the additions are superficial and, perhaps, excessive.
=== Plastics ===
Small poufs of fabric connected in a strip in the 18th century, Rococo styles.
=== Pouf, Puff, Poof ===
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a pouf was, beginning in 1744, a "kind of women's hairstyle":<blockquote>The hairstyle in question, known as the “pouf”, had launched the reputation of the enterprising Rose Bertin, owner of the Grand Mogol, a very prominent fashion accessories boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1774. Created in collaboration with the famous hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, the pouf was built on a scaffolding of wire, fabric, gauze, horsehair, fake hair, and the client's own hair held up in an almost vertical position. — (Marie-Antoinette, ''Queen of Fashion'', translated from the American by Sylvie Lévy, in ''The Rules of the Game'', n° 40, 2009)</blockquote>''Puff'' and ''poof'' are used to describe clothing.
=== Shirring ===
''Shirring'' is the gathering of fabric to make poufs or puffs. The 19th century is known for its use of this decorative technique. Even men's clothing had shirring: at the shoulder seam.
=== Sequins ===
Sequins, paillettes, spangles
Sequins — or paillettes — are "small, scalelike glittering disks."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|216}} The French ''Wiktionnaire'' defines ''paillette'' as "Lamelle de métal, brillante, mince, percée au milieu, ordinairement ronde, et qu’on applique sur une étoffe pour l’orner [A strip of metal, shiny, thin, pierced in the middle, usually round, and which is applied to a fabric in order to decorate it.]"<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|date=2024-03-18|title=paillette|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=paillette&oldid=33809572|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillette.</ref>
According to the ''OED'', the use of ''sequin'' as a decorative device for clothing (as opposed to gold coins minted and used for international trade) goes back to the 1850s.<ref>“Sequin, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4074851670.</ref> The first instance of ''spangle'' as "A small round thin piece of glittering metal (usually brass) with a hole in the centre to pass a thread through, used for the decoration of textile fabrics and other materials of various sorts" is from c. 1420.<ref>“Spangle, N. (1).” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4727197141.</ref> The first use of ''paillette'' listed in the French ''Wiktionnaire'' is in Jules Verne in 1873 to describe colored spots on icy walls.<ref name=":8" />
Currently many distinguish between sequins (which are smaller) and paillettes (which are larger).
Before the 20th century, sequins were metal discs or foil leaves, and so of course if they were silver or copper, they tarnished. It is not until well into the 20th century that plastics were invented and used for sequins.
=== Trim and Lace ===
''A History of Feminine Fashion'', published sometime before 1927 and probably commissioned by [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Worth, of Paris|the Maison Worth]], describes Charles Frederick Worth's contributions to the development of embroidery and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Passementerie|passementerie]] (trim) from about the middle of the 19th century:<blockquote>For it must be remembered that one of M. Worth's most important and lasting contributions to the prosperity of those who cater for women's needs, as well as to the variety and elegance of his clients' garments, was his insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description. In his endeavours to restore in Paris the splendours of the days of La Pompadour, and of Marie Antoinette, he found himself confronted at the outset with a grave difficulty, which would have proved unsurmountable to a man of less energy, resource and initiative. The magnificent materials of those days were no longer to be had! The Revolution had destroyed the market for beautiful materials of this, type, and the Restoration and regime of Louis Philippe had left a dour aspect in the City of Light. ... On parallel lines [to his development of better [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Satin|satin]]], [Worth] stimulated also the manufacture of embroidery and ''passementerie''. It was he who first started the manufacture of laces copied from the designs of the real old laces. He was the / first dressmaker to use fur in the trimming of light materials — but he employed only the richer furs, such as sable and ermine, and had no use whatever for the inferior varieties of skins.<ref name=":9">[Worth, House of.] {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfFeminineFashion|title=A History Of Feminine Fashion (1800s to 1920s)}} Before 1927. [Likely commissioned by Worth. Link is to Archive.org; info from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worth_Biarritz_salon.jpg.]</ref>{{rp|6–7}}</blockquote>
==== Gold and Silver Fabric and Lace ====
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on gold and silver fabric, threads and lace attached to the article on gold. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>GOLD AND SILVER LACE. Under this heading a general account may be given of the use of the precious metals in textiles of all descriptions into which they enter. That these metals were used largely in the sumptuous textiles of the earliest periods of civilization there is abundant testimony; and to this day, in the Oriental centres whence a knowledge and the use of fabrics inwoven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver first spread, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still most strongly and generally prevalent. The earliest mention of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3) — "And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." In both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' distinct allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered golden textiles. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver originated in India, where it is still principally prosecuted, and that from one great city to another the practice travelled westward, — Babylon, Tarsus, Baghdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Con- / stantinople and Venice, all in the process of time becoming famous centres of these much prized manufactures. Alexander the Great found Indian kings and princes arrayed in robes of gold and purple; and the Persian monarch Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle of cloth of gold, on which were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. There is reason, according to Josephus, to believe that the “royal apparel" worn by Herod on the day of his death (Acts xii. 21) was a tissue of silver. Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, had a robe woven entirely of gold, and from that period downwards royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decorations. In England, at different periods, various names were applied to cloths of gold, as ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekiu or baldachin, Cyprus damask, and twssewys or tissue. The thin flimsy paper known as tissue paper, is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold "tissue" to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. At what time the drawing of gold wire for the preparation of these textiles was first practised is not accurately known. The art was probably introduced and applied in different localities at widely different dates, but down till mediaeval times the method graphically described in the Pentateuch continued to be practised with both gold and silver.
Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the "gold wire" of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India soniri, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhábs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. "Gold and silver," says Dr Birdwood in his ''Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition'', 1878, "are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured ''mashrus'' at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccau; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly."
Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds — 1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India, — round wire, flat wire, thread made of flat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as "orris," fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.
The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.<ref>William Chandler Roberts-Austen and H. Bauerman [W.C.R. — H.B.]. "Gold and Silver Lace." In "Gold." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. 10 (X). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%2010%20%28G-GOT%29%20193592738.23/page/753/mode/1up (accessed January 2023): 753, Col. 2c – 754, Cols. 1a–b – 2a–b.</ref></blockquote>
==== Honiton Lace ====
Kate Stradsin says,<blockquote>Honiton lace was the finest English equivalent of Brussels bobbin lace and was constructed in small ‘sprigs, in the cottages of lacemakers[.'] These sprigs were then joined together and bleached to form the large white flounces that were so sought after in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>Strasdin, Kate. "Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research." ''The Court Historian'' 24.2 (2019): 181-196. Rpt http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3762/15/Rediscovering%20Queen%20Alexandra%27s%20Wardrobe.pdf: 13, and (for the little quotation) n. 37, which reads "Margaret Tomlinson, ''Three Generations in the Honiton Lace Trade: A Family History'', self-published, 1983."</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Strook in Alençon naaldkant, 1750-1775.jpg|thumb|alt=A long piece of complex white lace with garlands, flowers and bows|Point d'Alençon lace, 1750-1775]]
==== Passementerie ====
''Passementerie'' is the French term for trim on clothing or furniture. The 19th century (especially during the First and Second Empire) was a time of great "''exubérance''" in passementerie in French design, including the development and widespread use of the Jacquard loom.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-10|title=Passementerie|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Passementerie&oldid=205068926|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passementerie.</ref>
==== Point d'Alençon Lace ====
A lace made by hand using a number of complex steps and layers. The lacemakers build the point d'Alençon design on some kind of mesh and sometimes leave some of the mesh in as part of the lace and perhaps to provide structure.
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines point d'Alençon lace and Alençon lace separately. Point lace is needlepoint lace,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|233}} so Alençon point is "a two thread [needlepoint] lace."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}} Alençon lace has a "floral design on [a] fine net ground [and is] referred to as [the] queen of French handmade needlepoint laces. The original handmade Alençon was a fine needlepoint lace made of linen thread."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}}
The sample of point d'Alençon lace (right), from 1750–1775, shows the linen mesh that the lace was constructed on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689|title=MoMu - Open Fashion|website=openfashion.momu.be|access-date=2024-02-26}} ModeMuseum Antwerpen. http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689.</ref> The consistency in this sample suggests it may have been made by machine.
== Elastic ==
Elastic had been invented and was in use by the end of the 19th century. For the sense of "Elastic cord or string, usually woven with india-rubber,"<ref name=":6">“elastic, adj. & n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1199670313>.</ref> the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has usage examples beginning in 1847. The example for 1886 is vivid: "The thorough-going prim man will always place a circle of elastic round his hair previous to putting on his college cap."<ref name=":6" />
== Fabric ==
=== Brocatelle ===
Brocatelle is a kind of brocade, more simple than most brocades because it uses fewer warp and weft threads and fewer colors to form the design. The article in the French ''Wikipédia'' defines it like this:<blockquote>La '''brocatelle''' est un type de tissu datant du <abbr>xvi<sup>e</sup></abbr> siècle qui comporte deux chaînes et deux trames, au minimum. Il est composé pour que le dessin ressorte avec un relief prononcé, grâce à la chaîne sur un fond en sergé. Les brocatelles les plus anciennes sont toujours fabriquées avec une des trames en lin.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-01|title=Brocatelle|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brocatelle&oldid=204796410|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocatelle.</ref></blockquote>Which translates to this:<blockquote>Brocatelle is a type of fabric dating from the 16th century that has two warps and two wefts, at a minimum. It is composed so that the design stands out with a pronounced relief, thanks to the weft threads on a twill background. The oldest brocades were always made with one of the wefts being linen.</blockquote>The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says, brocatelle is an "imitation of brocade, usually made of silk or wool, used for tapestry, upholstery, etc., now also for dresses. Both the nature and the use of the stuff have changed" between the late 17th century and 1888, the last time this definition was revised.<ref>"brocatelle, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/23550. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Broché ===
Lewandowski says, "to be woven with a raised figure or to be embossed."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|39}} In English, the word might be spelled with or without the acute accent on the final ''e''. Generally, the term was used loosely to describe fabric with a pattern woven into it, either in the same color or a color different from that of the background. That is, the weave that produces the pattern is different from the weave that produces the background.
S. F. A. Caulfeild and B. C. Saward published this definition of ''broché'' in their 1887 ''Dictionary of Needlework'', according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (the ''face'' being the side of the fabric facing the viewer):<blockquote>Broché. A French term denoting a velvet or silk textile, with a satin figure thrown up on the face.<ref>“Broché, Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1054215522.</ref></blockquote>
=== Chiffon ===
A lightweight, somewhat sheer silk fabric, chiffon would have been worn only by the social elite at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal|date=2025-10-12|title=Chiffon (fabric)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chiffon_(fabric)&oldid=1316464288|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Synthetic fibers were not invented until the 20th century — nylon chiffon in 1938 and polyester chiffon not until 1958.<ref name=":25" />
=== Ciselé ===
=== Crape ===
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' distinguishes the use of ''crêpe'' (using a circumflex rather than an acute accent over the first ''e'') from ''crape'' in textiles, saying ''crêpe'' is "often borrowed [from the French] as a term for all crapy fabrics other than ordinary [[Social Victorians/Mourning|black mourning crape]],"<ref name=":24">"crêpe, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44242. Accessed 10 February 2023.</ref> with usage examples ranging from 1797 to the mid 20th century. This distinction seems more prescriptive than descriptive since texts from the 19th century to now do not make it reliably. Sometimes 19th-century newspapers put an acute accent on the ''e'' and spelled it crépe.
The fabric used for full mourning was black crape, a fabric with a dull texture, but writers continue to vary in how to spell it. Julia Baird uses ''crêpe'', defining it as "a thick black rustling material made of silk, crimped to make it look dull."<ref>Baird, Julia. ''Victoria the Queen, an Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire''. Random House, 2016. https://books.apple.com/us/book/victoria-the-queen/id953835024.</ref>{{rp|584 of 1203}}
However it is spelled, crêpe is<blockquote>Any number of fabrics with characteristic crinkled or puckered surface.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>
==== Crepe de Chine ====
Crêpe de chine, the ''OED'' says, is "a white or other coloured crape made of raw silk."<ref name=":24" /> Lewandowski defines it as "a very lightweight, fine, plain weave silk fabric. ... Introduced in 1866, China crepe with soft, silky surface."<ref name=":7" /> (77)
==== Crepon de Chine ====
Crepon is a fabric heavier than the usual crape but treated like crape to be crinkly. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Introduced in 1882, wool, silk, or blend fabric like very heavy crepe. ... Gay Nineties (1890–1900 C.E.). Popular in 1890s, woolen fabric creped to appear puffed between stripes [or] squares.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>According to Lewandowski, ''crepon'' can also be another word for bustle (1865–1890 C.E. to present).<ref name=":7" /> (77)
=== Crinoline ===
Technically, crinoline was a fabric made mostly of horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, similar to buckram today, used in men's military collars and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinolines|women's foundation garments]]. Lewandowski defines crinoline as <blockquote>(1840–1865 C.E.). France. Originally horsehair cloth used for officers' collars. Later used for women's underskirts to support skirts. Around 1850, replaced by many petticoats, starched and boned. Around 1856, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|light metal cage]] was developed.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>The term has been used so consistently for the cage first introduced in the 1850s that held the skirt out from the body, however, that it is important to say ''crinoline cage'' or ''crinoline fabric'' or ''crinoline petticoat'' to be clear.
=== Épinglé Velvet ===
Often spelled ''épingle'' rather than ''épinglé'', this term appears to have been used for a fabric made of wool, or at least wool along with linen or cotton, that was heavier and stiffer than silk velvet. It was associated with outer garments and men's clothing. Nowadays, épinglé velvet is an upholstery fabric in which the pile is cut into designs and patterns, and the portrait of [[Social Victorians/People/Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton|Mary, Duchess of Hamilton]] shows a mantle described as épinglé velvet that does seem to be a velvet with a woven pattern perhaps cut into the pile.
=== Lace ===
While lace also functioned sometimes as fabric — at the décolletage, for example, on the stomacher or as a veil — here we organize it as a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Trim and Lace|part of the elaboration of clothing]].
=== Liberty Fabrics ===
=== Lisse ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''lisse'' as a "kind of silk gauze" was used in the 19th-century UK and US.<ref>"lisse, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108978. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Muslin ===
=== Satin ===
The pre-1927 ''History of Feminine Fashion'', probably commissioned by Charles Frederick Worth's sons, describes Worth's "insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description" at the beginning of his career in the mid 19th century:<blockquote>When Worth first entered the business of dressmaking, the only materials of the richer sort used for woman's dress were velvet, faille, and watered silk. Satin, for example, was never used. M. Worth desired to use satin very extensively in the gowns he designed, but he was not satisfied with what could be had at the time; he wanted something very much richer than was produced by the mills at Lyons. That his requirements entailed the reconstruction of mills mattered little — the mills were reconstructed under his directions, and the Lyons looms turned out a richer satin than ever, and the manufacturers prospered accordingly.<ref name=":9" />{{rp|6 in printed, 26 in digital book}}</blockquote>
=== Selesia ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''silesia'' is "A fine linen or cotton fabric originally manufactured in Silesia in what is now Germany (''Schlesien'').<ref>"Silesia, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/179664. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> It may have been used as a lining — for pockets, for example — in garments made of more luxurious or more expensive cloth. The word ''sleazy'' — "Of textile fabrics or materials: Thin or flimsy in texture; having little substance or body."<ref>"sleazy, adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/181563. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> — may be related.
=== Shot Fabric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "Of a textile fabric: Woven with warp-threads of one colour and weft-threads of another, so that the fabric (usually silk) changes in tint when viewed from different points."<ref>“Shot, ''Adj.''” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2977164390.</ref> A shot fabric might also be made of silk and cotton fibers.
=== Tissue ===
A lightly woven fabric like gauze or chiffon. The light weave can make the fabric translucent and make pleating and gathering flatter and less bulky. Tissue can be woven to be shot, sheer, stiff or soft.
Historically, the term in English was used for a "rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold or silver" or "various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture."<ref>“Tissue, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5896731814.</ref>
=== Tulle ===
In the 19th century, tulle — a very fine net — was a sheer woven tissue made of linen or silk. Tulle looms were invented in the late 18th century,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-04|title=Tulle (tissu)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(tissu)&oldid=228712045|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> and the fabric "first made by machine in 1768 in Nottingham."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|299}} By 1802 English tulle was recognized as higher quality than French tulle, even though the fabric is named for the French city.<ref name=":23" />
Tulle is still used today, but it is usually made of synthetic fabric.<blockquote>It is a finer textile than the textile referred to as "net". ...
It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, polyester and rayon. Polyester is the most common fibre used for tulle.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-05|title=Tulle (netting)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(netting)&oldid=1304416320|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Victorian silk tulle would not have been stiff unless it was treated with sizing.
== Fan ==
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on the fan. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>FAN (Latin, ''vannus''; French, ''éventail''), a light implement used for giving motion to the air. ''Ventilabrum'' and ''flabellum'' are names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attributes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyptian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day.
Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached — of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul’s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supreme pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or ''mundus muliebris'', of ancient Roman ladies.
Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used—a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to invite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while working with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held together by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals.
Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de’ Medici, probably from Italy, then in advance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII.’s reign in England were used to handling fans, A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round leather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the ''Spectator'' humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes.
The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the decorations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly ''chicken skin'', but not correctly), — a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edicts at various times to regulate the manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called “Vernis Martin,” after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were exhibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the / 17th century. Cano de Arevalo, a Spanish painter of the 17th century devoted himself to fan painting. Some harsh expressions of Queen Christina to the young ladies of the French court are said to have caused an increased ostentation in the splendour of their fans, which were set with jewels and mounted in gold. Rosalba Carriera was the name of a fan painter of celebrity in the 17th century. Lebrun and Romanelli were much employed during the same period. Klingstet, a Dutch artist, enjoyed a considerable reputation for his fans from the latter part of the 17th and the first thirty years of the 18th century.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes drove many fan-makers out of France to Holland and England. The trade in England was well established under the Stuart sovereigns. Petitions were addressed by the fan-makers to Charles II. against the importation of fans from India, and a duty was levied upon such fans in consequence. This importation of Indian fans, according to Savary, extended also to France. During the reign of Louis XV. carved Indian and China fans displaced to some extent those formerly imported from Italy, which had been painted on swanskin parchment prepared with various perfumes.
During the 18th century all the luxurious ornamentation of the day was bestowed on fans as far as they could display it. The sticks were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill in France, Italy, England, and other countries. They were painted from designs of Boucher, Watteau, Lancret, and other "genre" painters, Hébert, Rau, Chevalier, Jean Boquet, Mad. Verité, are known as fan painters. These fashions were followed in most countries of Europe, with certain national differences. Taffeta and silk, as well as fine parchment, were used for the mounts. Little circles of glass were let into the stick to be looked through, and small telescopic glasses were sometimes contrived at the pivot of the stick. They were occasionally mounted with the finest point lace. An interesting fan (belonging to Madame de Thiac in France), the work of Le Flamand, was presented by the municipality of Dieppe to Marie Antoinette on the birth of her son the dauphin. From the time of the Revolution the old luxury expended on fans died out. Fine examples ceased to be exported to England and other countries. The painting on them represented scenes or personages connected with political events. At a later period fan mounts were often prints coloured by hand. The events of the day mark the date of many examples found in modern collections. Amongst the fanmakers of the present time the names of Alexandre, Duvelleroy, Fayet, Vanier, may be mentioned as well known in Paris. The sticks are chiefly made in the department of Oise, at Le Déluge, Crèvecœur, Méry, Ste Geneviève, and other villages, where whole families are engaged in preparing them; ivory sticks are carved at Dieppe. Water-colour painters of distinction often design and paint the mounts, the best designs being figure subjects. A great impulse has been given to the manufacture and painting of fans in England since the exhibition which took place at South Kensington in 1870. Other exhibitions have since been held, and competitive prizes offered, one of which was gained by the Princess Louise. Modern collections of fans take their date from the emigration of many noble families from France at the time of the Revolution. Such objects were given as souvenirs and occasionally sold by families in straitened circumstances. A large number of fans of all sorts, principally those of the 18th century, French, English, German, Italian Spanish, &c., have been lately bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.
Regarding the different parts of folding fans it may be well to state that the sticks are called in French ''brins'', the two outer guards ''panaches'', and the mount ''feuille''.<ref>J. H. Pollen [J.H.P.]. "Fan." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. '''10''' ('''X'''). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%209%20%28FAL-FYZ%29%20193323016.23/page/26/mode/2up (accessed January 2023): 27, Col. 1b – 28, Col. 1c.</ref></blockquote>Folding fans were available and popular early and are common accessories in portraits of fashionable women through the centuries.
== Costumes for Theatre and Fancy Dress ==
Fancy-dress (or costume) balls were popular and frequent in the U.K. and France as well as the rest of Europe and North America during the 19th century. The themes and styles of the fancy-dress balls influenced those that followed.
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the guests came dressed in costume from times before 1820, as instructed on '''the invitation''', but their clothing was much more about late-Victorian standards of beauty and fashion than the standards of whatever time period the portraits they were copying or basing their costumes on.
=== Fancy Dress ===
In her ''Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898'', Cynthia Cooper describes the resources available to those needing help making a costume for a fancy-dress ball:<blockquote>There were a number of places eager ballgoers could turn for assistance and inspiration. Those with a scholarly bent might pore over history books or study pictures of paintings or other works of art. For more direct advice, one could turn to the barrage of published information specifically on fancy dress. Women’s magazines such as ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' and ''The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine'' sometimes featured fancy dress designs and articles, and enticing specialized books were available with extensive recommendations for choosing fancy dress. By far the most complete sources were the books by [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], a prolific British authority on the subject. Holt’s book for women, ''Fancy Dresses Described, or What to Wear at Fancy Balls'' (published in six editions between 1879 and 1896), began with the query, ‘‘But what are we to wear?” Holt’s companion book, ''Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress:'' ''How to Choose It'', was also published in six editions from 1882 to 1905. Other prominent authorities included Mrs. Aria’s ''Costume: Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical'' and, in the US, the Butterick Company’s ''Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes''. The Butterick publication relied heavily on Holt, copying large sections of the introduction outright and paraphrasing other sections.<ref name=":16">Cooper, Cynthia. ''Magnificent entertainments: fancy dress balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898''.Fredericton, N.B.; Hull, Quebec: Goose Lane Editions and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1997. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/magnificententer0000coop/.</ref>{{rp|28–29}}</blockquote>
Cynthia Cooper discusses how "historical accuracy" works in historical fiction and historical dress: <blockquote>A seemingly accurate costume and coiffure bespoke a cultured individual whose most gratifying compliment would be “historically correct.” Those who were fortunate enough to own actual clothing from an earlier period might wear it with pride as a historical relic, though they would generally adapt or remake it in keeping with the aesthetics of their own period. Historical accuracy was always in the eye of beholders inclined to overlook elements of current fashion in a historical costume. Theatre had long taught the public that if a costume appeared tasteful and attractive, it could be assumed to be accurate. Even at Queen Victoria’s fancy dress balls, costume silhouette was always far more like the fashionable dress of the period than of the time portrayed. For this reason, many extant eighteenth-century dresses show evidence of extensive alterations done in the nineteenth century, no doubt for fancy dress purposes.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>
The newspaper ''The Queen'' published dress and fashion information and advice under the byline of [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], who regularly answered questions from readers about fashion as well as about fancy dress. Holt also wrote entire articles with suggestions for what might make an appealing fancy-dress costume as well as pointing readers away from costumes that had been worn too frequently. The suggestions for costumes are based on familiar types or portraits available to readers, similar to Holt's books on fancy dress, which ran through a number of editions in the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy-dress questions sometimes asked for details about costumes worn in theatrical or operatic productions, which Holt provides.
In November 1897, Holt refers to the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July ball: "Since the famous fancy ball, given at Devonshire House during this year, historical fancy dresses have assumed a prominence that they had not hitherto known."<ref>Holt, Ardern. "Fancy Dress a la Mode." The ''Queen'' 27 November 1897, Saturday: 94 [of 145 in BNA; print p. 1026], Col. 1a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18971127/459/0094.</ref> Holt goes on to provide a number of ideas for costumes for historical fancy dress, as always with a strong leaning toward Victorian standards of beauty and style and away from any concern for historical accuracy.
As Leonore Davidoff says, "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration symbolised some status category for the female wearer."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} [handled under [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Elaborations|Elaborations]]]
=== Historical Accuracy ===
Many of the costumes at the ball were based on portraits, especially when the guest was dressed as a historical figure. If possible, we have found the portraits likely to have been the originals, or we have found, if possible, portraits that show the subjects from the two time periods at similar ages.
The way clothing was cut changed quite a bit between the 18th and 19th centuries. We think of Victorian clothing — particularly women's clothing, and particularly at the end of the century — as inflexible and restrictive, especially compared to 20th- and 21st-century customs permitting freedom of movement. The difference is generally evolutionary rather than absolute — that is, as time has passed since the 18th century, clothing has allowed an increasingly greater range of movement, especially for people who did not do manual labor.
By the end of the 19th century, garments like women's bodices and men's coats were made fitted and smooth by attention to the grain of the fabric and by the use of darts (rather than techniques that assembled many small, individual pieces of fabric).
* clothing construction and flat-pattern techniques
* Generally, the further back in time we go, the more 2-dimensional the clothing itself was.
==== Women's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
As always with this ball, whatever historical accuracy might be present in a woman's costume is altered so that the wearer is still a fashionable Victorian lady. What makes the costumes look "Victorian" to our eyes is the line of the silhouette caused by the foundation undergarments as well as the many "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}}, mostly in the decorations, trim and accessories.
Also, the clothing hangs and drapes differently because the fabric was cut on grain and the shoulders were freed by the way the sleeves were set in.
==== Men's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
Because men were not wearing a Victorian foundation garment at the end of the century, the men's costumes at the ball are more historically accurate in some ways.
* Trim
* Mixing neck treatments
* Hair
* Breeches
* Shoes and boots
* Military uniforms, arms, gloves, boots
== Feathers and Plumes ==
=== Aigrette ===
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines ''aigrette'' as "France. Feather or plume from an egret or heron."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|5}} Sometimes the newspapers use the term to refer to an accessory (like a fan or ornament on a hat) that includes such a feather or plume. The straight and tapered feathers in an aigrette are in a bundle.
=== Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes ===
The feathers in an aigrette came from egrets and herons; Prince of Wales's feathers came from ostriches. A fuller discussion of Prince of Wales's feathers and the white ostrich plumes worn at court appears on [[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|Victorian Things]].
For much of the late 18th and 19th centuries, white ostrich plumes were central to fashion at court, and at a certain point in the late 18th century they became required for women being presented to the monarch and for their sponsors. Our purpose here is to understand why women were wearing plumes at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] as part of their costumes.
First published in 1893, [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Colin Campbell|Lady Colin Campbell]]'s ''Manners and Rules of Good Society'' (1911 edition) says that<blockquote>It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.
White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/|title=The Court Presentation|last=Holl|first=Evangeline|date=2007-12-07|website=Edwardian Promenade|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-18}} https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/.</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|This fashion was imported from France]] in the mid 1770s.<ref>"Abstract" for Blackwell, Caitlin. "'<nowiki/>''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright''': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. ''Wiley Online'' DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x (accessed November 2022).</ref>
Separately, a secondary heraldic emblem of the Prince of Wales has been a specific arrangement of 3 ostrich feathers in a gold coronet<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-07|title=Prince of Wales's feathers|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers&oldid=1120556015|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers.</ref> since King Edward III (1312–1377<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-12-14|title=Edward III of England|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_III_of_England&oldid=1127343221|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England.</ref>).
Some women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] wore white ostrich feathers in their hair, but most of them are not Prince of Wales's feathers. Most of the plumes in these portraits are arrangements of some kind of headdress to accompany the costume. A few, wearing what looks like the Princes of Wales's feathers, might be signaling that their character is royal or has royal ancestry. '''One of the women [which one?] was presented to the royals at this ball?'''
Here is the list of women who are wearing white ostrich plumes in their portraits in the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball/Photographs|''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball'' album of 286 photogravure portraits]]:
# Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, the [[Social Victorians/People/Newcastle|Duchess of Newcastle]]
# [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Luise Cavendish]], the Duchess of Devonshire
# Jesusa Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urritio (née Bellido), [[Social Victorians/People/Santurce|Marquisa de Santurce]]
# Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Farquhar|Emilie Farquhar]]
# Princess (Laura Williamina Seymour) Victor of [[Social Victorians/People/Gleichen#Laura%20Williamina%20Seymour%20of%20Hohenlohe-Langenburg|Hohenlohe Langenburg]]
# Louisa Acheson, [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Lady Gosford]]
# Alice Emily White Coke, [[Social Victorians/People/Leicester|Viscountess Coke]]
# Lady Mary Stewart, Helen Mary Theresa [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Vane-Tempest-Stewart]]
#[[Social Victorians/People/Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill|Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill]], Duchess of [[Social Victorians/People/Marlborough|Marlborough]], dressed as the wife of the French Ambassador at the Court of Catherine of Russia (not white, but some color that reads dark in the black-and-white photograph)
#Mrs. Mary [[Social Victorians/People/Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] (at 491), wearing white plumes, as Madame d'Epinay
#Lady Clementine [[Social Victorians/People/Tweeddale|Hay]] (at 629), wearing white plumes, as St. Bris (''Les Huguenots'')
#[[Social Victorians/People/Meysey-Thompson|Lady Meysey-Thompson]] (at 391), wearing white plumes, as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Grosvenor|Algernon (Catherine) Grosvenor]] (at 510), wearing white plumes, as Marie Louise
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ancaster|Evelyn Ewart]], at 401), wearing white plumes, as the Duchess of Ancaster, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, 1757, after a picture by Hudson
#[[Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton|Edith Sophy Balfour Lyttelton]] (at 580), wearing what might be white plumes on a large-brimmed white hat, after a picture by Romney
#[[Social Victorians/People/Yznaga|Emilia Yznaga]] (at 360), wearing what might be white plumes, as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ilchester|Muriel Fox Strangways]] (at 403), wearing what might be two smallish white plumes, as Lady Sarah Lennox, one of the bridesmaids of Queen Charlotte A.D. 1761
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Violet Bingham]] (at 586), wearing perhaps one white plume in a headdress not related to the Prince of Wales's feathers
#Rosamond Fellowes, [[Social Victorians/People/de Ramsey|Lady de Ramsey]] (at 329), wearing a headdress that includes some white plumes, as Lady Burleigh
#[[Social Victorians/People/Dupplin|Agnes Blanche Marie Hay-Drummond]] (at 682), in a big headdress topped with white plumes, as Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney A.D. 1775
#Florence Canning, [[Social Victorians/People/Garvagh|Lady Garvagh]] (at 336), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#[[Social Victorians/People/Suffolk|Marguerite Hyde "Daisy" Leiter]] (at 684), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Spicer|Margaret Spicer]] (at 281), wearing one smallish white and one black plume, as Countess Zinotriff, Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Catherine of Russia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Cavendish Bentinck|Arthur James]] (at 318), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes, as Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Bess of Hardwick
#Nellie, [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Countess of Kilmorey]] (at 207), wearing three tall plumes, 2 white and one dark, as Comtesse du Barri
#Daisy, [[Social Victorians/People/Warwick|Countess of Warwick]] (at 53), wearing at least 1 white plume, as Marie Antoinette
More men than women were wearing plumes reminiscent of the Prince of Wales's feathers:
*
==== Bibliography for Plumes and Prince of Wales's Feathers ====
* Blackwell, Caitlin. "'''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright'<nowiki/>'': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." Journal for ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. Wiley Online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x.
* "Prince of Wales's feathers." ''Wikipedia'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers (accessed November 2022). ['''Add women to this page''']
* Simpson, William. "On the Origin of the Prince of Wales' Feathers." ''Fraser's magazine'' 617 (1881): 637-649. Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79253140&view=1up&seq=643&q1=feathers (accessed December 2022). Deals mostly with use of feathers in other cultures and in antiquity; makes brief mention of feathers and plumes in signs and pub names that may not be associated with the Prince of Wales. No mention of the use of plumes in women's headdresses or court dress.
[[File:Prince Albert - Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842.jpg|thumb|1842 Winterhalter portrait of Prince Albert wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1842|alt=1842 Portrait of Prince Albert by Winterhalter, wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece]]
== Honors ==
=== The Bath ===
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCB or DCB, Knight or Dame Commander; CB, Companion)
[[File:The Golden Fleece - collar exhibited at MET, NYC.jpg|thumb|The Golden Fleece collar and pendant for the 2019 "Last Knight" exhibition at the MET, NYC.|alt=Recent photograph of a gold necklace on a wide band, with a gold skin of a sheep hanging from it as a pendant|left]]
=== The Golden Fleece ===
To wear the golden fleece is to wear the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, said to be "the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world" because of its long history and strict limitations on membership.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=2020-09-25|title=Order of the Golden Fleece|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece&oldid=980340875|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> The monarchs of the U.K. were members of the originally Spanish order, as were others who could afford it, like the Duke of Wellington,<ref name=":12">Thompson, R[obert]. H[ugh]. "The Golden Fleece in Britain." Publication of the ''British Numismatic Society''. 2009 https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2009_BNJ_79_8.pdf (accessed January 2023).</ref> the first Protestant to be admitted to the order.<ref name=":10" /> Founded in 1429/30 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the order separated into two branches in 1714, one Spanish and the other Austrian, still led by the House of Habsburg.<ref name=":10" />
The photograph (upper left) is of a Polish badge dating from the "turn of the XV and XVI centuries."<ref>{{Citation|title=Polski: Kolana orderowa orderu Złotego Runa, przełom XV i XVI wieku.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg|date=2019-11-10|accessdate=2023-01-10|last=Wulfstan}}. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg.</ref> The collar this Golden Fleece is hanging from might be similar to the one the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#The Insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece|Duke of Devonshire is wearing in the 1897 Lafayette portrait]].
The badges and collars that Knights of the Order actually wore vary quite a bit.
The 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter portrait (upper right) of Prince Consort Albert, Victoria's husband and father of the Prince of Wales, shows him wearing the Golden Fleece on a red ribbon around his neck and the star of the Garter on the front of his coat.<ref>Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. ''Prince Albert''. {{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61|title=Explore the Royal Collection Online|website=www.rct.uk|access-date=2023-01-16}} https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61.</ref>[[File:Order of the Garter badge sash (United Kingdom) - Tallinn Museum of Orders.jpg|alt=Recent photograph of a gold medal on a wide blue ribbon|thumb|Order of the Garter Badge and Sash]]
=== The Order of the Garter ===
The Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter (KG, Knight Companion; LG, Lady Companion). Gold badge on the typical royal-blue sash (bottom right).
=== Royal Victorian Order ===
(GCVO, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCVO or DCVO, Knight or Dame Commander; CVO, Commander; LVO, Lieutenant; MVO, Member)
=== St. John ===
The Order of the Knights of St. John
=== Star of India ===
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI, Knight Grand Commander; KCSI, Knight Commander; CSI, Companion)
=== Thistle ===
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
== Hoops ==
So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could be.[[File:Marie Antoinette in a Park Met DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La laitiere. G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame A. Aughié, Friend of Queen Marie Antoinette, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon - Nationalmuseum - 21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|413}}</blockquote>[[File:Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle, G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, ooo 356 Grand habit de bal a la Cour (..), RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise|left]]The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.) [[File:Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 Robe de Cour à la Turque (..), RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>
Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>[[File:Marie Antoinette de modekoningin Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Francais, 1787, ooo.359, Habit de Cour en hyver (titel op object), RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.[[File:Crinoline era3.gif|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure|left]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":11" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":7" /> (46)</blockquote>
R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>
The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>
The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":202">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.[[File:Miss Victoria Stuart-Wortley, later Victoria, Lady Welby (1837-1912) 1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices.
In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.[[File:Elisabeth Franziska wearing a crinoline and feathered hat.jpg|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s|left]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her Majesty the Queen Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.[[File:Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s|left]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.[[File:Queen Emma of Hawaii, photograph by John & Charles Watkins, The Royal Collection Trust (crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>
This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.[[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (1 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view|left]][[File:Woman's Polonaise Dress LACMA M.2007.211.777a-f (4 of 4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>
Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>
When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":13" /> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>
Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La Gazette rose, 16 Mai 1874; robe à tournure.jpg|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874|left]]In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":7" /> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this''']. [[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.[[File:Elizabeth Alice Austen in June 1888.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888|left]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]]. [[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf 33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Jewelry and Stones ==
=== Cabochon ===
This term describes both the treatment and shape of a precious or semiprecious stone. A cabochon treatment does not facet the stone but merely polishes it, removing "the rough parts" and the parts that are not the right stone.<ref>"cabochon, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/25778. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> A cabochon shape is often flat on one side and oval or round, forming a mound in the setting.
=== Cairngorm ===
=== Ferronnière ===
A revival of a Renaissance fashion for controlling the hair and headdress. Usually made of a filet, often with a single pendant stone in the center of the forehead, although the Victorians' ferronnières were often elaborate and encrusted with jewels.<ref>Boyington, Amy. "Ferronnière." ''History with Amy'' 5 November 2025.
Website fb.watch/FBMyC7bqde [links to fb.watch not allowed].</ref>
=== Half-hoop ===
Usually of a ring or bracelet, a precious-metal band with a setting of stones on one side, covering perhaps about 1/3 or 1/2 of the band. Half-hoop jewelry pieces were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Jet ===
=== ''Orfèvrerie'' ===
Sometimes misspelled in the newspapers as ''orvfèvrerie''. ''Orfèvrerie'' is the artistic work of a goldsmith, silversmith, or jeweler.
=== Ribbon Necklace ===
=== Solitaire ===
A solitaire is a ring with a single stone set as the focal point. Solitaire rings were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Turquoise ===
== Mantle, Cloak, Cape ==
In 19th-century newspaper accounts, these terms are sometimes used without precision as synonyms. These are all outer garments. Although the terms were (and are) often used generically, a short outer wrap would be a cape, a longer one would be a cloak and, after the 17th century, a full-length one possibly buttoned down the front would be a mantle.
=== '''Mantle''' ===
A mantle — often a long outer garment — might have elements like a train, sleeves, collars, revers, fur, and a cape. A late-19th-century writer making a distinction between a mantle and a cloak might use ''mantle'' if the garment is more voluminous.
== Military ==
Several men from the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]] were dressed in military uniforms, some historical and some, possibly, not.
=== Armor ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], much of the armor was fictional, not located in historical time and place. Helmets, ditto.
==== Chain Mail ====
chausses, mitons, hauberk, mail coif,
==== Armor ====
greaves, gauntlet
* '''Cuirass''': According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''cuirass'' is "A piece of armour for the body (originally of leather); ''spec.'' a piece reaching down to the waist, and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate, buckled or otherwise fastened together ...."<ref>"cuirass, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/45604. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref>
[[File:Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt - Ritratto di giovane - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Old painting of a young man wearing metal collar armor around his neck|thumb|''Tronie of a Young Man in a Gorget and Cap'', attributed to Rembrandt (c. 1639)]]
* '''Gorget''': By the Elizabethan age in western Europe, the gorget was the piece of plate armor that protected the neck.
<blockquote>At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a separate mail collar to fully protect the neck, the developed gorget was worn under the cuirass and was intended to cover a larger area of the neck, nape, shoulders and upper chest, from which the edges of the backplate and breastplate had receded.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-02|title=Gorget|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gorget&oldid=1346732005|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The only visible armor worn by the subject in Rembrandt's c. 1639 portrait (right) is his gorget.
*.
==== Over-clothing ====
(fabric or leather): tunic, cloak, mantle
=== Baldric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''baldric'' is "A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm, and used to support the wearer's sword, bugle, etc."<ref>"baldric, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/14849. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref> This sense has been in existence since c. 1300. A baldric could be worn over armor or court dress. The ribbon worn across the chest for honors is called a sash.
[[File:Knötel IV, 04.jpg|thumb|alt=An Old drawing in color of British soldiers on horses brandishing swords in 1815.|1890 illustration of the Household Cavalry (Life Guard, left; Horse Guard, right) at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815]]
=== Household Cavalry ===
The Royal Household contains the Household Cavalry, a corps of British Army units assigned to the monarch. It is made up of 2 regiments, the Life Guards and what is now called The Blues and Royals, which were formed around the time of "the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660."<ref name=":3">Joll, Christopher. "Tales of the Household Cavalry, No. 1. Roles." The Household Cavalry Museum, https://householdcavalry.co.uk/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Household-Cavalry-Museum-video-series-large-print-text-Tales-episode-01.pdf.</ref>{{rp|1}} Regimental Historian Christopher Joll says, "the original Life Guards were formed as a mounted bodyguard for the exiled King Charles II, The Blues were raised as Cromwellian cavalry and The Royals were established to defend Tangier."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|1–2}} The 1st and 2nd Life Guards were formed from "the Troops of Horse and Horse Grenadier Guards ... in 1788."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} The Life Guards were and are still official bodyguards of the queen or king, but through history they have been required to do quite a bit more than serve as bodyguards for the monarch.
The Household Cavalry fought in the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815 as heavy cavalry.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} Besides arresting the Cato Steet conspirators in 1820 "and guarding their subsequent execution," the Household Cavalry contributed to the "the expedition to rescue General Gordon, who was trapped in Khartoum by The Mahdi and his army of insurgents" in 1884.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} In 1887 they "were involved ... in the suppression of rioters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}}
==== Grenadier Guards ====
Three men — [[Social Victorians/People/Gordon-Lennox#Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox|Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox]], [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Edward George Villiers Stanley, Lord Stanley|Lord Stanley]], and [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley|Hon. F. C. Stanley]] — attended the ball as officers of the Grenadier Guards, wearing "scarlet tunics, ... full blue breeches, scarlet hose and shoes, lappet wigs" as well as items associated with weapons and armor.<ref name=":14">“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.</ref>{{rp|p. 34, Col. 2a}}
Founded in England in 1656 as Foot Guards, this infantry regiment "was granted the 'Grenadier' designation by a Royal Proclamation" at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Grenadier Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grenadier_Guards&oldid=1151238350|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadier_Guards.</ref> They were not called Grenadier Guards, then, before about 1815. In 1660, the Stuart Restoration, they were called Lord Wentworth's Regiment, because they were under the command of Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-07-24|title=Lord Wentworth's Regiment|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment&oldid=1100069077|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment.</ref>
At the time of Lord Wentworth's Regiment, the style of the French cavalier had begun to influence wealthy British royalists. In the British military, a Cavalier was a wealthy follower of Charles I and Charles II — a commander, perhaps, or a field officer, but probably not a soldier.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Cavalier|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier&oldid=1151166569|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier.</ref>
The Guards were busy as infantry in the 17th century, engaging in a number of armed conflicts for Great Britain, but they also served the sovereign. According to the Guards Museum,<blockquote>In 1678 the Guards were ordered to form Grenadier Companies, these men were the strongest and tallest of the regiment, they carried axes, hatches and grenades, they were the shock troops of their day. Instead of wearing tri-corn hats they wore a mitre shaped cap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/|title=Service to the Crown|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/.</ref></blockquote>The name comes from ''grenades'', then, and we are accustomed to seeing them in front of Buckingham Palace, with their tall mitre hats.
The Guard fought in the American Revolution, and in the 19th century, the Grenadier Guards fought in the Crimean War, Sudan and the Boer War. They have roles as front-line troops and as ceremonial for the sovereign, which makes them elite:<blockquote>Queen Victoria decreed that she did not want to see a single chevron soldier within her Guards. Other then [sic] the two senior Warrant Officers of the British Army, the senior Warrant Officers of the Foot Guards wear a large Sovereigns personal coat of arms badge on their upper arm. No other regiments of the British Army are allowed to do so; all the others wear a small coat of arms of their lower arms. Up until 1871 all officers in the Foot Guards had the privilege of having double rankings. An Ensign was ranked as an Ensign and Lieutenant, a Lieutenant as Lieutenant and Captain and a Captain as Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. This was because at the time officers purchased their own ranks and it cost more to purchase a commission in the Foot Guards than any other regiments in the British Army. For example if it cost an officer in the Foot Guards £1,000 for his first rank, in the rest of the Army it would be £500 so if he transferred to another regiment he would loose [sic] £500, hence the higher rank, if he was an Ensign in the Guards and he transferred to a Line Regiment he went in at the higher rank of Lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/|title=Formation and role of the Regiments|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/.</ref></blockquote>
==== Life Guards ====
[[Social Victorians/People/Shrewsbury#Reginald Talbot's Costume|General the Hon. Reginald Talbot]], a member of the 1st Life Guards, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball dressed in the uniform of his regiment during the Battle of Waterloo.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|p. 36, Col. 3b}}
At the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Life Guards were part of the 1st Brigade — the Household Brigade — and were commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=2023-09-30|title=Battle of Waterloo|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Waterloo&oldid=1177893566|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo.</ref> The 1st Life Guards were on "the extreme right" of a French countercharge and "kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes MET DPB874122.jpg|alt=Old drawing of a soldier wearing a white cuirass, a pointed helmet, thigh-high boots, carrying a long sword|thumb|Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, 1888, a Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company card]]
==== Royal Horse Guards ====
In 1650 the Regiment of Cuirassiers was "raised by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell."<ref name=":26">{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-13|title=Royal Horse Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Horse_Guards&oldid=1353961278|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> In 1660 "it became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment .... Based on the colour of their uniform, the regiment was nicknamed 'the Oxford Blues', or simply the 'Blues.' In 1750, it became the Royal Horse Guards Blue."<ref name=":26" />
The Royal Horse Guards Blue were moved to Windsor at the end of the 18th century and "acted as royal bodyguards" to George III, who liked them.<ref name=":26" /> While pay for the men "stagnated," requirements continued to rise, so that recruits had to come from wealth.<ref name=":26" /> Riding and hunting skills were helpful to the recruits, who had to provide their own horses, pay for messes and uniforms, not to mention the position itself.<ref name=":26" />
They fought in the Battle of Waterloo, with 44 dead, 50 wounded (of which only 6 died).<ref name=":26" /> With the Duke of Wellington at their head, they became part of the Household Cavalry in 1820.<ref name=":26" /> An 1890 illustration shows a member of the Royal Horse Guard (above right) fighting at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Royal Horse Guard Blue fought in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, fighting with the heavy brigades and thus were more successful than the famous light brigade, though conditions were very difficult.<ref name=":26" />
A tobacco card published in 1888 (right) shows a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, Blue, in 1879.
In 1884–85 the Blues took part in the attempt to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. They were sent to South Africa at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":26" />
For those men who were in the Royal Horse Guards at the end of the 19th century, the field marshals were
* 1869–1885: Field Marshal Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, during which time — in 1877 — the name changed to the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)."<ref name=":26" />
* 1885–1895: Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant
* 1895–1907: Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
In 1847 Edmund Packe published his ''[[iarchive:historicalrecord00packiala/|Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, or Oxford Blues]]'', which has colored images to illustrate the development of the uniform up to the middle of the 19th century (the link goes to the ''Internet Archive'').
== [[Social Victorians/Mourning|Mourning]] ==
== Peplum ==
According to the French ''Wiktionnaire'', a peplum is a "Short skirt or flared flounce layered at the waist of a jacket, blouse or dress" [translation by Google Translate].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-07-02|title=péplum|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=p%C3%A9plum&oldid=29547727|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A9plum.</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has a fuller definition, although, it focuses on women's clothing because the sense is written for the present day:<blockquote>''Fashion''. ... a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (''obsolete''). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.<ref name=":5">“peplum, n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1832614702>.</ref></blockquote>Men haven't worn peplums since the 18th century, except when wearing costumes based on historical portraits. The ''Daily News'' reported in 1896 that peplums had been revived as a fashion item for women.<ref name=":5" />
== Revers ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''revers'' are the "edge[s] of a garment turned back to reveal the undersurface (often at the lapel or cuff) (chiefly in ''plural''); the material covering such an edge."<ref>"revers, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/164777. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> The term is French and was used this way in the 19th century (according to the ''Wiktionnaire'').<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-03-07|title=revers|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=revers&oldid=31706560|journal=Wiktionnaire|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/revers.</ref>
== Traditional vs Progressive Style ==
=== Progressive Style ===
The terms ''artistic dress'' and ''aesthetic dress'' — as well as ''rational dress'' or ''dress reform'' — are not synonymous and were in use at different times to refer to different groups of people in different contexts, but we recognize them as referring to a similar kind of personal style in clothing, a style we call progressive dress or the progressive style. Used in a very precise way, ''artistic dress'' is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artists and the women in their circle beginning in the 1860s. Similarly, ''aesthetic dress'' is associated with the 1880s and 1890s and dress reform movements, as is ''rational dress'', a movement located largely among women in the middle classes from the middle to the end of the century. In general, what we are calling the progressive style is characterized by its resistance to the highly structured fashion of its day, especially corseting, aniline dyes and an extremely close fit. This group of styles was more about individual choices and approaches than the consistent vision offered by couturiers like Maison Worth.
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Ada Nettleship]]: Constance Wilde and Ellen Terry; an 1883 exhibition of dress by the Rational Dress Society featured her work, including trousers for women (with a short overskirt)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-21|title=Ada Nettleship|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ada_Nettleship&oldid=1286707541|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Alice Comyns Carr]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-06-06|title=Alice Comyns Carr|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alice_Comyns_Carr&oldid=1294283929|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* Grosvenor Gallery
=== Traditional Style ===
[[File:Victoria Hesse NPG 95941 crop.jpg|alt=Old photograph of a white woman wearing a very tight and fitted bodice with her skirts swept to the back|thumb|Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven (1863–1950), Granddaughter of Queen Victoria; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Marquess, c. 1878]]
Images
* Smooth bodice, fabric draped to the back or covering a bustle with a small cage beneath it:
By the end of the century designs from the [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#The House of Worth|House of Worth]] (or Maison Worth) define what we think of as the traditional Victorian look, which was very stylish and expensive. Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria is shown (right) wearing a traditional but very stylish c. 1878 dress like one designed by Maison Worth. Blanche Payne describes an example of the 1895 "high style" in a gown by Worth with "the idiosyncrasies of the [1890s] full blown":<blockquote>The dress is white silk with wine-red stripes. Sleeves, collars, bows, bag, hat, and hem border match the stripes. The sleeve has reached its maximum volume; the bosom full and emphasized with added lace; the waistline is elongated, pointed, and laced to the point of distress; the skirt is smooth over the hips, gradually swinging out to sweep the floor. This is the much vaunted hourglass figure.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|530}}</blockquote>
The Victorian-looking gowns at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] are stylish in a way that recalls the designs of the House of Worth. The elements that make their look so Victorian are anachronisms on the costumes representing fashion of earlier eras. The women wearing these gowns preferred the standards of beauty from their own day to a more-or-less historically accurate look. The style competing at the very end of the century with the Worth look was not the historical, however, but a progressive style called at the time ''artistic'' or ''aesthetic''.
William Powell Frith's 1883 painting ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (discussion below) pits this kind of traditional style against the progressive or artistic style.
=== The Styles ===
[[File:Frith A Private View.jpg|thumb|William Powell Frith, ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'']]
We typically think of the late-Victorian silhouette as universal but, in the periods in which corsets dominated women's dress, not all women wore corsets and not all corsets were the same, as William Powell Frith's 1883 ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (right) illustrates. Frith is clear in his memoir that this painting — "recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress" — deliberately contrasts what he calls the "folly" of the Aesthetic Dress movement and the look of the traditional corseted waist.<ref>Frith, William Powell. ''My Autobiography and Reminiscences''. 1887.</ref> Frith considered the Aesthetic Movement and Aesthetic Dress "ephemeral," but its rejection of corsetry looks far more consequential to us in hindsight than it did in the 19th century.
As Frith sees it, his painting critiques the "craze" associated with the women in this set of identifiable portraits who are not corseted, but his commitment to realism shows us a spectrum, a range, of conservatism and if not political then at least stylistic progressivism among the women. The progressives, oddly, are the women wearing artistic (that is, somewhat historical) dress, because they’re not corseted. It is a misreading to see the presentation of the women’s fashion as a simple opposition. Constance, Countess of Lonsdale — situated at the center of this painting with Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy of Art — is the most conservatively dressed of the women depicted, with her narrow sleeves, tight waist and almost perfectly smooth bodice, which tells us that her corset has eyelets so that it can be laced precisely and tightly, and it has stays (or "bones") to prevent wrinkles or natural folds in the overclothing. Lillie Langtry, in the white dress, with her stylish narrow sleeves, does not have such a tightly bound waist or smooth bodice, suggesting she may not be corseted at all, as we know she sometimes was not.['''citation'''] Jenny Trip, a painter’s model, is the woman in the green dress in the aesthetic group being inspected by Anthony Trollope, who may be taking notes. She looks like she is not wearing a corset. Both Langtry and Trip are toward the middle of this spectrum: neither is dressed in the more extreme artistic dress of, say, the two figures between Trip and Trollope.
A lot has been written about the late-Victorian attraction to historical dress, especially in the context of fancy-dress balls and the Gothic revival in social events as well as art and music. Part of the appeal has to have been the way those costumes could just be beautiful clothing beautifully made. Historical dress provided an opportunity for some elite women to wear less-structured but still beautiful and influential clothing. ['''Calvert'''<ref>Calvert, Robyne Erica. ''Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. <nowiki>https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3279/</nowiki></ref>] The standards for beauty, then, with historical dress were Victorian, with the added benefit of possibly less structure. So, at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball, "while some attendees tried to hew closely to historical precedent, many rendered their historical or mythological personage in the sartorial vocabulary they knew best. The [photographs of people in their costumes at the ball offer] a glimpse into how Victorians understood history, not a glimpse into the costume of an authentic historical past."<ref>Mitchell, Rebecca N. "The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900." ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21: 3): 291–315. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1172817.</ref>{{rp|294}}
* historical dress: beautiful clothing.
* the range at the ball, from Minnie Paget to Gwladys
* "In light of such efforts, the ball remains to this day one of the best documented outings of the period, and a quick glance at the album shows that ..."
* The costume of the Duchess of Devonshire does not have a defined waist and may suggest that she herself is not corseted, although that would be a notable departure for her.
Women had more choices about their waists than the simple opposition between no corset and tightlacing can accommodate. The range of choices is illustrated in Frith's painting, with a woman locating herself on it at a particular moment for particular reasons. Much analysis of 19th-century corsetry focuses on its sexualizing effects — corsets dominated Victorian photographic pornography ['''citations'''] and at the same time, the absence of a corset was sexual because it suggested nudity.['''citations'''] A great deal of analysis of 19th-century corsetry, on the other hand, assumes that women wore corsets for the male gaze ['''citations'''] or that they tightened their waists to compete with other women.['''citations''']
But as we can see in Frith's painting, the sexualizing effect was not universal or sweeping, and these analyses do not account for the choices women had in which corset to wear or how tightly to lace it. Especially given the way that some photographic portraits were mechanically altered to make the waist appear smaller, the size of a woman's waist had to do with how she was presenting herself to the world. That is, the fact that women made choices about the size of or emphasis on their waists suggests that they had agency that needs to be taken into account.
As they navigated the complex social world, women's fashion choices had meaning. Society or political hostesses had agency not only in their clothing but generally in that complex social world. They had roles managing social events of the upper classes, especially of the upper aristocracy and oligarchy, like the Duchess of Devonshire's ball. Their class and rank, then, were essential to their agency, including to some degree their freedom to choose what kind of corset to wear and how to wear it. Also, by the end of the century lots of different kinds of corsets were available for lots of different purposes. Special corsets existed for pregnancy, sports (like tennis, bicycling, horseback riding, golf, fencing, archery, stalking and hunting), theatre and dance and, of course, for these women corsets could be made to support the special dress worn over it.
Women's choices in how they presented themselves to the world included more than just their foundation garments, of course. "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove," that is, the trim and decorations on their garments, their jewelry and accessories — which Davidoff calls "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} — pointed to a host of status categories, like class, rank, wealth, age, marital status, engagement with the empire, how sexual they wanted to seem, political alignment and purpose at the social event. For example, when women were being presented to the monarch, they were expected to wear three ostrich plumes, often called the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes|Prince of Wales's feathers]].
Like all fashions, the corset, which was quite long-lasting in all its various forms, eventually went out of style. Of the many factors that might have influenced its demise, perhaps most important was the women's movement, in which women's rights, freedom, employment and access to their own money and children were less slogan-worthy but at least as essential as votes for women. The activities of the animal-rights movements drew attention not only to the profligate use of the bodies and feathers of birds but also to the looming extinction of the baleen whale, which made whale bone scarce and expensive. Perhaps the century's debates over corseting and especially tightlacing were relevant to some decisions not to be corseted. And, of course, perhaps no other reason is required than that the nature of fashion is to change.
== Undergarments ==
Unlike undergarments, Victorian women's foundation garments created the distinctive silhouette. Victorian undergarments included the chemise, the bloomers, the corset cover — articles that are not structural.
The corset was an important element of the understructure of foundation garments — hoops, bustles, petticoats and so on — but it has never been the only important element.
=== Undergarments ===
* Chemise
* Corset cover
* Bloomers
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|Petticoats]] (distinguish between the outer- and undergarment type of petticoat)
* Combinations
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hose, Stockings and Tights|Hose, stockings and tights]]
* Men's shirts
* Men's unders
==== Bloomers ====
==== Chemise ====
A chemise is a garment "linen, homespun, or cotton knee-length garment with [a] square neck" worn under all the other garments except the bloomers or combinations.<ref name=":7" /> (61) According to Lewandowski, combinations replaced the chemise by 1890.
==== Combinations ====
=== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|Foundation Garments]] ===
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
== Footnotes ==
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Especially with respect to fashion, the newspapers at the end of the 19th century in the UK often used specialized terminology. The definitions on this page are to provide a sense of what someone in the late 19th century might have meant by the term rather than a definition of what we might mean by it today. In the absence of a specialized glossary from the end of the 19th century in the U.K., we use the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' because the senses of a word are illustrated with examples that have dates so we can be sure that the senses we pick are appropriate for when they are used in the quotations we have.
We also sometimes use the French ''Wikipédia'' to define a word because many technical terms of fashion were borrowings from the French. Also, often the French ''Wikipédia'' provides historical context for the uses of a word similar to the way the ''OED'' does.
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Men's ==
[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|Men's military uniforms]] are discussed below.
=== À la Romaine ===
[[File:Johann Baptist Straub - Mars um 1772-1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Old and damaged marble statue of a Roman god of war with flowing cloak, big helmet with a plume on top, and armor|Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 ''à la romaine'' ''Mars'']]
A few people who attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball in 1897]] personated Roman gods or people. They were dressed not as Romans, however, but ''à la romaine'', which was a standardized style of depicting Roman figures that was used in paintings, sculpture and the theatre for historical dress from the 17th until the 20th century. The codification of the style was developed in France in the 17th century for theatre and ballet, when it became popular for masked balls.
Women as well as men could be dressed ''à la romaine'', but much sculpture, portraiture and theatre offered opportunities for men to dress in Roman style — with armor and helmets — and so it was most common for men. In large part because of the codification of the style as well as the painting and sculpture, the style persisted and remained influential into the 20th century and can be found in museums and galleries and on monuments.
For example, Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 statue of Mars (left), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, missing part of an arm, shows Mars ''à la romaine''. In London, an early 17th-century example of a figure of Mars ''à la romaine'', with a helmet, is "at the foot of the Buckingham tomb in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey."<ref>Webb, Geoffrey. “Notes on Hubert Le Sueur-II.” ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 52, no. 299 (1928): 81–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/863535.</ref>{{rp|81, Col. 2c}}
[[File:Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of 2 men flamboyantly and stylishly dressed in colorful silk, with white lace, high-heeled boots and long hair|Van Dyck's c. 1638 painting of cavaliers Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart]]
[[File:Frans_Hals_-_The_Meagre_Company_(detail)_-_WGA11119.jpg|thumb|Frans Hals - The Meagre Company (detail) - WGA11119.jpg]]
=== Cavalier ===
As a signifier in the form of clothing of a royalist political and social ideology begun in France in the early 17th century, the cavalier style established France as the leader in fashion and taste. Adopted by [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|wealthy royalist British military officers]] during the time of the Restoration, the style signified a political and social position, both because of the loyalty to Charles I and II as well the wealth required to achieve the cavalier look. The style spread beyond the political, however, to become associated generally with dress as well as a style of poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-25|title=Cavalier poet|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier_poet&oldid=1151690299|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_poet.</ref>
Van Dyck's 1638 painting of two brothers (right) emphasizes the cavalier style of dress.
The cavalier style included gloves with large gauntlets, lace on boots, more loosely fitted breeches, coats or doublets, which were slashed so the shirt beneath was visible. Men who dressed in cavalier style also wore large and, later, powdered wigs, like those of Louis XIV, having taken the French style back to Britain.
Neck treatments in the cavalier style were falling bands, wide lace collars and jabots. These were all looser, unsupported with wires, the way the earlier ruffs were, and unstarched.
=== Coats ===
==== Doublet ====
* In the 19th-century newspaper accounts we have seen that use this word, doublet seems always to refer to a garment worn by a man, but historically women may have worn doublets. In fact, a doublet worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the golden doublet — exists and is in the Elizabeth Day McCormick collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (but no image of it is in the public domain).
* Technically doublets were long sleeved, although we cannot be certain what this or that Victorian tailor would have done for a costume. For example, the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball|Duke of Devonshire's costume as Charles V]] shows long sleeves that may be part of the surcoat but should be the long sleeves of the doublet.
==== Pourpoint ====
A padded doublet worn under armor to protect the warrior from the metal chafing. A pourpoint could also be worn without the armor.
==== Surcoat ====
Sometimes just called ''coat''.
[[File:Oscar Wilde by Sarony 1882 18.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photograph of a young man wearing a velvet jacket, knee breeches, silk hose and shiny pointed shoes with bows, seated on a sofa and leaning on his left hand and holding a book in his right| Oscar Wilde, 1882, by Napoleon Sarony]]
=== Hose, Stockings and Tights ===
Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century of men's clothing use the term ''hose'' for what we might call stockings or tights.
In fact, the terminology is specific. ''Stockings'' is the more general term and could refer to hose or tights. With knee breeches men wore hose, which ended above the knee, and women wore hose under their dresses.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines tights as "Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and still forming part of court-dress."<ref>“Tights, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2693287467.</ref> By 1897, the term was in use for women's stockings, which may have come up only to the knee. Tights were also worn by dancers and acrobats. This general sense of ''tights'' does not assume that they were knitted.
''Clocking'' is decorative embroidery on hose, usually, at the ankles on either the inside or the outside of the leg. It started at the ankle and went up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee. On women's hose, the clocking could be quite colorful and elaborate, while the clocking on men's hose was more inconspicuous.
In many photographs men's hose are wrinkled, especially at the ankles and the knees, because they were shaped from woven fabric. Silk hose were knitted instead of woven, which gave them elasticity and reduced the wrinkling.
The famous Sarony carte de visite photograph of Oscar Wilde (right) shows him in 1882 wearing knee breeches and silk hose, which are shiny and quite smoothly fitted although they show a few wrinkles at the ankles and knees. In the portraits of people in costume at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the men's hose are sometimes quite smooth, which means they were made of knitted silk and may have been smoothed for the portrait.
In painted portraits the hose are almost always depicted as smooth, part of the artist's improvement of the appearance of the subject.
=== Shoes and Boots ===
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Women's ==
=== '''Chérusque''' ===
According to the French ''Wikipedia'', ''chérusque'' is a 19th-century term for the kind of standing collar like the ones worn by ladies in the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-06-26|title=Collerette (costume)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collerette_(costume)&oldid=184136746|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collerette_(costume)#Au+xixe+siècle+:+la+Chérusque.</ref>
=== Corsage ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the corsage is the "'body' of a woman's dress; a bodice."<ref>"corsage, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/42056. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> This sense is well documented in the ''OED'' for the mid and late 19th-century, used this way in fiction as well as in a publication like ''Godey's Lady's Book'', which would be expected to use appropriate terminology associated with fashion and dress making.
The sense of "a bouquet worn on the bodice" is, according to the ''OED'', American.
=== Décolletage ===
=== Girdle ===
=== Mancheron ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a ''mancheron'' is a "historical" word for "A piece of trimming on the upper part of a sleeve on a woman's dress."<ref>"mancheron, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/113251. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> At the present, in French, a ''mancheron'' is a cap sleeve "cut directly on the bodice."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-28|title=Manche (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manche_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=199054843|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manche_(v%C3%AAtement).</ref>
=== Paletot ===
A cloak or jacket worn by both women and men in different periods. In the late 19th century, we see Victoria wearing them frequently, sometimes dressed for outdoors but not always.
Paletot-redingote:<blockquote>United Kingdom. Introduced in 1867, ladies' fitted long coat cut without a waist seam. It had revers and buttoned down the front. They sometimes had capes.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|217}}</blockquote>
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a paletot is longer than hip length, has long sleeves, opens in the front.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-02-20|title=Manteau (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manteau_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=233467144|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
=== Petticoat ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a petticoat is a <blockquote>skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented); an outer skirt; a decorative underskirt. Frequently in ''plural'': a woman's or girl's upper skirts and underskirts collectively. Now ''archaic'' or ''historical''.<ref>“petticoat, n., sense 2.b”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1021034245></ref> </blockquote>This sense is, according to the ''O.E.D.'', "The usual sense between the 17th and 19th centuries." However, while petticoats belong in both outer- and undergarments — that is, meant to be seen or hidden, like underwear — they were always under another garment, for example, underneath an open overskirt. The primary sense seems to have shifted through the 19th century so that, by the end, petticoats were underwear and the term ''underskirt'' was used to describe what showed under an open overskirt.
In the 19th century, women wore their chemises, bloomers and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|hoops]] under their petticoats.
=== Stomacher ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a stomacher is "An ornamental covering for the chest (often covered with jewels) worn by women under the lacing of the bodice,"<ref>“stomacher, n.¹, sense 3.a”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169498955></ref> although by the end of the 19th century, the bodice did not often have visible laces. Some stomachers were so decorated that they were thought of as part of the jewelry.
=== Train ===
A train is
The Length of the Train
'''For the monarch [or a royal?]'''
According to Debrett's,<blockquote>A peeress's coronation robe is a long-trained crimson velvet mantle, edged with miniver pure, with a miniver pure cape. The length of the train varies with the rank of the wearer:
* Duchess: for rows of ermine; train to be six feet
* Marchioness: three and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and three-quarters feet
* Countess: three rows of ermine; train to be three and a half feet
* Viscountess: two and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and a quarter feet
* Baroness: two rows of ermine; train to be three feet<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes|website=debretts.com|language=en-US|access-date=2023-07-27}} https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/.</ref>
</blockquote>The pattern on the coronet worn was also quite specific, similar but not exactly the same for peers and peeresses. Debrett's also distinguishes between coronets and tiaras, which were classified more like jewelry, which was regulated only in very general terms.
Peeresses put on their coronets after the Queen or Queen Consort has been crowned. ['''peers?''']
== Hats, Bonnets and Headwear ==
=== Women's ===
The dresses in the 1892 production of Reyer's Salammbo, based on the Flaubert novel, were influential and occasioned a lot of newspaper coverage:<blockquote>Among the concessions to women made recently in Paris, and over which old-fashioned folk shake their heads as being a terrible innovation, is the permission given to sit in the orchestra stalls at the theatre. Though only in the two last rows of the spectators, women of the first class had place, they are still obliged to appear in demi-toilette, which includes the wearing of a bonnet. It was on the occasion of the first performance of “Salammbo” that the change was allowed, and there are not wanting people who think that after such a departure a deluge, or some such visitation, may be looked for.<ref>"Ladies Column." ''Kilburn Times'' 8 July 1892, Friday: 7 [of 8], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001813/18920708/175/0007. Print title: ''The Kilburn Times, Hampstead and North-Western Post'', p. 7</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Gwendolen Bourke]] was dressed as Salammbo at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]].
==== Fontanges ====
[[File:Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg|thumb|Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg]][[File:Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg|none|thumb|Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg]]
==== Widow's Cap ====
or mourning bonnet
According to Kate Strasdin, widow's caps were "white crinkled crape [sic] objects with long streamers flowing down the back, ... customarily worn by single old women who had never remarried."<ref>Strasdin, Kate. ''The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe''. Pegasus, 2023.</ref>{{rp|734 of 1124}}
[[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Widow's Cap|Queen Victoria's widow's caps]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Headdresses|other headdresses]] are discussed on her page.
=== Men's ===
== Cinque Cento ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''Cinque Cento'' is a shortening of ''mil cinque cento'', or 1500.<ref>"cinquecento, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/33143. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> The term, then would refer, perhaps informally, to the sixteenth century.
== Court Dress ==
Also Levee and drawing-room
== Crevé ==
''Creve'', without the accent, is an old word in English (c. 1450) for burst or split.<ref>"creve, v." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44339. Accessed 8 February 2023.</ref> ['''With the acute accent, it looks like a past participle in French.''']
== Elaborations ==
In her 1973 ''The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and the Season'', Leonore Davidoff notes that women’s status was indicated by dress and especially ornament: “Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration,” she says, “symbolised some status category for the female wearer.”<ref name=":1">Davidoff, Leonore. ''The Best Circles: Society Etiquette and the Season''. Intro., Victoria Glendinning. The Cressett Library (Century Hutchinson), 1986 (orig 1973).</ref>{{rp|93}}
Looking at these elaborations as meaningful rather than dismissing them as failed attempts at "historical accuracy" reveals a great deal about the individual women who wore or carried them — and about the society women and political hostesses in their roles as managers of the social world. In her review of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', Mary Frances Gormally says,<blockquote>In a socially regulated year, garments custom made with a Worth label provided women with total reassurance, whatever the season, time of day or occasion, setting them apart as members of the “Best Circles” dressed in luxurious, fashionable and always appropriate attire (Davidoff 1973). The woman with a Worth wardrobe was a woman of elegance, lineage, status, extreme wealth and faultless taste.<ref>Gormally, Mary Frances. Review essay of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (V&A Publishing, 2014). ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21, 1): 109–126. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1179400.</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
[[File:Aglets from Spanish portraits - collage by shakko.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage of 12 different ornaments typically worn by elite people from Spain in the 1500s and later|Aglets — Detail from Spanish Portraits]]
=== Aglet, Aiglet ===
Historically, an aglet is a "point or metal piece that capped a string [or ribbon] used to attach two pieces of the garment together, i.e., sleeve and bodice."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|4}} Although they were decorative, they were not always visible on the outside of the clothing. They were often stuffed inside the layers at the waist (for example, attaching the bodice to a skirt or breeches).
Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (above right, in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#16th Century|Hoops section]]) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour," with "handsome aiglets cascad[ing] down center front."<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|315}}
=== Berthe ===
Can be spelled ''bertha''.
A wide collar made of lace and gathered at the neckline, sometimes covering the arms. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Wide collar popular on women's gowns. Accented dropped shoulder line. Often made of lace.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|29}}</blockquote>
=== Dags ===
Popular in European dress 1450–1550, dagging was a "hanging end or shred" decoration on the edges of outer clothing, with a similar term used for "a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-14|title=dag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=dag&oldid=90785397|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> Often dagging would be used to hem the bottom edges of hoods, doublets, tabards and chain mail.
=== Flounce ===
A ruffle that is gathered on one edge, the bottom edge is free. Flounces are typically part of the decoration on a skirt.
=== Frou-frou ===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|left|thumb|Bernhardt, 1881]]
In French, ''frou-frou'' or, spelled as ''froufrou'', is the sound of the rustling of silk or sometimes of fabrics in general.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-25|title=frou-frou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frou-frou&oldid=32508509|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou.</ref> The first use the French ''Wiktionnaire'' lists is Honoré Balzac, ''La Cousine Bette'', 1846.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-03|title=froufrou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=froufrou&oldid=32330124|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/froufrou.</ref> ''Frou-frou'' is also a 1869 French drawing-room comedy by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-19|title=Henri Meilhac|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Meilhac&oldid=1286340698|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and performed by Sarah Bernhardt in London in 1881 (Bernhardt, left, in costume ['''conflicting info, is a photo of Bernhardt in ''La Dame aux Camélias'' instead'''?]).
''Frou-frou'' is a term clothing historians use to describe decorative additions to an article of clothing; often the term has a slight negative connotation, suggesting that the additions are superficial and, perhaps, excessive.
=== Plastics ===
Small poufs of fabric connected in a strip in the 18th century, Rococo styles.
=== Pouf, Puff, Poof ===
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a pouf was, beginning in 1744, a "kind of women's hairstyle":<blockquote>The hairstyle in question, known as the “pouf”, had launched the reputation of the enterprising Rose Bertin, owner of the Grand Mogol, a very prominent fashion accessories boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1774. Created in collaboration with the famous hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, the pouf was built on a scaffolding of wire, fabric, gauze, horsehair, fake hair, and the client's own hair held up in an almost vertical position. — (Marie-Antoinette, ''Queen of Fashion'', translated from the American by Sylvie Lévy, in ''The Rules of the Game'', n° 40, 2009)</blockquote>''Puff'' and ''poof'' are used to describe clothing.
=== Shirring ===
''Shirring'' is the gathering of fabric to make poufs or puffs. The 19th century is known for its use of this decorative technique. Even men's clothing had shirring: at the shoulder seam.
=== Sequins ===
Sequins, paillettes, spangles
Sequins — or paillettes — are "small, scalelike glittering disks."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|216}} The French ''Wiktionnaire'' defines ''paillette'' as "Lamelle de métal, brillante, mince, percée au milieu, ordinairement ronde, et qu’on applique sur une étoffe pour l’orner [A strip of metal, shiny, thin, pierced in the middle, usually round, and which is applied to a fabric in order to decorate it.]"<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|date=2024-03-18|title=paillette|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=paillette&oldid=33809572|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillette.</ref>
According to the ''OED'', the use of ''sequin'' as a decorative device for clothing (as opposed to gold coins minted and used for international trade) goes back to the 1850s.<ref>“Sequin, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4074851670.</ref> The first instance of ''spangle'' as "A small round thin piece of glittering metal (usually brass) with a hole in the centre to pass a thread through, used for the decoration of textile fabrics and other materials of various sorts" is from c. 1420.<ref>“Spangle, N. (1).” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4727197141.</ref> The first use of ''paillette'' listed in the French ''Wiktionnaire'' is in Jules Verne in 1873 to describe colored spots on icy walls.<ref name=":8" />
Currently many distinguish between sequins (which are smaller) and paillettes (which are larger).
Before the 20th century, sequins were metal discs or foil leaves, and so of course if they were silver or copper, they tarnished. It is not until well into the 20th century that plastics were invented and used for sequins.
=== Trim and Lace ===
''A History of Feminine Fashion'', published sometime before 1927 and probably commissioned by [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Worth, of Paris|the Maison Worth]], describes Charles Frederick Worth's contributions to the development of embroidery and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Passementerie|passementerie]] (trim) from about the middle of the 19th century:<blockquote>For it must be remembered that one of M. Worth's most important and lasting contributions to the prosperity of those who cater for women's needs, as well as to the variety and elegance of his clients' garments, was his insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description. In his endeavours to restore in Paris the splendours of the days of La Pompadour, and of Marie Antoinette, he found himself confronted at the outset with a grave difficulty, which would have proved unsurmountable to a man of less energy, resource and initiative. The magnificent materials of those days were no longer to be had! The Revolution had destroyed the market for beautiful materials of this, type, and the Restoration and regime of Louis Philippe had left a dour aspect in the City of Light. ... On parallel lines [to his development of better [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Satin|satin]]], [Worth] stimulated also the manufacture of embroidery and ''passementerie''. It was he who first started the manufacture of laces copied from the designs of the real old laces. He was the / first dressmaker to use fur in the trimming of light materials — but he employed only the richer furs, such as sable and ermine, and had no use whatever for the inferior varieties of skins.<ref name=":9">[Worth, House of.] {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfFeminineFashion|title=A History Of Feminine Fashion (1800s to 1920s)}} Before 1927. [Likely commissioned by Worth. Link is to Archive.org; info from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worth_Biarritz_salon.jpg.]</ref>{{rp|6–7}}</blockquote>
==== Gold and Silver Fabric and Lace ====
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on gold and silver fabric, threads and lace attached to the article on gold. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>GOLD AND SILVER LACE. Under this heading a general account may be given of the use of the precious metals in textiles of all descriptions into which they enter. That these metals were used largely in the sumptuous textiles of the earliest periods of civilization there is abundant testimony; and to this day, in the Oriental centres whence a knowledge and the use of fabrics inwoven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver first spread, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still most strongly and generally prevalent. The earliest mention of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3) — "And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." In both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' distinct allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered golden textiles. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver originated in India, where it is still principally prosecuted, and that from one great city to another the practice travelled westward, — Babylon, Tarsus, Baghdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Con- / stantinople and Venice, all in the process of time becoming famous centres of these much prized manufactures. Alexander the Great found Indian kings and princes arrayed in robes of gold and purple; and the Persian monarch Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle of cloth of gold, on which were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. There is reason, according to Josephus, to believe that the “royal apparel" worn by Herod on the day of his death (Acts xii. 21) was a tissue of silver. Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, had a robe woven entirely of gold, and from that period downwards royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decorations. In England, at different periods, various names were applied to cloths of gold, as ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekiu or baldachin, Cyprus damask, and twssewys or tissue. The thin flimsy paper known as tissue paper, is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold "tissue" to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. At what time the drawing of gold wire for the preparation of these textiles was first practised is not accurately known. The art was probably introduced and applied in different localities at widely different dates, but down till mediaeval times the method graphically described in the Pentateuch continued to be practised with both gold and silver.
Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the "gold wire" of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India soniri, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhábs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. "Gold and silver," says Dr Birdwood in his ''Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition'', 1878, "are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured ''mashrus'' at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccau; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly."
Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds — 1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India, — round wire, flat wire, thread made of flat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as "orris," fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.
The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.<ref>William Chandler Roberts-Austen and H. Bauerman [W.C.R. — H.B.]. "Gold and Silver Lace." In "Gold." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. 10 (X). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%2010%20%28G-GOT%29%20193592738.23/page/753/mode/1up (accessed January 2023): 753, Col. 2c – 754, Cols. 1a–b – 2a–b.</ref></blockquote>
==== Honiton Lace ====
Kate Stradsin says,<blockquote>Honiton lace was the finest English equivalent of Brussels bobbin lace and was constructed in small ‘sprigs, in the cottages of lacemakers[.'] These sprigs were then joined together and bleached to form the large white flounces that were so sought after in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>Strasdin, Kate. "Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research." ''The Court Historian'' 24.2 (2019): 181-196. Rpt http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3762/15/Rediscovering%20Queen%20Alexandra%27s%20Wardrobe.pdf: 13, and (for the little quotation) n. 37, which reads "Margaret Tomlinson, ''Three Generations in the Honiton Lace Trade: A Family History'', self-published, 1983."</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Strook in Alençon naaldkant, 1750-1775.jpg|thumb|alt=A long piece of complex white lace with garlands, flowers and bows|Point d'Alençon lace, 1750-1775]]
==== Passementerie ====
''Passementerie'' is the French term for trim on clothing or furniture. The 19th century (especially during the First and Second Empire) was a time of great "''exubérance''" in passementerie in French design, including the development and widespread use of the Jacquard loom.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-10|title=Passementerie|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Passementerie&oldid=205068926|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passementerie.</ref>
==== Point d'Alençon Lace ====
A lace made by hand using a number of complex steps and layers. The lacemakers build the point d'Alençon design on some kind of mesh and sometimes leave some of the mesh in as part of the lace and perhaps to provide structure.
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines point d'Alençon lace and Alençon lace separately. Point lace is needlepoint lace,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|233}} so Alençon point is "a two thread [needlepoint] lace."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}} Alençon lace has a "floral design on [a] fine net ground [and is] referred to as [the] queen of French handmade needlepoint laces. The original handmade Alençon was a fine needlepoint lace made of linen thread."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}}
The sample of point d'Alençon lace (right), from 1750–1775, shows the linen mesh that the lace was constructed on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689|title=MoMu - Open Fashion|website=openfashion.momu.be|access-date=2024-02-26}} ModeMuseum Antwerpen. http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689.</ref> The consistency in this sample suggests it may have been made by machine.
== Elastic ==
Elastic had been invented and was in use by the end of the 19th century. For the sense of "Elastic cord or string, usually woven with india-rubber,"<ref name=":6">“elastic, adj. & n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1199670313>.</ref> the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has usage examples beginning in 1847. The example for 1886 is vivid: "The thorough-going prim man will always place a circle of elastic round his hair previous to putting on his college cap."<ref name=":6" />
== Fabric ==
=== Brocatelle ===
Brocatelle is a kind of brocade, more simple than most brocades because it uses fewer warp and weft threads and fewer colors to form the design. The article in the French ''Wikipédia'' defines it like this:<blockquote>La '''brocatelle''' est un type de tissu datant du <abbr>xvi<sup>e</sup></abbr> siècle qui comporte deux chaînes et deux trames, au minimum. Il est composé pour que le dessin ressorte avec un relief prononcé, grâce à la chaîne sur un fond en sergé. Les brocatelles les plus anciennes sont toujours fabriquées avec une des trames en lin.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-01|title=Brocatelle|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brocatelle&oldid=204796410|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocatelle.</ref></blockquote>Which translates to this:<blockquote>Brocatelle is a type of fabric dating from the 16th century that has two warps and two wefts, at a minimum. It is composed so that the design stands out with a pronounced relief, thanks to the weft threads on a twill background. The oldest brocades were always made with one of the wefts being linen.</blockquote>The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says, brocatelle is an "imitation of brocade, usually made of silk or wool, used for tapestry, upholstery, etc., now also for dresses. Both the nature and the use of the stuff have changed" between the late 17th century and 1888, the last time this definition was revised.<ref>"brocatelle, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/23550. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Broché ===
Lewandowski says, "to be woven with a raised figure or to be embossed."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|39}} In English, the word might be spelled with or without the acute accent on the final ''e''. Generally, the term was used loosely to describe fabric with a pattern woven into it, either in the same color or a color different from that of the background. That is, the weave that produces the pattern is different from the weave that produces the background.
S. F. A. Caulfeild and B. C. Saward published this definition of ''broché'' in their 1887 ''Dictionary of Needlework'', according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (the ''face'' being the side of the fabric facing the viewer):<blockquote>Broché. A French term denoting a velvet or silk textile, with a satin figure thrown up on the face.<ref>“Broché, Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1054215522.</ref></blockquote>
=== Chiffon ===
A lightweight, somewhat sheer silk fabric, chiffon would have been worn only by the social elite at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal|date=2025-10-12|title=Chiffon (fabric)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chiffon_(fabric)&oldid=1316464288|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Synthetic fibers were not invented until the 20th century — nylon chiffon in 1938 and polyester chiffon not until 1958.<ref name=":25" />
=== Ciselé ===
=== Crape ===
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' distinguishes the use of ''crêpe'' (using a circumflex rather than an acute accent over the first ''e'') from ''crape'' in textiles, saying ''crêpe'' is "often borrowed [from the French] as a term for all crapy fabrics other than ordinary [[Social Victorians/Mourning|black mourning crape]],"<ref name=":24">"crêpe, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44242. Accessed 10 February 2023.</ref> with usage examples ranging from 1797 to the mid 20th century. This distinction seems more prescriptive than descriptive since texts from the 19th century to now do not make it reliably. Sometimes 19th-century newspapers put an acute accent on the ''e'' and spelled it crépe.
The fabric used for full mourning was black crape, a fabric with a dull texture, but writers continue to vary in how to spell it. Julia Baird uses ''crêpe'', defining it as "a thick black rustling material made of silk, crimped to make it look dull."<ref>Baird, Julia. ''Victoria the Queen, an Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire''. Random House, 2016. https://books.apple.com/us/book/victoria-the-queen/id953835024.</ref>{{rp|584 of 1203}}
However it is spelled, crêpe is<blockquote>Any number of fabrics with characteristic crinkled or puckered surface.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>
==== Crepe de Chine ====
Crêpe de chine, the ''OED'' says, is "a white or other coloured crape made of raw silk."<ref name=":24" /> Lewandowski defines it as "a very lightweight, fine, plain weave silk fabric. ... Introduced in 1866, China crepe with soft, silky surface."<ref name=":7" /> (77)
==== Crepon de Chine ====
Crepon is a fabric heavier than the usual crape but treated like crape to be crinkly. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Introduced in 1882, wool, silk, or blend fabric like very heavy crepe. ... Gay Nineties (1890–1900 C.E.). Popular in 1890s, woolen fabric creped to appear puffed between stripes [or] squares.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>According to Lewandowski, ''crepon'' can also be another word for bustle (1865–1890 C.E. to present).<ref name=":7" /> (77)
=== Crinoline ===
Technically, crinoline was a fabric made mostly of horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, similar to buckram today, used in men's military collars and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinolines|women's foundation garments]]. Lewandowski defines crinoline as <blockquote>(1840–1865 C.E.). France. Originally horsehair cloth used for officers' collars. Later used for women's underskirts to support skirts. Around 1850, replaced by many petticoats, starched and boned. Around 1856, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|light metal cage]] was developed.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>The term has been used so consistently for the cage first introduced in the 1850s that held the skirt out from the body, however, that it is important to say ''crinoline cage'' or ''crinoline fabric'' or ''crinoline petticoat'' to be clear.
=== Épinglé Velvet ===
Often spelled ''épingle'' rather than ''épinglé'', this term appears to have been used for a fabric made of wool, or at least wool along with linen or cotton, that was heavier and stiffer than silk velvet. It was associated with outer garments and men's clothing. Nowadays, épinglé velvet is an upholstery fabric in which the pile is cut into designs and patterns, and the portrait of [[Social Victorians/People/Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton|Mary, Duchess of Hamilton]] shows a mantle described as épinglé velvet that does seem to be a velvet with a woven pattern perhaps cut into the pile.
=== Lace ===
While lace also functioned sometimes as fabric — at the décolletage, for example, on the stomacher or as a veil — here we organize it as a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Trim and Lace|part of the elaboration of clothing]].
=== Liberty Fabrics ===
=== Lisse ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''lisse'' as a "kind of silk gauze" was used in the 19th-century UK and US.<ref>"lisse, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108978. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Muslin ===
=== Satin ===
The pre-1927 ''History of Feminine Fashion'', probably commissioned by Charles Frederick Worth's sons, describes Worth's "insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description" at the beginning of his career in the mid 19th century:<blockquote>When Worth first entered the business of dressmaking, the only materials of the richer sort used for woman's dress were velvet, faille, and watered silk. Satin, for example, was never used. M. Worth desired to use satin very extensively in the gowns he designed, but he was not satisfied with what could be had at the time; he wanted something very much richer than was produced by the mills at Lyons. That his requirements entailed the reconstruction of mills mattered little — the mills were reconstructed under his directions, and the Lyons looms turned out a richer satin than ever, and the manufacturers prospered accordingly.<ref name=":9" />{{rp|6 in printed, 26 in digital book}}</blockquote>
=== Selesia ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''silesia'' is "A fine linen or cotton fabric originally manufactured in Silesia in what is now Germany (''Schlesien'').<ref>"Silesia, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/179664. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> It may have been used as a lining — for pockets, for example — in garments made of more luxurious or more expensive cloth. The word ''sleazy'' — "Of textile fabrics or materials: Thin or flimsy in texture; having little substance or body."<ref>"sleazy, adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/181563. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> — may be related.
=== Shot Fabric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "Of a textile fabric: Woven with warp-threads of one colour and weft-threads of another, so that the fabric (usually silk) changes in tint when viewed from different points."<ref>“Shot, ''Adj.''” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2977164390.</ref> A shot fabric might also be made of silk and cotton fibers.
=== Tissue ===
A lightly woven fabric like gauze or chiffon. The light weave can make the fabric translucent and make pleating and gathering flatter and less bulky. Tissue can be woven to be shot, sheer, stiff or soft.
Historically, the term in English was used for a "rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold or silver" or "various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture."<ref>“Tissue, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5896731814.</ref>
=== Tulle ===
In the 19th century, tulle — a very fine net — was a sheer woven tissue made of linen or silk. Tulle looms were invented in the late 18th century,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-04|title=Tulle (tissu)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(tissu)&oldid=228712045|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> and the fabric "first made by machine in 1768 in Nottingham."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|299}} By 1802 English tulle was recognized as higher quality than French tulle, even though the fabric is named for the French city.<ref name=":23" />
Tulle is still used today, but it is usually made of synthetic fabric.<blockquote>It is a finer textile than the textile referred to as "net". ...
It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, polyester and rayon. Polyester is the most common fibre used for tulle.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-05|title=Tulle (netting)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(netting)&oldid=1304416320|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Victorian silk tulle would not have been stiff unless it was treated with sizing.
== Fan ==
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on the fan. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>FAN (Latin, ''vannus''; French, ''éventail''), a light implement used for giving motion to the air. ''Ventilabrum'' and ''flabellum'' are names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attributes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyptian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day.
Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached — of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul’s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supreme pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or ''mundus muliebris'', of ancient Roman ladies.
Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used—a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to invite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while working with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held together by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals.
Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de’ Medici, probably from Italy, then in advance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII.’s reign in England were used to handling fans, A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round leather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the ''Spectator'' humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes.
The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the decorations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly ''chicken skin'', but not correctly), — a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edicts at various times to regulate the manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called “Vernis Martin,” after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were exhibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the / 17th century. Cano de Arevalo, a Spanish painter of the 17th century devoted himself to fan painting. Some harsh expressions of Queen Christina to the young ladies of the French court are said to have caused an increased ostentation in the splendour of their fans, which were set with jewels and mounted in gold. Rosalba Carriera was the name of a fan painter of celebrity in the 17th century. Lebrun and Romanelli were much employed during the same period. Klingstet, a Dutch artist, enjoyed a considerable reputation for his fans from the latter part of the 17th and the first thirty years of the 18th century.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes drove many fan-makers out of France to Holland and England. The trade in England was well established under the Stuart sovereigns. Petitions were addressed by the fan-makers to Charles II. against the importation of fans from India, and a duty was levied upon such fans in consequence. This importation of Indian fans, according to Savary, extended also to France. During the reign of Louis XV. carved Indian and China fans displaced to some extent those formerly imported from Italy, which had been painted on swanskin parchment prepared with various perfumes.
During the 18th century all the luxurious ornamentation of the day was bestowed on fans as far as they could display it. The sticks were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill in France, Italy, England, and other countries. They were painted from designs of Boucher, Watteau, Lancret, and other "genre" painters, Hébert, Rau, Chevalier, Jean Boquet, Mad. Verité, are known as fan painters. These fashions were followed in most countries of Europe, with certain national differences. Taffeta and silk, as well as fine parchment, were used for the mounts. Little circles of glass were let into the stick to be looked through, and small telescopic glasses were sometimes contrived at the pivot of the stick. They were occasionally mounted with the finest point lace. An interesting fan (belonging to Madame de Thiac in France), the work of Le Flamand, was presented by the municipality of Dieppe to Marie Antoinette on the birth of her son the dauphin. From the time of the Revolution the old luxury expended on fans died out. Fine examples ceased to be exported to England and other countries. The painting on them represented scenes or personages connected with political events. At a later period fan mounts were often prints coloured by hand. The events of the day mark the date of many examples found in modern collections. Amongst the fanmakers of the present time the names of Alexandre, Duvelleroy, Fayet, Vanier, may be mentioned as well known in Paris. The sticks are chiefly made in the department of Oise, at Le Déluge, Crèvecœur, Méry, Ste Geneviève, and other villages, where whole families are engaged in preparing them; ivory sticks are carved at Dieppe. Water-colour painters of distinction often design and paint the mounts, the best designs being figure subjects. A great impulse has been given to the manufacture and painting of fans in England since the exhibition which took place at South Kensington in 1870. Other exhibitions have since been held, and competitive prizes offered, one of which was gained by the Princess Louise. Modern collections of fans take their date from the emigration of many noble families from France at the time of the Revolution. Such objects were given as souvenirs and occasionally sold by families in straitened circumstances. A large number of fans of all sorts, principally those of the 18th century, French, English, German, Italian Spanish, &c., have been lately bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.
Regarding the different parts of folding fans it may be well to state that the sticks are called in French ''brins'', the two outer guards ''panaches'', and the mount ''feuille''.<ref>J. H. Pollen [J.H.P.]. "Fan." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. '''10''' ('''X'''). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%209%20%28FAL-FYZ%29%20193323016.23/page/26/mode/2up (accessed January 2023): 27, Col. 1b – 28, Col. 1c.</ref></blockquote>Folding fans were available and popular early and are common accessories in portraits of fashionable women through the centuries.
== Costumes for Theatre and Fancy Dress ==
Fancy-dress (or costume) balls were popular and frequent in the U.K. and France as well as the rest of Europe and North America during the 19th century. The themes and styles of the fancy-dress balls influenced those that followed.
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the guests came dressed in costume from times before 1820, as instructed on '''the invitation''', but their clothing was much more about late-Victorian standards of beauty and fashion than the standards of whatever time period the portraits they were copying or basing their costumes on.
=== Fancy Dress ===
In her ''Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898'', Cynthia Cooper describes the resources available to those needing help making a costume for a fancy-dress ball:<blockquote>There were a number of places eager ballgoers could turn for assistance and inspiration. Those with a scholarly bent might pore over history books or study pictures of paintings or other works of art. For more direct advice, one could turn to the barrage of published information specifically on fancy dress. Women’s magazines such as ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' and ''The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine'' sometimes featured fancy dress designs and articles, and enticing specialized books were available with extensive recommendations for choosing fancy dress. By far the most complete sources were the books by [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], a prolific British authority on the subject. Holt’s book for women, ''Fancy Dresses Described, or What to Wear at Fancy Balls'' (published in six editions between 1879 and 1896), began with the query, ‘‘But what are we to wear?” Holt’s companion book, ''Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress:'' ''How to Choose It'', was also published in six editions from 1882 to 1905. Other prominent authorities included Mrs. Aria’s ''Costume: Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical'' and, in the US, the Butterick Company’s ''Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes''. The Butterick publication relied heavily on Holt, copying large sections of the introduction outright and paraphrasing other sections.<ref name=":16">Cooper, Cynthia. ''Magnificent entertainments: fancy dress balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898''.Fredericton, N.B.; Hull, Quebec: Goose Lane Editions and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1997. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/magnificententer0000coop/.</ref>{{rp|28–29}}</blockquote>
Cynthia Cooper discusses how "historical accuracy" works in historical fiction and historical dress: <blockquote>A seemingly accurate costume and coiffure bespoke a cultured individual whose most gratifying compliment would be “historically correct.” Those who were fortunate enough to own actual clothing from an earlier period might wear it with pride as a historical relic, though they would generally adapt or remake it in keeping with the aesthetics of their own period. Historical accuracy was always in the eye of beholders inclined to overlook elements of current fashion in a historical costume. Theatre had long taught the public that if a costume appeared tasteful and attractive, it could be assumed to be accurate. Even at Queen Victoria’s fancy dress balls, costume silhouette was always far more like the fashionable dress of the period than of the time portrayed. For this reason, many extant eighteenth-century dresses show evidence of extensive alterations done in the nineteenth century, no doubt for fancy dress purposes.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>
The newspaper ''The Queen'' published dress and fashion information and advice under the byline of [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], who regularly answered questions from readers about fashion as well as about fancy dress. Holt also wrote entire articles with suggestions for what might make an appealing fancy-dress costume as well as pointing readers away from costumes that had been worn too frequently. The suggestions for costumes are based on familiar types or portraits available to readers, similar to Holt's books on fancy dress, which ran through a number of editions in the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy-dress questions sometimes asked for details about costumes worn in theatrical or operatic productions, which Holt provides.
In November 1897, Holt refers to the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July ball: "Since the famous fancy ball, given at Devonshire House during this year, historical fancy dresses have assumed a prominence that they had not hitherto known."<ref>Holt, Ardern. "Fancy Dress a la Mode." The ''Queen'' 27 November 1897, Saturday: 94 [of 145 in BNA; print p. 1026], Col. 1a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18971127/459/0094.</ref> Holt goes on to provide a number of ideas for costumes for historical fancy dress, as always with a strong leaning toward Victorian standards of beauty and style and away from any concern for historical accuracy.
As Leonore Davidoff says, "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration symbolised some status category for the female wearer."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} [handled under [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Elaborations|Elaborations]]]
=== Historical Accuracy ===
Many of the costumes at the ball were based on portraits, especially when the guest was dressed as a historical figure. If possible, we have found the portraits likely to have been the originals, or we have found, if possible, portraits that show the subjects from the two time periods at similar ages.
The way clothing was cut changed quite a bit between the 18th and 19th centuries. We think of Victorian clothing — particularly women's clothing, and particularly at the end of the century — as inflexible and restrictive, especially compared to 20th- and 21st-century customs permitting freedom of movement. The difference is generally evolutionary rather than absolute — that is, as time has passed since the 18th century, clothing has allowed an increasingly greater range of movement, especially for people who did not do manual labor.
By the end of the 19th century, garments like women's bodices and men's coats were made fitted and smooth by attention to the grain of the fabric and by the use of darts (rather than techniques that assembled many small, individual pieces of fabric).
* clothing construction and flat-pattern techniques
* Generally, the further back in time we go, the more 2-dimensional the clothing itself was.
==== Women's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
As always with this ball, whatever historical accuracy might be present in a woman's costume is altered so that the wearer is still a fashionable Victorian lady. What makes the costumes look "Victorian" to our eyes is the line of the silhouette caused by the foundation undergarments as well as the many "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}}, mostly in the decorations, trim and accessories.
Also, the clothing hangs and drapes differently because the fabric was cut on grain and the shoulders were freed by the way the sleeves were set in.
==== Men's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
Because men were not wearing a Victorian foundation garment at the end of the century, the men's costumes at the ball are more historically accurate in some ways.
* Trim
* Mixing neck treatments
* Hair
* Breeches
* Shoes and boots
* Military uniforms, arms, gloves, boots
== Feathers and Plumes ==
=== Aigrette ===
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines ''aigrette'' as "France. Feather or plume from an egret or heron."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|5}} Sometimes the newspapers use the term to refer to an accessory (like a fan or ornament on a hat) that includes such a feather or plume. The straight and tapered feathers in an aigrette are in a bundle.
=== Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes ===
The feathers in an aigrette came from egrets and herons; Prince of Wales's feathers came from ostriches. A fuller discussion of Prince of Wales's feathers and the white ostrich plumes worn at court appears on [[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|Victorian Things]].
For much of the late 18th and 19th centuries, white ostrich plumes were central to fashion at court, and at a certain point in the late 18th century they became required for women being presented to the monarch and for their sponsors. Our purpose here is to understand why women were wearing plumes at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] as part of their costumes.
First published in 1893, [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Colin Campbell|Lady Colin Campbell]]'s ''Manners and Rules of Good Society'' (1911 edition) says that<blockquote>It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.
White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/|title=The Court Presentation|last=Holl|first=Evangeline|date=2007-12-07|website=Edwardian Promenade|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-18}} https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/.</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|This fashion was imported from France]] in the mid 1770s.<ref>"Abstract" for Blackwell, Caitlin. "'<nowiki/>''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright''': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. ''Wiley Online'' DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x (accessed November 2022).</ref>
Separately, a secondary heraldic emblem of the Prince of Wales has been a specific arrangement of 3 ostrich feathers in a gold coronet<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-07|title=Prince of Wales's feathers|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers&oldid=1120556015|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers.</ref> since King Edward III (1312–1377<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-12-14|title=Edward III of England|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_III_of_England&oldid=1127343221|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England.</ref>).
Some women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] wore white ostrich feathers in their hair, but most of them are not Prince of Wales's feathers. Most of the plumes in these portraits are arrangements of some kind of headdress to accompany the costume. A few, wearing what looks like the Princes of Wales's feathers, might be signaling that their character is royal or has royal ancestry. '''One of the women [which one?] was presented to the royals at this ball?'''
Here is the list of women who are wearing white ostrich plumes in their portraits in the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball/Photographs|''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball'' album of 286 photogravure portraits]]:
# Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, the [[Social Victorians/People/Newcastle|Duchess of Newcastle]]
# [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Luise Cavendish]], the Duchess of Devonshire
# Jesusa Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urritio (née Bellido), [[Social Victorians/People/Santurce|Marquisa de Santurce]]
# Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Farquhar|Emilie Farquhar]]
# Princess (Laura Williamina Seymour) Victor of [[Social Victorians/People/Gleichen#Laura%20Williamina%20Seymour%20of%20Hohenlohe-Langenburg|Hohenlohe Langenburg]]
# Louisa Acheson, [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Lady Gosford]]
# Alice Emily White Coke, [[Social Victorians/People/Leicester|Viscountess Coke]]
# Lady Mary Stewart, Helen Mary Theresa [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Vane-Tempest-Stewart]]
#[[Social Victorians/People/Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill|Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill]], Duchess of [[Social Victorians/People/Marlborough|Marlborough]], dressed as the wife of the French Ambassador at the Court of Catherine of Russia (not white, but some color that reads dark in the black-and-white photograph)
#Mrs. Mary [[Social Victorians/People/Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] (at 491), wearing white plumes, as Madame d'Epinay
#Lady Clementine [[Social Victorians/People/Tweeddale|Hay]] (at 629), wearing white plumes, as St. Bris (''Les Huguenots'')
#[[Social Victorians/People/Meysey-Thompson|Lady Meysey-Thompson]] (at 391), wearing white plumes, as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Grosvenor|Algernon (Catherine) Grosvenor]] (at 510), wearing white plumes, as Marie Louise
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ancaster|Evelyn Ewart]], at 401), wearing white plumes, as the Duchess of Ancaster, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, 1757, after a picture by Hudson
#[[Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton|Edith Sophy Balfour Lyttelton]] (at 580), wearing what might be white plumes on a large-brimmed white hat, after a picture by Romney
#[[Social Victorians/People/Yznaga|Emilia Yznaga]] (at 360), wearing what might be white plumes, as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ilchester|Muriel Fox Strangways]] (at 403), wearing what might be two smallish white plumes, as Lady Sarah Lennox, one of the bridesmaids of Queen Charlotte A.D. 1761
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Violet Bingham]] (at 586), wearing perhaps one white plume in a headdress not related to the Prince of Wales's feathers
#Rosamond Fellowes, [[Social Victorians/People/de Ramsey|Lady de Ramsey]] (at 329), wearing a headdress that includes some white plumes, as Lady Burleigh
#[[Social Victorians/People/Dupplin|Agnes Blanche Marie Hay-Drummond]] (at 682), in a big headdress topped with white plumes, as Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney A.D. 1775
#Florence Canning, [[Social Victorians/People/Garvagh|Lady Garvagh]] (at 336), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#[[Social Victorians/People/Suffolk|Marguerite Hyde "Daisy" Leiter]] (at 684), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Spicer|Margaret Spicer]] (at 281), wearing one smallish white and one black plume, as Countess Zinotriff, Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Catherine of Russia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Cavendish Bentinck|Arthur James]] (at 318), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes, as Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Bess of Hardwick
#Nellie, [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Countess of Kilmorey]] (at 207), wearing three tall plumes, 2 white and one dark, as Comtesse du Barri
#Daisy, [[Social Victorians/People/Warwick|Countess of Warwick]] (at 53), wearing at least 1 white plume, as Marie Antoinette
More men than women were wearing plumes reminiscent of the Prince of Wales's feathers:
*
==== Bibliography for Plumes and Prince of Wales's Feathers ====
* Blackwell, Caitlin. "'''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright'<nowiki/>'': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." Journal for ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. Wiley Online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x.
* "Prince of Wales's feathers." ''Wikipedia'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers (accessed November 2022). ['''Add women to this page''']
* Simpson, William. "On the Origin of the Prince of Wales' Feathers." ''Fraser's magazine'' 617 (1881): 637-649. Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79253140&view=1up&seq=643&q1=feathers (accessed December 2022). Deals mostly with use of feathers in other cultures and in antiquity; makes brief mention of feathers and plumes in signs and pub names that may not be associated with the Prince of Wales. No mention of the use of plumes in women's headdresses or court dress.
[[File:Prince Albert - Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842.jpg|thumb|1842 Winterhalter portrait of Prince Albert wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1842|alt=1842 Portrait of Prince Albert by Winterhalter, wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece]]
== Honors ==
=== The Bath ===
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCB or DCB, Knight or Dame Commander; CB, Companion)
[[File:The Golden Fleece - collar exhibited at MET, NYC.jpg|thumb|The Golden Fleece collar and pendant for the 2019 "Last Knight" exhibition at the MET, NYC.|alt=Recent photograph of a gold necklace on a wide band, with a gold skin of a sheep hanging from it as a pendant|left]]
=== The Golden Fleece ===
To wear the golden fleece is to wear the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, said to be "the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world" because of its long history and strict limitations on membership.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=2020-09-25|title=Order of the Golden Fleece|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece&oldid=980340875|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> The monarchs of the U.K. were members of the originally Spanish order, as were others who could afford it, like the Duke of Wellington,<ref name=":12">Thompson, R[obert]. H[ugh]. "The Golden Fleece in Britain." Publication of the ''British Numismatic Society''. 2009 https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2009_BNJ_79_8.pdf (accessed January 2023).</ref> the first Protestant to be admitted to the order.<ref name=":10" /> Founded in 1429/30 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the order separated into two branches in 1714, one Spanish and the other Austrian, still led by the House of Habsburg.<ref name=":10" />
The photograph (upper left) is of a Polish badge dating from the "turn of the XV and XVI centuries."<ref>{{Citation|title=Polski: Kolana orderowa orderu Złotego Runa, przełom XV i XVI wieku.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg|date=2019-11-10|accessdate=2023-01-10|last=Wulfstan}}. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg.</ref> The collar this Golden Fleece is hanging from might be similar to the one the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#The Insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece|Duke of Devonshire is wearing in the 1897 Lafayette portrait]].
The badges and collars that Knights of the Order actually wore vary quite a bit.
The 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter portrait (upper right) of Prince Consort Albert, Victoria's husband and father of the Prince of Wales, shows him wearing the Golden Fleece on a red ribbon around his neck and the star of the Garter on the front of his coat.<ref>Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. ''Prince Albert''. {{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61|title=Explore the Royal Collection Online|website=www.rct.uk|access-date=2023-01-16}} https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61.</ref>[[File:Order of the Garter badge sash (United Kingdom) - Tallinn Museum of Orders.jpg|alt=Recent photograph of a gold medal on a wide blue ribbon|thumb|Order of the Garter Badge and Sash]]
=== The Order of the Garter ===
The Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter (KG, Knight Companion; LG, Lady Companion). Gold badge on the typical royal-blue sash (bottom right).
=== Royal Victorian Order ===
(GCVO, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCVO or DCVO, Knight or Dame Commander; CVO, Commander; LVO, Lieutenant; MVO, Member)
=== St. John ===
The Order of the Knights of St. John
=== Star of India ===
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI, Knight Grand Commander; KCSI, Knight Commander; CSI, Companion)
=== Thistle ===
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Hoops|Hoops]] ==
== Jewelry and Stones ==
=== Cabochon ===
This term describes both the treatment and shape of a precious or semiprecious stone. A cabochon treatment does not facet the stone but merely polishes it, removing "the rough parts" and the parts that are not the right stone.<ref>"cabochon, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/25778. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> A cabochon shape is often flat on one side and oval or round, forming a mound in the setting.
=== Cairngorm ===
=== Ferronnière ===
A revival of a Renaissance fashion for controlling the hair and headdress. Usually made of a filet, often with a single pendant stone in the center of the forehead, although the Victorians' ferronnières were often elaborate and encrusted with jewels.<ref>Boyington, Amy. "Ferronnière." ''History with Amy'' 5 November 2025.
Website fb.watch/FBMyC7bqde [links to fb.watch not allowed].</ref>
=== Half-hoop ===
Usually of a ring or bracelet, a precious-metal band with a setting of stones on one side, covering perhaps about 1/3 or 1/2 of the band. Half-hoop jewelry pieces were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Jet ===
=== ''Orfèvrerie'' ===
Sometimes misspelled in the newspapers as ''orvfèvrerie''. ''Orfèvrerie'' is the artistic work of a goldsmith, silversmith, or jeweler.
=== Ribbon Necklace ===
=== Solitaire ===
A solitaire is a ring with a single stone set as the focal point. Solitaire rings were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Turquoise ===
== Mantle, Cloak, Cape ==
In 19th-century newspaper accounts, these terms are sometimes used without precision as synonyms. These are all outer garments. Although the terms were (and are) often used generically, a short outer wrap would be a cape, a longer one would be a cloak and, after the 17th century, a full-length one possibly buttoned down the front would be a mantle.
=== '''Mantle''' ===
A mantle — often a long outer garment — might have elements like a train, sleeves, collars, revers, fur, and a cape. A late-19th-century writer making a distinction between a mantle and a cloak might use ''mantle'' if the garment is more voluminous.
== Military ==
Several men from the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]] were dressed in military uniforms, some historical and some, possibly, not.
=== Armor ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], much of the armor was fictional, not located in historical time and place. Helmets, ditto.
==== Chain Mail ====
chausses, mitons, hauberk, mail coif,
==== Armor ====
greaves, gauntlet
* '''Cuirass''': According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''cuirass'' is "A piece of armour for the body (originally of leather); ''spec.'' a piece reaching down to the waist, and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate, buckled or otherwise fastened together ...."<ref>"cuirass, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/45604. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref>
[[File:Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt - Ritratto di giovane - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Old painting of a young man wearing metal collar armor around his neck|thumb|''Tronie of a Young Man in a Gorget and Cap'', attributed to Rembrandt (c. 1639)]]
* '''Gorget''': By the Elizabethan age in western Europe, the gorget was the piece of plate armor that protected the neck.
<blockquote>At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a separate mail collar to fully protect the neck, the developed gorget was worn under the cuirass and was intended to cover a larger area of the neck, nape, shoulders and upper chest, from which the edges of the backplate and breastplate had receded.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-02|title=Gorget|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gorget&oldid=1346732005|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The only visible armor worn by the subject in Rembrandt's c. 1639 portrait (right) is his gorget.
*.
==== Over-clothing ====
(fabric or leather): tunic, cloak, mantle
=== Baldric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''baldric'' is "A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm, and used to support the wearer's sword, bugle, etc."<ref>"baldric, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/14849. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref> This sense has been in existence since c. 1300. A baldric could be worn over armor or court dress. The ribbon worn across the chest for honors is called a sash.
[[File:Knötel IV, 04.jpg|thumb|alt=An Old drawing in color of British soldiers on horses brandishing swords in 1815.|1890 illustration of the Household Cavalry (Life Guard, left; Horse Guard, right) at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815]]
=== Household Cavalry ===
The Royal Household contains the Household Cavalry, a corps of British Army units assigned to the monarch. It is made up of 2 regiments, the Life Guards and what is now called The Blues and Royals, which were formed around the time of "the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660."<ref name=":3">Joll, Christopher. "Tales of the Household Cavalry, No. 1. Roles." The Household Cavalry Museum, https://householdcavalry.co.uk/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Household-Cavalry-Museum-video-series-large-print-text-Tales-episode-01.pdf.</ref>{{rp|1}} Regimental Historian Christopher Joll says, "the original Life Guards were formed as a mounted bodyguard for the exiled King Charles II, The Blues were raised as Cromwellian cavalry and The Royals were established to defend Tangier."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|1–2}} The 1st and 2nd Life Guards were formed from "the Troops of Horse and Horse Grenadier Guards ... in 1788."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} The Life Guards were and are still official bodyguards of the queen or king, but through history they have been required to do quite a bit more than serve as bodyguards for the monarch.
The Household Cavalry fought in the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815 as heavy cavalry.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} Besides arresting the Cato Steet conspirators in 1820 "and guarding their subsequent execution," the Household Cavalry contributed to the "the expedition to rescue General Gordon, who was trapped in Khartoum by The Mahdi and his army of insurgents" in 1884.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} In 1887 they "were involved ... in the suppression of rioters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}}
==== Grenadier Guards ====
Three men — [[Social Victorians/People/Gordon-Lennox#Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox|Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox]], [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Edward George Villiers Stanley, Lord Stanley|Lord Stanley]], and [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley|Hon. F. C. Stanley]] — attended the ball as officers of the Grenadier Guards, wearing "scarlet tunics, ... full blue breeches, scarlet hose and shoes, lappet wigs" as well as items associated with weapons and armor.<ref name=":14">“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.</ref>{{rp|p. 34, Col. 2a}}
Founded in England in 1656 as Foot Guards, this infantry regiment "was granted the 'Grenadier' designation by a Royal Proclamation" at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Grenadier Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grenadier_Guards&oldid=1151238350|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadier_Guards.</ref> They were not called Grenadier Guards, then, before about 1815. In 1660, the Stuart Restoration, they were called Lord Wentworth's Regiment, because they were under the command of Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-07-24|title=Lord Wentworth's Regiment|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment&oldid=1100069077|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment.</ref>
At the time of Lord Wentworth's Regiment, the style of the French cavalier had begun to influence wealthy British royalists. In the British military, a Cavalier was a wealthy follower of Charles I and Charles II — a commander, perhaps, or a field officer, but probably not a soldier.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Cavalier|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier&oldid=1151166569|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier.</ref>
The Guards were busy as infantry in the 17th century, engaging in a number of armed conflicts for Great Britain, but they also served the sovereign. According to the Guards Museum,<blockquote>In 1678 the Guards were ordered to form Grenadier Companies, these men were the strongest and tallest of the regiment, they carried axes, hatches and grenades, they were the shock troops of their day. Instead of wearing tri-corn hats they wore a mitre shaped cap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/|title=Service to the Crown|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/.</ref></blockquote>The name comes from ''grenades'', then, and we are accustomed to seeing them in front of Buckingham Palace, with their tall mitre hats.
The Guard fought in the American Revolution, and in the 19th century, the Grenadier Guards fought in the Crimean War, Sudan and the Boer War. They have roles as front-line troops and as ceremonial for the sovereign, which makes them elite:<blockquote>Queen Victoria decreed that she did not want to see a single chevron soldier within her Guards. Other then [sic] the two senior Warrant Officers of the British Army, the senior Warrant Officers of the Foot Guards wear a large Sovereigns personal coat of arms badge on their upper arm. No other regiments of the British Army are allowed to do so; all the others wear a small coat of arms of their lower arms. Up until 1871 all officers in the Foot Guards had the privilege of having double rankings. An Ensign was ranked as an Ensign and Lieutenant, a Lieutenant as Lieutenant and Captain and a Captain as Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. This was because at the time officers purchased their own ranks and it cost more to purchase a commission in the Foot Guards than any other regiments in the British Army. For example if it cost an officer in the Foot Guards £1,000 for his first rank, in the rest of the Army it would be £500 so if he transferred to another regiment he would loose [sic] £500, hence the higher rank, if he was an Ensign in the Guards and he transferred to a Line Regiment he went in at the higher rank of Lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/|title=Formation and role of the Regiments|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/.</ref></blockquote>
==== Life Guards ====
[[Social Victorians/People/Shrewsbury#Reginald Talbot's Costume|General the Hon. Reginald Talbot]], a member of the 1st Life Guards, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball dressed in the uniform of his regiment during the Battle of Waterloo.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|p. 36, Col. 3b}}
At the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Life Guards were part of the 1st Brigade — the Household Brigade — and were commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=2023-09-30|title=Battle of Waterloo|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Waterloo&oldid=1177893566|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo.</ref> The 1st Life Guards were on "the extreme right" of a French countercharge and "kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes MET DPB874122.jpg|alt=Old drawing of a soldier wearing a white cuirass, a pointed helmet, thigh-high boots, carrying a long sword|thumb|Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, 1888, a Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company card]]
==== Royal Horse Guards ====
In 1650 the Regiment of Cuirassiers was "raised by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell."<ref name=":26">{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-13|title=Royal Horse Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Horse_Guards&oldid=1353961278|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> In 1660 "it became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment .... Based on the colour of their uniform, the regiment was nicknamed 'the Oxford Blues', or simply the 'Blues.' In 1750, it became the Royal Horse Guards Blue."<ref name=":26" />
The Royal Horse Guards Blue were moved to Windsor at the end of the 18th century and "acted as royal bodyguards" to George III, who liked them.<ref name=":26" /> While pay for the men "stagnated," requirements continued to rise, so that recruits had to come from wealth.<ref name=":26" /> Riding and hunting skills were helpful to the recruits, who had to provide their own horses, pay for messes and uniforms, not to mention the position itself.<ref name=":26" />
They fought in the Battle of Waterloo, with 44 dead, 50 wounded (of which only 6 died).<ref name=":26" /> With the Duke of Wellington at their head, they became part of the Household Cavalry in 1820.<ref name=":26" /> An 1890 illustration shows a member of the Royal Horse Guard (above right) fighting at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Royal Horse Guard Blue fought in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, fighting with the heavy brigades and thus were more successful than the famous light brigade, though conditions were very difficult.<ref name=":26" />
A tobacco card published in 1888 (right) shows a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, Blue, in 1879.
In 1884–85 the Blues took part in the attempt to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. They were sent to South Africa at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":26" />
For those men who were in the Royal Horse Guards at the end of the 19th century, the field marshals were
* 1869–1885: Field Marshal Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, during which time — in 1877 — the name changed to the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)."<ref name=":26" />
* 1885–1895: Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant
* 1895–1907: Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
In 1847 Edmund Packe published his ''[[iarchive:historicalrecord00packiala/|Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, or Oxford Blues]]'', which has colored images to illustrate the development of the uniform up to the middle of the 19th century (the link goes to the ''Internet Archive'').
== [[Social Victorians/Mourning|Mourning]] ==
== Peplum ==
According to the French ''Wiktionnaire'', a peplum is a "Short skirt or flared flounce layered at the waist of a jacket, blouse or dress" [translation by Google Translate].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-07-02|title=péplum|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=p%C3%A9plum&oldid=29547727|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A9plum.</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has a fuller definition, although, it focuses on women's clothing because the sense is written for the present day:<blockquote>''Fashion''. ... a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (''obsolete''). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.<ref name=":5">“peplum, n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1832614702>.</ref></blockquote>Men haven't worn peplums since the 18th century, except when wearing costumes based on historical portraits. The ''Daily News'' reported in 1896 that peplums had been revived as a fashion item for women.<ref name=":5" />
== Revers ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''revers'' are the "edge[s] of a garment turned back to reveal the undersurface (often at the lapel or cuff) (chiefly in ''plural''); the material covering such an edge."<ref>"revers, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/164777. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> The term is French and was used this way in the 19th century (according to the ''Wiktionnaire'').<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-03-07|title=revers|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=revers&oldid=31706560|journal=Wiktionnaire|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/revers.</ref>
== Traditional vs Progressive Style ==
=== Progressive Style ===
The terms ''artistic dress'' and ''aesthetic dress'' — as well as ''rational dress'' or ''dress reform'' — are not synonymous and were in use at different times to refer to different groups of people in different contexts, but we recognize them as referring to a similar kind of personal style in clothing, a style we call progressive dress or the progressive style. Used in a very precise way, ''artistic dress'' is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artists and the women in their circle beginning in the 1860s. Similarly, ''aesthetic dress'' is associated with the 1880s and 1890s and dress reform movements, as is ''rational dress'', a movement located largely among women in the middle classes from the middle to the end of the century. In general, what we are calling the progressive style is characterized by its resistance to the highly structured fashion of its day, especially corseting, aniline dyes and an extremely close fit. This group of styles was more about individual choices and approaches than the consistent vision offered by couturiers like Maison Worth.
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Ada Nettleship]]: Constance Wilde and Ellen Terry; an 1883 exhibition of dress by the Rational Dress Society featured her work, including trousers for women (with a short overskirt)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-21|title=Ada Nettleship|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ada_Nettleship&oldid=1286707541|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Alice Comyns Carr]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-06-06|title=Alice Comyns Carr|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alice_Comyns_Carr&oldid=1294283929|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* Grosvenor Gallery
=== Traditional Style ===
[[File:Victoria Hesse NPG 95941 crop.jpg|alt=Old photograph of a white woman wearing a very tight and fitted bodice with her skirts swept to the back|thumb|Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven (1863–1950), Granddaughter of Queen Victoria; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Marquess, c. 1878]]
Images
* Smooth bodice, fabric draped to the back or covering a bustle with a small cage beneath it:
By the end of the century designs from the [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#The House of Worth|House of Worth]] (or Maison Worth) define what we think of as the traditional Victorian look, which was very stylish and expensive. Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria is shown (right) wearing a traditional but very stylish c. 1878 dress like one designed by Maison Worth. Blanche Payne describes an example of the 1895 "high style" in a gown by Worth with "the idiosyncrasies of the [1890s] full blown":<blockquote>The dress is white silk with wine-red stripes. Sleeves, collars, bows, bag, hat, and hem border match the stripes. The sleeve has reached its maximum volume; the bosom full and emphasized with added lace; the waistline is elongated, pointed, and laced to the point of distress; the skirt is smooth over the hips, gradually swinging out to sweep the floor. This is the much vaunted hourglass figure.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|530}}</blockquote>
The Victorian-looking gowns at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] are stylish in a way that recalls the designs of the House of Worth. The elements that make their look so Victorian are anachronisms on the costumes representing fashion of earlier eras. The women wearing these gowns preferred the standards of beauty from their own day to a more-or-less historically accurate look. The style competing at the very end of the century with the Worth look was not the historical, however, but a progressive style called at the time ''artistic'' or ''aesthetic''.
William Powell Frith's 1883 painting ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (discussion below) pits this kind of traditional style against the progressive or artistic style.
=== The Styles ===
[[File:Frith A Private View.jpg|thumb|William Powell Frith, ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'']]
We typically think of the late-Victorian silhouette as universal but, in the periods in which corsets dominated women's dress, not all women wore corsets and not all corsets were the same, as William Powell Frith's 1883 ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (right) illustrates. Frith is clear in his memoir that this painting — "recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress" — deliberately contrasts what he calls the "folly" of the Aesthetic Dress movement and the look of the traditional corseted waist.<ref>Frith, William Powell. ''My Autobiography and Reminiscences''. 1887.</ref> Frith considered the Aesthetic Movement and Aesthetic Dress "ephemeral," but its rejection of corsetry looks far more consequential to us in hindsight than it did in the 19th century.
As Frith sees it, his painting critiques the "craze" associated with the women in this set of identifiable portraits who are not corseted, but his commitment to realism shows us a spectrum, a range, of conservatism and if not political then at least stylistic progressivism among the women. The progressives, oddly, are the women wearing artistic (that is, somewhat historical) dress, because they’re not corseted. It is a misreading to see the presentation of the women’s fashion as a simple opposition. Constance, Countess of Lonsdale — situated at the center of this painting with Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy of Art — is the most conservatively dressed of the women depicted, with her narrow sleeves, tight waist and almost perfectly smooth bodice, which tells us that her corset has eyelets so that it can be laced precisely and tightly, and it has stays (or "bones") to prevent wrinkles or natural folds in the overclothing. Lillie Langtry, in the white dress, with her stylish narrow sleeves, does not have such a tightly bound waist or smooth bodice, suggesting she may not be corseted at all, as we know she sometimes was not.['''citation'''] Jenny Trip, a painter’s model, is the woman in the green dress in the aesthetic group being inspected by Anthony Trollope, who may be taking notes. She looks like she is not wearing a corset. Both Langtry and Trip are toward the middle of this spectrum: neither is dressed in the more extreme artistic dress of, say, the two figures between Trip and Trollope.
A lot has been written about the late-Victorian attraction to historical dress, especially in the context of fancy-dress balls and the Gothic revival in social events as well as art and music. Part of the appeal has to have been the way those costumes could just be beautiful clothing beautifully made. Historical dress provided an opportunity for some elite women to wear less-structured but still beautiful and influential clothing. ['''Calvert'''<ref>Calvert, Robyne Erica. ''Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. <nowiki>https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3279/</nowiki></ref>] The standards for beauty, then, with historical dress were Victorian, with the added benefit of possibly less structure. So, at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball, "while some attendees tried to hew closely to historical precedent, many rendered their historical or mythological personage in the sartorial vocabulary they knew best. The [photographs of people in their costumes at the ball offer] a glimpse into how Victorians understood history, not a glimpse into the costume of an authentic historical past."<ref>Mitchell, Rebecca N. "The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900." ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21: 3): 291–315. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1172817.</ref>{{rp|294}}
* historical dress: beautiful clothing.
* the range at the ball, from Minnie Paget to Gwladys
* "In light of such efforts, the ball remains to this day one of the best documented outings of the period, and a quick glance at the album shows that ..."
* The costume of the Duchess of Devonshire does not have a defined waist and may suggest that she herself is not corseted, although that would be a notable departure for her.
Women had more choices about their waists than the simple opposition between no corset and tightlacing can accommodate. The range of choices is illustrated in Frith's painting, with a woman locating herself on it at a particular moment for particular reasons. Much analysis of 19th-century corsetry focuses on its sexualizing effects — corsets dominated Victorian photographic pornography ['''citations'''] and at the same time, the absence of a corset was sexual because it suggested nudity.['''citations'''] A great deal of analysis of 19th-century corsetry, on the other hand, assumes that women wore corsets for the male gaze ['''citations'''] or that they tightened their waists to compete with other women.['''citations''']
But as we can see in Frith's painting, the sexualizing effect was not universal or sweeping, and these analyses do not account for the choices women had in which corset to wear or how tightly to lace it. Especially given the way that some photographic portraits were mechanically altered to make the waist appear smaller, the size of a woman's waist had to do with how she was presenting herself to the world. That is, the fact that women made choices about the size of or emphasis on their waists suggests that they had agency that needs to be taken into account.
As they navigated the complex social world, women's fashion choices had meaning. Society or political hostesses had agency not only in their clothing but generally in that complex social world. They had roles managing social events of the upper classes, especially of the upper aristocracy and oligarchy, like the Duchess of Devonshire's ball. Their class and rank, then, were essential to their agency, including to some degree their freedom to choose what kind of corset to wear and how to wear it. Also, by the end of the century lots of different kinds of corsets were available for lots of different purposes. Special corsets existed for pregnancy, sports (like tennis, bicycling, horseback riding, golf, fencing, archery, stalking and hunting), theatre and dance and, of course, for these women corsets could be made to support the special dress worn over it.
Women's choices in how they presented themselves to the world included more than just their foundation garments, of course. "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove," that is, the trim and decorations on their garments, their jewelry and accessories — which Davidoff calls "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} — pointed to a host of status categories, like class, rank, wealth, age, marital status, engagement with the empire, how sexual they wanted to seem, political alignment and purpose at the social event. For example, when women were being presented to the monarch, they were expected to wear three ostrich plumes, often called the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes|Prince of Wales's feathers]].
Like all fashions, the corset, which was quite long-lasting in all its various forms, eventually went out of style. Of the many factors that might have influenced its demise, perhaps most important was the women's movement, in which women's rights, freedom, employment and access to their own money and children were less slogan-worthy but at least as essential as votes for women. The activities of the animal-rights movements drew attention not only to the profligate use of the bodies and feathers of birds but also to the looming extinction of the baleen whale, which made whale bone scarce and expensive. Perhaps the century's debates over corseting and especially tightlacing were relevant to some decisions not to be corseted. And, of course, perhaps no other reason is required than that the nature of fashion is to change.
== Undergarments ==
Unlike undergarments, Victorian women's [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] created the distinctive silhouette. Victorian undergarments included the chemise, the bloomers, the corset cover — articles that are not structural.
The corset was an important element of the understructure of foundation garments — hoops, bustles, petticoats and so on — but it has never been the only important element.
=== Undergarments ===
* Chemise
* Corset cover
* Bloomers
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|Petticoats]] (distinguish between the outer- and undergarment type of petticoat)
* Combinations
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hose, Stockings and Tights|Hose, stockings and tights]]
* Men's shirts
* Men's unders
==== Bloomers ====
==== Chemise ====
A chemise is a garment "linen, homespun, or cotton knee-length garment with [a] square neck" worn under all the other garments except the bloomers or combinations.<ref name=":7" /> (61) According to Lewandowski, combinations replaced the chemise by 1890.
==== Combinations ====
=== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|Foundation Garments]] ===
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
== Footnotes ==
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Especially with respect to fashion, the newspapers at the end of the 19th century in the UK often used specialized terminology. The definitions on this page are to provide a sense of what someone in the late 19th century might have meant by the term rather than a definition of what we might mean by it today. In the absence of a specialized glossary from the end of the 19th century in the U.K., we use the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' because the senses of a word are illustrated with examples that have dates so we can be sure that the senses we pick are appropriate for when they are used in the quotations we have.
We also sometimes use the French ''Wikipédia'' to define a word because many technical terms of fashion were borrowings from the French. Also, often the French ''Wikipédia'' provides historical context for the uses of a word similar to the way the ''OED'' does.
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Men's ==
[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|Men's military uniforms]] are discussed below.
=== À la Romaine ===
[[File:Johann Baptist Straub - Mars um 1772-1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Old and damaged marble statue of a Roman god of war with flowing cloak, big helmet with a plume on top, and armor|Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 ''à la romaine'' ''Mars'']]
A few people who attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball in 1897]] personated Roman gods or people. They were dressed not as Romans, however, but ''à la romaine'', which was a standardized style of depicting Roman figures that was used in paintings, sculpture and the theatre for historical dress from the 17th until the 20th century. The codification of the style was developed in France in the 17th century for theatre and ballet, when it became popular for masked balls.
Women as well as men could be dressed ''à la romaine'', but much sculpture, portraiture and theatre offered opportunities for men to dress in Roman style — with armor and helmets — and so it was most common for men. In large part because of the codification of the style as well as the painting and sculpture, the style persisted and remained influential into the 20th century and can be found in museums and galleries and on monuments.
For example, Johann Baptist Straub's 1772 statue of Mars (left), now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, missing part of an arm, shows Mars ''à la romaine''. In London, an early 17th-century example of a figure of Mars ''à la romaine'', with a helmet, is "at the foot of the Buckingham tomb in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey."<ref>Webb, Geoffrey. “Notes on Hubert Le Sueur-II.” ''The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs'' 52, no. 299 (1928): 81–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/863535.</ref>{{rp|81, Col. 2c}}
[[File:Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart.jpg|thumb|alt=Old painting of 2 men flamboyantly and stylishly dressed in colorful silk, with white lace, high-heeled boots and long hair|Van Dyck's c. 1638 painting of cavaliers Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart]]
[[File:Frans_Hals_-_The_Meagre_Company_(detail)_-_WGA11119.jpg|thumb|Frans Hals - The Meagre Company (detail) - WGA11119.jpg]]
=== Cavalier ===
As a signifier in the form of clothing of a royalist political and social ideology begun in France in the early 17th century, the cavalier style established France as the leader in fashion and taste. Adopted by [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Military|wealthy royalist British military officers]] during the time of the Restoration, the style signified a political and social position, both because of the loyalty to Charles I and II as well the wealth required to achieve the cavalier look. The style spread beyond the political, however, to become associated generally with dress as well as a style of poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-25|title=Cavalier poet|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier_poet&oldid=1151690299|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_poet.</ref>
Van Dyck's 1638 painting of two brothers (right) emphasizes the cavalier style of dress.
The cavalier style included gloves with large gauntlets, lace on boots, more loosely fitted breeches, coats or doublets, which were slashed so the shirt beneath was visible. Men who dressed in cavalier style also wore large and, later, powdered wigs, like those of Louis XIV, having taken the French style back to Britain.
Neck treatments in the cavalier style were falling bands, wide lace collars and jabots. These were all looser, unsupported with wires, the way the earlier ruffs were, and unstarched.
=== Coats ===
==== Doublet ====
* In the 19th-century newspaper accounts we have seen that use this word, doublet seems always to refer to a garment worn by a man, but historically women may have worn doublets. In fact, a doublet worn by Queen Elizabeth I — the golden doublet — exists and is in the Elizabeth Day McCormick collection at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (but no image of it is in the public domain).
* Technically doublets were long sleeved, although we cannot be certain what this or that Victorian tailor would have done for a costume. For example, the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball|Duke of Devonshire's costume as Charles V]] shows long sleeves that may be part of the surcoat but should be the long sleeves of the doublet.
==== Pourpoint ====
A padded doublet worn under armor to protect the warrior from the metal chafing. A pourpoint could also be worn without the armor.
==== Surcoat ====
Sometimes just called ''coat''.
[[File:Oscar Wilde by Sarony 1882 18.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photograph of a young man wearing a velvet jacket, knee breeches, silk hose and shiny pointed shoes with bows, seated on a sofa and leaning on his left hand and holding a book in his right| Oscar Wilde, 1882, by Napoleon Sarony]]
=== Hose, Stockings and Tights ===
Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century of men's clothing use the term ''hose'' for what we might call stockings or tights.
In fact, the terminology is specific. ''Stockings'' is the more general term and could refer to hose or tights. With knee breeches men wore hose, which ended above the knee, and women wore hose under their dresses.
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines tights as "Tight-fitting breeches, worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and still forming part of court-dress."<ref>“Tights, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2693287467.</ref> By 1897, the term was in use for women's stockings, which may have come up only to the knee. Tights were also worn by dancers and acrobats. This general sense of ''tights'' does not assume that they were knitted.
''Clocking'' is decorative embroidery on hose, usually, at the ankles on either the inside or the outside of the leg. It started at the ankle and went up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee. On women's hose, the clocking could be quite colorful and elaborate, while the clocking on men's hose was more inconspicuous.
In many photographs men's hose are wrinkled, especially at the ankles and the knees, because they were shaped from woven fabric. Silk hose were knitted instead of woven, which gave them elasticity and reduced the wrinkling.
The famous Sarony carte de visite photograph of Oscar Wilde (right) shows him in 1882 wearing knee breeches and silk hose, which are shiny and quite smoothly fitted although they show a few wrinkles at the ankles and knees. In the portraits of people in costume at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the men's hose are sometimes quite smooth, which means they were made of knitted silk and may have been smoothed for the portrait.
In painted portraits the hose are almost always depicted as smooth, part of the artist's improvement of the appearance of the subject.
=== Shoes and Boots ===
== Articles or Parts of Clothing: Women's ==
=== '''Chérusque''' ===
According to the French ''Wikipedia'', ''chérusque'' is a 19th-century term for the kind of standing collar like the ones worn by ladies in the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-06-26|title=Collerette (costume)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collerette_(costume)&oldid=184136746|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collerette_(costume)#Au+xixe+siècle+:+la+Chérusque.</ref>
=== Corsage ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the corsage is the "'body' of a woman's dress; a bodice."<ref>"corsage, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/42056. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> This sense is well documented in the ''OED'' for the mid and late 19th-century, used this way in fiction as well as in a publication like ''Godey's Lady's Book'', which would be expected to use appropriate terminology associated with fashion and dress making.
The sense of "a bouquet worn on the bodice" is, according to the ''OED'', American.
=== Décolletage ===
=== Girdle ===
=== Mancheron ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a ''mancheron'' is a "historical" word for "A piece of trimming on the upper part of a sleeve on a woman's dress."<ref>"mancheron, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/113251. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> At the present, in French, a ''mancheron'' is a cap sleeve "cut directly on the bodice."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-28|title=Manche (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manche_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=199054843|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manche_(v%C3%AAtement).</ref>
=== Paletot ===
A cloak or jacket worn by both women and men in different periods. In the late 19th century, we see Victoria wearing them frequently, sometimes dressed for outdoors but not always.
Paletot-redingote:<blockquote>United Kingdom. Introduced in 1867, ladies' fitted long coat cut without a waist seam. It had revers and buttoned down the front. They sometimes had capes.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|217}}</blockquote>
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a paletot is longer than hip length, has long sleeves, opens in the front.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-02-20|title=Manteau (vêtement)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manteau_(v%C3%AAtement)&oldid=233467144|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
=== Petticoat ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a petticoat is a <blockquote>skirt, as distinguished from a bodice, worn either externally or showing beneath a dress as part of the costume (often trimmed or ornamented); an outer skirt; a decorative underskirt. Frequently in ''plural'': a woman's or girl's upper skirts and underskirts collectively. Now ''archaic'' or ''historical''.<ref>“petticoat, n., sense 2.b”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1021034245></ref> </blockquote>This sense is, according to the ''O.E.D.'', "The usual sense between the 17th and 19th centuries." However, while petticoats belong in both outer- and undergarments — that is, meant to be seen or hidden, like underwear — they were always under another garment, for example, underneath an open overskirt. The primary sense seems to have shifted through the 19th century so that, by the end, petticoats were underwear and the term ''underskirt'' was used to describe what showed under an open overskirt.
In the 19th century, women wore their chemises, bloomers and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|hoops]] under their petticoats.
=== Stomacher ===
According to the ''O.E.D.'', a stomacher is "An ornamental covering for the chest (often covered with jewels) worn by women under the lacing of the bodice,"<ref>“stomacher, n.¹, sense 3.a”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1169498955></ref> although by the end of the 19th century, the bodice did not often have visible laces. Some stomachers were so decorated that they were thought of as part of the jewelry.
=== Train ===
A train is
The Length of the Train
'''For the monarch [or a royal?]'''
According to Debrett's,<blockquote>A peeress's coronation robe is a long-trained crimson velvet mantle, edged with miniver pure, with a miniver pure cape. The length of the train varies with the rank of the wearer:
* Duchess: for rows of ermine; train to be six feet
* Marchioness: three and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and three-quarters feet
* Countess: three rows of ermine; train to be three and a half feet
* Viscountess: two and a half rows of ermine; train to be three and a quarter feet
* Baroness: two rows of ermine; train to be three feet<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/|title=Dress Codes|website=debretts.com|language=en-US|access-date=2023-07-27}} https://debretts.com/royal-family/dress-codes/.</ref>
</blockquote>The pattern on the coronet worn was also quite specific, similar but not exactly the same for peers and peeresses. Debrett's also distinguishes between coronets and tiaras, which were classified more like jewelry, which was regulated only in very general terms.
Peeresses put on their coronets after the Queen or Queen Consort has been crowned. ['''peers?''']
== Hats, Bonnets and Headwear ==
=== Women's ===
The dresses in the 1892 production of Reyer's Salammbo, based on the Flaubert novel, were influential and occasioned a lot of newspaper coverage:<blockquote>Among the concessions to women made recently in Paris, and over which old-fashioned folk shake their heads as being a terrible innovation, is the permission given to sit in the orchestra stalls at the theatre. Though only in the two last rows of the spectators, women of the first class had place, they are still obliged to appear in demi-toilette, which includes the wearing of a bonnet. It was on the occasion of the first performance of “Salammbo” that the change was allowed, and there are not wanting people who think that after such a departure a deluge, or some such visitation, may be looked for.<ref>"Ladies Column." ''Kilburn Times'' 8 July 1892, Friday: 7 [of 8], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001813/18920708/175/0007. Print title: ''The Kilburn Times, Hampstead and North-Western Post'', p. 7</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Gwendolen Bourke]] was dressed as Salammbo at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]].
==== Fontanges ====
[[File:Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg|thumb|Recueil de modes - Tome 4 - cent-quatre-vingt-cinq planches - estampes - btv1b105296325 (083 of 195).jpg]][[File:Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg|none|thumb|Madame de Ludre en Stenkerke et falbala - (estampe) (2e état) - N. arnoult fec - btv1b53265886c.jpg]]
==== Widow's Cap ====
or mourning bonnet
According to Kate Strasdin, widow's caps were "white crinkled crape [sic] objects with long streamers flowing down the back, ... customarily worn by single old women who had never remarried."<ref>Strasdin, Kate. ''The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman's Wardrobe''. Pegasus, 2023.</ref>{{rp|734 of 1124}}
[[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Widow's Cap|Queen Victoria's widow's caps]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Queen Victoria#Headdresses|other headdresses]] are discussed on her page.
=== Men's ===
== Cinque Cento ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''Cinque Cento'' is a shortening of ''mil cinque cento'', or 1500.<ref>"cinquecento, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/33143. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> The term, then would refer, perhaps informally, to the sixteenth century.
== Court Dress ==
Also Levee and drawing-room
== Crevé ==
''Creve'', without the accent, is an old word in English (c. 1450) for burst or split.<ref>"creve, v." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44339. Accessed 8 February 2023.</ref> ['''With the acute accent, it looks like a past participle in French.''']
== Elaborations ==
In her 1973 ''The Best Circles: Society, Etiquette and the Season'', Leonore Davidoff notes that women’s status was indicated by dress and especially ornament: “Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration,” she says, “symbolised some status category for the female wearer.”<ref name=":1">Davidoff, Leonore. ''The Best Circles: Society Etiquette and the Season''. Intro., Victoria Glendinning. The Cressett Library (Century Hutchinson), 1986 (orig 1973).</ref>{{rp|93}}
Looking at these elaborations as meaningful rather than dismissing them as failed attempts at "historical accuracy" reveals a great deal about the individual women who wore or carried them — and about the society women and political hostesses in their roles as managers of the social world. In her review of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', Mary Frances Gormally says,<blockquote>In a socially regulated year, garments custom made with a Worth label provided women with total reassurance, whatever the season, time of day or occasion, setting them apart as members of the “Best Circles” dressed in luxurious, fashionable and always appropriate attire (Davidoff 1973). The woman with a Worth wardrobe was a woman of elegance, lineage, status, extreme wealth and faultless taste.<ref>Gormally, Mary Frances. Review essay of ''The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive'', by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (V&A Publishing, 2014). ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21, 1): 109–126. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1179400.</ref>{{rp|117}}</blockquote>
[[File:Aglets from Spanish portraits - collage by shakko.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage of 12 different ornaments typically worn by elite people from Spain in the 1500s and later|Aglets — Detail from Spanish Portraits]]
=== Aglet, Aiglet ===
Historically, an aglet is a "point or metal piece that capped a string [or ribbon] used to attach two pieces of the garment together, i.e., sleeve and bodice."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|4}} Although they were decorative, they were not always visible on the outside of the clothing. They were often stuffed inside the layers at the waist (for example, attaching the bodice to a skirt or breeches).
Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (above right, in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#16th Century|Hoops section]]) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour," with "handsome aiglets cascad[ing] down center front."<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|315}}
=== Berthe ===
Can be spelled ''bertha''.
A wide collar made of lace and gathered at the neckline, sometimes covering the arms. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Wide collar popular on women's gowns. Accented dropped shoulder line. Often made of lace.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|29}}</blockquote>
=== Dags ===
Popular in European dress 1450–1550, dagging was a "hanging end or shred" decoration on the edges of outer clothing, with a similar term used for "a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-14|title=dag|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=dag&oldid=90785397|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> Often dagging would be used to hem the bottom edges of hoods, doublets, tabards and chain mail.
=== Flounce ===
A ruffle that is gathered on one edge, the bottom edge is free. Flounces are typically part of the decoration on a skirt.
=== Frou-frou ===
[[File:SarahBernhardt alsKameliendame1881.jpg|left|thumb|Bernhardt, 1881]]
In French, ''frou-frou'' or, spelled as ''froufrou'', is the sound of the rustling of silk or sometimes of fabrics in general.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-07-25|title=frou-frou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frou-frou&oldid=32508509|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/frou-frou.</ref> The first use the French ''Wiktionnaire'' lists is Honoré Balzac, ''La Cousine Bette'', 1846.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-03|title=froufrou|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=froufrou&oldid=32330124|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/froufrou.</ref> ''Frou-frou'' is also a 1869 French drawing-room comedy by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-19|title=Henri Meilhac|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henri_Meilhac&oldid=1286340698|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and performed by Sarah Bernhardt in London in 1881 (Bernhardt, left, in costume ['''conflicting info, is a photo of Bernhardt in ''La Dame aux Camélias'' instead'''?]).
''Frou-frou'' is a term clothing historians use to describe decorative additions to an article of clothing; often the term has a slight negative connotation, suggesting that the additions are superficial and, perhaps, excessive.
=== Plastics ===
Small poufs of fabric connected in a strip in the 18th century, Rococo styles.
=== Pouf, Puff, Poof ===
According to the French ''Wikipédia'', a pouf was, beginning in 1744, a "kind of women's hairstyle":<blockquote>The hairstyle in question, known as the “pouf”, had launched the reputation of the enterprising Rose Bertin, owner of the Grand Mogol, a very prominent fashion accessories boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris in 1774. Created in collaboration with the famous hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, the pouf was built on a scaffolding of wire, fabric, gauze, horsehair, fake hair, and the client's own hair held up in an almost vertical position. — (Marie-Antoinette, ''Queen of Fashion'', translated from the American by Sylvie Lévy, in ''The Rules of the Game'', n° 40, 2009)</blockquote>''Puff'' and ''poof'' are used to describe clothing.
=== Shirring ===
''Shirring'' is the gathering of fabric to make poufs or puffs. The 19th century is known for its use of this decorative technique. Even men's clothing had shirring: at the shoulder seam.
=== Sequins ===
Sequins, paillettes, spangles
Sequins — or paillettes — are "small, scalelike glittering disks."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|216}} The French ''Wiktionnaire'' defines ''paillette'' as "Lamelle de métal, brillante, mince, percée au milieu, ordinairement ronde, et qu’on applique sur une étoffe pour l’orner [A strip of metal, shiny, thin, pierced in the middle, usually round, and which is applied to a fabric in order to decorate it.]"<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|date=2024-03-18|title=paillette|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=paillette&oldid=33809572|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/paillette.</ref>
According to the ''OED'', the use of ''sequin'' as a decorative device for clothing (as opposed to gold coins minted and used for international trade) goes back to the 1850s.<ref>“Sequin, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4074851670.</ref> The first instance of ''spangle'' as "A small round thin piece of glittering metal (usually brass) with a hole in the centre to pass a thread through, used for the decoration of textile fabrics and other materials of various sorts" is from c. 1420.<ref>“Spangle, N. (1).” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4727197141.</ref> The first use of ''paillette'' listed in the French ''Wiktionnaire'' is in Jules Verne in 1873 to describe colored spots on icy walls.<ref name=":8" />
Currently many distinguish between sequins (which are smaller) and paillettes (which are larger).
Before the 20th century, sequins were metal discs or foil leaves, and so of course if they were silver or copper, they tarnished. It is not until well into the 20th century that plastics were invented and used for sequins.
=== Trim and Lace ===
''A History of Feminine Fashion'', published sometime before 1927 and probably commissioned by [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Worth, of Paris|the Maison Worth]], describes Charles Frederick Worth's contributions to the development of embroidery and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Passementerie|passementerie]] (trim) from about the middle of the 19th century:<blockquote>For it must be remembered that one of M. Worth's most important and lasting contributions to the prosperity of those who cater for women's needs, as well as to the variety and elegance of his clients' garments, was his insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description. In his endeavours to restore in Paris the splendours of the days of La Pompadour, and of Marie Antoinette, he found himself confronted at the outset with a grave difficulty, which would have proved unsurmountable to a man of less energy, resource and initiative. The magnificent materials of those days were no longer to be had! The Revolution had destroyed the market for beautiful materials of this, type, and the Restoration and regime of Louis Philippe had left a dour aspect in the City of Light. ... On parallel lines [to his development of better [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Satin|satin]]], [Worth] stimulated also the manufacture of embroidery and ''passementerie''. It was he who first started the manufacture of laces copied from the designs of the real old laces. He was the / first dressmaker to use fur in the trimming of light materials — but he employed only the richer furs, such as sable and ermine, and had no use whatever for the inferior varieties of skins.<ref name=":9">[Worth, House of.] {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/AHistoryOfFeminineFashion|title=A History Of Feminine Fashion (1800s to 1920s)}} Before 1927. [Likely commissioned by Worth. Link is to Archive.org; info from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worth_Biarritz_salon.jpg.]</ref>{{rp|6–7}}</blockquote>
==== Gold and Silver Fabric and Lace ====
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on gold and silver fabric, threads and lace attached to the article on gold. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>GOLD AND SILVER LACE. Under this heading a general account may be given of the use of the precious metals in textiles of all descriptions into which they enter. That these metals were used largely in the sumptuous textiles of the earliest periods of civilization there is abundant testimony; and to this day, in the Oriental centres whence a knowledge and the use of fabrics inwoven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver first spread, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still most strongly and generally prevalent. The earliest mention of the use of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3) — "And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." In both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' distinct allusion is frequently made to inwoven and embroidered golden textiles. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold and silver originated in India, where it is still principally prosecuted, and that from one great city to another the practice travelled westward, — Babylon, Tarsus, Baghdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Con- / stantinople and Venice, all in the process of time becoming famous centres of these much prized manufactures. Alexander the Great found Indian kings and princes arrayed in robes of gold and purple; and the Persian monarch Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle of cloth of gold, on which were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. There is reason, according to Josephus, to believe that the “royal apparel" worn by Herod on the day of his death (Acts xii. 21) was a tissue of silver. Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, had a robe woven entirely of gold, and from that period downwards royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial robes, as well as for costly hangings and decorations. In England, at different periods, various names were applied to cloths of gold, as ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekiu or baldachin, Cyprus damask, and twssewys or tissue. The thin flimsy paper known as tissue paper, is so called because it originally was placed between the folds of gold "tissue" to prevent the contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. At what time the drawing of gold wire for the preparation of these textiles was first practised is not accurately known. The art was probably introduced and applied in different localities at widely different dates, but down till mediaeval times the method graphically described in the Pentateuch continued to be practised with both gold and silver.
Fabrics woven with gold and silver continue to be used on the largest scale to this day in India; and there the preparation of the varieties of wire, and the working of the various forms of lace, brocade, and embroidery, is at once an important and peculiar art. The basis of all modern fabrics of this kind is wire, the "gold wire" of the manufacturer being in all cases silver gilt wire, and silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. In India the wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into the strip or ribbon-like form it generally assumes by passing it, fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil, and beating it as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. From wire so flattened there is made in India soniri, a tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, a similar tissue of silver. Gold lace is also made on a warp of thick yellow silk with a weft of flat wire, and in the case of ribbons the warp or web is composed of the metal. The flattened wires are twisted around orange (in the case of silver, white) coloured silk thread, so as completely to cover the thread and present the appearance of a continuous wire; and in this form it is chiefly employed for weaving into the rich brocades known as kincobs or kinkhábs. Wires flattened, or partially flattened, are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals, and in this form they are the basis of numerous ornamental applications. Such spirals drawn out till they present a waved appearance, and in that state flattened, are much used for rich heavy embroideries termed karchobs. Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from the centre to one edge. Fine spirals are also used for general embroidery purposes. The demand for various kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense; and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great. "Gold and silver," says Dr Birdwood in his ''Handbook to the British-Indian Section, Paris Exhibition'', 1878, "are worked into the decoration of all the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods, either on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures. The gold-bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara, and the gold or silver striped at Tanjore; the gold figured ''mashrus'' at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccau; and the highly ornamented gold-figured silks and gold and silver tissues principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichinopoly."
Among the Western communities the demand for gold and silver lace and embroideries arises chiefly in connexion with naval and military uniforms, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies, theatrical dresses, and the badges and insignia of various orders. To a limited extent there is a trade in gold wire and lace to India and China. The metallic basis of the various fabrics is wire round and flattened, the wire being of three kinds — 1st, gold wire, which is invariably silver gilt wire; 2d, copper gilt wire, used for common liveries and theatrical purposes; and 3d, silver wire. These wires are drawn by the ordinary processes, and the flattening, when done, is accomplished by passing the wire between a pair of revolving rollers of fine polished steel. The various qualities of wire are prepared and used in precisely the same way as in India, — round wire, flat wire, thread made of flat gold wire twisted round orange-coloured silk or cotton, known in the trade as "orris," fine spirals and spangles, all being in use in the West as in the East. The lace is woven in the same manner as ribbons, and there are very numerous varieties in richness, pattern, and quality. Cloth of gold, and brocades rich in gold and silver, are woven for ecclesiastical vestments and draperies.
The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the lace trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold lace wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, coated with 3 parts of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover a mile of wire. It is estimated that about 250,000 ounces of gold wire are made annually in Great Britain, of which about 20 per cent, is used for the headings of calico, muslin, &c., and the remainder is worked up in the gold lace trade.<ref>William Chandler Roberts-Austen and H. Bauerman [W.C.R. — H.B.]. "Gold and Silver Lace." In "Gold." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. 10 (X). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%2010%20%28G-GOT%29%20193592738.23/page/753/mode/1up (accessed January 2023): 753, Col. 2c – 754, Cols. 1a–b – 2a–b.</ref></blockquote>
==== Honiton Lace ====
Kate Stradsin says,<blockquote>Honiton lace was the finest English equivalent of Brussels bobbin lace and was constructed in small ‘sprigs, in the cottages of lacemakers[.'] These sprigs were then joined together and bleached to form the large white flounces that were so sought after in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>Strasdin, Kate. "Rediscovering Queen Alexandra’s Wardrobe: The Challenges and Rewards of Object-Based Research." ''The Court Historian'' 24.2 (2019): 181-196. Rpt http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/3762/15/Rediscovering%20Queen%20Alexandra%27s%20Wardrobe.pdf: 13, and (for the little quotation) n. 37, which reads "Margaret Tomlinson, ''Three Generations in the Honiton Lace Trade: A Family History'', self-published, 1983."</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Strook in Alençon naaldkant, 1750-1775.jpg|thumb|alt=A long piece of complex white lace with garlands, flowers and bows|Point d'Alençon lace, 1750-1775]]
==== Passementerie ====
''Passementerie'' is the French term for trim on clothing or furniture. The 19th century (especially during the First and Second Empire) was a time of great "''exubérance''" in passementerie in French design, including the development and widespread use of the Jacquard loom.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-10|title=Passementerie|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Passementerie&oldid=205068926|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passementerie.</ref>
==== Point d'Alençon Lace ====
A lace made by hand using a number of complex steps and layers. The lacemakers build the point d'Alençon design on some kind of mesh and sometimes leave some of the mesh in as part of the lace and perhaps to provide structure.
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines point d'Alençon lace and Alençon lace separately. Point lace is needlepoint lace,<ref name=":7" />{{rp|233}} so Alençon point is "a two thread [needlepoint] lace."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}} Alençon lace has a "floral design on [a] fine net ground [and is] referred to as [the] queen of French handmade needlepoint laces. The original handmade Alençon was a fine needlepoint lace made of linen thread."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|7}}
The sample of point d'Alençon lace (right), from 1750–1775, shows the linen mesh that the lace was constructed on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689|title=MoMu - Open Fashion|website=openfashion.momu.be|access-date=2024-02-26}} ModeMuseum Antwerpen. http://openfashion.momu.be/#9ce5f00e-8a06-4dab-a833-05c3371f3689.</ref> The consistency in this sample suggests it may have been made by machine.
== Elastic ==
Elastic had been invented and was in use by the end of the 19th century. For the sense of "Elastic cord or string, usually woven with india-rubber,"<ref name=":6">“elastic, adj. & n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1199670313>.</ref> the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has usage examples beginning in 1847. The example for 1886 is vivid: "The thorough-going prim man will always place a circle of elastic round his hair previous to putting on his college cap."<ref name=":6" />
== Fabric ==
=== Brocatelle ===
Brocatelle is a kind of brocade, more simple than most brocades because it uses fewer warp and weft threads and fewer colors to form the design. The article in the French ''Wikipédia'' defines it like this:<blockquote>La '''brocatelle''' est un type de tissu datant du <abbr>xvi<sup>e</sup></abbr> siècle qui comporte deux chaînes et deux trames, au minimum. Il est composé pour que le dessin ressorte avec un relief prononcé, grâce à la chaîne sur un fond en sergé. Les brocatelles les plus anciennes sont toujours fabriquées avec une des trames en lin.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-06-01|title=Brocatelle|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brocatelle&oldid=204796410|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocatelle.</ref></blockquote>Which translates to this:<blockquote>Brocatelle is a type of fabric dating from the 16th century that has two warps and two wefts, at a minimum. It is composed so that the design stands out with a pronounced relief, thanks to the weft threads on a twill background. The oldest brocades were always made with one of the wefts being linen.</blockquote>The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' says, brocatelle is an "imitation of brocade, usually made of silk or wool, used for tapestry, upholstery, etc., now also for dresses. Both the nature and the use of the stuff have changed" between the late 17th century and 1888, the last time this definition was revised.<ref>"brocatelle, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/23550. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Broché ===
Lewandowski says, "to be woven with a raised figure or to be embossed."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|39}} In English, the word might be spelled with or without the acute accent on the final ''e''. Generally, the term was used loosely to describe fabric with a pattern woven into it, either in the same color or a color different from that of the background. That is, the weave that produces the pattern is different from the weave that produces the background.
S. F. A. Caulfeild and B. C. Saward published this definition of ''broché'' in their 1887 ''Dictionary of Needlework'', according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (the ''face'' being the side of the fabric facing the viewer):<blockquote>Broché. A French term denoting a velvet or silk textile, with a satin figure thrown up on the face.<ref>“Broché, Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1054215522.</ref></blockquote>
=== Chiffon ===
A lightweight, somewhat sheer silk fabric, chiffon would have been worn only by the social elite at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal|date=2025-10-12|title=Chiffon (fabric)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chiffon_(fabric)&oldid=1316464288|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Synthetic fibers were not invented until the 20th century — nylon chiffon in 1938 and polyester chiffon not until 1958.<ref name=":25" />
=== Ciselé ===
=== Crape ===
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' distinguishes the use of ''crêpe'' (using a circumflex rather than an acute accent over the first ''e'') from ''crape'' in textiles, saying ''crêpe'' is "often borrowed [from the French] as a term for all crapy fabrics other than ordinary [[Social Victorians/Mourning|black mourning crape]],"<ref name=":24">"crêpe, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/44242. Accessed 10 February 2023.</ref> with usage examples ranging from 1797 to the mid 20th century. This distinction seems more prescriptive than descriptive since texts from the 19th century to now do not make it reliably. Sometimes 19th-century newspapers put an acute accent on the ''e'' and spelled it crépe.
The fabric used for full mourning was black crape, a fabric with a dull texture, but writers continue to vary in how to spell it. Julia Baird uses ''crêpe'', defining it as "a thick black rustling material made of silk, crimped to make it look dull."<ref>Baird, Julia. ''Victoria the Queen, an Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire''. Random House, 2016. https://books.apple.com/us/book/victoria-the-queen/id953835024.</ref>{{rp|584 of 1203}}
However it is spelled, crêpe is<blockquote>Any number of fabrics with characteristic crinkled or puckered surface.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>
==== Crepe de Chine ====
Crêpe de chine, the ''OED'' says, is "a white or other coloured crape made of raw silk."<ref name=":24" /> Lewandowski defines it as "a very lightweight, fine, plain weave silk fabric. ... Introduced in 1866, China crepe with soft, silky surface."<ref name=":7" /> (77)
==== Crepon de Chine ====
Crepon is a fabric heavier than the usual crape but treated like crape to be crinkly. Lewandowski says,<blockquote>Introduced in 1882, wool, silk, or blend fabric like very heavy crepe. ... Gay Nineties (1890–1900 C.E.). Popular in 1890s, woolen fabric creped to appear puffed between stripes [or] squares.<ref name=":7" /> (77)</blockquote>According to Lewandowski, ''crepon'' can also be another word for bustle (1865–1890 C.E. to present).<ref name=":7" /> (77)
=== Crinoline ===
Technically, crinoline was a fabric made mostly of horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, similar to buckram today, used in men's military collars and [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinolines|women's foundation garments]]. Lewandowski defines crinoline as <blockquote>(1840–1865 C.E.). France. Originally horsehair cloth used for officers' collars. Later used for women's underskirts to support skirts. Around 1850, replaced by many petticoats, starched and boned. Around 1856, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|light metal cage]] was developed.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}}</blockquote>The term has been used so consistently for the cage first introduced in the 1850s that held the skirt out from the body, however, that it is important to say ''crinoline cage'' or ''crinoline fabric'' or ''crinoline petticoat'' to be clear.
=== Épinglé Velvet ===
Often spelled ''épingle'' rather than ''épinglé'', this term appears to have been used for a fabric made of wool, or at least wool along with linen or cotton, that was heavier and stiffer than silk velvet. It was associated with outer garments and men's clothing. Nowadays, épinglé velvet is an upholstery fabric in which the pile is cut into designs and patterns, and the portrait of [[Social Victorians/People/Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton|Mary, Duchess of Hamilton]] shows a mantle described as épinglé velvet that does seem to be a velvet with a woven pattern perhaps cut into the pile.
=== Lace ===
While lace also functioned sometimes as fabric — at the décolletage, for example, on the stomacher or as a veil — here we organize it as a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Trim and Lace|part of the elaboration of clothing]].
=== Liberty Fabrics ===
=== Lisse ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''lisse'' as a "kind of silk gauze" was used in the 19th-century UK and US.<ref>"lisse, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108978. Accessed 4 July 2023.</ref>
=== Muslin ===
=== Satin ===
The pre-1927 ''History of Feminine Fashion'', probably commissioned by Charles Frederick Worth's sons, describes Worth's "insistence on new fabrics, new trimmings, new materials of every description" at the beginning of his career in the mid 19th century:<blockquote>When Worth first entered the business of dressmaking, the only materials of the richer sort used for woman's dress were velvet, faille, and watered silk. Satin, for example, was never used. M. Worth desired to use satin very extensively in the gowns he designed, but he was not satisfied with what could be had at the time; he wanted something very much richer than was produced by the mills at Lyons. That his requirements entailed the reconstruction of mills mattered little — the mills were reconstructed under his directions, and the Lyons looms turned out a richer satin than ever, and the manufacturers prospered accordingly.<ref name=":9" />{{rp|6 in printed, 26 in digital book}}</blockquote>
=== Selesia ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''silesia'' is "A fine linen or cotton fabric originally manufactured in Silesia in what is now Germany (''Schlesien'').<ref>"Silesia, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/179664. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> It may have been used as a lining — for pockets, for example — in garments made of more luxurious or more expensive cloth. The word ''sleazy'' — "Of textile fabrics or materials: Thin or flimsy in texture; having little substance or body."<ref>"sleazy, adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/181563. Accessed 9 February 2023.</ref> — may be related.
=== Shot Fabric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "Of a textile fabric: Woven with warp-threads of one colour and weft-threads of another, so that the fabric (usually silk) changes in tint when viewed from different points."<ref>“Shot, ''Adj.''” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2977164390.</ref> A shot fabric might also be made of silk and cotton fibers.
=== Tissue ===
A lightly woven fabric like gauze or chiffon. The light weave can make the fabric translucent and make pleating and gathering flatter and less bulky. Tissue can be woven to be shot, sheer, stiff or soft.
Historically, the term in English was used for a "rich kind of cloth, often interwoven with gold or silver" or "various rich or fine fabrics of delicate or gauzy texture."<ref>“Tissue, N.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5896731814.</ref>
=== Tulle ===
In the 19th century, tulle — a very fine net — was a sheer woven tissue made of linen or silk. Tulle looms were invented in the late 18th century,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-04|title=Tulle (tissu)|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(tissu)&oldid=228712045|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> and the fabric "first made by machine in 1768 in Nottingham."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|299}} By 1802 English tulle was recognized as higher quality than French tulle, even though the fabric is named for the French city.<ref name=":23" />
Tulle is still used today, but it is usually made of synthetic fabric.<blockquote>It is a finer textile than the textile referred to as "net". ...
It can be made of various fibres, including silk, nylon, polyester and rayon. Polyester is the most common fibre used for tulle.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-05|title=Tulle (netting)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tulle_(netting)&oldid=1304416320|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Victorian silk tulle would not have been stiff unless it was treated with sizing.
== Fan ==
The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (9th edition) has an article on the fan. (This article is based on knowledge that would have been available toward the end of the 19th century and does not, obviously, reflect current knowledge or ways of talking.)<blockquote>FAN (Latin, ''vannus''; French, ''éventail''), a light implement used for giving motion to the air. ''Ventilabrum'' and ''flabellum'' are names under which ecclesiastical fans are mentioned in old inventories. Fans for cooling the face have been in use in hot climates from remote ages. A bas-relief in the British Museum represents Sennacherib with female figures carrying feather fans. They were attributes of royalty along with horse-hair fly-flappers and umbrellas. Examples may be seen in plates of the Egyptian sculptures at Thebes and other places, and also in the ruins of Persepolis. In the museum of Boulak, near Cairo, a wooden fan handle showing holes for feathers is still preserved. It is from the tomb of Amen-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, 17th century <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>. In India fans were also attributes of men in authority, and sometimes sacred emblems. A heartshaped fan, with an ivory handle, of unknown age, and held in great veneration by the Hindus, was given to the prince of Wales. Large punkahs or screens, moved by a servant who does nothing else, are in common use by Europeans in India at this day.
Fans were used in the early Middle Ages to keep flies from the sacred elements during the celebrations of the Christian mysteries. Sometimes they were round, with bells attached — of silver, or silver gilt. Notices of such fans in the ancient records of St Paul’s, London, Salisbury cathedral, and many other churches, exist still. For these purposes they are no longer used in the Western church, though they are retained in some Oriental rites. The large feather fans, however, are still carried in the state processions of the supreme pontiff in Rome, though not used during the celebration of the mass. The fan of Queen Theodolinda (7th century) is still preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Fans made part of the bridal outfit, or ''mundus muliebris'', of ancient Roman ladies.
Folding fans had their origin in Japan, and were imported thence to China. They were in the shape still used—a segment of a circle of paper pasted on a light radiating frame-work of bamboo, and variously decorated, some in colours, others of white paper on which verses or sentences are written. It is a compliment in China to invite a friend or distinguished guest to write some sentiment on your fan as a memento of any special occasion, and this practice has continued. A fan that has some celebrity in France was presented by the Chinese ambassador to the Comtesse de Clauzel at the coronation of Napoleon I. in 1804. When a site was given in 1635, on an artificial island, for the settlement of Portuguese merchants in Nippo in Japan, the space was laid out in the form of a fan as emblematic of an object agreeable for general use. Men and women of every rank both in China and Japan carry fans, even artisans using them with one hand while working with the other. In China they are often made of carved ivory, the sticks being plates very thin and sometimes carved on both sides, the intervals between the carved parts pierced with astonishing delicacy, and the plates held together by a ribbon. The Japanese make the two outer guards of the stick, which cover the others, occasionally of beaten iron, extremely thin and light, damascened with gold and other metals.
Fans were used by Portuguese ladies in the 14th century, and were well known in England before the close of the reign of Richard II. In France the inventory of Charles V. at the end of the 14th century mentions a folding ivory fan. They were brought into general use in that country by Catherine de’ Medici, probably from Italy, then in advance of other countries in all matters of personal luxury. The court ladies of Henry VIII.’s reign in England were used to handling fans, A lady in the Dance of Death by Holbein holds a fan. Queen Elizabeth is painted with a round leather fan in her portrait at Gorhambury; and as many as twenty-seven are enumerated in her inventory (1606). Coryat, an English traveller, in 1608 describes them as common in Italy. They also became of general use from that time in Spain. In Italy, France, and Spain fans had special conventional uses, and various actions in handling them grew into a code of signals, by which ladies were supposed to convey hints or signals to admirers or to rivals in society. A paper in the ''Spectator'' humorously proposes to establish a regular drill for these purposes.
The chief seat of the European manufacture of fans during the 17th century was Paris, where the sticks or frames, whether of wood or ivory, were made, and the decorations painted on mounts of very carefully prepared vellum (called latterly ''chicken skin'', but not correctly), — a material stronger and tougher than paper, which breaks at the folds. Paris makers exported fans unpainted to Madrid and other Spanish cities, where they were decorated by native artists. Many were exported complete; of old fans called Spanish a great number were in fact made in France. Louis XIV. issued edicts at various times to regulate the manufacture. Besides fans mounted with parchment, Dutch fans of ivory were imported into Paris, and decorated by the heraldic painters in the process called “Vernis Martin,” after a famous carriage painter and inventor of colourless lac varnish. Fans of this kind belonging to the Queen and to the late baroness de Rothschild were exhibited in 1870 at Kensington. A fan of the date of 1660, representing sacred subjects, is attributed to Philippe de Champagne, another to Peter Oliver in England in the / 17th century. Cano de Arevalo, a Spanish painter of the 17th century devoted himself to fan painting. Some harsh expressions of Queen Christina to the young ladies of the French court are said to have caused an increased ostentation in the splendour of their fans, which were set with jewels and mounted in gold. Rosalba Carriera was the name of a fan painter of celebrity in the 17th century. Lebrun and Romanelli were much employed during the same period. Klingstet, a Dutch artist, enjoyed a considerable reputation for his fans from the latter part of the 17th and the first thirty years of the 18th century.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes drove many fan-makers out of France to Holland and England. The trade in England was well established under the Stuart sovereigns. Petitions were addressed by the fan-makers to Charles II. against the importation of fans from India, and a duty was levied upon such fans in consequence. This importation of Indian fans, according to Savary, extended also to France. During the reign of Louis XV. carved Indian and China fans displaced to some extent those formerly imported from Italy, which had been painted on swanskin parchment prepared with various perfumes.
During the 18th century all the luxurious ornamentation of the day was bestowed on fans as far as they could display it. The sticks were made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, carved with extraordinary skill in France, Italy, England, and other countries. They were painted from designs of Boucher, Watteau, Lancret, and other "genre" painters, Hébert, Rau, Chevalier, Jean Boquet, Mad. Verité, are known as fan painters. These fashions were followed in most countries of Europe, with certain national differences. Taffeta and silk, as well as fine parchment, were used for the mounts. Little circles of glass were let into the stick to be looked through, and small telescopic glasses were sometimes contrived at the pivot of the stick. They were occasionally mounted with the finest point lace. An interesting fan (belonging to Madame de Thiac in France), the work of Le Flamand, was presented by the municipality of Dieppe to Marie Antoinette on the birth of her son the dauphin. From the time of the Revolution the old luxury expended on fans died out. Fine examples ceased to be exported to England and other countries. The painting on them represented scenes or personages connected with political events. At a later period fan mounts were often prints coloured by hand. The events of the day mark the date of many examples found in modern collections. Amongst the fanmakers of the present time the names of Alexandre, Duvelleroy, Fayet, Vanier, may be mentioned as well known in Paris. The sticks are chiefly made in the department of Oise, at Le Déluge, Crèvecœur, Méry, Ste Geneviève, and other villages, where whole families are engaged in preparing them; ivory sticks are carved at Dieppe. Water-colour painters of distinction often design and paint the mounts, the best designs being figure subjects. A great impulse has been given to the manufacture and painting of fans in England since the exhibition which took place at South Kensington in 1870. Other exhibitions have since been held, and competitive prizes offered, one of which was gained by the Princess Louise. Modern collections of fans take their date from the emigration of many noble families from France at the time of the Revolution. Such objects were given as souvenirs and occasionally sold by families in straitened circumstances. A large number of fans of all sorts, principally those of the 18th century, French, English, German, Italian Spanish, &c., have been lately bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.
Regarding the different parts of folding fans it may be well to state that the sticks are called in French ''brins'', the two outer guards ''panaches'', and the mount ''feuille''.<ref>J. H. Pollen [J.H.P.]. "Fan." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 9th Edition (1875–1889). Vol. '''10''' ('''X'''). Adam and Charles Black (Publisher). https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-9ed-1875/Vol%209%20%28FAL-FYZ%29%20193323016.23/page/26/mode/2up (accessed January 2023): 27, Col. 1b – 28, Col. 1c.</ref></blockquote>Folding fans were available and popular early and are common accessories in portraits of fashionable women through the centuries.
== Costumes for Theatre and Fancy Dress ==
Fancy-dress (or costume) balls were popular and frequent in the U.K. and France as well as the rest of Europe and North America during the 19th century. The themes and styles of the fancy-dress balls influenced those that followed.
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], the guests came dressed in costume from times before 1820, as instructed on '''the invitation''', but their clothing was much more about late-Victorian standards of beauty and fashion than the standards of whatever time period the portraits they were copying or basing their costumes on.
=== Fancy Dress ===
In her ''Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898'', Cynthia Cooper describes the resources available to those needing help making a costume for a fancy-dress ball:<blockquote>There were a number of places eager ballgoers could turn for assistance and inspiration. Those with a scholarly bent might pore over history books or study pictures of paintings or other works of art. For more direct advice, one could turn to the barrage of published information specifically on fancy dress. Women’s magazines such as ''Godey’s Lady’s Book'' and ''The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine'' sometimes featured fancy dress designs and articles, and enticing specialized books were available with extensive recommendations for choosing fancy dress. By far the most complete sources were the books by [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], a prolific British authority on the subject. Holt’s book for women, ''Fancy Dresses Described, or What to Wear at Fancy Balls'' (published in six editions between 1879 and 1896), began with the query, ‘‘But what are we to wear?” Holt’s companion book, ''Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress:'' ''How to Choose It'', was also published in six editions from 1882 to 1905. Other prominent authorities included Mrs. Aria’s ''Costume: Fanciful, Historical, and Theatrical'' and, in the US, the Butterick Company’s ''Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes''. The Butterick publication relied heavily on Holt, copying large sections of the introduction outright and paraphrasing other sections.<ref name=":16">Cooper, Cynthia. ''Magnificent entertainments: fancy dress balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898''.Fredericton, N.B.; Hull, Quebec: Goose Lane Editions and Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1997. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/magnificententer0000coop/.</ref>{{rp|28–29}}</blockquote>
Cynthia Cooper discusses how "historical accuracy" works in historical fiction and historical dress: <blockquote>A seemingly accurate costume and coiffure bespoke a cultured individual whose most gratifying compliment would be “historically correct.” Those who were fortunate enough to own actual clothing from an earlier period might wear it with pride as a historical relic, though they would generally adapt or remake it in keeping with the aesthetics of their own period. Historical accuracy was always in the eye of beholders inclined to overlook elements of current fashion in a historical costume. Theatre had long taught the public that if a costume appeared tasteful and attractive, it could be assumed to be accurate. Even at Queen Victoria’s fancy dress balls, costume silhouette was always far more like the fashionable dress of the period than of the time portrayed. For this reason, many extant eighteenth-century dresses show evidence of extensive alterations done in the nineteenth century, no doubt for fancy dress purposes.<ref name=":16" />{{rp|25}}</blockquote>
The newspaper ''The Queen'' published dress and fashion information and advice under the byline of [[Social Victorians/People/Ardern Holt|Ardern Holt]], who regularly answered questions from readers about fashion as well as about fancy dress. Holt also wrote entire articles with suggestions for what might make an appealing fancy-dress costume as well as pointing readers away from costumes that had been worn too frequently. The suggestions for costumes are based on familiar types or portraits available to readers, similar to Holt's books on fancy dress, which ran through a number of editions in the 1880s and 1890s. Fancy-dress questions sometimes asked for details about costumes worn in theatrical or operatic productions, which Holt provides.
In November 1897, Holt refers to the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July ball: "Since the famous fancy ball, given at Devonshire House during this year, historical fancy dresses have assumed a prominence that they had not hitherto known."<ref>Holt, Ardern. "Fancy Dress a la Mode." The ''Queen'' 27 November 1897, Saturday: 94 [of 145 in BNA; print p. 1026], Col. 1a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18971127/459/0094.</ref> Holt goes on to provide a number of ideas for costumes for historical fancy dress, as always with a strong leaning toward Victorian standards of beauty and style and away from any concern for historical accuracy.
As Leonore Davidoff says, "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove and other elaboration symbolised some status category for the female wearer."<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} [handled under [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Elaborations|Elaborations]]]
=== Historical Accuracy ===
Many of the costumes at the ball were based on portraits, especially when the guest was dressed as a historical figure. If possible, we have found the portraits likely to have been the originals, or we have found, if possible, portraits that show the subjects from the two time periods at similar ages.
The way clothing was cut changed quite a bit between the 18th and 19th centuries. We think of Victorian clothing — particularly women's clothing, and particularly at the end of the century — as inflexible and restrictive, especially compared to 20th- and 21st-century customs permitting freedom of movement. The difference is generally evolutionary rather than absolute — that is, as time has passed since the 18th century, clothing has allowed an increasingly greater range of movement, especially for people who did not do manual labor.
By the end of the 19th century, garments like women's bodices and men's coats were made fitted and smooth by attention to the grain of the fabric and by the use of darts (rather than techniques that assembled many small, individual pieces of fabric).
* clothing construction and flat-pattern techniques
* Generally, the further back in time we go, the more 2-dimensional the clothing itself was.
==== Women's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
As always with this ball, whatever historical accuracy might be present in a woman's costume is altered so that the wearer is still a fashionable Victorian lady. What makes the costumes look "Victorian" to our eyes is the line of the silhouette caused by the foundation undergarments as well as the many "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}}, mostly in the decorations, trim and accessories.
Also, the clothing hangs and drapes differently because the fabric was cut on grain and the shoulders were freed by the way the sleeves were set in.
==== Men's Versions of Historical Accuracy at the Ball ====
Because men were not wearing a Victorian foundation garment at the end of the century, the men's costumes at the ball are more historically accurate in some ways.
* Trim
* Mixing neck treatments
* Hair
* Breeches
* Shoes and boots
* Military uniforms, arms, gloves, boots
== Feathers and Plumes ==
=== Aigrette ===
Elizabeth Lewandowski defines ''aigrette'' as "France. Feather or plume from an egret or heron."<ref name=":7" />{{rp|5}} Sometimes the newspapers use the term to refer to an accessory (like a fan or ornament on a hat) that includes such a feather or plume. The straight and tapered feathers in an aigrette are in a bundle.
=== Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes ===
The feathers in an aigrette came from egrets and herons; Prince of Wales's feathers came from ostriches. A fuller discussion of Prince of Wales's feathers and the white ostrich plumes worn at court appears on [[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|Victorian Things]].
For much of the late 18th and 19th centuries, white ostrich plumes were central to fashion at court, and at a certain point in the late 18th century they became required for women being presented to the monarch and for their sponsors. Our purpose here is to understand why women were wearing plumes at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] as part of their costumes.
First published in 1893, [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Colin Campbell|Lady Colin Campbell]]'s ''Manners and Rules of Good Society'' (1911 edition) says that<blockquote>It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.
White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/|title=The Court Presentation|last=Holl|first=Evangeline|date=2007-12-07|website=Edwardian Promenade|language=en-US|access-date=2022-12-18}} https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/.</ref></blockquote>[[Social Victorians/Victorian Things#Ostrich Feathers and Prince of Wales's Feathers|This fashion was imported from France]] in the mid 1770s.<ref>"Abstract" for Blackwell, Caitlin. "'<nowiki/>''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright''': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. ''Wiley Online'' DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x (accessed November 2022).</ref>
Separately, a secondary heraldic emblem of the Prince of Wales has been a specific arrangement of 3 ostrich feathers in a gold coronet<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-11-07|title=Prince of Wales's feathers|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers&oldid=1120556015|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales's_feathers.</ref> since King Edward III (1312–1377<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-12-14|title=Edward III of England|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_III_of_England&oldid=1127343221|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England.</ref>).
Some women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] wore white ostrich feathers in their hair, but most of them are not Prince of Wales's feathers. Most of the plumes in these portraits are arrangements of some kind of headdress to accompany the costume. A few, wearing what looks like the Princes of Wales's feathers, might be signaling that their character is royal or has royal ancestry. '''One of the women [which one?] was presented to the royals at this ball?'''
Here is the list of women who are wearing white ostrich plumes in their portraits in the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball/Photographs|''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball'' album of 286 photogravure portraits]]:
# Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, the [[Social Victorians/People/Newcastle|Duchess of Newcastle]]
# [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Luise Cavendish]], the Duchess of Devonshire
# Jesusa Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urritio (née Bellido), [[Social Victorians/People/Santurce|Marquisa de Santurce]]
# Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Farquhar|Emilie Farquhar]]
# Princess (Laura Williamina Seymour) Victor of [[Social Victorians/People/Gleichen#Laura%20Williamina%20Seymour%20of%20Hohenlohe-Langenburg|Hohenlohe Langenburg]]
# Louisa Acheson, [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Lady Gosford]]
# Alice Emily White Coke, [[Social Victorians/People/Leicester|Viscountess Coke]]
# Lady Mary Stewart, Helen Mary Theresa [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Vane-Tempest-Stewart]]
#[[Social Victorians/People/Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill|Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill]], Duchess of [[Social Victorians/People/Marlborough|Marlborough]], dressed as the wife of the French Ambassador at the Court of Catherine of Russia (not white, but some color that reads dark in the black-and-white photograph)
#Mrs. Mary [[Social Victorians/People/Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] (at 491), wearing white plumes, as Madame d'Epinay
#Lady Clementine [[Social Victorians/People/Tweeddale|Hay]] (at 629), wearing white plumes, as St. Bris (''Les Huguenots'')
#[[Social Victorians/People/Meysey-Thompson|Lady Meysey-Thompson]] (at 391), wearing white plumes, as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Grosvenor|Algernon (Catherine) Grosvenor]] (at 510), wearing white plumes, as Marie Louise
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ancaster|Evelyn Ewart]], at 401), wearing white plumes, as the Duchess of Ancaster, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, 1757, after a picture by Hudson
#[[Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton|Edith Sophy Balfour Lyttelton]] (at 580), wearing what might be white plumes on a large-brimmed white hat, after a picture by Romney
#[[Social Victorians/People/Yznaga|Emilia Yznaga]] (at 360), wearing what might be white plumes, as Cydalise of the Comedie Italienne from the time of Louis XV
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Ilchester|Muriel Fox Strangways]] (at 403), wearing what might be two smallish white plumes, as Lady Sarah Lennox, one of the bridesmaids of Queen Charlotte A.D. 1761
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Violet Bingham]] (at 586), wearing perhaps one white plume in a headdress not related to the Prince of Wales's feathers
#Rosamond Fellowes, [[Social Victorians/People/de Ramsey|Lady de Ramsey]] (at 329), wearing a headdress that includes some white plumes, as Lady Burleigh
#[[Social Victorians/People/Dupplin|Agnes Blanche Marie Hay-Drummond]] (at 682), in a big headdress topped with white plumes, as Mademoiselle Andrée de Taverney A.D. 1775
#Florence Canning, [[Social Victorians/People/Garvagh|Lady Garvagh]] (at 336), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#[[Social Victorians/People/Suffolk|Marguerite Hyde "Daisy" Leiter]] (at 684), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes
#Lady [[Social Victorians/People/Spicer|Margaret Spicer]] (at 281), wearing one smallish white and one black plume, as Countess Zinotriff, Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Catherine of Russia
#Mrs. [[Social Victorians/People/Cavendish Bentinck|Arthur James]] (at 318), wearing what looks like Prince of Wales's plumes, as Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Bess of Hardwick
#Nellie, [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Countess of Kilmorey]] (at 207), wearing three tall plumes, 2 white and one dark, as Comtesse du Barri
#Daisy, [[Social Victorians/People/Warwick|Countess of Warwick]] (at 53), wearing at least 1 white plume, as Marie Antoinette
More men than women were wearing plumes reminiscent of the Prince of Wales's feathers:
*
==== Bibliography for Plumes and Prince of Wales's Feathers ====
* Blackwell, Caitlin. "'''The Feather'd Fair in a Fright'<nowiki/>'': The Emblem of the Feather in Graphic Satire of 1776." Journal for ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 20 January 2013 (Vol. 36, Issue 3): 353-376. Wiley Online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00550.x.
* "Prince of Wales's feathers." ''Wikipedia'' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales%27s_feathers (accessed November 2022). ['''Add women to this page''']
* Simpson, William. "On the Origin of the Prince of Wales' Feathers." ''Fraser's magazine'' 617 (1881): 637-649. Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79253140&view=1up&seq=643&q1=feathers (accessed December 2022). Deals mostly with use of feathers in other cultures and in antiquity; makes brief mention of feathers and plumes in signs and pub names that may not be associated with the Prince of Wales. No mention of the use of plumes in women's headdresses or court dress.
[[File:Prince Albert - Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1842.jpg|thumb|1842 Winterhalter portrait of Prince Albert wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1842|alt=1842 Portrait of Prince Albert by Winterhalter, wearing the insignia of the Golden Fleece]]
== Honors ==
=== The Bath ===
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCB or DCB, Knight or Dame Commander; CB, Companion)
[[File:The Golden Fleece - collar exhibited at MET, NYC.jpg|thumb|The Golden Fleece collar and pendant for the 2019 "Last Knight" exhibition at the MET, NYC.|alt=Recent photograph of a gold necklace on a wide band, with a gold skin of a sheep hanging from it as a pendant|left]]
=== The Golden Fleece ===
To wear the golden fleece is to wear the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, said to be "the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world" because of its long history and strict limitations on membership.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|date=2020-09-25|title=Order of the Golden Fleece|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece&oldid=980340875|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> The monarchs of the U.K. were members of the originally Spanish order, as were others who could afford it, like the Duke of Wellington,<ref name=":12">Thompson, R[obert]. H[ugh]. "The Golden Fleece in Britain." Publication of the ''British Numismatic Society''. 2009 https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/2009_BNJ_79_8.pdf (accessed January 2023).</ref> the first Protestant to be admitted to the order.<ref name=":10" /> Founded in 1429/30 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the order separated into two branches in 1714, one Spanish and the other Austrian, still led by the House of Habsburg.<ref name=":10" />
The photograph (upper left) is of a Polish badge dating from the "turn of the XV and XVI centuries."<ref>{{Citation|title=Polski: Kolana orderowa orderu Złotego Runa, przełom XV i XVI wieku.|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg|date=2019-11-10|accessdate=2023-01-10|last=Wulfstan}}. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Golden_Fleece_-_collar_exhibited_at_MET,_NYC.jpg.</ref> The collar this Golden Fleece is hanging from might be similar to the one the [[Social Victorians/People/Spencer Compton Cavendish#The Insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece|Duke of Devonshire is wearing in the 1897 Lafayette portrait]].
The badges and collars that Knights of the Order actually wore vary quite a bit.
The 1842 Franz Xaver Winterhalter portrait (upper right) of Prince Consort Albert, Victoria's husband and father of the Prince of Wales, shows him wearing the Golden Fleece on a red ribbon around his neck and the star of the Garter on the front of his coat.<ref>Winterhalter, Franz Xaver. ''Prince Albert''. {{Cite web|url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61|title=Explore the Royal Collection Online|website=www.rct.uk|access-date=2023-01-16}} https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/16/collection/401412/prince-albert-1819-61.</ref>[[File:Order of the Garter badge sash (United Kingdom) - Tallinn Museum of Orders.jpg|alt=Recent photograph of a gold medal on a wide blue ribbon|thumb|Order of the Garter Badge and Sash]]
=== The Order of the Garter ===
The Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter (KG, Knight Companion; LG, Lady Companion). Gold badge on the typical royal-blue sash (bottom right).
=== Royal Victorian Order ===
(GCVO, Knight or Dame Grand Cross; KCVO or DCVO, Knight or Dame Commander; CVO, Commander; LVO, Lieutenant; MVO, Member)
=== St. John ===
The Order of the Knights of St. John
=== Star of India ===
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI, Knight Grand Commander; KCSI, Knight Commander; CSI, Companion)
=== Thistle ===
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle
== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Hoops|Hoops]] ==
== Jewelry and Stones ==
=== Cabochon ===
This term describes both the treatment and shape of a precious or semiprecious stone. A cabochon treatment does not facet the stone but merely polishes it, removing "the rough parts" and the parts that are not the right stone.<ref>"cabochon, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/25778. Accessed 7 February 2023.</ref> A cabochon shape is often flat on one side and oval or round, forming a mound in the setting.
=== Cairngorm ===
=== Ferronnière ===
A revival of a Renaissance fashion for controlling the hair and headdress. Usually made of a filet, often with a single pendant stone in the center of the forehead, although the Victorians' ferronnières were often elaborate and encrusted with jewels.<ref>Boyington, Amy. "Ferronnière." ''History with Amy'' 5 November 2025.
Website fb.watch/FBMyC7bqde [links to fb.watch not allowed].</ref>
=== Half-hoop ===
Usually of a ring or bracelet, a precious-metal band with a setting of stones on one side, covering perhaps about 1/3 or 1/2 of the band. Half-hoop jewelry pieces were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Jet ===
=== ''Orfèvrerie'' ===
Sometimes misspelled in the newspapers as ''orvfèvrerie''. ''Orfèvrerie'' is the artistic work of a goldsmith, silversmith, or jeweler.
=== Ribbon Necklace ===
=== Solitaire ===
A solitaire is a ring with a single stone set as the focal point. Solitaire rings were occasionally given as wedding gifts to the bride.
=== Turquoise ===
== Mantle, Cloak, Cape ==
In 19th-century newspaper accounts, these terms are sometimes used without precision as synonyms. These are all outer garments. Although the terms were (and are) often used generically, a short outer wrap would be a cape, a longer one would be a cloak and, after the 17th century, a full-length one possibly buttoned down the front would be a mantle.
=== '''Mantle''' ===
A mantle — often a long outer garment — might have elements like a train, sleeves, collars, revers, fur, and a cape. A late-19th-century writer making a distinction between a mantle and a cloak might use ''mantle'' if the garment is more voluminous.
== Military ==
Several men from the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]] were dressed in military uniforms, some historical and some, possibly, not.
=== Armor ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]], much of the armor was fictional, not located in historical time and place. Helmets, ditto.
==== Chain Mail ====
chausses, mitons, hauberk, mail coif,
==== Armor ====
greaves, gauntlet
* '''Cuirass''': According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''cuirass'' is "A piece of armour for the body (originally of leather); ''spec.'' a piece reaching down to the waist, and consisting of a breast-plate and a back-plate, buckled or otherwise fastened together ...."<ref>"cuirass, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/45604. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref>
[[File:Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt - Ritratto di giovane - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=Old painting of a young man wearing metal collar armor around his neck|thumb|''Tronie of a Young Man in a Gorget and Cap'', attributed to Rembrandt (c. 1639)]]
* '''Gorget''': By the Elizabethan age in western Europe, the gorget was the piece of plate armor that protected the neck.
<blockquote>At the beginning of the 16th century, the gorget reached its full development as a component of plate armour. Unlike previous gorget plates and bevors which sat over the cuirass and also required a separate mail collar to fully protect the neck, the developed gorget was worn under the cuirass and was intended to cover a larger area of the neck, nape, shoulders and upper chest, from which the edges of the backplate and breastplate had receded.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-02|title=Gorget|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gorget&oldid=1346732005|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The only visible armor worn by the subject in Rembrandt's c. 1639 portrait (right) is his gorget.
*.
==== Over-clothing ====
(fabric or leather): tunic, cloak, mantle
=== Baldric ===
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the primary sense of ''baldric'' is "A belt or girdle, usually of leather and richly ornamented, worn pendent from one shoulder across the breast and under the opposite arm, and used to support the wearer's sword, bugle, etc."<ref>"baldric, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/14849. Accessed 17 May 2023.</ref> This sense has been in existence since c. 1300. A baldric could be worn over armor or court dress. The ribbon worn across the chest for honors is called a sash.
[[File:Knötel IV, 04.jpg|thumb|alt=An Old drawing in color of British soldiers on horses brandishing swords in 1815.|1890 illustration of the Household Cavalry (Life Guard, left; Horse Guard, right) at the Battle of Waterloo, 1815]]
=== Household Cavalry ===
The Royal Household contains the Household Cavalry, a corps of British Army units assigned to the monarch. It is made up of 2 regiments, the Life Guards and what is now called The Blues and Royals, which were formed around the time of "the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660."<ref name=":3">Joll, Christopher. "Tales of the Household Cavalry, No. 1. Roles." The Household Cavalry Museum, https://householdcavalry.co.uk/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Household-Cavalry-Museum-video-series-large-print-text-Tales-episode-01.pdf.</ref>{{rp|1}} Regimental Historian Christopher Joll says, "the original Life Guards were formed as a mounted bodyguard for the exiled King Charles II, The Blues were raised as Cromwellian cavalry and The Royals were established to defend Tangier."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|1–2}} The 1st and 2nd Life Guards were formed from "the Troops of Horse and Horse Grenadier Guards ... in 1788."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} The Life Guards were and are still official bodyguards of the queen or king, but through history they have been required to do quite a bit more than serve as bodyguards for the monarch.
The Household Cavalry fought in the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815 as heavy cavalry.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} Besides arresting the Cato Steet conspirators in 1820 "and guarding their subsequent execution," the Household Cavalry contributed to the "the expedition to rescue General Gordon, who was trapped in Khartoum by The Mahdi and his army of insurgents" in 1884.<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}} In 1887 they "were involved ... in the suppression of rioters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|3}}
==== Grenadier Guards ====
Three men — [[Social Victorians/People/Gordon-Lennox#Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox|Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox]], [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Edward George Villiers Stanley, Lord Stanley|Lord Stanley]], and [[Social Victorians/People/Stanley#Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley|Hon. F. C. Stanley]] — attended the ball as officers of the Grenadier Guards, wearing "scarlet tunics, ... full blue breeches, scarlet hose and shoes, lappet wigs" as well as items associated with weapons and armor.<ref name=":14">“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.</ref>{{rp|p. 34, Col. 2a}}
Founded in England in 1656 as Foot Guards, this infantry regiment "was granted the 'Grenadier' designation by a Royal Proclamation" at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Grenadier Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grenadier_Guards&oldid=1151238350|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadier_Guards.</ref> They were not called Grenadier Guards, then, before about 1815. In 1660, the Stuart Restoration, they were called Lord Wentworth's Regiment, because they were under the command of Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2022-07-24|title=Lord Wentworth's Regiment|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment&oldid=1100069077|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Wentworth%27s_Regiment.</ref>
At the time of Lord Wentworth's Regiment, the style of the French cavalier had begun to influence wealthy British royalists. In the British military, a Cavalier was a wealthy follower of Charles I and Charles II — a commander, perhaps, or a field officer, but probably not a soldier.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-04-22|title=Cavalier|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cavalier&oldid=1151166569|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier.</ref>
The Guards were busy as infantry in the 17th century, engaging in a number of armed conflicts for Great Britain, but they also served the sovereign. According to the Guards Museum,<blockquote>In 1678 the Guards were ordered to form Grenadier Companies, these men were the strongest and tallest of the regiment, they carried axes, hatches and grenades, they were the shock troops of their day. Instead of wearing tri-corn hats they wore a mitre shaped cap.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/|title=Service to the Crown|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-2/.</ref></blockquote>The name comes from ''grenades'', then, and we are accustomed to seeing them in front of Buckingham Palace, with their tall mitre hats.
The Guard fought in the American Revolution, and in the 19th century, the Grenadier Guards fought in the Crimean War, Sudan and the Boer War. They have roles as front-line troops and as ceremonial for the sovereign, which makes them elite:<blockquote>Queen Victoria decreed that she did not want to see a single chevron soldier within her Guards. Other then [sic] the two senior Warrant Officers of the British Army, the senior Warrant Officers of the Foot Guards wear a large Sovereigns personal coat of arms badge on their upper arm. No other regiments of the British Army are allowed to do so; all the others wear a small coat of arms of their lower arms. Up until 1871 all officers in the Foot Guards had the privilege of having double rankings. An Ensign was ranked as an Ensign and Lieutenant, a Lieutenant as Lieutenant and Captain and a Captain as Captain and Lieutenant Colonel. This was because at the time officers purchased their own ranks and it cost more to purchase a commission in the Foot Guards than any other regiments in the British Army. For example if it cost an officer in the Foot Guards £1,000 for his first rank, in the rest of the Army it would be £500 so if he transferred to another regiment he would loose [sic] £500, hence the higher rank, if he was an Ensign in the Guards and he transferred to a Line Regiment he went in at the higher rank of Lieutenant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/|title=Formation and role of the Regiments|website=The Guards Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2023-05-15}} https://theguardsmuseum.com/about-the-guards/history-of-the-foot-guards/history-page-1/.</ref></blockquote>
==== Life Guards ====
[[Social Victorians/People/Shrewsbury#Reginald Talbot's Costume|General the Hon. Reginald Talbot]], a member of the 1st Life Guards, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball dressed in the uniform of his regiment during the Battle of Waterloo.<ref name=":14" />{{rp|p. 36, Col. 3b}}
At the Battle of Waterloo the 1st Life Guards were part of the 1st Brigade — the Household Brigade — and were commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=2023-09-30|title=Battle of Waterloo|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Waterloo&oldid=1177893566|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo.</ref> The 1st Life Guards were on "the extreme right" of a French countercharge and "kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties."<ref name=":4" />
[[File:Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes MET DPB874122.jpg|alt=Old drawing of a soldier wearing a white cuirass, a pointed helmet, thigh-high boots, carrying a long sword|thumb|Captain, Royal Horse Guards, Blue, 1888, a Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company card]]
==== Royal Horse Guards ====
In 1650 the Regiment of Cuirassiers was "raised by Sir Arthur Haselrig on the orders of Oliver Cromwell."<ref name=":26">{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-13|title=Royal Horse Guards|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Horse_Guards&oldid=1353961278|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> In 1660 "it became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment .... Based on the colour of their uniform, the regiment was nicknamed 'the Oxford Blues', or simply the 'Blues.' In 1750, it became the Royal Horse Guards Blue."<ref name=":26" />
The Royal Horse Guards Blue were moved to Windsor at the end of the 18th century and "acted as royal bodyguards" to George III, who liked them.<ref name=":26" /> While pay for the men "stagnated," requirements continued to rise, so that recruits had to come from wealth.<ref name=":26" /> Riding and hunting skills were helpful to the recruits, who had to provide their own horses, pay for messes and uniforms, not to mention the position itself.<ref name=":26" />
They fought in the Battle of Waterloo, with 44 dead, 50 wounded (of which only 6 died).<ref name=":26" /> With the Duke of Wellington at their head, they became part of the Household Cavalry in 1820.<ref name=":26" /> An 1890 illustration shows a member of the Royal Horse Guard (above right) fighting at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Royal Horse Guard Blue fought in the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, fighting with the heavy brigades and thus were more successful than the famous light brigade, though conditions were very difficult.<ref name=":26" />
A tobacco card published in 1888 (right) shows a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, Blue, in 1879.
In 1884–85 the Blues took part in the attempt to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. They were sent to South Africa at the end of the 19th century.<ref name=":26" />
For those men who were in the Royal Horse Guards at the end of the 19th century, the field marshals were
* 1869–1885: Field Marshal Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, during which time — in 1877 — the name changed to the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)."<ref name=":26" />
* 1885–1895: Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant
* 1895–1907: Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
In 1847 Edmund Packe published his ''[[iarchive:historicalrecord00packiala/|Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, or Oxford Blues]]'', which has colored images to illustrate the development of the uniform up to the middle of the 19th century (the link goes to the ''Internet Archive'').
== [[Social Victorians/Mourning|Mourning]] ==
== Peplum ==
According to the French ''Wiktionnaire'', a peplum is a "Short skirt or flared flounce layered at the waist of a jacket, blouse or dress" [translation by Google Translate].<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2021-07-02|title=péplum|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=p%C3%A9plum&oldid=29547727|journal=Wiktionnaire, le dictionnaire libre|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A9plum.</ref> The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has a fuller definition, although, it focuses on women's clothing because the sense is written for the present day:<blockquote>''Fashion''. ... a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (''obsolete''). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.<ref name=":5">“peplum, n.”. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, September 2023, <https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1832614702>.</ref></blockquote>Men haven't worn peplums since the 18th century, except when wearing costumes based on historical portraits. The ''Daily News'' reported in 1896 that peplums had been revived as a fashion item for women.<ref name=":5" />
== Revers ==
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', ''revers'' are the "edge[s] of a garment turned back to reveal the undersurface (often at the lapel or cuff) (chiefly in ''plural''); the material covering such an edge."<ref>"revers, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2023, www.oed.com/view/Entry/164777. Accessed 17 April 2023.</ref> The term is French and was used this way in the 19th century (according to the ''Wiktionnaire'').<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-03-07|title=revers|url=https://fr.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=revers&oldid=31706560|journal=Wiktionnaire|language=fr}} https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/revers.</ref>
== Traditional vs Progressive Style ==
=== Progressive Style ===
The terms ''artistic dress'' and ''aesthetic dress'' — as well as ''rational dress'' or ''dress reform'' — are not synonymous and were in use at different times to refer to different groups of people in different contexts, but we recognize them as referring to a similar kind of personal style in clothing, a style we call progressive dress or the progressive style. Used in a very precise way, ''artistic dress'' is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite artists and the women in their circle beginning in the 1860s. Similarly, ''aesthetic dress'' is associated with the 1880s and 1890s and dress reform movements, as is ''rational dress'', a movement located largely among women in the middle classes from the middle to the end of the century. In general, what we are calling the progressive style is characterized by its resistance to the highly structured fashion of its day, especially corseting, aniline dyes and an extremely close fit. This group of styles was more about individual choices and approaches than the consistent vision offered by couturiers like Maison Worth.
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Ada Nettleship]]: Constance Wilde and Ellen Terry; an 1883 exhibition of dress by the Rational Dress Society featured her work, including trousers for women (with a short overskirt)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-21|title=Ada Nettleship|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ada_Nettleship&oldid=1286707541|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#Alice Comyns Carr and Ada Nettleship|Alice Comyns Carr]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-06-06|title=Alice Comyns Carr|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alice_Comyns_Carr&oldid=1294283929|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
* Grosvenor Gallery
=== Traditional Style ===
[[File:Victoria Hesse NPG 95941 crop.jpg|alt=Old photograph of a white woman wearing a very tight and fitted bodice with her skirts swept to the back|thumb|Princess Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven (1863–1950), Granddaughter of Queen Victoria; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1st Marquess, c. 1878]]
Images
* Smooth bodice, fabric draped to the back or covering a bustle with a small cage beneath it:
By the end of the century designs from the [[Social Victorians/People/Dressmakers and Costumiers#The House of Worth|House of Worth]] (or Maison Worth) define what we think of as the traditional Victorian look, which was very stylish and expensive. Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria is shown (right) wearing a traditional but very stylish c. 1878 dress like one designed by Maison Worth. Blanche Payne describes an example of the 1895 "high style" in a gown by Worth with "the idiosyncrasies of the [1890s] full blown":<blockquote>The dress is white silk with wine-red stripes. Sleeves, collars, bows, bag, hat, and hem border match the stripes. The sleeve has reached its maximum volume; the bosom full and emphasized with added lace; the waistline is elongated, pointed, and laced to the point of distress; the skirt is smooth over the hips, gradually swinging out to sweep the floor. This is the much vaunted hourglass figure.<ref name=":11" />{{rp|530}}</blockquote>
The Victorian-looking gowns at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] are stylish in a way that recalls the designs of the House of Worth. The elements that make their look so Victorian are anachronisms on the costumes representing fashion of earlier eras. The women wearing these gowns preferred the standards of beauty from their own day to a more-or-less historically accurate look. The style competing at the very end of the century with the Worth look was not the historical, however, but a progressive style called at the time ''artistic'' or ''aesthetic''.
William Powell Frith's 1883 painting ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (discussion below) pits this kind of traditional style against the progressive or artistic style.
=== The Styles ===
[[File:Frith A Private View.jpg|thumb|William Powell Frith, ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'']]
We typically think of the late-Victorian silhouette as universal but, in the periods in which corsets dominated women's dress, not all women wore corsets and not all corsets were the same, as William Powell Frith's 1883 ''A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'' (right) illustrates. Frith is clear in his memoir that this painting — "recording for posterity the aesthetic craze as regards dress" — deliberately contrasts what he calls the "folly" of the Aesthetic Dress movement and the look of the traditional corseted waist.<ref>Frith, William Powell. ''My Autobiography and Reminiscences''. 1887.</ref> Frith considered the Aesthetic Movement and Aesthetic Dress "ephemeral," but its rejection of corsetry looks far more consequential to us in hindsight than it did in the 19th century.
As Frith sees it, his painting critiques the "craze" associated with the women in this set of identifiable portraits who are not corseted, but his commitment to realism shows us a spectrum, a range, of conservatism and if not political then at least stylistic progressivism among the women. The progressives, oddly, are the women wearing artistic (that is, somewhat historical) dress, because they’re not corseted. It is a misreading to see the presentation of the women’s fashion as a simple opposition. Constance, Countess of Lonsdale — situated at the center of this painting with Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal Academy of Art — is the most conservatively dressed of the women depicted, with her narrow sleeves, tight waist and almost perfectly smooth bodice, which tells us that her corset has eyelets so that it can be laced precisely and tightly, and it has stays (or "bones") to prevent wrinkles or natural folds in the overclothing. Lillie Langtry, in the white dress, with her stylish narrow sleeves, does not have such a tightly bound waist or smooth bodice, suggesting she may not be corseted at all, as we know she sometimes was not.['''citation'''] Jenny Trip, a painter’s model, is the woman in the green dress in the aesthetic group being inspected by Anthony Trollope, who may be taking notes. She looks like she is not wearing a corset. Both Langtry and Trip are toward the middle of this spectrum: neither is dressed in the more extreme artistic dress of, say, the two figures between Trip and Trollope.
A lot has been written about the late-Victorian attraction to historical dress, especially in the context of fancy-dress balls and the Gothic revival in social events as well as art and music. Part of the appeal has to have been the way those costumes could just be beautiful clothing beautifully made. Historical dress provided an opportunity for some elite women to wear less-structured but still beautiful and influential clothing. ['''Calvert'''<ref>Calvert, Robyne Erica. ''Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain 1848-1900''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. <nowiki>https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3279/</nowiki></ref>] The standards for beauty, then, with historical dress were Victorian, with the added benefit of possibly less structure. So, at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball, "while some attendees tried to hew closely to historical precedent, many rendered their historical or mythological personage in the sartorial vocabulary they knew best. The [photographs of people in their costumes at the ball offer] a glimpse into how Victorians understood history, not a glimpse into the costume of an authentic historical past."<ref>Mitchell, Rebecca N. "The Victorian Fancy Dress Ball, 1870–1900." ''Fashion Theory'' 2017 (21: 3): 291–315. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2016.1172817.</ref>{{rp|294}}
* historical dress: beautiful clothing.
* the range at the ball, from Minnie Paget to Gwladys
* "In light of such efforts, the ball remains to this day one of the best documented outings of the period, and a quick glance at the album shows that ..."
* The costume of the Duchess of Devonshire does not have a defined waist and may suggest that she herself is not corseted, although that would be a notable departure for her.
Women had more choices about their waists than the simple opposition between no corset and tightlacing can accommodate. The range of choices is illustrated in Frith's painting, with a woman locating herself on it at a particular moment for particular reasons. Much analysis of 19th-century corsetry focuses on its sexualizing effects — corsets dominated Victorian photographic pornography ['''citations'''] and at the same time, the absence of a corset was sexual because it suggested nudity.['''citations'''] A great deal of analysis of 19th-century corsetry, on the other hand, assumes that women wore corsets for the male gaze ['''citations'''] or that they tightened their waists to compete with other women.['''citations''']
But as we can see in Frith's painting, the sexualizing effect was not universal or sweeping, and these analyses do not account for the choices women had in which corset to wear or how tightly to lace it. Especially given the way that some photographic portraits were mechanically altered to make the waist appear smaller, the size of a woman's waist had to do with how she was presenting herself to the world. That is, the fact that women made choices about the size of or emphasis on their waists suggests that they had agency that needs to be taken into account.
As they navigated the complex social world, women's fashion choices had meaning. Society or political hostesses had agency not only in their clothing but generally in that complex social world. They had roles managing social events of the upper classes, especially of the upper aristocracy and oligarchy, like the Duchess of Devonshire's ball. Their class and rank, then, were essential to their agency, including to some degree their freedom to choose what kind of corset to wear and how to wear it. Also, by the end of the century lots of different kinds of corsets were available for lots of different purposes. Special corsets existed for pregnancy, sports (like tennis, bicycling, horseback riding, golf, fencing, archery, stalking and hunting), theatre and dance and, of course, for these women corsets could be made to support the special dress worn over it.
Women's choices in how they presented themselves to the world included more than just their foundation garments, of course. "Every cap, bow, streamer, ruffle, fringe, bustle, glove," that is, the trim and decorations on their garments, their jewelry and accessories — which Davidoff calls "elaborations"<ref name=":1" />{{rp|93}} — pointed to a host of status categories, like class, rank, wealth, age, marital status, engagement with the empire, how sexual they wanted to seem, political alignment and purpose at the social event. For example, when women were being presented to the monarch, they were expected to wear three ostrich plumes, often called the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Prince of Wales's Feathers or White Plumes|Prince of Wales's feathers]].
Like all fashions, the corset, which was quite long-lasting in all its various forms, eventually went out of style. Of the many factors that might have influenced its demise, perhaps most important was the women's movement, in which women's rights, freedom, employment and access to their own money and children were less slogan-worthy but at least as essential as votes for women. The activities of the animal-rights movements drew attention not only to the profligate use of the bodies and feathers of birds but also to the looming extinction of the baleen whale, which made whale bone scarce and expensive. Perhaps the century's debates over corseting and especially tightlacing were relevant to some decisions not to be corseted. And, of course, perhaps no other reason is required than that the nature of fashion is to change.
== Undergarments ==
Unlike undergarments, Victorian women's [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] created the distinctive silhouette. Victorian undergarments included the chemise, the bloomers, the corset cover — articles that are not structural.<p>
The corset was an important element of the understructure of foundation garments — hoops, bustles, petticoats and so on — but it has never been the only important element.
=== Undergarments ===
* Chemise
* Corset cover
* Bloomers
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|Petticoats]] (distinguish between the outer- and undergarment type of petticoat)
* Combinations
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hose, Stockings and Tights|Hose, stockings and tights]]
* Men's shirts
* Men's unders
==== Bloomers ====
==== Chemise ====
A chemise is a garment "linen, homespun, or cotton knee-length garment with [a] square neck" worn under all the other garments except the bloomers or combinations.<ref name=":7" /> (61) According to Lewandowski, combinations replaced the chemise by 1890.
==== Combinations ====
=== [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments|Foundation Garments]] ===
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}
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'''Child psychology''' is the branch of psychology that deals with the way children behave, think, socialize, and develop. This course aims to familiarize readers with the science and history of child psychology & the biological, social, emotional, and cognitive development of a child from conception to early childhood. Understanding your child and how to interact with them throughout their life stages is crucial to not only giving them the best learning environment to grow, but to fostering a positive, peaceful, and supportive parent-child relationship. This lesson is also intended for professionals who work with children, university students, and anyone else who is interested in learning child psychology.
== Content ==
=== History/Background ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 1]] - History, theories, methods {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 2]] - Heredity, diseases, disorders, syndromes, conception, infertility {{stage|100}}
=== Prenatal Development ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 3]] - Prenatal development: Germinal stage, embryonic stage, fetal stage {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 4]] - Three stages of childbirth, methods of childbirth, birth problems, post-partum period, neonates {{stage|25}}
=== Infancy ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 5]] - Infancy (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 6]] - Infancy (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 7 - Infancy: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 7]] - Infancy (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Early Childhood ===
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 8: Early Childhood: Physical Development|Child psychology/Ch. 8]] - Early childhood (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 9: Early Childhood: Cognitive Development|Child psychology/Ch. 9]] - Early childhood (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 10: Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 10]] - Early childhood (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Overview/Cheat-Sheet ===
* [[Child psychology/Summary of child psychology (cheat-sheet)]] - ''not created by the instructor.'' {{stage|25}}
== Resources ==
* ''[https://www.amazon.com/Childhood-Adolescence-Voyages-Development-MindTap/dp/035737410X Rathus' Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7th Edition] -'' the textbook from which the instructor derived his notes.
* [https://www.indiancounsellingservices.com/blog/certified-in-child-psychology/ How to Get Certified in Child Psychology 2026?] By Indian Counselling Services
* [[w:Child_psychology|Child psychology]] - Wikipedia
* [https://www.alohabdonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Psychology-Of-The-Child.pdf Psychology of the Child (textbook)] - Jean Piaget & [[w:Bärbel_Inhelder|Bärbel Inhelder]]
[[Category:Child psychology]]
[[Category:Atcovi/Spring 2024]]
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{{underconstruction}}
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{{tertiary}}
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{{op|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
'''Child psychology''' is the branch of psychology that deals with the way children behave, think, socialize, and develop. This course aims to familiarize readers with the science and history of child psychology & the biological, social, emotional, and cognitive development of a child from conception to early childhood. Understanding your child and how to interact with them throughout their life stages is crucial to not only giving them the best learning environment to grow, but to fostering a positive, peaceful, and supportive parent-child relationship. This lesson is also intended for professionals who work with children, university students, and anyone else who is interested in learning child psychology.
== Content ==
=== History/Background ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 1]] - History, theories, methods {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 2]] - Heredity, diseases, disorders, syndromes, conception, infertility {{stage|100}}
=== Prenatal Development ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 3]] - Prenatal development: Germinal stage, embryonic stage, fetal stage {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 4]] - Three stages of childbirth, methods of childbirth, birth problems, post-partum period, neonates {{stage|25}}
=== Infancy ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 5]] - Infancy (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 6]] - Infancy (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 7 - Infancy: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 7]] - Infancy (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Early Childhood ===
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 8: Early Childhood: Physical Development|Child psychology/Ch. 8]] - Early childhood (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 9: Early Childhood: Cognitive Development|Child psychology/Ch. 9]] - Early childhood (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 10: Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 10]] - Early childhood (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Overview/Cheat-Sheet ===
* [[Child psychology/Summary of child psychology (cheat-sheet)]] - ''not created by the instructor.'' {{stage|25}}
== Resources ==
* ''[https://www.amazon.com/Childhood-Adolescence-Voyages-Development-MindTap/dp/035737410X Rathus' Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7th Edition] -'' the textbook from which the instructor derived his notes.
* [[w:Child_psychology|Child psychology]] - Wikipedia
* [https://www.alohabdonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Psychology-Of-The-Child.pdf Psychology of the Child (textbook)] - Jean Piaget & [[w:Bärbel_Inhelder|Bärbel Inhelder]]
[[Category:Child psychology]]
[[Category:Atcovi/Spring 2024]]
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2811758
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Jtneill
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Some copyedits
2811761
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{underconstruction}}
{{psychology}}
{{75% done}}
{{tertiary}}
{{course}}
{{op|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
'''Child psychology''' is the branch of psychology that deals with the way children behave, think, socialize, and develop. This course aims to familiarize students with the science and history of child psychology and the biological, social, emotional, and cognitive development of a child, from conception to early childhood. Understanding your child and how to interact with them throughout their life stages is crucial to not only giving them the best learning environment to grow, but to fostering a positive, peaceful, and supportive parent-child relationship. This lesson is also intended for professionals who work with children, university students, and anyone else who is interested in learning child psychology.
== Content ==
=== History/Background ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 1]] - History, theories, methods {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 2]] - Heredity, diseases, disorders, syndromes, conception, infertility {{stage|100}}
=== Prenatal Development ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 3]] - Prenatal development: Germinal stage, embryonic stage, fetal stage {{stage|100}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 4]] - Three stages of childbirth, methods of childbirth, birth problems, post-partum period, neonates {{stage|25}}
=== Infancy ===
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 5]] - Infancy (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 6]] - Infancy (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Ch. 7 - Infancy: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 7]] - Infancy (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Early Childhood ===
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 8: Early Childhood: Physical Development|Child psychology/Ch. 8]] - Early childhood (physical development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 9: Early Childhood: Cognitive Development|Child psychology/Ch. 9]] - Early childhood (cognitive development) {{stage|25}}
* [[Child psychology/Chapter 10: Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Development|Child psychology/Ch. 10]] - Early childhood (social and emotional development) {{stage|25}}
=== Overview/Cheat-Sheet ===
* [[Child psychology/Summary of child psychology (cheat-sheet)]] - ''not created by the instructor.'' {{stage|25}}
== Resources ==
* ''[https://www.amazon.com/Childhood-Adolescence-Voyages-Development-MindTap/dp/035737410X Rathus' Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development, 7th Edition] -'' the textbook from which the instructor derived his notes.
* [[w:Child_psychology|Child psychology]] - Wikipedia
* [https://www.alohabdonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Psychology-Of-The-Child.pdf Psychology of the Child (textbook)] - Jean Piaget & [[w:Bärbel_Inhelder|Bärbel Inhelder]]
[[Category:Child psychology]]
[[Category:Atcovi/Spring 2024]]
tb7xgrx01q3m80ocsjf5ha1d1b2yigd
User:Dc.samizdat/Golden chords of the 120-cell
2
326765
2811717
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2026-05-27T18:31:08Z
Dc.samizdat
2856930
/* The 8-point regular polytopes */
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wikitext
text/x-wiki
= Golden chords of the 120-cell =
{{align|center|David Brooks Christie}}
{{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}}
{{align|center|Draft in progress}}
{{align|center|January 2026 - May 2026}}
<blockquote>Steinbach discovered the formula for the ratios of diagonal to side in the regular polygons. Fontaine and Hurley extended this result, discovering a formula for the reciprocal of a regular polygon chord derived geometrically from the chord's star polygon. We observe that these findings in plane geometry apply more generally, to polytopes of any dimensionality. Fontaine and Hurley's geometric procedure for finding the reciprocals of the chords of a regular polygon from their star polygons also finds the rotational geodesics of any polytope of any dimensionality.</blockquote>
== Introduction ==
Steinbach discovered the Diagonal Product Formula and the Golden Fields family of ratios of diagonal to side in the regular polygons. He showed how this family extends beyond the pentagon {5} with its well-known golden bisection proportional to 𝜙, finding that the heptagon {7} has an analogous trisection, the nonagon {9} has an analogous quadrasection, and the hendecagon {11} has an analogous pentasection, an extended family of golden proportions with quasiperiodic properties.
Kappraff and Adamson extended these findings in plane geometry to a theory of Generalized Fibonacci Sequences, showing that the Golden Fields not only do not end with the hendecagon, they form an infinite number of periodic trajectories when operated on by the Mandelbrot operator. They found a relation between the edges of star polygons and dynamical systems in the state of chaos, revealing a connection between chaos theory, number, and rotations in Coxeter Euclidean geometry.
Fontaine and Hurley examined Steinbach's finding that the length of each chord of a regular polygon is both the product of two chords and the sum of a set of smaller chords, so that in rotations to add is to multiply. They illustrated Steinbach's sets of additive chords lying parallel to each other in the plane (pointing in the same direction), and by applying Steinbach's formula more generally they found another summation relation of signed parallel chords (pointing in opposite directions) which relates each chord length to its reciprocal, and relates the summation to a distinct star polygon rotation.
We examine these remarkable findings (which stem from study of the chords of humble regular polygons) in higher-dimensional spaces, specifically in the chords, polygons and rotations of the [[120-cell]], the largest four-dimensional regular convex polytope.
== Visualizing the 120-cell ==
{| class="wikitable floatright" width="400"
|style="vertical-align:top"|[[File:120-cell.gif|200px]]<br>Orthographic projection of the 600-point 120-cell <math>\{5,3,3\}</math> performing a [[W:SO(4)#Geometry of 4D rotations|simple rotation]].{{Sfn|Hise|2011|loc=File:120-cell.gif|ps=; "Created by Jason Hise with Maya and Macromedia Fireworks. A 3D projection of a 120-cell performing a [[W:SO(4)#Geometry of 4D rotations|simple rotation]]."}} In this simplified rendering only the 120-cell's own edges are shown; its 29 interior chords are not rendered. Therefore even though it is translucent, only its outer surface is visible. The complex interior parts of the 120-cell, all its inscribed 5-cells, 16-cells, 8-cells, 24-cells, 600-cells and its much larger inventory of polyhedra, are completely invisible in this view, as none of their edges are rendered at all.
|style="vertical-align:top"|[[File:Ortho solid 016-uniform polychoron p33-t0.png|200px]]<br>Orthographic projection of the 600-point [[W:Great grand stellated 120-cell|great grand stellated 120-cell]] <math>\{\tfrac{5}{2},3,3\}</math>.{{Sfn|Ruen: Great grand stellated 120-cell|2007}} The 120-cell is its convex hull. The projection to the left renders only the 120-cell's shortest chord, its 1200 edges. The projection above also renders only one of the 120-cell's 30 chords, the edges of its 120 inscribed regular 5-cells. The 120-cell itself (the convex hull) is invisible in this view, as its edges are not rendered.
|}
[[120-cell#Geometry|The 120-cell is the maximally complex regular 4-polytope]], containing inscribed instances of every regular 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-polytope, except the regular polygons of more than {15} sides.
The 120-cell is the convex hull of a regular [[120-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|compound of each of the 6 regular convex 4-polytopes]]. They are the [[5-cell|5-point (5-cell) 4-simplex]], the [[16-cell|8-point (16-cell) 4-orthoplex]], the [[W:Tesseract|16-point (8-cell) tesseract]], the [[24-cell|24-point (24-cell)]], the [[600-cell|120-point (600-cell)]], and the [[120-cell|600-point (120-cell)]]. The 120-cell is the convex hull of a compound of 120 disjoint regular 5-cells, of 75 disjoint 16-cells, of 25 disjoint 24-cells, and of 5 disjoint 600-cells.
The 120-cell contains an even larger inventory of irregular polytopes, created by the intersection of multiple instances of these component regular 4-polytopes. Many are quite unexpected, because they do not occur as components of any regular polytope smaller than the 120-cell. As just one example among the [[120-cell#Concentric hulls|sections of the 120-cell]], there is an irregular 24-point polyhedron with 16 triangle faces and 4 nonagon {9} faces.{{Sfn|Moxness|}}
Most renderings of the 120-cell, like the rotating projection here, only illustrate its outer surface, which is a honeycomb of face-bonded dodecahedral cells. Only the objects in its 3-dimensional surface are rendered, namely the 120 dodecahedra, their pentagon faces, and their edges. Although the 120-cell has chords of 30 distinct lengths, in this kind of simplified rendering only the 120-cell's own edges (its shortest chord) are shown. Its 29 interior chords, the edges of objects in the interior of the 120-cell, are not rendered, so interior objects are not visible at all.
Visualizing the complete interior of the 600-vertex 120-cell in a single image is impractical because of its complexity. Only four 120-cell edges are incident at each vertex, but [[120-cell#Chords|600 chords (of all 30 lengths)]] are incident at ''each'' vertex.
== Compounds in the 120-cell ==
The 8-point (16-cell), not the 5-point (5-cell), is the smallest building block; it compounds to every larger regular 4-polytope. The 5-point (5-cell) does compound to the 600-point (120-cell), but it does not fit into any smaller regular 4-polytope.
The 8-point (16-cell) compounds by 2 in the 16-point (8-cell), and by 3 in the 24-point (24-cell). The 16-point (8-cell) compounds in the 24-point (24-cell) by 3 non-disjoint instances of itself, with each of the 24 vertices shared by two 16-point (8-cells). The 24-point (24-cell) compounds by 5 disjoint instances of itself in the 120-point (600-cell), and the 120-point (600-cell) compounds by 5 disjoint instances of itself in the 600-point (120-cell).
The 24-point (24-cell) also compounds by 5<sup>2</sup> non-disjoint instances of itself in the 120-point (600-cell); it compounds in 5 disjoint instances of itself, 10 (not 5) different ways. Whichever set of 5 disjoint 24-point (24-cells) are assembled, the resulting 120-point (600-cell) contains 25 distinct 24-point (24-cells), not just 5 (or 10). This implies that 15 disjoint 8-point (16-cells) will construct a 120-point (600-cell), which will contain 75 distinct 8-point (16-cells).
The 600-point (120-cell) is 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells), just 2 different ways (not 5 or 10 ways), so it is 10 distinct 120-point (600-cells). This implies that the 8-point (16-cell) compounds by 3 times 5<sup>2</sup> (75) disjoint instances of itself in the 600-point (120-cell), which contains 3<sup>2</sup> times 5<sup>2</sup> (225) distinct instances of the 24-point (24-cell), and 3<sup>3</sup> times 5<sup>2</sup> (675) distinct instances of the 8-point (16-cell).
These facts were discovered painstakingly by various researchers, and no one has found a general rule governing subsumption relations among regular polytopes. The reasons for some of their numeric incidence relations are far from obvious. [[W:Pieter Hendrik Schoute|Schoute]] was the first to see that the 120-point (600-cell) is a compound of 5 24-point (24-cells) ''10 different ways'', and after he saw it a hundred years lapsed until Denney, Hooker, Johnson, Robinson, Butler & Claiborne proved his result, and showed why.{{Sfn|Denney, Hooker, Johnson, Robinson, Butler & Claiborne|2020|loc=''The geometry of H4 polytopes''}}
So much for the compounds of 16-cells. The 120-cell is also the convex hull of the compound of 120 disjoint regular 5-cells. That stellated compound (without its convex hull of 120-cell edges) is the [[w:Great_grand_stellated_120-cell|great grand stellated 120-cell]] illustrated above, the final regular [[W:Stellation|stellation]] of the 120-cell, and the only [[W:Schläfli-Hess polychoron|regular star 4-polytope]] to have the 120-cell for its convex hull. The edges of the great grand stellated 120-cell are <math>\phi^6</math> as long as those of its 120-cell [[W:List of polyhedral stellations#Stellation process|stellation core]] deep inside.
The compound of 120 disjoint 5-point (5-cells) can be seen to be equivalent to the compound of 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells), as follows. Beginning with a single 120-point (600-cell), expand each vertex into a regular 5-cell, by adding 4 new equidistant vertices, such that the 5 vertices form a regular 5-cell inscribed in the 3-sphere. The 120 5-cells are disjoint, and the 600 vertices form 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells): a 120-cell.
== Thirty distinguished distances ==
The 30 numbers listed in the table are all-important in Euclidean geometry. A case can be made on symmetry grounds that their squares are the 30 most important numbers between 0 and 4. The 30 rows of the table are the 30 distinct [[120-cell#Geodesic rectangles|chord lengths of the unit-radius 120-cell]], the largest regular convex 4-polytope. Since the 120-cell subsumes all smaller regular polytopes, its 30 chords are the complete chord set of all the regular polytopes that can be constructed in the first four dimensions of Euclidean space, except for regular polygons of more than 15 sides.
{| class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center"
!rowspan=2|<math>c_t</math>
!rowspan=2|arc
!rowspan=2|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{n}\right\}</math></small>
!rowspan=2|<math>\left\{p\right\}</math>
!rowspan=2|<small><math>m\left\{\frac{k}{d}\right\}</math></small>
!rowspan=2|Steinbach roots
!colspan=7|Chord lengths of the unit 120-cell
|-
!colspan=5|unit-radius length <math>c_t</math>
!colspan=2|unit-edge length <math>c_t/c_1</math><br>in 120-cell of radius <math>c_8=\sqrt{2}\phi^2</math>
|-
|<small><math>c_{1,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>15.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{30\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{30\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>c_{4,1}-c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7-3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.270091</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2} \phi ^2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2 \phi ^4}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.072949}</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1.</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>25.2{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>2 \left\{15\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(c_{18,1}-c_{4,1}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{3-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.437016</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2} \phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2 \phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.190983}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi </math></small>
|<small><math>1.61803</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{3,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>36{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{10\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>3 \left\{\frac{10}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(\sqrt{5}-1\right) c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(\sqrt{5}-1\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>0.618034</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.381966}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>2.28825</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>41.4{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{c_{8,1}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.707107</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.61803</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{5,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>44.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{4}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>2 \left\{\frac{15}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{9-3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.756934</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}}{\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2 \phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.572949}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>2.80252</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{6,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>49.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{17}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{5-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{5-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.831254</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.690983}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>3.07768</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{7,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>56.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{20}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{\phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.93913</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{\psi }{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.881966}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\psi \phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>3.47709</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>60{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{6\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{6\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1.</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>3.70246</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{9,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>66.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{40}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{2 \phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.09132</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{\chi }{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\chi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.19098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\chi \phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>4.04057</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{10,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>69.8{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2 \sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.14412</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\phi }{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\phi ^2}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>4.23607</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{11,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>72{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{6}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{5\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{5\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.17557</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3-\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3-\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.38197}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \sqrt{3-\phi } \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.3525</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{12,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>75.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{24}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.22474</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.53457</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{13,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>81.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.30038</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(9-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.69098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(9-\sqrt{5}\right)} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.8146</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{14,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>84.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{40}{9}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi } c_{8,1}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{1+\sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.345</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi }}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\sqrt{5} \phi }{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>4.9798</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{15,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>90.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{4\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{4\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.41421</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>5.23607</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{16,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>95.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{29}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.4802</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(11-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.19098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(11-\sqrt{5}\right)} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>5.48037</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{17,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>98.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{31}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.51954</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(7+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\psi \phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>5.62605</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{18,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>104.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{8}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{15}{4}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.58114</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{5} \sqrt{\phi ^4}</math></small>
|<small><math>5.8541</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{19,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>108.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{9}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{10}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>c_{3,1}+c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(1+\sqrt{5}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>1.61803</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi </math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1+\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.61803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>5.9907</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{20,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>110.2{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.64042</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(13-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.69098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\phi ^2}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.07359</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{21,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>113.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{19}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.67601</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{\chi }{\phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.20537</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{22,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>120{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{10}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{3\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{3\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.73205</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{6} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>6.41285</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{23,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>124.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{41}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }+\frac{5}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.7658</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4-\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4-\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.11803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\chi \phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.53779</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{24,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>130.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{20}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.81907</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(11+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{\sqrt{5}}{\phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.73503</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{25,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>135.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+3 \sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.85123</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\phi ^2}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\phi ^4}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.42705}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^4</math></small>
|<small><math>6.8541</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{26,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>138.6{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{12}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.87083</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{7} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>6.92667</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{27,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>144{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{12}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{5}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(5+\sqrt{5}\right)} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(5+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.90211</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\phi +2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2+\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.61803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{2 \phi +4}</math></small>
|<small><math>7.0425</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{28,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>154.8{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.95167</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(13+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{1}{\phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>7.22598</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{29,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>164.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{14}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{15}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi c_{12,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} \left(1+\sqrt{5}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>1.98168</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3 \phi ^2}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.92705}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>7.33708</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{30,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>180{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{15}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{2\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{2\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.</math></small>
|<small><math>2</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4.}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 \sqrt{2} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>7.40492</math></small>
|-
|rowspan=4 colspan=6|
|rowspan=4 colspan=4|
<small><math>\phi</math></small> is the golden ratio:<br>
<small><math>\phi ^2-\phi -1=0</math></small><br>
<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }+1=\phi</math></small>, and: <small><math>\phi+1=\phi^2</math></small><br>
<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }::1::\phi ::\phi ^2</math></small><br>
<small><math>1/\phi</math></small> and <small><math>\phi</math></small> are the golden sections of <small><math>\sqrt{5}</math></small>:<br>
<small><math>\phi +\frac{1}{\phi }=\sqrt{5}</math></small>
|colspan=2|<small><math>\phi = (\sqrt{5} + 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>1.618034</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\chi = (3\sqrt{5} + 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>3.854102</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\psi = (3\sqrt{5} - 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.854102</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\psi = 11/\chi = 22/(3\sqrt{5} + 1)</math></small>
|<small><math>2.854102</math></small>
|}
...
The list of 30 chords can be rearranged into a table of 16 rows and 2 columns with a pair of 180° complements in each row. This table first appears in [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|''Regular Polytopes'']] (1947),{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973}} where Coxeter identified each row with a distinct polyhedral section of the 120-cell beginning with a vertex.
...
== The 8-point regular polytopes ==
In 2-space we have the regular 8-point octagon, in 3-space the regular 8-point cube, and in 4-space the regular 8-point [[16-cell]].
A planar octagon with rigid edges of unit length has chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1,r_2=\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2}} \approx 1.84776,r_3=1+\sqrt{2} \approx 2.41421,r_4=\sqrt{4 + \sqrt{8}} \approx 2.61313</math>
The chord ratio <math>r_3=1+\sqrt{2}</math> is a geometrical proportion, the [[W:Silver ratio|silver ratio]]. Fontaine and Hurley's procedure for obtaining the reciprocal of a chord tells us that:
:<math>r_3-r_1-r_1=1/r_3 \approx 0.41421</math>
Note that <math>1/r_3=\sqrt{2}-1=r_3-2</math>.
If we embed this planar octagon in 3-space, we can make it skew, repositioning its vertices so that each is one unit-edge length distant from three others instead of two others, at the vertices of a unit-edge cube with chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1, r_2=\sqrt{2}, r_3=\sqrt{3}, r_4=\sqrt{2}</math>
If we embed this cube in 4-space, we can skew it some more, repositioning its vertices so that each is one unit-edge length distant from six others instead of three others, at the vertices of a unit-edge 4-polytope with chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1,r_2=1,r_3=1,r_4=\sqrt{2}</math>
All of its chords except its long diameters are the same unit length as its edge. In fact they are its 24 edges, and it is a 16-cell of radius <math>1/\sqrt{2}</math>.
[[File:octagon16cell.png|thumb|Orthogonal projection of a regular 16-cell to the [[16-cell#Projections|B<sub>4</sub> Coxeter plane]]. Only its edges are shown; its long diameter chords are not drawn. All 24 edges are the same length and none lie parallel to the projection plane. The two disjoint squares lie in completely orthogonal central planes.]]
The [[16-cell]] is the [[W:Regular convex 4-polytope|regular convex 4-polytope]] with [[W:Schläfli symbol|Schläfli symbol]] {3,3,4}. It has 8 vertices, 24 edges, 32 equilateral triangle faces, and 16 regular tetrahedron cells. It is the [[16-cell#Octahedral dipyramid|four-dimensional analogue of the octahedron]], and each of its four orthogonal central hyperplanes is an octahedron.
The only planar regular polygons found in the 16-cell are face triangles and central plane squares, but the 16-cell also contains a skew regular octagon, its [[W:Petrie polygon|Petrie polygon]].{{Efn|name=Petrie polygon of a honeycomb}} The chords of this regular octagon, which lies skew in 4-space, are those given above for the 16-cell, as opposed to those for the cube or the regular octagon in the plane. The 16-cell is a construct of 3 Petrie octagons which share the same 8 vertices but have disjoint sets of 8 edges each.
The regular octad has higher symmetry in 4-space than it does in 2-space. The 16-cell is the 4-[[w:Cross-polytope|orthoplex]], the simplest regular 4-polytope after the [[5-cell|4-simplex]]. All the larger regular convex 4-polytopes are compounds of the 16-cell. The regular octagon exhibits this high symmetry only when embedded in 4-space at the vertices of the 16-cell.
The 16-cell constitutes an [[W:Orthonormal basis|orthonormal basis]] for the choice of a 4-dimensional Cartesian reference frame, because its vertices define four orthogonal axes. The eight vertices of a unit-radius 16-cell are (±1, 0, 0, 0), (0, ±1, 0, 0), (0, 0, ±1, 0), (0, 0, 0, ±1). All vertices are connected by <math>\sqrt{2}</math> edges except opposite pairs.
The vertex coordinates of the 16-cell form 6 central squares lying in 6 pairwise [[W:Orthogonal|orthogonal]] coordinate planes. Great squares in ''opposite'' planes that do not share an axis (e.g. in the ''xy'' and ''wz'' planes) are completely disjoint (they do not intersect at any vertices). These planes are [[W:Completely orthogonal|completely orthogonal]].{{Efn|name=Six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}
Since the unit-radius coordinate system is convenient, let us derive the unit-radius 16-cell by skewing a unit-radius planar octagon, which has chords of length:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{2-\sqrt{2}} \approx 0.76537,r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2}} \approx 1.84776,r_4=2</math>
We will need a planar octagon with rigid <math>r_2</math> chords, rather than one with rigid <math>r_1</math> edges. The octagon's <math>r_2</math> chords form two disjoint great squares, visible in the orthogonal projection, which we can reposition in 3-space to form a cube by making them parallel, and in 4-space to form a 16-cell by making them completely orthogonal.
Since the edges of the 16-cell are all the same length <math>r_1=\sqrt{2},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{2}</math>, those chords are indistinguishable except in the context of a rotation. Each chord is a 4-vector with a length and a direction. The rotational curve over each <math>r_i</math> chord makes <math>i</math> 45° turns in a simple 2-dimensional rotation. In an isoclinic 4-dimensional rotation it makes two completely orthogonal turns simultaneously, effectively <math>i</math> 90° turns.
[[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]] can be seen as the composition of two 2-dimensional rotations in completely orthogonal planes. The general rotation in 4-space is a double rotation in pairs of completely orthogonal planes. Two completely orthogonal planes are called invariant planes of the rotation when all points in the plane rotate on circles that remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways (like a coin flipping) into another plane. The two completely orthogonal rotations of each plane (like a wheel, and like a coin flipping) are simultaneous but independent, in that they are not geometrically constrained to turn at the same rate. However, the most circular kind of rotation (as opposed to an elliptical double rotation of a rigid spherical object) occurs when the invariant planes do rotate through the same angle in the same time interval. Such equi-angled double rotations are called [[w:SO(4)#Isoclinic_rotations|isoclinic]], also [[w:William_Kingdon_Clifford|Clifford]] displacements.
The <math>r_1</math> chords of the 16-cell form a Petrie polygon which zig-zags back and forth, in the left and right rotational directions, between two completely orthogonal great squares formed by <math>r_2</math> chords.
The <math>r_2</math> chords of two completely orthogonal great squares lie parallel ''and'' perpendicular to each other. A ''simple'' rotation of the 16-cell in ''one'' of those two square central planes rotates that square like a wheel, while the other square does not move.{{Efn|name=simple rotations}} The four vertices of the rotating square orbit on a great circle in the plane.
The <math>r_3</math> chords of the 16-cell form a circular helix, visible as a blue {8/3} octagram in the orthogonal projection. A ''double'' rotation of the 16-cell, in ''both'' of the two completely orthogonal <math>r_2</math> square planes at once by the same angle, moves the eight vertices along the circular helix over the <math>r_3</math> chords. The circular helix is a [[w:Geodesic|geodesic]] great circle orbit on the 3-sphere of a special kind: it does not lie in a central plane, its circumference is <math>4 \pi</math>, and it occurs in either a left or right chiral form. We shall refer to the helical geodesic circle as an ''isocline'', and to the skew {8/3} octagram of its rotational chords as a ''Clifford polygon''.
The 16-cell is the simplest possible frame in which to [[16-cell#Rotations|observe 4-dimensional rotations]] because its characteristic rotations feature a single pair of invariant rotation planes. In the 16-cell an isoclinic rotation by 90° in any pair of invariant completely orthogonal square central planes takes every great square to its completely orthogonal great square in a twisting displacement, as the central planes tilt sideways 90° into each other's plane while rotating 90° internally. All the vertices move at once on the same circular helix geodesic isocline, displaced 90° in 8 orthogonal directions, and the rigid 16-cell assumes a new orientation in 4-space. When the 90° isoclinic rotation is continued in the same rotational direction through an additional 90°, each vertex is again displaced 90°, but from the new orientation in a direction orthogonal to its first 90° displacement. After 360° of rotation each vertex reaches its antipodal position.
The trajectory of each vertex over each 90° isoclinic rotational displacement is a one-eighth segment of its geodesic orbit. Its entire orbit traces an isocline circle in 4-space over eight <math>r_3</math> chords, and also traces an ordinary great circle in the plane twice, over the four <math>r_2</math> chords within one of the two moving invariant rotation planes. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions just once and returns to its original position, and the 16-cell returns to its original orientation.
== Hypercubes ==
The long diameter of the unit-edge [[W:Hypercube|hypercube]] of dimension <math>n</math> is <math>\sqrt{n}</math>, so the unit-edge [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube, the 16-point (8-cell) tesseract,]] has chords:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{3},r_4=\sqrt{4}</math>
Uniquely in its 4-dimensional case, the hypercube's edge length equals its radius, like the hexagon. We call such polytopes ''radially equilateral'', because they can be constructed from equilateral triangles which meet at their center, each contributing two radii and an edge. The [[w:Cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]] and the 24-cell are also radially equilateral.
The [[W:Tesseract|tesseract]] is the [[W:Regular convex 4-polytope|regular convex 4-polytope]] with [[W:Schläfli symbol|Schläfli symbol]] {4,3,3}. It has 16 vertices, 32 edges, 24 square faces, and 8 cube cells. It is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube.
The 16-point tesseract is the convex hull of a compound of two 8-point 16-cells, in exact dimensional analogy to the way the 8-point cube is the convex hull of a [[W:Stellated octahedron|compound of two 4-point regular tetrahedra]]. The [[W:Demihypercube|demihypercubes]] occupy alternate vertices of the hypercubes. The diagonals of the square faces of the unit-edge, unit-radius tesseract are the <math>\sqrt{2}</math> edges of two unit-radius 16-cells, also the edges of the square central planes.
We can rotate the tesseract isoclinically the way we rotated the 16-cell, by 90° in two completely orthogonal invariant square central planes, with the same effect on both alternate-position 16-cells. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation in invariant square central planes each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions of its 16-cell just once and returns to its original position, but it does not visit the vertex positions of the other 16-cell. The skew octagon geodesic orbits of the 16 vertices lie on two disjoint octagram circular helix isoclines of the same chirality. Two [[w:Clifford_parallel|Clifford parallel]] skew octagon geodesic orbits over <math>\sqrt{2}</math> chords form a circular double helix.
The tesseract is the [[W:Dual polytope|dual polytope]] of the 16-cell. They have the same Petrie polygon, the regular skew octagon, but the tesseract is a construct of 4 Petrie octagons with disjoint sets of 8 tesseract edges each.
We can construct the tesseract by skewing two planar octagons. Because the tesseract is radially equilateral (unlike the 16-cell), we use two octagons of unit-edge length to build the unit-radius tesseract. To start we embed the planar octagons in 4-space at the same point and make them completely orthogonal. Then we skew each planar octagon into a cube, so we have a compound of two completely orthogonal cubes. Provided we skewed them both in the same direction, the 16 vertices will be the vertices of a tesseract with half its 32 edges missing.
Because the tesseract contains two 16-cells in alternate positions it has two sets of 6 orthogonal square central planes. Two completely orthogonal angles are required to specify the relationship between two planes in 4-space. Pairs of square central planes within each 16-cell are 90° apart in one angle, and either 0° or 90° apart in the other angle. They are 90° apart in both angles if and only if they are completely orthogonal planes, 90° apart by isoclinic rotation, with no vertices in common. Otherwise they are 0° apart in one of the angles, 90° apart by simple rotation, and they intersect in one axis and lie in a common 3-dimensional hyperplane.{{Efn|A double rotation in which one of the two angles of rotation is 0°, so that one of the completely orthogonal invariant planes does not rotate, is called a simple rotation. Ordinary rotations observed in a 3-dimensional space are simple rotations.|name=simple rotations}}
A pair of square central planes from alternate-position 16-cells are 60° apart by isoclinic rotation, with their corresponding vertices 120° apart. The planes are not orthogonal or parallel, so they intersect in a line somewhere, but they have no vertices in common, they have no 3-dimensional hyperplane in common, and they cannot reach each other by simple rotation. Such pairs of objects are called [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] because all their corresponding pairs of vertices are the same distance apart, although they are not parallel in the usual sense, because they have a common center. Not only the alternate-position 16-cells' corresponding square central planes, but also the 16-cells themselves, are Clifford parallel objects. More generally, multiple disjoint instances of a 4-polytope which compound to make a larger 4-polytope are Clifford parallel objects.
== The 24-cell ==
[[File:24-cell vertex geometry.png|thumb|Planar geometry of the radially equilateral 24-cell, showing its 3 great circle polygons and its 4 chord lengths.|alt=]]
In 2-space we have the radially equilateral 6-point hexagon. In 3-space we have the radially equilateral 12-point cuboctahedron, with 4 hexagonal central planes. In 4-space we have the radially equilateral 24-point 24-cell, with 4 cuboctahedron central hyperplanes and 16 hexagonal central planes.
The [[24-cell]] is the regular convex 4-polytope with Schläfli symbol {3,4,3}. It has 24 vertices, 96 edges, 96 equilateral triangle faces, and 24 octahedron cells. It is the four-dimensional analogue of the cuboctahedron.
The 24-cell has the same chord set as the 4-hypercube tesseract:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{3},r_4=\sqrt{4}</math>
It is the maximal regular construct of triangles and squares (with no pentagons). It is its own [[W:Dual polytope|dual polytope]].
The 24-cell is the convex hull of a compound of three disjoint 8-point 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. Each of the three pairs of 16-cells is a tesseract. Each 24-cell edge is also a tesseract edge. The corresponding vertices of two 16-cells or two tesseracts are 120° apart by a <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chord. Each tesseract has 8 cube cells, and each cube has four <math>\sqrt{3}</math> long diameters. The <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords joining the corresponding vertices of two tesseracts belong to the third tesseract as cube long diameters.
[[File:dodecagon24cell.png|thumb|Orthogonal projection of half a 24-cell to the [[24-cell#Geodesics|F<sub>4</sub> Coxeter plane]]. Only one Petrie dodecagon {12} of the 24-cell is shown. In a unit-radius 24-cell, all black lines are 24-cell edges of unit length, also tesseract edges. The two disjoint hexagons lie in Clifford parallel central planes. Blue chords are <math>\sqrt{2}</math> 16-cell edges, also isocline chords in square rotations. Green chords are <math>\sqrt{3}</math> distances between corresponding vertices of two 16-cells, also isocline chords in hexagonal rotations.]]
The 24-cell's Petrie polygon is the regular dodecagon {12}, which has chords:
:<math>r_1=\tfrac{\sqrt{3}-1}{\sqrt{2}},r_2=\sqrt{1},r_3=\sqrt{2},r_4=\sqrt{3},r_5=\tfrac{\sqrt{3}+1}{\sqrt{2}},r_6=\sqrt{4}</math>
The <math>r_1</math> and <math>r_5</math> chords of the planar dodecagon do not occur in the 24-cell, which is a construct of eight skew dodecagons with disjoint sets of twelve <math>\sqrt{1}</math> edges each. When the 24-cell is constructed by skewing two completely orthogonal planar dodecagons, the lengths of the dodecagon chords change to:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{1},r_3=\sqrt{2},r_4=\sqrt{3},r_5=\sqrt{3},r_6=\sqrt{4}</math>
We can rotate the 24-cell isoclinically the way we rotated the 16-cell, by 90° in two completely orthogonal invariant square central planes, with the same effect on all three 16-cells. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation in invariant square central planes each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions of its 16-cell just once and returns to its original position, but it does not visit the vertex positions of the other 16-cells. Three Clifford parallel skew octagon geodesic orbits of circumference <math>4\pi</math> over <math>\sqrt{2}</math> chords form a circular triple helix.
We can also rotate the 24-cell isoclinically by 60° in a hexagonal invariant central plane and its completely orthogonal invariant central plane. A complete hexagonal isoclinic revolution requires 720° like a complete square isoclinic revolution, but it is completed in 12 isoclinic displacements of 60° each rather than 8 isoclinic displacements of 90° each. The Clifford polygon of the hexagonal rotation is a skew {12/5} dodecagram of green <math>r_5</math> chords, visible in the orthogonal projection. The rotational curve over each <math>r_5</math> chord makes two simultaneous completely orthogonal 60° turns, effectively five zig-zag consecutive 60° turns. Two Clifford parallel skew dodecagon geodesic orbits of circumference <math>8\pi</math> over <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords form a circular double helix.
In the 24-cell an isoclinic rotation by 60° in any hexagonal invariant central plane and its completely orthogonal invariant central plane takes every great hexagon to a Clifford parallel great hexagon in a twisting displacement, as all the central planes tilt sideways 60° while rotating 60° internally. It also takes every great square to a Clifford parallel great square in a different 16-cell. All 24 vertices move at once on two Clifford parallel geodesic isoclines, displaced 120° in different directions.
The trajectory of each vertex over each 60° isoclinic rotational displacement is a one-twelfth segment of its geodesic orbit. Its entire orbit traces an isocline circle in 4-space over twelve <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords, and also traces an ordinary great circle in the plane twice, over the six <math>\sqrt{1}</math> chords within one of the two moving invariant rotation planes. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation each vertex departs from 12 vertex positions just once and returns to its original position, and the 24-cell returns to its original orientation.
== The 600-cell ==
...
== Finally the 120-cell ==
...
== Conclusions ==
Fontaine and Hurley's discovery is more than a formula for the reciprocal of a regular ''n''-polygon diagonal. It also yields the discrete sequence of isocline chords of the distinct isoclinic rotation characteristic of a ''d''-dimensional polytope. The characteristic rotational chord sequence of the ''d''-polytope can be represented geometrically in two dimensions on a distinct star polygon, but it lies on a geodesic circle through ''d''-dimensional space. Fontaine and Hurley discovered the geodesic topology of polytopes generally. Their procedure will reveal the geodesics of arbitrary non-uniform polytopes, since it can be applied to a polytope of any dimensionality and irregularity, by first fitting the polytope to the smallest regular polygon whose chords include its chords.
The discovery of a chordal construction for discrete isoclinic rotations generally closes the circuit on Kappraff and Adamson's discovery of a rotational connection between dynamical systems, Steinbach's golden fields, and Coxeter's Euclidean geometry of ''n'' dimensions. Application of the Fontaine and Hurley procedure in higher-dimensional spaces demonstrates why the connection exists: because polytope sequences generally, from Steinbach's golden polygon chord sequences, to chord sequences in isoclinic rotation helixes, to subsumption relations in the sequence of regular 4-polytopes, arise as expressions of the reflections and rotations of distinct Coxeter symmetry groups, when those various groups interact.
== Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes ==
{{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}}
== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}
== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}
== References ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal | last=Steinbach | first=Peter | year=1997 | title=Golden fields: A case for the Heptagon | journal=Mathematics Magazine | volume=70 | issue=Feb 1997 | pages=22–31 | doi=10.1080/0025570X.1997.11996494 | jstor=2691048 | ref={{SfnRef|Steinbach|1997}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last=Steinbach | first=Peter | year=2000 | title=Sections Beyond Golden| journal=Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science | issue=2000 | pages=35-44 | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2000/bridges2000-35.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Steinbach|2000}}}}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Kappraff | first1=Jay | last2=Jablan | first2=Slavik | last3=Adamson | first3=Gary | last4=Sazdanovich | first4=Radmila | year=2004 | title=Golden Fields, Generalized Fibonacci Sequences, and Chaotic Matrices | journal=Forma | volume=19 | pages=367-387 | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2005/bridges2005-369.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Kappraff, Jablan, Adamson & Sazdanovich|2004}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Kappraff | first1=Jay | last2=Adamson | first2=Gary | year=2004 | title=Polygons and Chaos | journal=Dynamical Systems and Geometric Theories | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2001/bridges2001-67.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Kappraff & Adamson|2004}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Fontaine | first1=Anne | last2=Hurley | first2=Susan | year=2006 | title=Proof by Picture: Products and Reciprocals of Diagonal Length Ratios in the Regular Polygon | journal=Forum Geometricorum | volume=6 | pages=97-101 | url=https://scispace.com/pdf/proof-by-picture-products-and-reciprocals-of-diagonal-length-1aian8mgp9.pdf }}
{{Refend}}
sxpgz0rv1fd45mhdb3ycnncguxfycqm
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Dc.samizdat
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/* Thirty distinguished distances */
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= Golden chords of the 120-cell =
{{align|center|David Brooks Christie}}
{{align|center|dc@samizdat.org}}
{{align|center|Draft in progress}}
{{align|center|January 2026 - May 2026}}
<blockquote>Steinbach discovered the formula for the ratios of diagonal to side in the regular polygons. Fontaine and Hurley extended this result, discovering a formula for the reciprocal of a regular polygon chord derived geometrically from the chord's star polygon. We observe that these findings in plane geometry apply more generally, to polytopes of any dimensionality. Fontaine and Hurley's geometric procedure for finding the reciprocals of the chords of a regular polygon from their star polygons also finds the rotational geodesics of any polytope of any dimensionality.</blockquote>
== Introduction ==
Steinbach discovered the Diagonal Product Formula and the Golden Fields family of ratios of diagonal to side in the regular polygons. He showed how this family extends beyond the pentagon {5} with its well-known golden bisection proportional to 𝜙, finding that the heptagon {7} has an analogous trisection, the nonagon {9} has an analogous quadrasection, and the hendecagon {11} has an analogous pentasection, an extended family of golden proportions with quasiperiodic properties.
Kappraff and Adamson extended these findings in plane geometry to a theory of Generalized Fibonacci Sequences, showing that the Golden Fields not only do not end with the hendecagon, they form an infinite number of periodic trajectories when operated on by the Mandelbrot operator. They found a relation between the edges of star polygons and dynamical systems in the state of chaos, revealing a connection between chaos theory, number, and rotations in Coxeter Euclidean geometry.
Fontaine and Hurley examined Steinbach's finding that the length of each chord of a regular polygon is both the product of two chords and the sum of a set of smaller chords, so that in rotations to add is to multiply. They illustrated Steinbach's sets of additive chords lying parallel to each other in the plane (pointing in the same direction), and by applying Steinbach's formula more generally they found another summation relation of signed parallel chords (pointing in opposite directions) which relates each chord length to its reciprocal, and relates the summation to a distinct star polygon rotation.
We examine these remarkable findings (which stem from study of the chords of humble regular polygons) in higher-dimensional spaces, specifically in the chords, polygons and rotations of the [[120-cell]], the largest four-dimensional regular convex polytope.
== Visualizing the 120-cell ==
{| class="wikitable floatright" width="400"
|style="vertical-align:top"|[[File:120-cell.gif|200px]]<br>Orthographic projection of the 600-point 120-cell <math>\{5,3,3\}</math> performing a [[W:SO(4)#Geometry of 4D rotations|simple rotation]].{{Sfn|Hise|2011|loc=File:120-cell.gif|ps=; "Created by Jason Hise with Maya and Macromedia Fireworks. A 3D projection of a 120-cell performing a [[W:SO(4)#Geometry of 4D rotations|simple rotation]]."}} In this simplified rendering only the 120-cell's own edges are shown; its 29 interior chords are not rendered. Therefore even though it is translucent, only its outer surface is visible. The complex interior parts of the 120-cell, all its inscribed 5-cells, 16-cells, 8-cells, 24-cells, 600-cells and its much larger inventory of polyhedra, are completely invisible in this view, as none of their edges are rendered at all.
|style="vertical-align:top"|[[File:Ortho solid 016-uniform polychoron p33-t0.png|200px]]<br>Orthographic projection of the 600-point [[W:Great grand stellated 120-cell|great grand stellated 120-cell]] <math>\{\tfrac{5}{2},3,3\}</math>.{{Sfn|Ruen: Great grand stellated 120-cell|2007}} The 120-cell is its convex hull. The projection to the left renders only the 120-cell's shortest chord, its 1200 edges. The projection above also renders only one of the 120-cell's 30 chords, the edges of its 120 inscribed regular 5-cells. The 120-cell itself (the convex hull) is invisible in this view, as its edges are not rendered.
|}
[[120-cell#Geometry|The 120-cell is the maximally complex regular 4-polytope]], containing inscribed instances of every regular 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-polytope, except the regular polygons of more than {15} sides.
The 120-cell is the convex hull of a regular [[120-cell#Relationships among interior polytopes|compound of each of the 6 regular convex 4-polytopes]]. They are the [[5-cell|5-point (5-cell) 4-simplex]], the [[16-cell|8-point (16-cell) 4-orthoplex]], the [[W:Tesseract|16-point (8-cell) tesseract]], the [[24-cell|24-point (24-cell)]], the [[600-cell|120-point (600-cell)]], and the [[120-cell|600-point (120-cell)]]. The 120-cell is the convex hull of a compound of 120 disjoint regular 5-cells, of 75 disjoint 16-cells, of 25 disjoint 24-cells, and of 5 disjoint 600-cells.
The 120-cell contains an even larger inventory of irregular polytopes, created by the intersection of multiple instances of these component regular 4-polytopes. Many are quite unexpected, because they do not occur as components of any regular polytope smaller than the 120-cell. As just one example among the [[120-cell#Concentric hulls|sections of the 120-cell]], there is an irregular 24-point polyhedron with 16 triangle faces and 4 nonagon {9} faces.{{Sfn|Moxness|}}
Most renderings of the 120-cell, like the rotating projection here, only illustrate its outer surface, which is a honeycomb of face-bonded dodecahedral cells. Only the objects in its 3-dimensional surface are rendered, namely the 120 dodecahedra, their pentagon faces, and their edges. Although the 120-cell has chords of 30 distinct lengths, in this kind of simplified rendering only the 120-cell's own edges (its shortest chord) are shown. Its 29 interior chords, the edges of objects in the interior of the 120-cell, are not rendered, so interior objects are not visible at all.
Visualizing the complete interior of the 600-vertex 120-cell in a single image is impractical because of its complexity. Only four 120-cell edges are incident at each vertex, but [[120-cell#Chords|600 chords (of all 30 lengths)]] are incident at ''each'' vertex.
== Compounds in the 120-cell ==
The 8-point (16-cell), not the 5-point (5-cell), is the smallest building block; it compounds to every larger regular 4-polytope. The 5-point (5-cell) does compound to the 600-point (120-cell), but it does not fit into any smaller regular 4-polytope.
The 8-point (16-cell) compounds by 2 in the 16-point (8-cell), and by 3 in the 24-point (24-cell). The 16-point (8-cell) compounds in the 24-point (24-cell) by 3 non-disjoint instances of itself, with each of the 24 vertices shared by two 16-point (8-cells). The 24-point (24-cell) compounds by 5 disjoint instances of itself in the 120-point (600-cell), and the 120-point (600-cell) compounds by 5 disjoint instances of itself in the 600-point (120-cell).
The 24-point (24-cell) also compounds by 5<sup>2</sup> non-disjoint instances of itself in the 120-point (600-cell); it compounds in 5 disjoint instances of itself, 10 (not 5) different ways. Whichever set of 5 disjoint 24-point (24-cells) are assembled, the resulting 120-point (600-cell) contains 25 distinct 24-point (24-cells), not just 5 (or 10). This implies that 15 disjoint 8-point (16-cells) will construct a 120-point (600-cell), which will contain 75 distinct 8-point (16-cells).
The 600-point (120-cell) is 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells), just 2 different ways (not 5 or 10 ways), so it is 10 distinct 120-point (600-cells). This implies that the 8-point (16-cell) compounds by 3 times 5<sup>2</sup> (75) disjoint instances of itself in the 600-point (120-cell), which contains 3<sup>2</sup> times 5<sup>2</sup> (225) distinct instances of the 24-point (24-cell), and 3<sup>3</sup> times 5<sup>2</sup> (675) distinct instances of the 8-point (16-cell).
These facts were discovered painstakingly by various researchers, and no one has found a general rule governing subsumption relations among regular polytopes. The reasons for some of their numeric incidence relations are far from obvious. [[W:Pieter Hendrik Schoute|Schoute]] was the first to see that the 120-point (600-cell) is a compound of 5 24-point (24-cells) ''10 different ways'', and after he saw it a hundred years lapsed until Denney, Hooker, Johnson, Robinson, Butler & Claiborne proved his result, and showed why.{{Sfn|Denney, Hooker, Johnson, Robinson, Butler & Claiborne|2020|loc=''The geometry of H4 polytopes''}}
So much for the compounds of 16-cells. The 120-cell is also the convex hull of the compound of 120 disjoint regular 5-cells. That stellated compound (without its convex hull of 120-cell edges) is the [[w:Great_grand_stellated_120-cell|great grand stellated 120-cell]] illustrated above, the final regular [[W:Stellation|stellation]] of the 120-cell, and the only [[W:Schläfli-Hess polychoron|regular star 4-polytope]] to have the 120-cell for its convex hull. The edges of the great grand stellated 120-cell are <math>\phi^6</math> as long as those of its 120-cell [[W:List of polyhedral stellations#Stellation process|stellation core]] deep inside.
The compound of 120 disjoint 5-point (5-cells) can be seen to be equivalent to the compound of 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells), as follows. Beginning with a single 120-point (600-cell), expand each vertex into a regular 5-cell, by adding 4 new equidistant vertices, such that the 5 vertices form a regular 5-cell inscribed in the 3-sphere. The 120 5-cells are disjoint, and the 600 vertices form 5 disjoint 120-point (600-cells): a 120-cell.
== Thirty distinguished distances ==
The 30 numbers listed in the table are all-important in Euclidean geometry. A case can be made on symmetry grounds that their squares are the 30 most important numbers between 0 and 4. The 30 rows of the table are the 30 distinct [[120-cell#Geodesic rectangles|chord lengths of the unit-radius 120-cell]], the largest regular convex 4-polytope. Since the 120-cell subsumes all smaller regular polytopes, its 30 chords are the complete chord set of all the regular polytopes that can be constructed in the first four dimensions of Euclidean space, except for regular polygons of more than 15 sides.
{| class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap;text-align:center"
!rowspan=2|<math>c_t</math>
!rowspan=2|arc
!rowspan=2|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{n}\right\}</math></small>
!rowspan=2|<math>\left\{p\right\}</math>
!rowspan=2|<small><math>m\left\{\frac{k}{d}\right\}</math></small>
!rowspan=2|Steinbach roots
!colspan=7|Chord lengths of the unit 120-cell
|-
!colspan=5|unit-radius length <math>c_t</math>
!colspan=2|unit-edge length <math>c_t/c_1</math><br>in 120-cell of radius <math>c_8=\sqrt{2}\phi^2</math>
|-
|<small><math>c_{1,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>15.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{30\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{30\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>c_{4,1}-c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7-3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.270091</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2} \phi ^2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2 \phi ^4}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.072949}</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1.</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>25.2{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>2 \left\{15\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(c_{18,1}-c_{4,1}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{3-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.437016</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2} \phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2 \phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.190983}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi </math></small>
|<small><math>1.61803</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{3,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>36{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{10\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>3 \left\{\frac{10}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(\sqrt{5}-1\right) c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(\sqrt{5}-1\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>0.618034</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.381966}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>2.28825</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>41.4{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{c_{8,1}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.707107</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.61803</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{5,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>44.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{4}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>2 \left\{\frac{15}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} c_{2,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{9-3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.756934</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}}{\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2 \phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.572949}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>2.80252</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{6,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>49.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{17}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{5-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{5-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.831254</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.690983}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>3.07768</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{7,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>56.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{20}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{\phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>0.93913</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{\psi }{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{0.881966}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\psi \phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>3.47709</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>60{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{6\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{6\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>1.</math></small>
|<small><math>1</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>3.70246</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{9,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>66.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{40}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{2 \phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.09132</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{\frac{\chi }{\phi }}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\chi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.19098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\chi \phi ^3}</math></small>
|<small><math>4.04057</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{10,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>69.8{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2 \sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.14412</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\phi }{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\phi ^2}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>4.23607</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{11,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>72{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{6}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{5\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{5\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.17557</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3-\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3-\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.38197}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \sqrt{3-\phi } \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.3525</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{12,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>75.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{24}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.22474</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.53457</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{13,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>81.1{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.30038</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{9-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(9-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.69098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(9-\sqrt{5}\right)} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>4.8146</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{14,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>84.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{40}{9}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi } c_{8,1}}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{1+\sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.345</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi }}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\sqrt{5} \phi }{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt[4]{5} \sqrt{\phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>4.9798</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{15,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>90.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{4\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{4\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 c_{4,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.41421</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>5.23607</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{16,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>95.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{29}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.4802</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(11-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.19098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(11-\sqrt{5}\right)} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>5.48037</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{17,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>98.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{31}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.51954</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{7+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(7+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\psi \phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>5.62605</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{18,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>104.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{8}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{15}{4}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.58114</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{5} \sqrt{\phi ^4}</math></small>
|<small><math>5.8541</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{19,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>108.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{9}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{10}{3}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>c_{3,1}+c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \left(1+\sqrt{5}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>1.61803</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi </math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{1+\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.61803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2} \phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>5.9907</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{20,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>110.2{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.64042</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13-\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(13-\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.69098}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\phi ^2}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.07359</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{21,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>113.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{60}{19}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.67601</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{1}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{\chi }{\phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.20537</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{22,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>120{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{10}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{3\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{3\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.73205</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{6} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>6.41285</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{23,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>124.0{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{120}{41}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{\phi }+\frac{5}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{5}{2}+\frac{2}{1+\sqrt{5}}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.7658</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4-\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4-\frac{\psi }{2 \phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.11803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\chi \phi ^5}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.53779</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{24,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>130.9{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{20}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.81907</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{11+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(11+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.30902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{\sqrt{5}}{\phi }}</math></small>
|<small><math>6.73503</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{25,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>135.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{11}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+3 \sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{7+3 \sqrt{5}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.85123</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\phi ^2}{\sqrt{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{\phi ^4}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.42705}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^4</math></small>
|<small><math>6.8541</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{26,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>138.6{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{12}{5}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.87083</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{7}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.5}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{7} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>6.92667</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{27,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>144{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{12}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{5}{2}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(5+\sqrt{5}\right)} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{2} \left(5+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.90211</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\phi +2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{2+\phi }</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.61803}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{2 \phi +4}</math></small>
|<small><math>7.0425</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{28,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>154.8{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{13}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}} c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>1.95167</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{\sqrt{13+\sqrt{5}}}{2}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{1}{4} \left(13+\sqrt{5}\right)}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.80902}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi ^2 \sqrt{8-\frac{1}{\phi ^2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>7.22598</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{29,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>164.5{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{14}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math></math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{15}{7}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\phi c_{12,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} \left(1+\sqrt{5}\right)</math></small>
|<small><math>1.98168</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} \phi </math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{\frac{3 \phi ^2}{2}}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3.92705}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{3} \phi ^3</math></small>
|<small><math>7.33708</math></small>
|-
|<small><math>c_{30,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>180{}^{\circ}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{\frac{30}{15}\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{2\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>\left\{2\right\}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 c_{8,1}</math></small>
|<small><math>2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.</math></small>
|<small><math>2</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4}</math></small>
|<small><math>\sqrt{4.}</math></small>
|<small><math>2 \sqrt{2} \phi ^2</math></small>
|<small><math>7.40492</math></small>
|-
|rowspan=4 colspan=6|
|rowspan=4 colspan=4|
<small><math>\phi</math></small> is the golden ratio:<br>
<small><math>\phi ^2-\phi -1=0</math></small><br>
<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }+1=\phi</math></small>, and: <small><math>\phi+1=\phi^2</math></small><br>
<small><math>\frac{1}{\phi }::1::\phi ::\phi ^2</math></small><br>
<small><math>1/\phi</math></small> and <small><math>\phi</math></small> are the golden sections of <small><math>\sqrt{5}</math></small>:<br>
<small><math>\phi +\frac{1}{\phi }=\sqrt{5}</math></small>
|colspan=2|<small><math>\phi = (\sqrt{5} + 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>1.618034</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\chi = (3\sqrt{5} + 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>3.854102</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\psi = (3\sqrt{5} - 1)/2</math></small>
|<small><math>2.854102</math></small>
|-
|colspan=2|<small><math>\psi = 11/\chi = 22/(3\sqrt{5} + 1)</math></small>
|<small><math>2.854102</math></small>
|}
...
The list of 30 chords can be rearranged into a table of 16 rows and 2 columns with a pair of 180° complements in each row. This table first appears in [[w:Regular_Polytopes_(book)|''Regular Polytopes'']] (1947),{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973}} where Coxeter identified each row with a distinct polyhedral section of the 120-cell beginning with a vertex. The pairs of 180° complement chords radiate from each 120-cell vertex. In the curved 3-dimensional space <math>\mathbb{S}^3</math>, every vertex is the center of a set of concentric polyhedra of increasing radii that nest like Russian dolls. The smallest polyhedral section of radius <math>r_1</math> is a dodecahedron cell, and the largest, central section of radius <math>r_{30}</math> is a non-uniform rhombicosidodecahedron.
...
== The 8-point regular polytopes ==
In 2-space we have the regular 8-point octagon, in 3-space the regular 8-point cube, and in 4-space the regular 8-point [[16-cell]].
A planar octagon with rigid edges of unit length has chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1,r_2=\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2}} \approx 1.84776,r_3=1+\sqrt{2} \approx 2.41421,r_4=\sqrt{4 + \sqrt{8}} \approx 2.61313</math>
The chord ratio <math>r_3=1+\sqrt{2}</math> is a geometrical proportion, the [[W:Silver ratio|silver ratio]]. Fontaine and Hurley's procedure for obtaining the reciprocal of a chord tells us that:
:<math>r_3-r_1-r_1=1/r_3 \approx 0.41421</math>
Note that <math>1/r_3=\sqrt{2}-1=r_3-2</math>.
If we embed this planar octagon in 3-space, we can make it skew, repositioning its vertices so that each is one unit-edge length distant from three others instead of two others, at the vertices of a unit-edge cube with chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1, r_2=\sqrt{2}, r_3=\sqrt{3}, r_4=\sqrt{2}</math>
If we embed this cube in 4-space, we can skew it some more, repositioning its vertices so that each is one unit-edge length distant from six others instead of three others, at the vertices of a unit-edge 4-polytope with chords of length:
:<math>r_1=1,r_2=1,r_3=1,r_4=\sqrt{2}</math>
All of its chords except its long diameters are the same unit length as its edge. In fact they are its 24 edges, and it is a 16-cell of radius <math>1/\sqrt{2}</math>.
[[File:octagon16cell.png|thumb|Orthogonal projection of a regular 16-cell to the [[16-cell#Projections|B<sub>4</sub> Coxeter plane]]. Only its edges are shown; its long diameter chords are not drawn. All 24 edges are the same length and none lie parallel to the projection plane. The two disjoint squares lie in completely orthogonal central planes.]]
The [[16-cell]] is the [[W:Regular convex 4-polytope|regular convex 4-polytope]] with [[W:Schläfli symbol|Schläfli symbol]] {3,3,4}. It has 8 vertices, 24 edges, 32 equilateral triangle faces, and 16 regular tetrahedron cells. It is the [[16-cell#Octahedral dipyramid|four-dimensional analogue of the octahedron]], and each of its four orthogonal central hyperplanes is an octahedron.
The only planar regular polygons found in the 16-cell are face triangles and central plane squares, but the 16-cell also contains a skew regular octagon, its [[W:Petrie polygon|Petrie polygon]].{{Efn|name=Petrie polygon of a honeycomb}} The chords of this regular octagon, which lies skew in 4-space, are those given above for the 16-cell, as opposed to those for the cube or the regular octagon in the plane. The 16-cell is a construct of 3 Petrie octagons which share the same 8 vertices but have disjoint sets of 8 edges each.
The regular octad has higher symmetry in 4-space than it does in 2-space. The 16-cell is the 4-[[w:Cross-polytope|orthoplex]], the simplest regular 4-polytope after the [[5-cell|4-simplex]]. All the larger regular convex 4-polytopes are compounds of the 16-cell. The regular octagon exhibits this high symmetry only when embedded in 4-space at the vertices of the 16-cell.
The 16-cell constitutes an [[W:Orthonormal basis|orthonormal basis]] for the choice of a 4-dimensional Cartesian reference frame, because its vertices define four orthogonal axes. The eight vertices of a unit-radius 16-cell are (±1, 0, 0, 0), (0, ±1, 0, 0), (0, 0, ±1, 0), (0, 0, 0, ±1). All vertices are connected by <math>\sqrt{2}</math> edges except opposite pairs.
The vertex coordinates of the 16-cell form 6 central squares lying in 6 pairwise [[W:Orthogonal|orthogonal]] coordinate planes. Great squares in ''opposite'' planes that do not share an axis (e.g. in the ''xy'' and ''wz'' planes) are completely disjoint (they do not intersect at any vertices). These planes are [[W:Completely orthogonal|completely orthogonal]].{{Efn|name=Six orthogonal planes of the Cartesian basis}}
Since the unit-radius coordinate system is convenient, let us derive the unit-radius 16-cell by skewing a unit-radius planar octagon, which has chords of length:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{2-\sqrt{2}} \approx 0.76537,r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2}} \approx 1.84776,r_4=2</math>
We will need a planar octagon with rigid <math>r_2</math> chords, rather than one with rigid <math>r_1</math> edges. The octagon's <math>r_2</math> chords form two disjoint great squares, visible in the orthogonal projection, which we can reposition in 3-space to form a cube by making them parallel, and in 4-space to form a 16-cell by making them completely orthogonal.
Since the edges of the 16-cell are all the same length <math>r_1=\sqrt{2},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{2}</math>, those chords are indistinguishable except in the context of a rotation. Each chord is a 4-vector with a length and a direction. The rotational curve over each <math>r_i</math> chord makes <math>i</math> 45° turns in a simple 2-dimensional rotation. In an isoclinic 4-dimensional rotation it makes two completely orthogonal turns simultaneously, effectively <math>i</math> 90° turns.
[[W:Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space|Rotations in 4-dimensional Euclidean space]] can be seen as the composition of two 2-dimensional rotations in completely orthogonal planes. The general rotation in 4-space is a double rotation in pairs of completely orthogonal planes. Two completely orthogonal planes are called invariant planes of the rotation when all points in the plane rotate on circles that remain in the plane, even as the whole plane tilts sideways (like a coin flipping) into another plane. The two completely orthogonal rotations of each plane (like a wheel, and like a coin flipping) are simultaneous but independent, in that they are not geometrically constrained to turn at the same rate. However, the most circular kind of rotation (as opposed to an elliptical double rotation of a rigid spherical object) occurs when the invariant planes do rotate through the same angle in the same time interval. Such equi-angled double rotations are called [[w:SO(4)#Isoclinic_rotations|isoclinic]], also [[w:William_Kingdon_Clifford|Clifford]] displacements.
The <math>r_1</math> chords of the 16-cell form a Petrie polygon which zig-zags back and forth, in the left and right rotational directions, between two completely orthogonal great squares formed by <math>r_2</math> chords.
The <math>r_2</math> chords of two completely orthogonal great squares lie parallel ''and'' perpendicular to each other. A ''simple'' rotation of the 16-cell in ''one'' of those two square central planes rotates that square like a wheel, while the other square does not move.{{Efn|name=simple rotations}} The four vertices of the rotating square orbit on a great circle in the plane.
The <math>r_3</math> chords of the 16-cell form a circular helix, visible as a blue {8/3} octagram in the orthogonal projection. A ''double'' rotation of the 16-cell, in ''both'' of the two completely orthogonal <math>r_2</math> square planes at once by the same angle, moves the eight vertices along the circular helix over the <math>r_3</math> chords. The circular helix is a [[w:Geodesic|geodesic]] great circle orbit on the 3-sphere of a special kind: it does not lie in a central plane, its circumference is <math>4 \pi</math>, and it occurs in either a left or right chiral form. We shall refer to the helical geodesic circle as an ''isocline'', and to the skew {8/3} octagram of its rotational chords as a ''Clifford polygon''.
The 16-cell is the simplest possible frame in which to [[16-cell#Rotations|observe 4-dimensional rotations]] because its characteristic rotations feature a single pair of invariant rotation planes. In the 16-cell an isoclinic rotation by 90° in any pair of invariant completely orthogonal square central planes takes every great square to its completely orthogonal great square in a twisting displacement, as the central planes tilt sideways 90° into each other's plane while rotating 90° internally. All the vertices move at once on the same circular helix geodesic isocline, displaced 90° in 8 orthogonal directions, and the rigid 16-cell assumes a new orientation in 4-space. When the 90° isoclinic rotation is continued in the same rotational direction through an additional 90°, each vertex is again displaced 90°, but from the new orientation in a direction orthogonal to its first 90° displacement. After 360° of rotation each vertex reaches its antipodal position.
The trajectory of each vertex over each 90° isoclinic rotational displacement is a one-eighth segment of its geodesic orbit. Its entire orbit traces an isocline circle in 4-space over eight <math>r_3</math> chords, and also traces an ordinary great circle in the plane twice, over the four <math>r_2</math> chords within one of the two moving invariant rotation planes. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions just once and returns to its original position, and the 16-cell returns to its original orientation.
== Hypercubes ==
The long diameter of the unit-edge [[W:Hypercube|hypercube]] of dimension <math>n</math> is <math>\sqrt{n}</math>, so the unit-edge [[w:Tesseract|4-hypercube, the 16-point (8-cell) tesseract,]] has chords:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{3},r_4=\sqrt{4}</math>
Uniquely in its 4-dimensional case, the hypercube's edge length equals its radius, like the hexagon. We call such polytopes ''radially equilateral'', because they can be constructed from equilateral triangles which meet at their center, each contributing two radii and an edge. The [[w:Cuboctahedron|cuboctahedron]] and the 24-cell are also radially equilateral.
The [[W:Tesseract|tesseract]] is the [[W:Regular convex 4-polytope|regular convex 4-polytope]] with [[W:Schläfli symbol|Schläfli symbol]] {4,3,3}. It has 16 vertices, 32 edges, 24 square faces, and 8 cube cells. It is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube.
The 16-point tesseract is the convex hull of a compound of two 8-point 16-cells, in exact dimensional analogy to the way the 8-point cube is the convex hull of a [[W:Stellated octahedron|compound of two 4-point regular tetrahedra]]. The [[W:Demihypercube|demihypercubes]] occupy alternate vertices of the hypercubes. The diagonals of the square faces of the unit-edge, unit-radius tesseract are the <math>\sqrt{2}</math> edges of two unit-radius 16-cells, also the edges of the square central planes.
We can rotate the tesseract isoclinically the way we rotated the 16-cell, by 90° in two completely orthogonal invariant square central planes, with the same effect on both alternate-position 16-cells. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation in invariant square central planes each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions of its 16-cell just once and returns to its original position, but it does not visit the vertex positions of the other 16-cell. The skew octagon geodesic orbits of the 16 vertices lie on two disjoint octagram circular helix isoclines of the same chirality. Two [[w:Clifford_parallel|Clifford parallel]] skew octagon geodesic orbits over <math>\sqrt{2}</math> chords form a circular double helix.
The tesseract is the [[W:Dual polytope|dual polytope]] of the 16-cell. They have the same Petrie polygon, the regular skew octagon, but the tesseract is a construct of 4 Petrie octagons with disjoint sets of 8 tesseract edges each.
We can construct the tesseract by skewing two planar octagons. Because the tesseract is radially equilateral (unlike the 16-cell), we use two octagons of unit-edge length to build the unit-radius tesseract. To start we embed the planar octagons in 4-space at the same point and make them completely orthogonal. Then we skew each planar octagon into a cube, so we have a compound of two completely orthogonal cubes. Provided we skewed them both in the same direction, the 16 vertices will be the vertices of a tesseract with half its 32 edges missing.
Because the tesseract contains two 16-cells in alternate positions it has two sets of 6 orthogonal square central planes. Two completely orthogonal angles are required to specify the relationship between two planes in 4-space. Pairs of square central planes within each 16-cell are 90° apart in one angle, and either 0° or 90° apart in the other angle. They are 90° apart in both angles if and only if they are completely orthogonal planes, 90° apart by isoclinic rotation, with no vertices in common. Otherwise they are 0° apart in one of the angles, 90° apart by simple rotation, and they intersect in one axis and lie in a common 3-dimensional hyperplane.{{Efn|A double rotation in which one of the two angles of rotation is 0°, so that one of the completely orthogonal invariant planes does not rotate, is called a simple rotation. Ordinary rotations observed in a 3-dimensional space are simple rotations.|name=simple rotations}}
A pair of square central planes from alternate-position 16-cells are 60° apart by isoclinic rotation, with their corresponding vertices 120° apart. The planes are not orthogonal or parallel, so they intersect in a line somewhere, but they have no vertices in common, they have no 3-dimensional hyperplane in common, and they cannot reach each other by simple rotation. Such pairs of objects are called [[W:Clifford parallel|Clifford parallel]] because all their corresponding pairs of vertices are the same distance apart, although they are not parallel in the usual sense, because they have a common center. Not only the alternate-position 16-cells' corresponding square central planes, but also the 16-cells themselves, are Clifford parallel objects. More generally, multiple disjoint instances of a 4-polytope which compound to make a larger 4-polytope are Clifford parallel objects.
== The 24-cell ==
[[File:24-cell vertex geometry.png|thumb|Planar geometry of the radially equilateral 24-cell, showing its 3 great circle polygons and its 4 chord lengths.|alt=]]
In 2-space we have the radially equilateral 6-point hexagon. In 3-space we have the radially equilateral 12-point cuboctahedron, with 4 hexagonal central planes. In 4-space we have the radially equilateral 24-point 24-cell, with 4 cuboctahedron central hyperplanes and 16 hexagonal central planes.
The [[24-cell]] is the regular convex 4-polytope with Schläfli symbol {3,4,3}. It has 24 vertices, 96 edges, 96 equilateral triangle faces, and 24 octahedron cells. It is the four-dimensional analogue of the cuboctahedron.
The 24-cell has the same chord set as the 4-hypercube tesseract:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{2},r_3=\sqrt{3},r_4=\sqrt{4}</math>
It is the maximal regular construct of triangles and squares (with no pentagons). It is its own [[W:Dual polytope|dual polytope]].
The 24-cell is the convex hull of a compound of three disjoint 8-point 16-cells, rotated 60° isoclinically with respect to each other. Each of the three pairs of 16-cells is a tesseract. Each 24-cell edge is also a tesseract edge. The corresponding vertices of two 16-cells or two tesseracts are 120° apart by a <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chord. Each tesseract has 8 cube cells, and each cube has four <math>\sqrt{3}</math> long diameters. The <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords joining the corresponding vertices of two tesseracts belong to the third tesseract as cube long diameters.
[[File:dodecagon24cell.png|thumb|Orthogonal projection of half a 24-cell to the [[24-cell#Geodesics|F<sub>4</sub> Coxeter plane]]. Only one Petrie dodecagon {12} of the 24-cell is shown. In a unit-radius 24-cell, all black lines are 24-cell edges of unit length, also tesseract edges. The two disjoint hexagons lie in Clifford parallel central planes. Blue chords are <math>\sqrt{2}</math> 16-cell edges, also isocline chords in square rotations. Green chords are <math>\sqrt{3}</math> distances between corresponding vertices of two 16-cells, also isocline chords in hexagonal rotations.]]
The 24-cell's Petrie polygon is the regular dodecagon {12}, which has chords:
:<math>r_1=\tfrac{\sqrt{3}-1}{\sqrt{2}},r_2=\sqrt{1},r_3=\sqrt{2},r_4=\sqrt{3},r_5=\tfrac{\sqrt{3}+1}{\sqrt{2}},r_6=\sqrt{4}</math>
The <math>r_1</math> and <math>r_5</math> chords of the planar dodecagon do not occur in the 24-cell, which is a construct of eight skew dodecagons with disjoint sets of twelve <math>\sqrt{1}</math> edges each. When the 24-cell is constructed by skewing two completely orthogonal planar dodecagons, the lengths of the dodecagon chords change to:
:<math>r_1=\sqrt{1},r_2=\sqrt{1},r_3=\sqrt{2},r_4=\sqrt{3},r_5=\sqrt{3},r_6=\sqrt{4}</math>
We can rotate the 24-cell isoclinically the way we rotated the 16-cell, by 90° in two completely orthogonal invariant square central planes, with the same effect on all three 16-cells. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation in invariant square central planes each vertex departs from all 8 vertex positions of its 16-cell just once and returns to its original position, but it does not visit the vertex positions of the other 16-cells. Three Clifford parallel skew octagon geodesic orbits of circumference <math>4\pi</math> over <math>\sqrt{2}</math> chords form a circular triple helix.
We can also rotate the 24-cell isoclinically by 60° in a hexagonal invariant central plane and its completely orthogonal invariant central plane. A complete hexagonal isoclinic revolution requires 720° like a complete square isoclinic revolution, but it is completed in 12 isoclinic displacements of 60° each rather than 8 isoclinic displacements of 90° each. The Clifford polygon of the hexagonal rotation is a skew {12/5} dodecagram of green <math>r_5</math> chords, visible in the orthogonal projection. The rotational curve over each <math>r_5</math> chord makes two simultaneous completely orthogonal 60° turns, effectively five zig-zag consecutive 60° turns. Two Clifford parallel skew dodecagon geodesic orbits of circumference <math>8\pi</math> over <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords form a circular double helix.
In the 24-cell an isoclinic rotation by 60° in any hexagonal invariant central plane and its completely orthogonal invariant central plane takes every great hexagon to a Clifford parallel great hexagon in a twisting displacement, as all the central planes tilt sideways 60° while rotating 60° internally. It also takes every great square to a Clifford parallel great square in a different 16-cell. All 24 vertices move at once on two Clifford parallel geodesic isoclines, displaced 120° in different directions.
The trajectory of each vertex over each 60° isoclinic rotational displacement is a one-twelfth segment of its geodesic orbit. Its entire orbit traces an isocline circle in 4-space over twelve <math>\sqrt{3}</math> chords, and also traces an ordinary great circle in the plane twice, over the six <math>\sqrt{1}</math> chords within one of the two moving invariant rotation planes. In the course of a 720° isoclinic rotation each vertex departs from 12 vertex positions just once and returns to its original position, and the 24-cell returns to its original orientation.
== The 600-cell ==
...
== Finally the 120-cell ==
...
== Conclusions ==
Fontaine and Hurley's discovery is more than a formula for the reciprocal of a regular ''n''-polygon diagonal. It also yields the discrete sequence of isocline chords of the distinct isoclinic rotation characteristic of a ''d''-dimensional polytope. The characteristic rotational chord sequence of the ''d''-polytope can be represented geometrically in two dimensions on a distinct star polygon, but it lies on a geodesic circle through ''d''-dimensional space. Fontaine and Hurley discovered the geodesic topology of polytopes generally. Their procedure will reveal the geodesics of arbitrary non-uniform polytopes, since it can be applied to a polytope of any dimensionality and irregularity, by first fitting the polytope to the smallest regular polygon whose chords include its chords.
The discovery of a chordal construction for discrete isoclinic rotations generally closes the circuit on Kappraff and Adamson's discovery of a rotational connection between dynamical systems, Steinbach's golden fields, and Coxeter's Euclidean geometry of ''n'' dimensions. Application of the Fontaine and Hurley procedure in higher-dimensional spaces demonstrates why the connection exists: because polytope sequences generally, from Steinbach's golden polygon chord sequences, to chord sequences in isoclinic rotation helixes, to subsumption relations in the sequence of regular 4-polytopes, arise as expressions of the reflections and rotations of distinct Coxeter symmetry groups, when those various groups interact.
== Appendix: Sequence of regular 4-polytopes ==
{{Regular convex 4-polytopes|wiki=W:|columns=7}}
== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}
== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}
== References ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal | last=Steinbach | first=Peter | year=1997 | title=Golden fields: A case for the Heptagon | journal=Mathematics Magazine | volume=70 | issue=Feb 1997 | pages=22–31 | doi=10.1080/0025570X.1997.11996494 | jstor=2691048 | ref={{SfnRef|Steinbach|1997}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last=Steinbach | first=Peter | year=2000 | title=Sections Beyond Golden| journal=Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science | issue=2000 | pages=35-44 | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2000/bridges2000-35.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Steinbach|2000}}}}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Kappraff | first1=Jay | last2=Jablan | first2=Slavik | last3=Adamson | first3=Gary | last4=Sazdanovich | first4=Radmila | year=2004 | title=Golden Fields, Generalized Fibonacci Sequences, and Chaotic Matrices | journal=Forma | volume=19 | pages=367-387 | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2005/bridges2005-369.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Kappraff, Jablan, Adamson & Sazdanovich|2004}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Kappraff | first1=Jay | last2=Adamson | first2=Gary | year=2004 | title=Polygons and Chaos | journal=Dynamical Systems and Geometric Theories | url=https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2001/bridges2001-67.pdf | ref={{SfnRef|Kappraff & Adamson|2004}} }}
* {{Cite journal | last1=Fontaine | first1=Anne | last2=Hurley | first2=Susan | year=2006 | title=Proof by Picture: Products and Reciprocals of Diagonal Length Ratios in the Regular Polygon | journal=Forum Geometricorum | volume=6 | pages=97-101 | url=https://scispace.com/pdf/proof-by-picture-products-and-reciprocals-of-diagonal-length-1aian8mgp9.pdf }}
{{Refend}}
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[[File:Pharoah - James VI and I - Trump.png|thumb|Religious and media leaders from the time of the Pharaohs convinced common folk to give increasing shares of what they produced to elites.]]
:''This book uses dates in [[:w:ISO 8601|ISO 8601]], YYYY-MM-DD, when convenient.''
== Invitation to edit this book ==
You, dear reader, are invited to contribute questions, ideas and citations to support or refute claims made in this book possibly adding chapters. Wikiversity like other Wikimedia Foundation Projects invites humans to [[w:Wikipedia:Be bold|“be bold but not reckless,”]] while writing from a [[Wikiversity:Disclosures|neutral point of view]], [[Wikiversity:Cite sources|citing credible sources]]. Others are invited to change or revert what you wrote. What stays tends to be written from a neutral point of view citing credible sources. If someone reverts your edit or you have a question, take it to the ''[[Wikiversity:FAQ|''''“Discuss”'''' page]]'' associated with the specific Wikiversity page most related to your concerns.
Those who teach media literacy are encouraged to invite their students to debate and revise the contents of this book. Doing so would build on a tradition of [[:w:Wikipedia:Student assignments|instructors requiring students to edit wikipedia article(s).]] Editing [[:w:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]] and other [[:w:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] projects like this book is itself an exercise in media literacy:
:''Central tenets of media literacy might include writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources and engaging others, some of whom may disagree, in civil, supportive conversations about what can and cannot be said based on a reasonable evaluation of the available evidence. Wikimedia rules invite contributors to do just that, encouraging them to “be bold but not reckless,” contributing revisions written from a neutral point of view, citing credible sources -- and raising other questions and concerns on the ''''“Discuss”'''' page associated with the specific Wikiversity page most related to your concerns, as mentioned above.''<ref>For more on this, see Graves (2024).</ref>
== Text and self-help book and point of discuss ==
This book is intended both as a text and self-help book and as a point of discussion considering four levels of media literacy:
:1. '''Think before you share''': [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said]], "The shortest path to a click is anger or hate." The social psychology behind this phenomenon exploited also by legacy media has contributed to [[Media Literacy and You/Media consolidation, social media, and political polarization|the dramatic increase in political polarization and violence worldwide]], especially since the end of the [[w:Fairness doctrine|Fairness doctrine]] in 1987. To counter this, DiResta (2024, p. 335) recommends, "Think before you share."
:2. '''Look for information to contradict preconceptions''' (Disconfirmation bias): [[w:Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Previous research|Virtually everyone]] (a) thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:Confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]). The major media everywhere exploit this to please those who control most of the money for the media. Humans can counter this by searching for sources to help us understand our designated enemies. If we cannot explain circumstances under which we could see ourselves doing what we see our designated enemies doing, we haven't looked hard enough.
:3. '''Talk''': Push ourselves to have friendly supportive conversations with others with whom we may vehemently disagree with the goals of agreeing to disagree agreeably and building collaboration on areas of common concern.
:4. '''Teach''': Humans who develop skills in the first three levels can leverage that knowledge in helping others acquire those skills. If each one teaches two<ref>"[[:w:Each one teach one|Each one teach one]]" is an African-American proverb from the time of legalized slavery. However, if each one teaches only one, the growth in literacy will only be linear. Having "each one teaching two", on average, unleashes the power of doubling and [[:w:exponential growth|exponential growth]], which has the potential of educating the entirety of humanity in a reasonable period of time -- namely after 33 doublings starting from one.</ref> in a certain period of time, that time period becomes a [[:w:Doubling time|doubling time]]. Ten doublings is a thousand -- actually 1,024 to be precise.<ref>2 time 2 = 4 times 2 = 8 times 2 = 16 times 2 = 32 times 2 = 64 times 2 = 128 times 2 = 256 times 2 = 512 times 2 = 1024: That's 10 doublings, as anyone with a modest understanding of modern digital [[:w:computer|computer]]s will tell you.</ref> Twenty doublings become a million. Thirty doublings become a billion. Three more doublings become 8 billion, the [[:w:World population|world population]] as of approximately 2022-11-15.<ref>This book uses dates in [[:w:ISO 8601|ISO 8601]], YYYY-MM-DD, when convenient.</ref> Many organizations, including several United Nations agencies, already have active [[w:media literacy|media literacy]] programs that have already trained many.<ref>''[[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students]]'' includes a chapter on [[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students/Points to Consider for Teaching Anti-racism/Media Literacy In Schools|Media Literacy In Schools]].</ref> This book is being written hoping to increase the effectiveness and accelerate the rate of growth in media literacy and thereby accelerate progress against many of the most pressing issues facing humanity today.
Much of this book is a [[w:Monograph|research monograph]] summarizing research that seems to have been underreported by the major media to avoid offending people who control most of the money for the media. These research results seem to be central to major political divisions. Each chapter ends in exercises to help the reader practice media literacy skills and have fun doing it. Remember:
:''I am entitled to my [[Wiktionary:cockamamie|cockamamie]] ideas, and you are entitled to yours.''
Humor is important but must be offered in a way that does not offend others. If others are offended, they may be less interested in dialogue. The term "cockamamie" is used here, hoping that this style of [[w:Self-deprecation|self-deprecation]] might be more inviting for dialogue.
''Never say, "You're wrong, and I'm right!" instead, ask, "May I offer a contrary perspective?" Or "May I share with you another view that I've heard?" ''
Much of the information in this book seems to have been largely overlooked and perhaps suppressed, apparently because it would increase the cost of producing news, some of which would clearly offend people who control much of the money for the media; see the brief discussion of conflicts of interest by the major media in the next "Key claims" section.
==Key claims==
* ''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find credible''.
:-- This works, because everything we think we know is coded in systems of connections between neurons in our brains. These systems are more unique than fingerprints and evolve over time. The words we use do not mean the same to two different humans nor even to the same human at different points in time. In many cases these differences are inconsequential. ''Sometimes they are fatal.''<ref>Graves and Bailey (2026).</ref>
:-- ''[[w:Social constructionism|Show me someone who knows the truth]], and I will show you someone who is dangerous'' -- especially during war or any other situation where humans may be moved to violence mandated by their belief system.<ref>[[w:Collateral damage|Collateral damage]] that "they" commit proves to "us" that "they" are subhuman or at best criminally misled and must be resisted by any means necessary. By contrast, collateral damage that "we" commit is unfortunate but necessary.</ref>
* The major media everywhere have [[w:Conflict of interest|conflicts of interest ]] in honestly reporting on [[v:Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|anything that might offend anyone who controls large portions of the money for the media]].<ref>Pickard and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-08; Pickard (2020).</ref> [[v:Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK|British journalist and media reform advocate Dan Hind]] said that the content produced by the [[w:BBC|BBC]] was frivolous, soap opera stuff, because leading media personalities know very little about issues of substance and believe "they might get in trouble if" they produced anything serious. Similar analyses seem to apply to the major media everywhere<ref>Hind and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-09.</ref> but may not apply to non-profit and local media, which seem more likely to produce [[w:Investigative journalism|investigative]] / [[v:Dean Starkman and the watchdog that didn't bark|accountability journalism]]:<ref>Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022); see also Starkman and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-09.</ref> [[w:Watchdog journalism|Watchdogs]] tend to protect the people who feed them. Argentine journalist [[w:Horacio Verbitsky|Horacio Verbitsky]] said, "Journalism is disseminating information that someone does not want known; the rest is [[w:propaganda|propaganda]]."<ref>p. 16 in Verbitsky (1997); English translation from [[Wikiquote:Horacio Verbitsky]], accessed 2026-02-09.</ref>
* The major media everywhere create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.
:- Their selection of acceptable topics for news and entertainment create and maintain the "[[w:Overton window|Overton window]]", which is the range of acceptable political discourse. For example, in early 1964, US President [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] understood that he could lose the 1964 presidential election that year if he were seen to be soft on communism. His response was to clandestinely provoke an attack on US naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, which he could then denounce as "unprovoked". During a dark and stormy night 1964-08-04 the [[w:USS Maddox (DD-731)|USS ''Maddox'']] and [[w:USS Turner Joy|''Turner Joy'']] spent a couple of hours "defending themselves" against radar snow, then [[w:Gulf of Tonkin incident|reported that they had sunk two attacking North Vietnamese torpedo boats]]; subsequent investigations found no evidence of the reported attacks. That incident was used to justify the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], with only two dissenting votes in the US Congress: Those two dissenters were defeated in their next reelection campaigns, illustrating the point that the major media create the environment in which many politicians cannot get elected without betraying the nation.
=== The value of noncommercial news outlets ===
Some of the problems with the media and their contributions to increasing political polarization and violence are documented in the research summary on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]" and in the podcast series available on Wikiversity under "[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]" with leading experts discussing their recommendations. One of the most compelling of the references discussed in that podcast series is Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022), who tallied all the federal prosecutions for political corruption in each of the 94 [[w:United States federal judicial district|US federal court district]]s between 2003 and 2019. During that period, the number of journalists in the US fell by a factor of roughly 3 -- between 60 and 70 percent. They found no statistically significant impact on federal prosecutions for political corruption of that decline in the number of journalists.
However, each member of the [[w:Institute for Nonprofit News|Institute for Nonprofit News]] (INN) in a federal court district in one year was associated with on average 1.4 additional prosecutions for political corruption the following year.
This suggests that the major media outlets that had so dramatically reduced their staffs had not substantively reduced the amount of investigative journalism they did. If we assume that the people prosecuted for political corruption also control substantive advertising budgets, then the major media outlets have conflicts of interest in honestly reporting on such. They may report on it if some other organization like a member of INN does the research and they are threatened with a loss of audience from not reporting on it.
:'''''Major point''''': You and I benefit, the vast majority of humans on earth benefit, from news reports presumably published by members if INN that contributed to those on average 1.4 additional prosecutions for political corruption estimated by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022). We benefit even if we never heard about the news reports that contributed to those prosecutions. We benefit even if we have never heard of the news outlets that presumably did the investigative journalism behind those additional prosecutions. Why? Because on average those news reports likely deterred other incidents of political corruption, which likely contributed to broadly shared economic growth and the development of new technology that ultimately benefit the vast majority of humanity. Other aspects of this are documented in the research on the impact of [[w:news desert|news desert]]s, which we summarize next.
=== Costs increase in news deserts===
There's a growing body of research describing what happens when local newspapers die.
Perhaps most important, a 2018 research report by Gao et al. reported that the death of a local newspaper was followed by … increases in local tax revenue, averaging $85 per human per year.<ref name = Gao2018>Gao et al. (2018).</ref> That $85 was roughly 13 hundredths of a percent of the 2019 US GDP. That's mentioned in the 2025-07-17 interview with [[Democratic delusions: Fix the media to fix democracy|Natalie Fenton about her new book, ''Democratic Delusions, How the Media Hollows out democracy and What We Can Do About It'']].
One of the most spectacular example of the cost of a news desert is the [[w:City of Bell scandal|Scandal of Bell, California]]. Their local newspaper died around 1999. Roughly a decade later the city was nearly bankrupt in spite of having property tax rates among the highest in the nation. An investigation by the ''[[w:Los Angeles Times|Los Angeles Times]]'' documented that the city manager had a compensation package worth $1.5 million a year, well over double that of the President of the United States. Other senior city officials were similarly well-remunerated. Some of the city officials went to jail over that. Did the city manager decide after 1999, "Wow: The watchdog is dead. Let's have a party"?
Malfeasance also increases in business as pollution and workplace accidents increase as does the cost of capital, because investors know their money is not as secure without a local newspaper. That leads to a reduction in investments in new products, services and processes -- slowing economic growth. See "[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]", esp. Kim et al. (2021).
And executive compensation in increases in nonprofits, so less of what people donate goes to the charitable purpose for which they donated, according to Felix et al. (2024). Also, voter participation and split-ticket voting decline, per Benton (2019) and other references discussed in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]". And the ultra-right does better, as noted in [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]] and the section on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Previous research|Previous research]]" in the Wikiversity article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]".<ref>Flößer (2024).</ref>
The 0.13 percent of GDP savings estimated by Gao et al. (2018) is roughly $120 per human per year. With over 300 million humans in the U.S, that is roughly $40 billion nationwide.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Table 1. Costs increase in news deserts
|-
! Entity !! What !!Source
|-
| local government || costs incr. 0.13% of GDP || Gao et al. (2018)
|-
| local businesses || pollution & workplace accidents incr., innovation & econ growth decr. || Kim et al. (2021)
|-
| nonprofits || exec. compensation incr. || Felix et al. (2024)
|-
| rowspan=2 | elections
| voter participation & split-ticket voting decl. || Benton (2019)
|-
| Ultra-right does better || Flößer (2024)
|}
=== Government subsidies ===
John (1995) documented how in the first half of the nineteenth century the US had more independent newspaper publishers per million population than at any other time or place in human history.<ref>This is discussed in the 2025-06-08 [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|interview with him]], available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref> This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which helped [[The Great American Paradox|the early United States stay together and grow]] while contemporary [[w:New Spain|New Spain]] / [[w:Mexico|Mexico]], fractured, shrank, and stagnated economically. As documented with Figure 1 in the chapter below on [[/The impact of the media on political economy since the time of the Pharaohs/]], that growth catapulted the young United States into its current position of dominance in the international political economy, a position it has been losing since at least 1990 -- or since the Reagan Revolution began in 1981, according to the analysis in the chapter below on [[/Fox, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and our future/]]. Other countries now have stronger democracies due in part to government subsidies for media in the range of 0.05 and 0.25 percent of GDP with a firewall that limits political interference in the content, according to Neff and Pickard (2024). Table 1 in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] compares media subsidies in various places with "other points of reference".
McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88) suggested that the relatively high rate of economic growth of the economy in the early US was due in part to postal subsidies under the US [[w:Postal Service Act|Postal Service Act]] of 1792.<ref>See also the Wikiversity article on "[[The Great American Paradox]]", accessed 2026-04-30.</ref> They estimated those subsidies at 0.21 percent of GDP. To improve the current political economy of the US, they recommended subsidies of 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to local news nonprofits on the basis of local elections.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2021, 2022).</ref> The Wikipedia article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]" documents how some jurisdictions can devote that much money to local news nonprofits by matching what they spend on accounting, advertising, and public relations.<ref>See the section on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Sampling units / experimental polities|Sampling units / experimental polities]]" in the Wikiversity article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]", accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>
Pickard (2023) describes three basic strategies for confronting concentrated commercial media power: (1) break them up, (2) regulate them, and (3) create non-commercial, public alternatives. A fourth possibility might be [[w:externality|a graduated tax on income and wealth]] in proportion to the threat that major corporations pose to democracy.
One class of noncommercial alternatives that Packard mentions is local multi-media / Public Media Centers (PMCs) with management split between local journalists and boards, e.g., selected at random from registered voters. A key here is to have the boards selected in a way that cannot be influenced by people with power, whether business or political elites. Picard recommends considering '''six discrete layers''' when discussing PMCs, each of which, he says, must be radically democratised:
# funding,
# governance,
# ascertainment (to determine a community’s ''critical information needs''),
# infrastructure (including universal broadband service),
# algorithmic (e.g., not allowing companies like Google and Facebook to suppress indexing information the might challenge their hegemony of those markets, [[w:Deep web|treating them like pedophilia and the Islamic State]]),
# engagement, involving local communities in making their own news and in communicating their own stories; this is paramount to building trust and the grassroots-level support that this new local journalistic model requires.
All this needs to be managed in ways that provide substantive support to news deserts and underserved communities that have long been subjected to various kinds of informational redlining. This might be done by including the proposed PMCs within local libraries staffed by professional journalists, who provide training in media literacy in local schools for children and supervise students producing school newspapers.
Management of such PMCs might be split between journalists on staff and boards of, e.g., six members selected at random from voter registration rolls serving staggered terms of one year with a new member rotated in every 2 months.
Another alternative that could be done in parallel with local PMCs calls for 200 journalists in each US Congressional district funded at $10 billion annually in 2022 dollars, which is just a little under 4 hundredths of one percent of GDP; if such allocations are expressed as fractions of a percent of GDP, they would grow naturally with the economy. (The nominal GDP for the US was roughly $26.1 trillion in 2022.<ref>Johnston and Williamson (2026).</ref> For 2026 it is estimated at $32.4 trillion.<ref>[[w:United States|United States]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>)
A similar model is the [[w:BBC|BBC]]’s Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), in which the BBC funds journalists to cover the work of local councils and other local public bodies, funded at £8 million per year, which is a little under 2 hundredths of a percent of the [[w:United Kingdom|UK]]'s GDP of £7.27 trillion.<ref>[[w:United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>
Pickard (2023) ended by saying, "Today we face a crossroads: technocracy and oligarchy from above or radical democracy and structural reform from below. ... [T]his is not just a journalism crisis: it is a
democracy crisis."
==Table of Contents==
*[[/Introduction/]] including an exercise, asking all to discuss perceptions of the settlement of ''[[w:Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network|Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network]]'' in a friendly supportive manner with humans with whom they may vehemently disagree, because the alternative could be killing humans over misunderstandings.
===Part I. The media and political economy===
# [[/The impact of the media on political economy since the time of the Pharaohs/]] describes how hierarchical societies prior to [[w:James VI and I|King James of the King James bible]] were divided between those who fought, prayed, and worked. It was the responsibility of those who prayed to convince those who worked to live in poverty while giving increasing shares of what they produced so those who fought and prayed could live lives of leisure and opulence. During the reign of King James, pamphlets and newspapers began to compete with the church for helping commoners understand their roles in society. This produced the Industrial Revolution and modern democracies. Media consolidation since World War II gradually slowed and then reversed this trend.
# [[/Fox, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and our future/]] describes the unprecedented performance of the US political economy during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt (FDR), insisting that much of what FDR achieved can be replicated, giving a media system that supports honest discussion of the available evidence.
# [[/Media consolidation, social media, and political polarization/]] (Combine from McChesney and Nichols discussing the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act]] of 1792 with [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]], the section on "[[v:Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Threats from social media|Threats from social media]]" in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]], and the comments by [[v:Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that, "the shortest path to a click is anger or hate."]].
===Part II. The media and war===
# [[/Deterrence without threat/]]: The historical record is clear: Nations that have prepared for war often got war, not peace. This happens for at least two reasons: First, some leaders cannot resist the temptation to use force inappropriately, sometimes clandestinely provoking others to do things that are then denounced as "unprovoked"; sometimes the media environment pushes them to do such. Alternatively, potential adversaries may believe -- or claim -- that you are actually preparing a first strike, and they must move preemptively or lose their ability to retaliate adequately. We can avoid these possibilities with three supportive policies: [a] Legislation that ''prohibits'' projecting force beyond our own borders. [b] Civilian-based defense training in nonviolent noncooperation like what helped Denmark survive Nazi occupation with minimal damage. And [c] A media system that makes it harder for the people who control most of the money for the media to create an environment that makes it hard for common folk to understand, "Why they hate us", and that encourages leaders to be more bellicose than would best support broadly shared peace and prosperity.
# [[/Responding to a nuclear attack/]] (draft in [[Responding to a nuclear attack]]. Add a discussion of Russia's Poseidon nuclear powered unmanned underwater vehicle, armed with nuclear weapons. With that, cite the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s". Also add material from [[Nuclear weapons and effective defense]]).
# [[/Threats from excessive government secrecy/]] (draft in [https://sanjosepeace.org/restrict-secrecy-more-than-data-collection/ "Restrict secrecy more than data collection"], adding material from [https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/does-us-government-secrecy-threaten-national-security/ Connelly (2023) ''The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets''], [[Wikipedia:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] and [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11]].
===Part III. Climate, immigrants, education, public health, and criminal justice===
# [[/Global warming/]] [Summarize research especially on conflicts of interest of major media in honestly reporting on this issue and the research on global warming itself and activities of groups concerned about this issue. Decompose into global population times CO2 equivalents per human.]
# [[/Immigrants/]] [Summarize research documenting that [[w:Sanctuary city|sanctuary cities tend to have higher median incomes and no more crime than non-sanctuary jurisdictions]], and some studies report less crime. Moreover economists have documented that immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial, overrepresented in patent applications, and generally increasing the rate of economic growth. See, e.g., Aghion et al. (2022) ''The power of creative destruction''; Aghion shared the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with two others.]
# [[/Education/]] (draft in [[Invest in children]].)
# [[/Public health/]] [Draft in [[UN public health data]] to be revised to be consistent with Bezruchka (2023, 2025).]
# [[/Criminal justice/]] (The section on "[[w:United States incarceration rate#Editorial policies of major media|Editorial policies of major media]]" in "[[Wikipedia:United States incarceration rate]]" cites research claiming that within the range range of experience in the US political economy since 1925, the incarceration rate is uncorrelated with crime: It's a function of the public's perception of crime, and that's a function of the media.)
# [[/Substance abuse and addictive behavior/]] (Research in cited in "[[Wikipedia:War on drugs]]" insists that the US and the world would have fewer problems with substance abuse and addiction problems with 100 percent public funding for treatment programs and complete decriminalization of possession and use of retail quantities of addictive substances. We would also likely have fewer problems with immigrants, as that would make it harder for the US to intervene in the internal affairs of fohttps://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:FAQ/Editing/Edit_summaryreign countries funded off the books, as exposed in the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran–Contra affair]].)
# [[/Empower women and girls/]] [Cite research claiming that a primary restraint on population growth is empowering women and girls. Empowering women and girls is not just a matter of equity: It is also a means to reduce the threats of global warming, of increasing exposure to animal diseases and other problems that come with unrestrained population growth.]
=== Continuation ===
* [[/The evolving media literacy movement/]] to invite others to keep this book current with the evolving understanding of media literacy, how to encourage and promote it and the benefits of doing so.
==See also==
* [[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students/Points to Consider for Teaching Anti-racism/Media Literacy In Schools]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* <!--Perry Bacon Jr. (2022-10-17) "America Should Spend Billions to Revive Local News"-->{{cite Q|Q139594786}}
* <!-- Joshua Benton (9 April 2019). "When local newspapers shrink, fewer people bother to run for mayor". Nieman Foundation for Journalism -->{{cite Q|Q63127216}}
* <!--Stephen Bezruchka (2023) Inequality Kills Us All-->{{cite Q|Q136047815}}
* <!--Stephen Bezruchka (2025) ''Born Sick in the USA''-->{{cite Q|Q138749292}}
* <!--Renée DiResta (2024) Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality-->{{cite Q|Q135107164}}
* <!--Robert Felix, Joshua A. Khavis, and Mikhail Pevzner (2024) "The effects of local newspaper closures on nonprofits’ executive compensation"-->{{cite Q|Q132730972}}
* <!--Maxim Flößer (2024-03-06) "Keine Lokalzeitung -- mehr AfD", Kontext-->{{cite Q|Q125287792}}
* <!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2018) "Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance"-->{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2024) "Wikipedia: The most democratic force on earth-->{{cite Q|Q137796922}}
* <!--Spencer Graves and Bryan Bailey (2025) "We have to talk", blog at PeaceWorksKC.org-->{{cite Q|Q136126262}}
* [[d:Q138038060|Dan Hind and Spencer Graves (2025) "Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK" on Wikiversity]].
* <!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse-->{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* <!--Louis Johnston and Samuel H. Williamson, "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?" MeasuringWorth, 2026-->{{cite Q|Q56881105}}
* <!-- Min Kim, Derrald Stice, Han Stice, and Roger M. White (2021) "Stop the presses! Or wait, we might need them: Firm responses to local newspaper closures and layoffs"-->{{cite Q|Q132459373}}
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) -->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). "The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy". Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 -->{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) -->{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* <!-- Victor Pickard (2023-05-12) "Another Media System is Possible: Ripping Open the Overton Window, from Platforms to Public Broadcasting"-->{{cite Q|Q131398460}}
* <!--Neff and Pickard (2024) "Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health in 33 Countries"-->{{cite Q|Q131468289}}
* [[d:Q131398359|Victor Pickard (2020) ''Democracy without journalism? : confronting the misinformation society'' (Oxford U. Pr.)]].
* [[d:Q138037937|Dean Starkman and Spencer Graves (2025) "Dean Starkman and the watchdog that didn't bark anglais" on Wikiversity]].
* [[d:Q134715465|Nikki Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022) "How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption", ''SSRN Electronic Journal'']].
* [[d:Q61013892|Horacio Verbitsky (1997) ''Un mundo sin periodistas'' (in Spanish: A world without journalists; Editorial Sudamericana)]].
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[[File:Pharoah - James VI and I - Trump.png|thumb|Religious and media leaders from the time of the Pharaohs convinced common folk to give increasing shares of what they produced to elites.]]
:''This book uses dates in [[:w:ISO 8601|ISO 8601]], YYYY-MM-DD, when convenient.''
== Invitation to edit this book ==
You, dear reader, are invited to contribute questions, ideas and citations to support or refute claims made in this book possibly adding chapters. Wikiversity like other Wikimedia Foundation Projects invites humans to [[w:Wikipedia:Be bold|“be bold but not reckless,”]] while writing from a [[Wikiversity:Disclosures|neutral point of view]], [[Wikiversity:Cite sources|citing credible sources]]. Others are invited to change or revert what you wrote. What stays tends to be written from a neutral point of view citing credible sources. If someone reverts your edit or you have a question, take it to the ''[[Wikiversity:FAQ|''''“Discuss”'''' page]]'' associated with the specific Wikiversity page most related to your concerns.
Those who teach media literacy are encouraged to invite their students to debate and revise the contents of this book. Doing so would build on a tradition of [[:w:Wikipedia:Student assignments|instructors requiring students to edit wikipedia article(s).]] Editing [[:w:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]] and other [[:w:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] projects like this book is itself an exercise in media literacy:
:''Central tenets of media literacy might include writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources and engaging others, some of whom may disagree, in civil, supportive conversations about what can and cannot be said based on a reasonable evaluation of the available evidence. Wikimedia rules invite contributors to do just that, encouraging them to “be bold but not reckless,” contributing revisions written from a neutral point of view, citing credible sources -- and raising other questions and concerns on the ''''“Discuss”'''' page associated with the specific Wikiversity page most related to your concerns, as mentioned above.''<ref>For more on this, see Graves (2024).</ref>
== Text and self-help book and point of discuss ==
This book is intended both as a text and self-help book and as a point of discussion considering four levels of media literacy:
:1. '''Think before you share''': [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said]], "The shortest path to a click is anger or hate." The social psychology behind this phenomenon exploited also by legacy media has contributed to [[Media Literacy and You/Media consolidation, social media, and political polarization|the dramatic increase in political polarization and violence worldwide]], especially since the end of the [[w:Fairness doctrine|Fairness doctrine]] in 1987. To counter this, DiResta (2024, p. 335) recommends, "Think before you share."
:2. '''Look for information to contradict preconceptions''' (Disconfirmation bias): [[w:Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Previous research|Virtually everyone]] (a) thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:Confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]). The major media everywhere exploit this to please those who control most of the money for the media. Humans can counter this by searching for sources to help us understand our designated enemies. If we cannot explain circumstances under which we could see ourselves doing what we see our designated enemies doing, we haven't looked hard enough.
:3. '''Talk''': Push ourselves to have friendly supportive conversations with others with whom we may vehemently disagree with the goals of agreeing to disagree agreeably and building collaboration on areas of common concern.
:4. '''Teach''': Humans who develop skills in the first three levels can leverage that knowledge in helping others acquire those skills. If each one teaches two<ref>"[[:w:Each one teach one|Each one teach one]]" is an African-American proverb from the time of legalized slavery. However, if each one teaches only one, the growth in literacy will only be linear. Having "each one teaching two", on average, unleashes the power of doubling and [[:w:exponential growth|exponential growth]], which has the potential of educating the entirety of humanity in a reasonable period of time -- namely after 33 doublings starting from one.</ref> in a certain period of time, that time period becomes a [[:w:Doubling time|doubling time]]. Ten doublings is a thousand -- actually 1,024 to be precise.<ref>2 time 2 = 4 times 2 = 8 times 2 = 16 times 2 = 32 times 2 = 64 times 2 = 128 times 2 = 256 times 2 = 512 times 2 = 1024: That's 10 doublings, as anyone with a modest understanding of modern digital [[:w:computer|computer]]s will tell you.</ref> Twenty doublings become a million. Thirty doublings become a billion. Three more doublings become 8 billion, the [[:w:World population|world population]] as of approximately 2022-11-15.<ref>This book uses dates in [[:w:ISO 8601|ISO 8601]], YYYY-MM-DD, when convenient.</ref> Many organizations, including several United Nations agencies, already have active [[w:media literacy|media literacy]] programs that have already trained many.<ref>''[[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students]]'' includes a chapter on [[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students/Points to Consider for Teaching Anti-racism/Media Literacy In Schools|Media Literacy In Schools]].</ref> This book is being written hoping to increase the effectiveness and accelerate the rate of growth in media literacy and thereby accelerate progress against many of the most pressing issues facing humanity today.
Much of this book is a [[w:Monograph|research monograph]] summarizing research that seems to have been underreported by the major media to avoid offending people who control most of the money for the media. These research results seem to be central to major political divisions. Each chapter ends in exercises to help the reader practice media literacy skills and have fun doing it. Remember:
:''I am entitled to my [[Wiktionary:cockamamie|cockamamie]] ideas, and you are entitled to yours.''
Humor is important but must be offered in a way that does not offend others. If others are offended, they may be less interested in dialogue. The term "cockamamie" is used here, hoping that this style of [[w:Self-deprecation|self-deprecation]] might be more inviting for dialogue.
''Never say, "You're wrong, and I'm right!" instead, ask, "May I offer a contrary perspective?" Or "May I share with you another view that I've heard?" ''
Much of the information in this book seems to have been largely overlooked and perhaps suppressed, apparently because it would increase the cost of producing news, some of which would clearly offend people who control much of the money for the media; see the brief discussion of conflicts of interest by the major media in the next "Key claims" section.
==Key claims==
* ''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find credible''.
:-- This works, because everything we think we know is coded in systems of connections between neurons in our brains. These systems are more unique than fingerprints and evolve over time. The words we use do not mean the same to two different humans nor even to the same human at different points in time. In many cases these differences are inconsequential. ''Sometimes they are fatal.''<ref>Graves and Bailey (2026).</ref>
:-- ''[[w:Social constructionism|Show me someone who knows the truth]], and I will show you someone who is dangerous'' -- especially during war or any other situation where humans may be moved to violence mandated by their belief system.<ref>[[w:Collateral damage|Collateral damage]] that "they" commit proves to "us" that "they" are subhuman or at best criminally misled and must be resisted by any means necessary. By contrast, collateral damage that "we" commit is unfortunate but necessary.</ref>
* The major media everywhere have [[w:Conflict of interest|conflicts of interest ]] in honestly reporting on [[v:Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|anything that might offend anyone who controls large portions of the money for the media]].<ref>Pickard and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-08; Pickard (2020).</ref> [[v:Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK|British journalist and media reform advocate Dan Hind]] said that the content produced by the [[w:BBC|BBC]] was frivolous, soap opera stuff, because leading media personalities know very little about issues of substance and believe "they might get in trouble if" they produced anything serious. Similar analyses seem to apply to the major media everywhere<ref>Hind and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-09.</ref> but may not apply to non-profit and local media, which seem more likely to produce [[w:Investigative journalism|investigative]] / [[v:Dean Starkman and the watchdog that didn't bark|accountability journalism]]:<ref>Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022); see also Starkman and Graves (2025), accessed 2026-02-09.</ref> [[w:Watchdog journalism|Watchdogs]] tend to protect the people who feed them. Argentine journalist [[w:Horacio Verbitsky|Horacio Verbitsky]] said, "Journalism is disseminating information that someone does not want known; the rest is [[w:propaganda|propaganda]]."<ref>p. 16 in Verbitsky (1997); English translation from [[Wikiquote:Horacio Verbitsky]], accessed 2026-02-09.</ref>
* The major media everywhere create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.
:- Their selection of acceptable topics for news and entertainment create and maintain the "[[w:Overton window|Overton window]]", which is the range of acceptable political discourse. For example, in early 1964, US President [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] understood that he could lose the 1964 presidential election that year if he were seen to be soft on communism. His response was to clandestinely provoke an attack on US naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, which he could then denounce as "unprovoked". During a dark and stormy night 1964-08-04 the [[w:USS Maddox (DD-731)|USS ''Maddox'']] and [[w:USS Turner Joy|''Turner Joy'']] spent a couple of hours "defending themselves" against radar snow, then [[w:Gulf of Tonkin incident|reported that they had sunk two attacking North Vietnamese torpedo boats]]; subsequent investigations found no evidence of the reported attacks. That incident was used to justify the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], with only two dissenting votes in the US Congress: Those two dissenters were defeated in their next reelection campaigns, illustrating the point that the major media create the environment in which many politicians cannot get elected without betraying the nation.
=== The value of noncommercial news outlets ===
Some of the problems with the media and their contributions to increasing political polarization and violence are documented in the research summary on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]" and in the podcast series available on Wikiversity under "[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]" with leading experts discussing their recommendations. One of the most compelling of the references discussed in that podcast series is Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022), who tallied all the federal prosecutions for political corruption in each of the 94 [[w:United States federal judicial district|US federal court district]]s between 2003 and 2019. During that period, the number of journalists in the US fell by a factor of roughly 3 -- between 60 and 70 percent. They found no statistically significant impact on federal prosecutions for political corruption of that decline in the number of journalists.
However, each member of the [[w:Institute for Nonprofit News|Institute for Nonprofit News]] (INN) in a federal court district in one year was associated with on average 1.4 additional prosecutions for political corruption the following year.
This suggests that the major media outlets that had so dramatically reduced their staffs had not substantively reduced the amount of investigative journalism they did. If we assume that the people prosecuted for political corruption also control substantive advertising budgets, then the major media outlets have conflicts of interest in honestly reporting on such. They may report on it if some other organization like a member of INN does the research and they are threatened with a loss of audience from not reporting on it.
:'''''Major point''''': You and I benefit, the vast majority of humans on earth benefit, from news reports presumably published by members if INN that contributed to those on average 1.4 additional prosecutions for political corruption estimated by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022). We benefit even if we never heard about the news reports that contributed to those prosecutions. We benefit even if we have never heard of the news outlets that presumably did the investigative journalism behind those additional prosecutions. Why? Because on average those news reports likely deterred other incidents of political corruption, which likely contributed to broadly shared economic growth and the development of new technology that ultimately benefit the vast majority of humanity. Other aspects of this are documented in the research on the impact of [[w:news desert|news desert]]s, which we summarize next.
=== Costs increase in news deserts===
There's a growing body of research describing what happens when local newspapers die.
Perhaps most important, a 2018 research report by Gao et al. reported that the death of a local newspaper was followed by … increases in local tax revenue, averaging $85 per human per year.<ref name = Gao2018>Gao et al. (2018).</ref> That $85 was roughly 13 hundredths of a percent of the 2019 US GDP. That's mentioned in the 2025-07-17 interview with [[Democratic delusions: Fix the media to fix democracy|Natalie Fenton about her new book, ''Democratic Delusions, How the Media Hollows out democracy and What We Can Do About It'']].
One of the most spectacular example of the cost of a news desert is the [[w:City of Bell scandal|Scandal of Bell, California]]. Their local newspaper died around 1999. Roughly a decade later the city was nearly bankrupt in spite of having property tax rates among the highest in the nation. An investigation by the ''[[w:Los Angeles Times|Los Angeles Times]]'' documented that the city manager had a compensation package worth $1.5 million a year, well over double that of the President of the United States. Other senior city officials were similarly well-remunerated. Some of the city officials went to jail over that. Did the city manager decide after 1999, "Wow: The watchdog is dead. Let's have a party"?
Malfeasance also increases in business as pollution and workplace accidents increase as does the cost of capital, because investors know their money is not as secure without a local newspaper. That leads to a reduction in investments in new products, services and processes -- slowing economic growth. See "[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]", esp. Kim et al. (2021).
And executive compensation in increases in nonprofits, so less of what people donate goes to the charitable purpose for which they donated, according to Felix et al. (2024). Also, voter participation and split-ticket voting decline, per Benton (2019) and other references discussed in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]". And the ultra-right does better, as noted in [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]] and the section on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Previous research|Previous research]]" in the Wikiversity article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]".<ref>Flößer (2024).</ref>
The 0.13 percent of GDP savings estimated by Gao et al. (2018) is roughly $120 per human per year. With over 300 million humans in the U.S, that is roughly $40 billion nationwide.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Table 1. Costs increase in news deserts
|-
! Entity !! What !!Source
|-
| local government || costs incr. 0.13% of GDP || Gao et al. (2018)
|-
| local businesses || pollution & workplace accidents incr., innovation & econ growth decr. || Kim et al. (2021)
|-
| nonprofits || exec. compensation incr. || Felix et al. (2024)
|-
| rowspan=2 | elections
| voter participation & split-ticket voting decl. || Benton (2019)
|-
| Ultra-right does better || Flößer (2024)
|}
=== Government subsidies ===
John (1995) documented how in the first half of the nineteenth century the US had more independent newspaper publishers per million population than at any other time or place in human history.<ref>This is discussed in the 2025-06-08 [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|interview with him]], available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref> This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which helped [[The Great American Paradox|the early United States stay together and grow]] while contemporary [[w:New Spain|New Spain]] / [[w:Mexico|Mexico]], fractured, shrank, and stagnated economically. As documented with Figure 1 in the chapter below on [[/The impact of the media on political economy since the time of the Pharaohs/]], that growth catapulted the young United States into its current position of dominance in the international political economy, a position it has been losing since at least 1990 -- or since the Reagan Revolution began in 1981, according to the analysis in the chapter below on [[/Fox, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and our future/]]. Other countries now have stronger democracies due in part to government subsidies for media in the range of 0.05 and 0.25 percent of GDP with a firewall that limits political interference in the content, according to Neff and Pickard (2024). Table 1 in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] compares media subsidies in various places with "other points of reference".
McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88) suggested that the relatively high rate of economic growth of the economy in the early US was due in part to postal subsidies under the US [[w:Postal Service Act|Postal Service Act]] of 1792.<ref>See also the Wikiversity article on "[[The Great American Paradox]]", accessed 2026-04-30.</ref> They estimated those subsidies at 0.21 percent of GDP. To improve the current political economy of the US, they recommended subsidies of 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to local news nonprofits on the basis of local elections.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2021, 2022).</ref> The Wikipedia article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]" documents how some jurisdictions can devote that much money to local news nonprofits by matching what they spend on accounting, advertising, and public relations.<ref>See the section on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Sampling units / experimental polities|Sampling units / experimental polities]]" in the Wikiversity article on "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]", accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>
Pickard (2023) describes three basic strategies for confronting concentrated commercial media power: (1) break them up, (2) regulate them, and (3) create non-commercial, public alternatives. A fourth possibility might be [[w:externality|a graduated tax on income and wealth]] in proportion to the threat that major corporations pose to democracy.
One class of noncommercial alternatives that Packard mentions is local multi-media / Public Media Centers (PMCs) with management split between local journalists and boards, e.g., selected at random from registered voters. A key here is to have the boards selected in a way that cannot be influenced by people with power, whether business or political elites. Picard recommends considering '''six discrete layers''' when discussing PMCs, each of which, he says, must be radically democratised:
# funding,
# governance,
# ascertainment (to determine a community’s ''critical information needs''),
# infrastructure (including universal broadband service),
# algorithmic (e.g., not allowing companies like Google and Facebook to suppress indexing information the might challenge their hegemony of those markets, [[w:Deep web|treating them like pedophilia and the Islamic State]]),
# engagement, involving local communities in making their own news and in communicating their own stories; this is paramount to building trust and the grassroots-level support that this new local journalistic model requires.
All this needs to be managed in ways that provide substantive support to news deserts and underserved communities that have long been subjected to various kinds of informational redlining. This might be done by including the proposed PMCs within local libraries staffed by professional journalists, who provide training in media literacy in local schools for children and supervise students producing school newspapers.
Management of such PMCs might be split between journalists on staff and boards of, e.g., six members selected at random from voter registration rolls serving staggered terms of one year with a new member rotated in every 2 months.
Another alternative that could be done in parallel with local PMCs calls for 200 journalists in each US Congressional district funded at $10 billion annually in 2022 dollars, which is just a little under 4 hundredths of one percent of GDP; if such allocations are expressed as fractions of a percent of GDP, they would grow naturally with the economy. (The nominal GDP for the US was roughly $26.1 trillion in 2022.<ref>Johnston and Williamson (2026).</ref> For 2026 it is estimated at $32.4 trillion.<ref>[[w:United States|United States]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>)
A similar model is the [[w:BBC|BBC]]’s Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), in which the BBC funds journalists to cover the work of local councils and other local public bodies, funded at £8 million per year, which is a little under 2 hundredths of a percent of the [[w:United Kingdom|UK]]'s GDP of £7.27 trillion.<ref>[[w:United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], accessed 2026-04-30.</ref>
Pickard (2023) ended by saying, "Today we face a crossroads: technocracy and oligarchy from above or radical democracy and structural reform from below. ... [T]his is not just a journalism crisis: it is a
democracy crisis."
==Table of Contents==
*[[/Introduction/]] including an exercise, asking all to discuss perceptions of the settlement of ''[[w:Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network|Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network]]'' in a friendly supportive manner with humans with whom they may vehemently disagree, because the alternative could be killing humans over misunderstandings.
===Part I. The media and political economy===
# [[/The impact of the media on political economy since the time of the Pharaohs/]] describes how hierarchical societies prior to [[w:James VI and I|King James of the King James bible]] were divided between those who fought, prayed, and worked. It was the responsibility of those who prayed to convince those who worked to live in poverty while giving increasing shares of what they produced so those who fought and prayed could live lives of leisure and opulence. During the reign of King James, pamphlets and newspapers began to compete with the church for helping commoners understand their roles in society. This produced the Industrial Revolution and modern democracies. Media consolidation since World War II gradually slowed and then reversed this trend.
# [[/Fox, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and our future/]] describes the unprecedented performance of the US political economy during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt (FDR), insisting that much of what FDR achieved can be replicated, giving a media system that supports honest discussion of the available evidence.
# [[/Media consolidation, social media, and political polarization/]] (Combine from McChesney and Nichols discussing the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act]] of 1792 with [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]], the section on "[[v:Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government#Threats from social media|Threats from social media]]" in "[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]], and the comments by [[v:Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that, "the shortest path to a click is anger or hate."]].
===Part II. The media and war===
# [[/Deterrence without threat/]]: The historical record is clear: Nations that have prepared for war often got war, not peace. This happens for at least two reasons: First, some leaders cannot resist the temptation to use force inappropriately, sometimes clandestinely provoking others to do things that are then denounced as "unprovoked"; sometimes the media environment pushes them to do such. Alternatively, potential adversaries may believe -- or claim -- that you are actually preparing a first strike, and they must move preemptively or lose their ability to retaliate adequately. We can avoid these possibilities with three supportive policies: [a] Legislation that ''prohibits'' projecting force beyond our own borders. [b] Civilian-based defense training in nonviolent noncooperation like what helped Denmark survive Nazi occupation with minimal damage. And [c] a media system that penalizes rather than encourages a bellicose foreign policy.
# [[/Responding to a nuclear attack/]] (draft in [[Responding to a nuclear attack]]. Add a discussion of Russia's Poseidon nuclear powered unmanned underwater vehicle, armed with nuclear weapons. With that, cite the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s". Also add material from [[Nuclear weapons and effective defense]]).
# [[/Threats from excessive government secrecy/]] (draft in [https://sanjosepeace.org/restrict-secrecy-more-than-data-collection/ "Restrict secrecy more than data collection"], adding material from [https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/does-us-government-secrecy-threaten-national-security/ Connelly (2023) ''The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets''], [[Wikipedia:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] and [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11]].
===Part III. Climate, immigrants, education, public health, and criminal justice===
# [[/Global warming/]] [Summarize research especially on conflicts of interest of major media in honestly reporting on this issue and the research on global warming itself and activities of groups concerned about this issue. Decompose into global population times CO2 equivalents per human.]
# [[/Immigrants/]] [Summarize research documenting that [[w:Sanctuary city|sanctuary cities tend to have higher median incomes and no more crime than non-sanctuary jurisdictions]], and some studies report less crime. Moreover economists have documented that immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial, overrepresented in patent applications, and generally increasing the rate of economic growth. See, e.g., Aghion et al. (2022) ''The power of creative destruction''; Aghion shared the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with two others.]
# [[/Education/]] (draft in [[Invest in children]].)
# [[/Public health/]] [Draft in [[UN public health data]] to be revised to be consistent with Bezruchka (2023, 2025).]
# [[/Criminal justice/]] (The section on "[[w:United States incarceration rate#Editorial policies of major media|Editorial policies of major media]]" in "[[Wikipedia:United States incarceration rate]]" cites research claiming that within the range range of experience in the US political economy since 1925, the incarceration rate is uncorrelated with crime: It's a function of the public's perception of crime, and that's a function of the media.)
# [[/Substance abuse and addictive behavior/]] (Research in cited in "[[Wikipedia:War on drugs]]" insists that the US and the world would have fewer problems with substance abuse and addiction problems with 100 percent public funding for treatment programs and complete decriminalization of possession and use of retail quantities of addictive substances. We would also likely have fewer problems with immigrants, as that would make it harder for the US to intervene in the internal affairs of fohttps://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:FAQ/Editing/Edit_summaryreign countries funded off the books, as exposed in the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran–Contra affair]].)
# [[/Empower women and girls/]] [Cite research claiming that a primary restraint on population growth is empowering women and girls. Empowering women and girls is not just a matter of equity: It is also a means to reduce the threats of global warming, of increasing exposure to animal diseases and other problems that come with unrestrained population growth.]
=== Continuation ===
* [[/The evolving media literacy movement/]] to invite others to keep this book current with the evolving understanding of media literacy, how to encourage and promote it and the benefits of doing so.
==See also==
* [[Wikibooks:Antiracist Activism for Teachers and Students/Points to Consider for Teaching Anti-racism/Media Literacy In Schools]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* <!--Perry Bacon Jr. (2022-10-17) "America Should Spend Billions to Revive Local News"-->{{cite Q|Q139594786}}
* <!-- Joshua Benton (9 April 2019). "When local newspapers shrink, fewer people bother to run for mayor". Nieman Foundation for Journalism -->{{cite Q|Q63127216}}
* <!--Stephen Bezruchka (2023) Inequality Kills Us All-->{{cite Q|Q136047815}}
* <!--Stephen Bezruchka (2025) ''Born Sick in the USA''-->{{cite Q|Q138749292}}
* <!--Renée DiResta (2024) Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality-->{{cite Q|Q135107164}}
* <!--Robert Felix, Joshua A. Khavis, and Mikhail Pevzner (2024) "The effects of local newspaper closures on nonprofits’ executive compensation"-->{{cite Q|Q132730972}}
* <!--Maxim Flößer (2024-03-06) "Keine Lokalzeitung -- mehr AfD", Kontext-->{{cite Q|Q125287792}}
* <!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2018) "Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance"-->{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2024) "Wikipedia: The most democratic force on earth-->{{cite Q|Q137796922}}
* <!--Spencer Graves and Bryan Bailey (2025) "We have to talk", blog at PeaceWorksKC.org-->{{cite Q|Q136126262}}
* [[d:Q138038060|Dan Hind and Spencer Graves (2025) "Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK" on Wikiversity]].
* <!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse-->{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* <!--Louis Johnston and Samuel H. Williamson, "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?" MeasuringWorth, 2026-->{{cite Q|Q56881105}}
* <!-- Min Kim, Derrald Stice, Han Stice, and Roger M. White (2021) "Stop the presses! Or wait, we might need them: Firm responses to local newspaper closures and layoffs"-->{{cite Q|Q132459373}}
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) -->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). "The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy". Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 -->{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* <!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) -->{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* <!-- Victor Pickard (2023-05-12) "Another Media System is Possible: Ripping Open the Overton Window, from Platforms to Public Broadcasting"-->{{cite Q|Q131398460}}
* <!--Neff and Pickard (2024) "Funding Democracy: Public Media and Democratic Health in 33 Countries"-->{{cite Q|Q131468289}}
* [[d:Q131398359|Victor Pickard (2020) ''Democracy without journalism? : confronting the misinformation society'' (Oxford U. Pr.)]].
* [[d:Q138037937|Dean Starkman and Spencer Graves (2025) "Dean Starkman and the watchdog that didn't bark anglais" on Wikiversity]].
* [[d:Q134715465|Nikki Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022) "How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption", ''SSRN Electronic Journal'']].
* [[d:Q61013892|Horacio Verbitsky (1997) ''Un mundo sin periodistas'' (in Spanish: A world without journalists; Editorial Sudamericana)]].
[[Category:Communication]]
[[Category:Political science]]
[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Education]]
[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
[[Category:Freedom and abundance]]
<!--
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Category_Review
-->
aj7xxfutfhj7fk87b3at37538ixlv4n
Cortext/Trainings/2026-04-27 UFBA
0
327752
2811701
2806988
2026-05-27T14:23:27Z
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text/x-wiki
= ''Qualitative-quantitative mixed methods with the Cortext Manager ; methodological background and hands-on practice'' =
[[File:Cortext_logo.svg|center|350x350px]]
<div style="text-align: center; font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em">
Cortext training course<br/>
Institute of Computing,
Federal University of Bahia (IC-UFBA)<br/>
27, 28, 29 April 2026
</div>
The Cortext Platform is a research infrastructure hosted by the LISIS research unit at Gustave Eiffel University the University (UGE) in France that promotes advanced qualitative-quantitative mixed methods to support researchers on social sciences and humanities.
The Cortext training course is an initiative by the LISIS research unit in collaboration with the Institute of Computing (IC) and Institute of Social Sciences (ISC) from Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil. The course comprises 2,5 days of theorical and practical training on qualitative and quantitative text data analysis using the Cortext Platform.
This course aims at providing methodological and practical skills to analyze scientometric and bibliometric data using Cortext Manager tools and methods, including a quick overview about text analysis, introduction to the Cortext Manager, and data collection from OpenAlex, Scopus and Web os Science (WOS).
* '''Dates:''' 27, 28, 29 April 2026
* '''Location:''' Institute of Computing (IC-UFBA), Campus Ondina (Smart Class IV room)
* '''Target audience:''' UFBA community, especially PhD students, postdoc and researchers
* '''Teacher:'''
** Lionel Villard (UGE, Cortext)
* '''Organizing Committee:'''
** Joenio Marques da Costa (UGE, Cortext, IC-UFBA)
** Claudia Gama (IC-UFBA)
** Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento (ISC-UFBA)
* The course will be offered in '''english'''
** Participants will get certification of attending at the end
{{center|1=<span style="font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em">[https://grist.numerique.gouv.fr/o/docs/forms/hEZ5aSBf5JEEH2JV2HpnGr/4 Register now]</span>}}
== Program ==
=== 27 April 2026, Monday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Welcome'''
** Introduction: objectives of the training
** Presentation of Cortext platform: context, organization and features
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Setting up Cortext Manager'''
** How to access Cortext Manager
** Principles of use
** Setting up the training session project
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 17h00: Live demonstration'''
** Presentation of the demonstration subject: worldwide researches on climate change adaptation
** How to design QUERY to delineated a perimeter for the data collection
** Upload and manage the corpus in Cortext Manager
** Explore, how to extract knowledge, how to create lists, how to set up scripts
=== 28 April 2026, Tuesday ===
* '''09h30 - 12h00: Learning by doing'''
** Groups constitution based on the type of data and/or the type of subjects of the participants
** Hands on session supported by the Cortext treaners
** Data preprocessing > Upload > Data analysis > Results > Reports
** ''Don't not worry, we can also provide an example: positioning researches driven by researchers located in Brazil in the worldwide landscape on the subject of climate change adaptation''
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 14h30: Insights metrics and algorithms'''
** Distribution and basic statistics
** Metrics of similarities in network
** Network analysis and contingency Matrix
* '''14h30 - 17h00: Setting up presentations'''
** Preparing the groups and the participants restitution'
=== 29 April 2026, Wednesday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Restitutions'''
** Groups presentations
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Final remarks'''
** Recap, feedback, discussions
== Online Resources ==
* Cortext site web: https://www.cortext.net
* Access to Cortext Manager: https://managerv2.cortext.net
* Repository including all the training materials: https://docs.cortext.net/trainings/cortext-ufba-2026/
== Organizing Committee ==
* '''Joenio Marques da Costa''': Joenio is a software engineer at the Cortext Manager project, working to ensure the sustainability of the platform. He is a currently PhD student at PGCOMP UFBA, researching software ecosystem sustainability and evolution. He also nurtures a strong link with the free software communities and Debian project - https://joenio.me/about.
* '''Lionel Villard''': Lionel is the head of Cortext Manager and a senior lecturer at ESIEE-Paris, researcher at LISIS laboratory, his research focuses on data mining, scientometrics and data visualizations, dealing with geographical agglomeration and knowledge dynamics - https://www.here-and-there-pics.me/pages/lionel-villard-about.
* '''Claudia Gama''': Claudia is a lecturer at IC-UFBa. She holds a PhD in Interactive Learning Systems from the University of Sussex (2004). She is interest in applied computing in society with emphasis on understanding the impact of technology on people and communities.
* '''Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento''': LABHDUFBA (ICTI/UFBA).
== Institutional Partners ==
* [[wikipedia:Gustave Eiffel University|Gustave Eiffel University (UGE)]]
* [[wikipedia:Federal University of Bahia|Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)]]
[[pt:Cortext/Treinamentos/2026-04-27_UFBA]]
k4mn14sh5bp4c51y3gol5dt87zijrka
2811702
2811701
2026-05-27T14:24:37Z
Joenio
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2811702
wikitext
text/x-wiki
= ''Qualitative-quantitative mixed methods with the Cortext Manager ; methodological background and hands-on practice'' =
[[File:Cortext_logo.svg|center|350x350px]]
<div style="text-align: center; font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em">
Cortext training course<br/>
Institute of Computing,
Federal University of Bahia (IC-UFBA)<br/>
27, 28, 29 April 2026
</div>
The Cortext Platform is a research infrastructure hosted by the LISIS research unit at Gustave Eiffel University the University (UGE) in France that promotes advanced qualitative-quantitative mixed methods to support researchers on social sciences and humanities.
The Cortext training course is an initiative by the LISIS research unit in collaboration with the Institute of Computing (IC) and Institute of Social Sciences (ISC) from Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil. The course comprises 2,5 days of theorical and practical training on qualitative and quantitative text data analysis using the Cortext Platform.
This course aims at providing methodological and practical skills to analyze scientometric and bibliometric data using Cortext Manager tools and methods, including a quick overview about text analysis, introduction to the Cortext Manager, and data collection from OpenAlex, Scopus and Web os Science (WOS).
* '''Dates:''' 27, 28, 29 April 2026
* '''Location:''' Institute of Computing (IC-UFBA), Campus Ondina (Smart Class IV room)
* '''Target audience:''' UFBA community, especially PhD students, postdoc and researchers
* '''Teacher:'''
** Lionel Villard (UGE, Cortext)
* '''Organizing Committee:'''
** Joenio Marques da Costa (UGE, Cortext, IC-UFBA)
** Claudia Gama (IC-UFBA)
** Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento (ISC-UFBA)
* The course will be offered in '''english'''
** Participants will get certification of attending at the end
{{center|1=<span style="font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em; text-decoration: line-through">[https://grist.numerique.gouv.fr/o/docs/forms/hEZ5aSBf5JEEH2JV2HpnGr/4 Register now]</span>}}
== Program ==
=== 27 April 2026, Monday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Welcome'''
** Introduction: objectives of the training
** Presentation of Cortext platform: context, organization and features
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Setting up Cortext Manager'''
** How to access Cortext Manager
** Principles of use
** Setting up the training session project
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 17h00: Live demonstration'''
** Presentation of the demonstration subject: worldwide researches on climate change adaptation
** How to design QUERY to delineated a perimeter for the data collection
** Upload and manage the corpus in Cortext Manager
** Explore, how to extract knowledge, how to create lists, how to set up scripts
=== 28 April 2026, Tuesday ===
* '''09h30 - 12h00: Learning by doing'''
** Groups constitution based on the type of data and/or the type of subjects of the participants
** Hands on session supported by the Cortext treaners
** Data preprocessing > Upload > Data analysis > Results > Reports
** ''Don't not worry, we can also provide an example: positioning researches driven by researchers located in Brazil in the worldwide landscape on the subject of climate change adaptation''
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 14h30: Insights metrics and algorithms'''
** Distribution and basic statistics
** Metrics of similarities in network
** Network analysis and contingency Matrix
* '''14h30 - 17h00: Setting up presentations'''
** Preparing the groups and the participants restitution'
=== 29 April 2026, Wednesday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Restitutions'''
** Groups presentations
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Final remarks'''
** Recap, feedback, discussions
== Online Resources ==
* Cortext site web: https://www.cortext.net
* Access to Cortext Manager: https://managerv2.cortext.net
* Repository including all the training materials: https://docs.cortext.net/trainings/cortext-ufba-2026/
== Organizing Committee ==
* '''Joenio Marques da Costa''': Joenio is a software engineer at the Cortext Manager project, working to ensure the sustainability of the platform. He is a currently PhD student at PGCOMP UFBA, researching software ecosystem sustainability and evolution. He also nurtures a strong link with the free software communities and Debian project - https://joenio.me/about.
* '''Lionel Villard''': Lionel is the head of Cortext Manager and a senior lecturer at ESIEE-Paris, researcher at LISIS laboratory, his research focuses on data mining, scientometrics and data visualizations, dealing with geographical agglomeration and knowledge dynamics - https://www.here-and-there-pics.me/pages/lionel-villard-about.
* '''Claudia Gama''': Claudia is a lecturer at IC-UFBa. She holds a PhD in Interactive Learning Systems from the University of Sussex (2004). She is interest in applied computing in society with emphasis on understanding the impact of technology on people and communities.
* '''Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento''': LABHDUFBA (ICTI/UFBA).
== Institutional Partners ==
* [[wikipedia:Gustave Eiffel University|Gustave Eiffel University (UGE)]]
* [[wikipedia:Federal University of Bahia|Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)]]
[[pt:Cortext/Treinamentos/2026-04-27_UFBA]]
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2811703
2811702
2026-05-27T14:25:27Z
Joenio
3052292
2811703
wikitext
text/x-wiki
= ''Qualitative-quantitative mixed methods with the Cortext Manager ; methodological background and hands-on practice'' =
[[File:Cortext_logo.svg|center|350x350px]]
<div style="text-align: center; font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em">
Cortext training course<br/>
Institute of Computing,
Federal University of Bahia (IC-UFBA)<br/>
27, 28, 29 April 2026
</div>
The Cortext Platform is a research infrastructure hosted by the LISIS research unit at Gustave Eiffel University the University (UGE) in France that promotes advanced qualitative-quantitative mixed methods to support researchers on social sciences and humanities.
The Cortext training course is an initiative by the LISIS research unit in collaboration with the Institute of Computing (IC) and Institute of Social Sciences (ISC) from Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil. The course comprises 2,5 days of theorical and practical training on qualitative and quantitative text data analysis using the Cortext Platform.
This course aims at providing methodological and practical skills to analyze scientometric and bibliometric data using Cortext Manager tools and methods, including a quick overview about text analysis, introduction to the Cortext Manager, and data collection from OpenAlex, Scopus and Web os Science (WOS).
* '''Dates:''' 27, 28, 29 April 2026
* '''Location:''' Institute of Computing (IC-UFBA), Campus Ondina (Smart Class IV room)
* '''Target audience:''' UFBA community, especially PhD students, postdoc and researchers
* '''Teacher:'''
** Lionel Villard (UGE, Cortext)
* '''Organizing Committee:'''
** Joenio Marques da Costa (UGE, Cortext, IC-UFBA)
** Claudia Gama (IC-UFBA)
** Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento (ISC-UFBA)
* The course will be offered in '''english'''
** Participants will get certification of attending at the end
{{center|1=<span style="font-size:1.5em; margin-top:0.5em; text-decoration: line-through">[https://grist.numerique.gouv.fr/o/docs/forms/prdoSSDvnoceRrdCiqk9nA/4 Register now]</span>}}
== Program ==
=== 27 April 2026, Monday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Welcome'''
** Introduction: objectives of the training
** Presentation of Cortext platform: context, organization and features
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Setting up Cortext Manager'''
** How to access Cortext Manager
** Principles of use
** Setting up the training session project
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 17h00: Live demonstration'''
** Presentation of the demonstration subject: worldwide researches on climate change adaptation
** How to design QUERY to delineated a perimeter for the data collection
** Upload and manage the corpus in Cortext Manager
** Explore, how to extract knowledge, how to create lists, how to set up scripts
=== 28 April 2026, Tuesday ===
* '''09h30 - 12h00: Learning by doing'''
** Groups constitution based on the type of data and/or the type of subjects of the participants
** Hands on session supported by the Cortext treaners
** Data preprocessing > Upload > Data analysis > Results > Reports
** ''Don't not worry, we can also provide an example: positioning researches driven by researchers located in Brazil in the worldwide landscape on the subject of climate change adaptation''
* '''12h00 - 13h00: Lunch break'''
* '''13h00 - 14h30: Insights metrics and algorithms'''
** Distribution and basic statistics
** Metrics of similarities in network
** Network analysis and contingency Matrix
* '''14h30 - 17h00: Setting up presentations'''
** Preparing the groups and the participants restitution'
=== 29 April 2026, Wednesday ===
* '''09h30 - 11h00: Restitutions'''
** Groups presentations
* '''11h00 - 12h00: Final remarks'''
** Recap, feedback, discussions
== Online Resources ==
* Cortext site web: https://www.cortext.net
* Access to Cortext Manager: https://managerv2.cortext.net
* Repository including all the training materials: https://docs.cortext.net/trainings/cortext-ufba-2026/
== Organizing Committee ==
* '''Joenio Marques da Costa''': Joenio is a software engineer at the Cortext Manager project, working to ensure the sustainability of the platform. He is a currently PhD student at PGCOMP UFBA, researching software ecosystem sustainability and evolution. He also nurtures a strong link with the free software communities and Debian project - https://joenio.me/about.
* '''Lionel Villard''': Lionel is the head of Cortext Manager and a senior lecturer at ESIEE-Paris, researcher at LISIS laboratory, his research focuses on data mining, scientometrics and data visualizations, dealing with geographical agglomeration and knowledge dynamics - https://www.here-and-there-pics.me/pages/lionel-villard-about.
* '''Claudia Gama''': Claudia is a lecturer at IC-UFBa. She holds a PhD in Interactive Learning Systems from the University of Sussex (2004). She is interest in applied computing in society with emphasis on understanding the impact of technology on people and communities.
* '''Leonardo Fernandes Nascimento''': LABHDUFBA (ICTI/UFBA).
== Institutional Partners ==
* [[wikipedia:Gustave Eiffel University|Gustave Eiffel University (UGE)]]
* [[wikipedia:Federal University of Bahia|Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)]]
[[pt:Cortext/Treinamentos/2026-04-27_UFBA]]
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Intuitive Calculus
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2026-05-27T21:32:19Z
Atcovi
276019
/* 5/23/2026 [Logarithmics] */
2811732
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
{{Notice|1=
'''5/14/2026''' - STOPPING POINT<br>
To watch for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKoo_nQSts (6:01)
To read for later: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/triumphs_calculus/article/1011/&path_info=M05_Fermats_Method_for_Finding_Maxima_and_Minima_2022_05_17.pdf&cs=1&hl=en-US&biw=1280&bih=631.3333740234375}}
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maxima occurs). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithmics] ===
[insert logarithmics introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithmics are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithmics and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* Definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
* Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
lfa8yprza2kx25sxw4btf14vhva25r8
2811733
2811732
2026-05-27T21:33:02Z
Atcovi
276019
/* 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] */ rewording
2811733
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
{{Notice|1=
'''5/14/2026''' - STOPPING POINT<br>
To watch for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKoo_nQSts (6:01)
To read for later: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/triumphs_calculus/article/1011/&path_info=M05_Fermats_Method_for_Finding_Maxima_and_Minima_2022_05_17.pdf&cs=1&hl=en-US&biw=1280&bih=631.3333740234375}}
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maxima occurs). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithmics] ===
[insert logarithmics introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithmics are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithmics and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
* Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
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/* What does b - (x1 + x2) = 0 represent? */ rewording
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{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
{{Notice|1=
'''5/14/2026''' - STOPPING POINT<br>
To watch for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKoo_nQSts (6:01)
To read for later: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/triumphs_calculus/article/1011/&path_info=M05_Fermats_Method_for_Finding_Maxima_and_Minima_2022_05_17.pdf&cs=1&hl=en-US&biw=1280&bih=631.3333740234375}}
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithmics] ===
[insert logarithmics introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithmics are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithmics and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
* Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
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{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
{{Notice|1=
'''5/14/2026''' - STOPPING POINT<br>
To watch for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKoo_nQSts (6:01)
To read for later: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/triumphs_calculus/article/1011/&path_info=M05_Fermats_Method_for_Finding_Maxima_and_Minima_2022_05_17.pdf&cs=1&hl=en-US&biw=1280&bih=631.3333740234375}}
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] ===
[insert logarithms introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithms are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithms and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
* Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
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/* 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] */
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{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
{{Notice|1=
'''5/14/2026''' - STOPPING POINT<br>
To watch for later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKoo_nQSts (6:01)
To read for later: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/triumphs_calculus/article/1011/&path_info=M05_Fermats_Method_for_Finding_Maxima_and_Minima_2022_05_17.pdf&cs=1&hl=en-US&biw=1280&bih=631.3333740234375}}
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] ===
[insert logarithms introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithms are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithms and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
So instead of thinking of the hourly rate for a cashier as a set number (let's say $16/hr), we should think of the $16/hr as a ''constant'' function. This is going to pay off in calculus as we deal with rates of changes that are not always set in stone, or constant. For example, measuring a horse's total speed in a [[w:Horse_racing|horse race]] is not going to be a constant, set number - it will be a function with a constantly changing rate. For this specific example:
* '''x''' = time
* '''y''' = speed
* '''dy/dx''' = rate of change of horse's speed with respect to time (think of it as: "rate of change of [y] in respect to [x]").
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
5ve9hhvybn295egug8rpxa6609lkw9a
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/* Adequality */ remove
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text/x-wiki
{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] ===
[insert logarithms introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithms are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithms and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is as a microphone picks up an increasing noise, the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the nise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
So instead of thinking of the hourly rate for a cashier as a set number (let's say $16/hr), we should think of the $16/hr as a ''constant'' function. This is going to pay off in calculus as we deal with rates of changes that are not always set in stone, or constant. For example, measuring a horse's total speed in a [[w:Horse_racing|horse race]] is not going to be a constant, set number - it will be a function with a constantly changing rate. For this specific example:
* '''x''' = time
* '''y''' = speed
* '''dy/dx''' = rate of change of horse's speed with respect to time (think of it as: "rate of change of [y] in respect to [x]").
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
3y4z90he9ln3m5r9mwtor2q5cnw00cp
2811739
2811738
2026-05-27T21:55:12Z
Atcovi
276019
/* 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] */ rewording
2811739
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] ===
[insert logarithms introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithms are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithms and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is the following: as a microphone picks up a noise that increases in volume (perhaps the source of the sound is moving closer to the microphone), the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the noise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
So instead of thinking of the hourly rate for a cashier as a set number (let's say $16/hr), we should think of the $16/hr as a ''constant'' function. This is going to pay off in calculus as we deal with rates of changes that are not always set in stone, or constant. For example, measuring a horse's total speed in a [[w:Horse_racing|horse race]] is not going to be a constant, set number - it will be a function with a constantly changing rate. For this specific example:
* '''x''' = time
* '''y''' = speed
* '''dy/dx''' = rate of change of horse's speed with respect to time (think of it as: "rate of change of [y] in respect to [x]").
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
7k7d87xmaip7savzhfk43bbzj2g3lkz
2811772
2811739
2026-05-28T11:39:10Z
Atcovi
276019
/* 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] */
2811772
wikitext
text/x-wiki
{{mathematics}}'''<u>Book</u>''': ''Infinite Powers'' by Steven Strogatz (ISBN#: 1328879984){{tertiary}}
{{Notes}}
{{juststarted}}
{{contrib-creator|[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]}}
== Notes ==
[[File:Parts of Parabola.svg|thumb|A diagram of a parabola.]]
=== 4/11/2026 (Archimedes and the method of exhaustion) ===
* Archimedes and figuring out the ''quadratic'' (or computation of the area) of a parabolic segment. This is just basically spamming smaller triangles into a [[parabola]] to equal one big triangle (<math display="inline">=1</math>) in order to figure out the area.
Total area of a parabolic segment from Archimedes findings: <math display="inline">1</math> + <math display="inline">1/4</math> + <math display="inline">1/16</math> + <math display="inline">1/64</math> ← geometric series.
^each term is <math display="inline">1/4</math> of the term preceding it as the daughter triangles always contribute a total of 1 quarter as much area as their parents do.
Archimedes proved that <math display="inline">a = 4/3</math> through a '''double reductio ad absurdum'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=36}}</ref> using the '''method of exhaustion''', an analytical way of finding a result<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=102}}</ref>.
=== 5/2/2026 (Johannes Kepler) ===
==== [[w:Johannes_Kepler|Johannes Kepler]] ====
# '''[[w:Elliptic orbit|Elliptical orbits]]'''
#*'''Ellipse''': Plane curve where the sum of distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points (foci) is constant. For example, a circle is a type of ellipse. A circle is a set of points where distance from a given point (aka its center) is constant. Kepler stated that all planets follow an elliptical orbit.
# '''[https://www.socratica.com/pages/keplers-second-law-of-motion Equal Areas in Equal Times]'''
#*'''Formula''': Time (P<sub>1</sub> → P<sub>2</sub>) = Time (P<sub>3</sub> → P<sub>4</sub>) [their sectors have equal areas]
# '''Third Law and the Sacred Frenzy'''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=84}}</ref>
#*<math display="inline">T</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">a</math><sup>3</sup>
#**<math display="inline">T</math> = how long it takes for a planet to go around the sun just once.
#**<math display="inline">A</math> = avg. of the planet's nearest and farthest distance from the sun.
=== 5/14/2026 (Calculus definitions, introduction to adequality) ===
* '''[[w:Differential_calculus|Differential calculus]]:''' cuts complicated problems into infinitely many simpler pieces. Ex, derivatives.
* '''[[w:Integral_calculus|Integral calculus]]''': puts the pieces back together again to solve the original problem. Ex, integrals.
[[File:Tangent function animation.gif|thumb|The derivative at different points of a differentiable function. In this case, the derivative is equal to <math>\sin \left(x^2\right) + 2x^2 \cos\left(x^2\right)</math>.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-04-13|title=Derivative|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derivative&oldid=1348562692|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cartesian-coordinate-system.svg|thumb|This is known as a ''Cartesian coordinate system''.|left]]
* '''[[w:Analytical_geometry|Analytical geometry]]''': Also known as Cartesian geometry, is geometry using a coordinate system (pictured towards the left). Analytical geometry is used in physics, engineering, and aviation. "Analysis" in analytic geometry is meant to be understood as a way of ''figuring out'' the results rather than proving the results<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=101}}</ref>.
==== Adequality ====
''See pages 103 to 107, which provide a breakdown of [[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]] and his concept of adequality.''
Pierre de Fermat's concept of adequality (meaning ''approximate equality''<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-18|title=Number Theory: An Approach Through History from Hammurapi to Legendre|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Number_Theory:_An_Approach_Through_History_from_Hammurapi_to_Legendre&oldid=1246411217|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>) was a way of finding the maxima, minima, tangents, and other problems in calculus. For example, two nearly equal values, [let's say] ''a'' and ''b'' at the maximum of a parabola, are used to find the maxima of a parabola through a small 'nudge' in the variable<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=106}}</ref>.
Fermat's ideas eventually led to the concept of derivatives (illustrated towards the right) in modern calculus.
=== 5/16/2026 (continuation of Fermat's adequality) ===
[[File:Week 9 Fermat and Adequality Proto-Calculus Notes - Part 1.jpg|thumb|438x438px|'''Figure 1.''' Written statements [in all caps] are as follows (from the top-down): 1. WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM VALUE? 2. TWO NEARBY X-VALUES, X<sub>1</sub> AND X<sub>2</sub>, PRODUCE ALMOST THE SAME OUTPUT; l = left side, r = right side in the hill diagram]]
==== What does b - (x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>) = 0 represent? ====
b = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub>
Reference the hill diagram in '''Figure 1''' (you may have to open the file and zoom in). X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> represent two nearby points on both sides of the "hill" which both produce almost the same output.
For both of the values, adding both X<sub>1</sub> and X<sub>2</sub> would equal <math display="inline">b</math> (the total length). B = x<sub>1</sub> + x<sub>2</sub> would come out to B = 2x, with '''x = b/2''' (where the maximum is). This is the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would ideally give the highest value for <math display="inline">c</math> (see below).
==== Purpose of bx - x<sup>2</sup> = c? ====
What is the purpose of the equation (see https://youtube.com/AOKoo_nQSts?si=1RfOYMAHm-Ll5sVT&t [minute 4:17] for context/writing of this equation): <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>?
If we take a line (total = <math display="inline">b</math>), and make a cut at some point in the line (and designate the cut 'mark' as <math display="inline">x</math>), how could we figure out <math display="inline">c</math> (output produced by the equation, <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup> = <math display="inline">c</math>)?
<math display="inline">x</math> represents a portion of the line, while <math display="inline">b - x</math> represents the remaining portion of the line. The product of both <math display="inline">x</math> and <math display="inline">b - x</math> is <math display="inline">bx</math> - <math display="inline">x</math><sup>2</sup>. The goal is to find the value of <math display="inline">x</math> that would produce the highest <math display="inline">c</math> value.
=== 5/20/2026 [Fermet's Theorem] ===
* Pages 107 to 113 detail Fermat's concept of adequality and other mathematical findings led to the decompression of fingerprint files for the FBI in the 1990s. Read [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/400027 this] for more about the FBI's decision to digitalize fingerprint files and the process behind it.
* ''[expand upon Fermat's optimization? Use the PDF?]''
* '''Fermet's Theorem =''' If a real-valued function, <math>f(x)</math>, is differentiable<ref>function has a well-defined, smooth slope at every single point</ref> in an interval <math>(a, b)</math> and <math>f(x)</math> has a maximum OR minimum at <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math>, then <math display="inline">f'(c)</math> = <math display="inline">0</math><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/fermat-s-method-for-finding-maxima-and-minima-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-calculus-1-students|title=Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima: A Mini-Primary Source Project for Calculus 1 Students {{!}} Mathematical Association of America|website=old.maa.org|access-date=2026-05-21}}</ref>.
** Explanation of ∈: essentially "belongs to/inside/a member of." For example, <math>c</math> ∈ <math>(a, b)</math> → "the number c<math></math> is inside the interval between <math>a</math> and <math>b</math>".
=== 5/23/2026 [Logarithms] ===
[insert logarithms introduction/lesson]
log(''a'' x ''b'') = log ''a'' + log ''b''
Multiply two numbers together, take the log = answer is the SUM of their individual logs. Logarithms are like an "undo" tool. They "undo" the mathematical operations done by exponential functions, and the relationship between logarithms and exponential functions is reciprocal.
* ''e'' = 2.71828... similar to π in circles<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=136}}</ref>. See [https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e (mathematical constant)] (simple-wiki) & [[w:Natural logarithm]] (wikipedia). The rate of change of ''e''<sup>x</sup> is ''e''<sup>x</sup>. The rate of exponential growth is proportional to the function's current level<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=137}}</ref>. An example to illustrate this is the following: as a microphone picks up a noise that increases in volume (perhaps the source of the sound is moving closer to the microphone), the loudspeaker amplifies the noise at a constant, exponential rate ''in proportional'' (NOT equal) to the noise it is picking up through the microphone.
=== 5/27/2026 [Derivatives] ===
[[File:2020-03-25 00 08 15 A Five Cheese Pizza Hot Pocket after being heated in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|thumb|When looking at how many ''more'' calories I will consume per infinitesimally small bite of the hot pocket, we are assessing the derivative of the hot pocket's calories.
Yes, this may not be practical, but hopefully bringing food into the 'equation' will help you understand the concept of derivatives better.]]
* What is the definition of a '''derivative'''? Essentially the rate of change: ''dy/dx''. An example of a derivative is [[PlanetPhysics/Acceleration|acceleration]]. Another example of a derivative is the following question: how many calories will I consume per bite of a hot pocket (each bite being infinitesimally small)?
The question posed by the book is as follows: ''how do we define the slope when the slope keeps changing?''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infinite powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe|last=Strogatz|first=Steven|date=2020|publisher=Mariner Books ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-1-328-87998-1|edition=First Mariner books edition|location=Boston New York|page=143}}</ref>
Shifting our mindset from [[Speak Math Now!|algebra]]: In calculus, the rate of change is ''not'' constant, as the IV changes (and is therefore regarded as a '''function'''). We go from Δy/Δx [set rate of change] → ''dy/dx'' [infinitesimally tiny, varied changes].
So instead of thinking of the hourly rate for a cashier as a set number (let's say $16/hr), we should think of the $16/hr as a ''constant'' function. This is going to pay off in calculus as we deal with rates of changes that are not always 'set in stone', or constant. For example, measuring a horse's total speed in a [[w:Horse_racing|horse race]] is not going to be a constant, set number - it will be a function with a constantly changing rate. For this specific example:
* '''x''' = time
* '''y''' = speed
* '''dy/dx''' = rate of change of horse's speed with respect to time (think of it as: "rate of change of [y] in respect to [x]").
== Wikipedia/Study Links ==
[[w:Archimedes|'''Archimedes''']]
* [[w:Approximations_of_pi|approximations of pi]]
* quadrature (computation of area) of a parabolic segment
* [[w:Archimedes_Palimpsest|''Archimedes Palimpsest'']]
* [https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Lever/LeverLaw.html Archimedes' Law of the Lever]
'''[[w:Pierre_de_Fermat|Pierre de Fermat]]'''
* [https://old.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Barnett_TRIUMPHS_MiniPSPs/MiniPSP_FermatsMethod_2023_02_20.pdf ''Fermat’s Method for Finding Maxima and Minima'']- Kenneth M Monks (2023)
'''Other'''
* [[w:Glossary_of_mathematical_symbols|Glossary of mathematical symbols]]
== See Also ==
* [[User:Addemf/sandbox/Who Invented Calculus?]]
== References/Sources ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Atcovi's Work]]
[[Category:Calculus]]
iy7qfqkl1s0eqy7hn7o6yddtk0s1rfg
Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship/Atcovi
4
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2811751
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2026-05-27T23:22:34Z
Codename Noreste
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/* Voting */ Formatting comment. ([[mw:c:Special:MyLanguage/User:JWBTH/CD|CD]])
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=== {{User|Atcovi}} ===
Hello to the Wikiversity community! I’m currently running for bureaucratship on the project. I’ve been part of the Wikiversity community since 2010 (at the age of 7, though not exactly sure I knew what I was doing back then…) and I’ve served as an administrator on the project since June 2021 (see my request from back then [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Custodianship/Atcovi5|here]]). I’ve also served as an English Wikibooks administrator since March 2015, a MediaWiki administrator since 2017, and held other roles previously on the Wikimedia Projects (including administrator rights on Meta Wiki and global sysopship).
I hope to continue my personal projects (see [[User:Atcovi/Works|this]] for some of these projects) and ensure that content on Wikiversity adheres to Wikiversity guidelines/policies. This includes removing/managing pseudoscientific content masquerading as established science, as well as other content that violates Wikiversity’s learning principles and guidelines.
I'm more than happy to take up additional responsibilities to better serve the community, and I hope my past experiences in trusted positions can demonstrate my ability to handle higher responsibilities.
Thanks! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 14:19, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
==== Questions ====
*{{ping|Atcovi}} Please briefly describe what you propose to do with bureaucrat userrights. <!-- Template:Unsigned --><small class="autosigned">— Preceding [[Wikiversity:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Bluerasberry|Bluerasberry]] ([[User talk:Bluerasberry#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bluerasberry|contribs]]) </small> 19:56, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
*:Thank you for your question. My main usage of the bureaucrat rights would be to grant user rights when requested, and when community consensus has been established to grant said rights (custodianship, bureaucratship & interface admin are the main rights that come to mind that are specific to the bureaucrat role). I'm mainly offering myself for bureaucratship as Wikiversity is, generally, in need of more active custodians and bureaucrats, and I intend to be active enough for the foreseeable future to serve the community in this role (in addition to being a custodian). —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 21:59, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
==== Comments ====
==== Voting ====
*{{support}} Trusted and helpful user who has shown good judgement. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (<span style="color:grey">ko'''a'''<span style="color:black">v</span>f</span>)]]<span style="color:red">❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯</span> 15:02, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} per the reasoning, Wikiversity could probably have more custodians and bureaucrats available. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 15:17, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} A trusted contributor to Wikiversity, custodian here for ~5 years, admin experience/roles on other wiki projects without any notable issues. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 21:39, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 23:24, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
[[Category:Nominations for Bureaucratship|Atcovi]]
* {{support}} Seen your posts around, seem like you have a passion and you know what you are doing. [[User:IanVG|IanVG]] ([[User talk:IanVG|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/IanVG|contribs]]) 21:43, 14 May 2026 (UTC)
*{{Oppose}} This user has been overzealous, narrow minded, and exhibited poor judgement throughout the development of Artificial Intelligent policy for Wikiversity. They have considered AI use as monolithic, failing to acknowledge and accommodate the nuances of the many ways the new technology can be used. Before the actual problem to be addressed by the policy was identified, this user defaced dozens of pages before discussing and debating policy options. More parsimonious and viable proposals were overlooked or dismissed. Requested parameterization features of the mandated macro have yet to be provided, and the present policy draws undue attention and distracts users. These are not behaviors we want to encourage within the community. --[[User:Lbeaumont|Lbeaumont]] ([[User talk:Lbeaumont|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Lbeaumont|contribs]]) 20:11, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
*:Context for these statements for transparency: [[Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/January 2026#h-Template:AI-generated-20260126155300|Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/January 2026#h-Template:AI-generated-20260126155300]], [[Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/March 2026#h-Wikiversity:Artificial intelligence to become an official policy-20260310145400|Wikiversity:Colloquium/archives/March 2026#h-Wikiversity:Artificial intelligence to become an official policy-20260310145400]] and concerns that encouraged me to look into the matter [AI-generated content on Wikiversity] deeper include [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Inner_Development_Goals this], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Multipolar_trap this], and [[Talk:Reformation Workshop|this]]. If there are any other discussions that I may be missing, please feel free to link them here. Thanks! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 20:40, 15 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} based on my experience with them though I don't contribute much here so feel free to discard if it doesn't count. [[User:Leaderboard|Leaderboard]] ([[User talk:Leaderboard|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Leaderboard|contribs]]) 10:15, 21 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} Atcovi has made a great deal of positive contributions to our site. I'm confident that these productive improvements will continue. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] <sup>[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]</sup> 02:00, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} Understands wiki culture and will continue to be an asset to the community. -- [[User:Dave Braunschweig|Dave Braunschweig]] ([[User talk:Dave Braunschweig|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dave Braunschweig|contribs]]) 23:26, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
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Media Literacy and You/Deterrence without threat
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DavidMCEddy
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make media, not just social media, responsible for harms
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], and the public relations firm [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill & Knowlton]] had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for damages that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could be successful win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) " A Terrible Thing to Waste-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
[[Category:Media literacy]]
[[Category:Communication]]
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[[Category:War History]]
[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], and the public relations firm [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill & Knowlton]] had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for damages that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) " A Terrible Thing to Waste-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
[[Category:Media literacy]]
[[Category:Communication]]
[[Category:Political science]]
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[[Category:Psychology]]
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[[Category:War History]]
[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], and the public relations firm [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill & Knowlton]] had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for damages that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
==== National security tariffs ====
Free trade agreements supported by the [[w:World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization]] allow exemptions for national security and other objectives. [[Responding to a nuclear attack|Even a minor nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have a negative impact on the entirety of humanity]]. It might therefore be sensible for parties to the [[w:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] (TPNW) to institute gradually increasing tariffs on nuclear weapon states, not so great as to seriously impact the economy of the nation applying such tariffs but aggressive enough to gradually wean their economy from reliance on trade with nuclear-weapon states that refuse to support the TPNW.
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) " A Terrible Thing to Waste-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
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[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], and the public relations firm [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill & Knowlton]] had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for harms that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
Samuelson (2025) summarized quantitative analyses of 60 insurgencies since World War II, whose findings included the complete absence of success with counterinsurgencies without large force ratios (at least four, and most often more than ten, times the force of the insurgents) and without "providing a path toward peaceful addressing of grievances". He also noted that, "Brutality toward the civilian population ... tends to inflame the insurgency."<ref>Samuelson (2025) summarized Lawrence (2015).</ref> His analysis gave a pessimistic prognosis for the [[w:Gaza war|Gaza war]] that began 2023-10-07. His conclusions are consistent with the history of the current [[w:Russo-Ukrainian war|Russo-Ukrainian war]], the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], the [[w:Graveyard of empires|First, Second, and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-1919), the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), the US-led War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]], the 2001-2011 [[w:Iraq War|Iraq War]], and others.
A key point is that invaders often to lose unless they enter with overwhelming force like Germany in the early stages of World War II: The [[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Czechoslovaks]], [[w:Invasion of Poland|Poles]], [[w:France during World War II|French]], and others were not prepared to fight the Germans, but the [[w:Soviet Union in World War II|Soviets]] were. [[w:Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] doubtless knew that the [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Swiss]] were prepared to fight, so he attacked other countries first. While fighting the Russian invasion, [[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has developed]] military drones that are highly effective relative to the cost, as witnessed by sales of such to Gulf Arab states,<ref>Sharawi and Shapiro (2026).</ref> illustrating the point that foreign invaders often encounter vastly more resistance than they expect -- and should expect highly effective resistance if they invade a country prepared to fight on their own territory.
The rest of this section discusses weaknesses with standard deterrence theory.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
==== National security tariffs ====
Free trade agreements supported by the [[w:World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization]] allow exemptions for national security and other objectives. [[Responding to a nuclear attack|Even a minor nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have a negative impact on the entirety of humanity]]. It might therefore be sensible for parties to the [[w:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] (TPNW) to institute gradually increasing tariffs on nuclear weapon states, not so great as to seriously impact the economy of the nation applying such tariffs but aggressive enough to gradually wean their economy from reliance on trade with nuclear-weapon states that refuse to support the TPNW.
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Christopher A. Lawrence (2015) America's Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q136130919}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) " A Terrible Thing to Waste-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Douglas A. Samuelson (2025-09-26) " Assessing Israel’s Approach in Gaza"-->{{cite Q|Q138843324}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Ahmad Sharawi and Dimitriy Shapiro (2026-04-01) "Ukraine Agrees to Mutually Beneficial Defense Deals With Gulf Arab States"-->{{cite Q|Q139948808}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
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[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], and the public relations firm [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill & Knowlton]] had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for harms that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
Organizations offering training in [[w:Nonviolent resistance|nonviolent noncooperation]] include [[w:Nonviolence International|Nonviolence International]] and the [[w:Highlander Research and Education Center|Highlander Research and Education Center]].
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
Samuelson (2025) summarized quantitative analyses of 60 insurgencies since World War II, whose findings included the complete absence of success with counterinsurgencies without large force ratios (at least four, and most often more than ten, times the force of the insurgents) and without "providing a path toward peaceful addressing of grievances". He also noted that, "Brutality toward the civilian population ... tends to inflame the insurgency."<ref>Samuelson (2025) summarized Lawrence (2015).</ref> His analysis gave a pessimistic prognosis for the [[w:Gaza war|Gaza war]] that began 2023-10-07. His conclusions are consistent with the history of the current [[w:Russo-Ukrainian war|Russo-Ukrainian war]], the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], the [[w:Graveyard of empires|First, Second, and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-1919), the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), the US-led War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]], the 2001-2011 [[w:Iraq War|Iraq War]], and others.
A key point is that invaders often to lose unless they enter with overwhelming force like Germany in the early stages of World War II: The [[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Czechoslovaks]], [[w:Invasion of Poland|Poles]], [[w:France during World War II|French]], and others were not prepared to fight the Germans, but the [[w:Soviet Union in World War II|Soviets]] were. [[w:Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] doubtless knew that the [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Swiss]] were prepared to fight, so he attacked other countries first. While fighting the Russian invasion, [[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has developed]] military drones that are highly effective relative to the cost, as witnessed by sales of such to Gulf Arab states,<ref>Sharawi and Shapiro (2026).</ref> illustrating the point that foreign invaders often encounter vastly more resistance than they expect -- and should expect highly effective resistance if they invade a country prepared to fight on their own territory.
The rest of this section discusses weaknesses with standard deterrence theory.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
==== National security tariffs ====
Free trade agreements supported by the [[w:World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization]] allow exemptions for national security and other objectives. [[Responding to a nuclear attack|Even a minor nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have a negative impact on the entirety of humanity]]. It might therefore be sensible for parties to the [[w:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] (TPNW) to institute gradually increasing tariffs on nuclear weapon states, not so great as to seriously impact the economy of the nation applying such tariffs but aggressive enough to gradually wean their economy from reliance on trade with nuclear-weapon states that refuse to support the TPNW.
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Christopher A. Lawrence (2015) America's Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q136130919}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) " A Terrible Thing to Waste-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Douglas A. Samuelson (2025-09-26) " Assessing Israel’s Approach in Gaza"-->{{cite Q|Q138843324}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Ahmad Sharawi and Dimitriy Shapiro (2026-04-01) "Ukraine Agrees to Mutually Beneficial Defense Deals With Gulf Arab States"-->{{cite Q|Q139948808}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
[[Category:Media literacy]]
[[Category:Communication]]
[[Category:Political science]]
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[[Category:Psychology]]
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[[Category:War History]]
[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], "Reps. Tom Lantos and John Edward Porter, who sponsored the congressional hearings, had started a group called the Congressional Human Rights Foundation that had received $50,000 from Citizens for a Free Kuwait, as well as free office space in [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill and Knowlton]]'s Washington headquarters",<ref>Rowse (1992).</ref> and the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for harms that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
Organizations offering training in [[w:Nonviolent resistance|nonviolent noncooperation]] include [[w:Nonviolence International|Nonviolence International]] and the [[w:Highlander Research and Education Center|Highlander Research and Education Center]].
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
Samuelson (2025) summarized quantitative analyses of 60 insurgencies since World War II, whose findings included the complete absence of success with counterinsurgencies without large force ratios (at least four, and most often more than ten, times the force of the insurgents) and without "providing a path toward peaceful addressing of grievances". He also noted that, "Brutality toward the civilian population ... tends to inflame the insurgency."<ref>Samuelson (2025) summarized Lawrence (2015).</ref> His analysis gave a pessimistic prognosis for the [[w:Gaza war|Gaza war]] that began 2023-10-07. His conclusions are consistent with the history of the current [[w:Russo-Ukrainian war|Russo-Ukrainian war]], the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], the [[w:Graveyard of empires|First, Second, and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-1919), the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), the US-led War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]], the 2001-2011 [[w:Iraq War|Iraq War]], and others.
A key point is that invaders often to lose unless they enter with overwhelming force like Germany in the early stages of World War II: The [[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Czechoslovaks]], [[w:Invasion of Poland|Poles]], [[w:France during World War II|French]], and others were not prepared to fight the Germans, but the [[w:Soviet Union in World War II|Soviets]] were. [[w:Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] doubtless knew that the [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Swiss]] were prepared to fight, so he attacked other countries first. While fighting the Russian invasion, [[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has developed]] military drones that are highly effective relative to the cost, as witnessed by sales of such to Gulf Arab states,<ref>Sharawi and Shapiro (2026).</ref> illustrating the point that foreign invaders often encounter vastly more resistance than they expect -- and should expect highly effective resistance if they invade a country prepared to fight on their own territory.
The rest of this section discusses weaknesses with standard deterrence theory.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
==== National security tariffs ====
Free trade agreements supported by the [[w:World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization]] allow exemptions for national security and other objectives. [[Responding to a nuclear attack|Even a minor nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have a negative impact on the entirety of humanity]]. It might therefore be sensible for parties to the [[w:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] (TPNW) to institute gradually increasing tariffs on nuclear weapon states, not so great as to seriously impact the economy of the nation applying such tariffs but aggressive enough to gradually wean their economy from reliance on trade with nuclear-weapon states that refuse to support the TPNW.
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* <!--Philippe Aghion, Céline Antonin, and Simon Bunel (2022) The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations-->{{cite Q|Q139874218}}
* <!--Bobby Allyn (2026-03-25) "Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial-->{{cite Q|Q139572103}}
* <!--BBC (2022-08-01) "Nuclear annihilation just one miscalculation away, UN chief warns"-->{{cite Q|Q139596165|author=BBC}}
* <!--Elizabeth Black (2026-05-22) "Hegseth hosts first monthly Christian service in Pentagon"-->{{cite Q|Q139791642}}
* <!--Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488491|author= Hans Günter Brauch, ed.}}
* <!--Jan Philipp Burgard (2025-04-08) “Opinion | Europe Needs Its Own Nukes”, Politico-->{{cite Q|Q134465922}}
* <!--Clay Calvert, Dan V. Kozlowski, and Derigan Silver (2023) Mass Media Law, 22nd ed.-->{{cite Q|Q135455067}}
* <!--Francis X. Clines (1983-06-21) "Reagan says his opponents risk Central American influx"-->{{cite Q|Q139790146}}
* <!--Eliot Cohen (2022-02-23) “Arm the Ukrainians Now”, The Atlantic-->{{cite Q|Q139679796}}
* <!--Albert Fried (1997) McCarthyism: the great American Red scare: a documentary history-->{{cite Q|Q106659308}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly (2023) The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Pantheon).->{{cite Q|Q116786691}}
* <!--Matthew Connelly, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-03-14) “Does US government secrecy threaten national security?”, Radio Active Magazine on KKFI-->{{cite Q|Q125582094}}
* <!--Lisa DePaulo (2008-10-31) "Leader of the Year: Right Man, Right Time"-->{{cite Q|Q114039844}}
* <!--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1063) Mandate for Change-->{{cite Q|Q61945939}}
* <!--Daniel Ellsberg (2017) The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a nuclear war planner (Bloomsbury)-->{{cite Q|Q64226035}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2021-10-28) " Congressional Gold Medals for Assange, Hale, Barlow, Winner, Manning, Edmonds, Sterling, Drake, Snowden, Ellsberg"-->{{cite Q|Q125570226}}
* <!--Spencer Graves (2014-07-18) “Restrict secrecy more than data collection”, San José Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q106512569}}
* <!-- Serge Halimi and Serge Halimi (2023-03) "Un an après l'invasion de l'Ukraine, une débâcle du journalisme: Les médias, avant-guarde du parti de la guerre"-->{{cite Q|Q118225389}}
* <!--John Maxwell Hamilton (2020) Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda-->{{cite Q|Q137342282}}
* <!--Scott Horton (2024) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (Libertarian Inst.)00>{{cite Q|Q139565338}}
* <!--Annie Jacobsen (2024-04-10) "'Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks': How I researched the end of the world"-->{{cite Q|Q139596142}}
* <!-- Kahneman and Klein (2009) Conditions for intuitive expertise: a failure to disagree-->{{cite Q|Q35001791}}
* <!--Stanley Karnow (1983) Vietnam: A History-->{{cite Q|Q108903453}}
* <!--Christopher A. Lawrence (2015) America's Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q136130919}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2024) “Are Leaders Rational?”, Critical Review, 36:4, 465-482.-->{{cite Q|Q134487607}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow (2025) “Thinking Politically About the Anthropocene”, ch. 5 in Hans Günter Brauch, ed, Towards Rethinking Politics, Policy and Polity in the Anthropocene: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer, pp. 225-234).-->{{cite Q|Q134488569|Author=Richard Ned Lebow}}
* <!--Richard Ned Lebow, Douglas A. Samuelson, and Spencer Graves (2023-11-28), “Richard Ned Lebow on national defense including deterrence”, Radio Active Magazine-->{{cite Q|Q124351846}}
* <!-- Charles Mackay (1841/2009) Memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds-->{{cite Q|Q116897625}}
* <!-- Daniel P. Mannix (1964) The history of torture-->{{cite Q|Q116896896}}
* <!--Jane Mayer (2008) Dark side : the inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals (Doubleday)-->{{cite Q|Q1681286}}
* <!--Cybele Mayes-Osterman (2025-12-18) Pete Hegseth pushes his Christian faith in Pentagon prayer services-->{{cite Q|Q139791710}}
* <!--Tom McCarthy (2016-02-07) “Donald Trump: I’d bring back ‘a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding'”, The Guardian-->{{cite Q|Q134462630}}
* <!-- McChesney and Nichols (2010) The Death and Life of American Journalism-->{{cite Q|Q104888067}}
* <!--Stanley A. McChrystal (2013). My share of the task: A memoir (Penguin)-->{{cite Q|Q135406522}}
* <!--Katie McQue (2026-04-24) " Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case-->{{cite Q|Q139572337}}
* <!--Amalendu Misra (2015-11-19) “What does Islamic State actually want?”, The Conversation-->{{cite Q|Q134487571}}
* <!--Nick Mordowanec (2026-03-03) " Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus' 'Return'"-->{{cite Q|Q138840951}}
* <!--John Mueller (2021) The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency (Cambridge U. Pr.,)-->{{cite Q|Q113702723}}
* <!--Mueller and Graves (2023-04-06) "The Stupidity of War and the Exaggeration of Threat"-->{{cite Q|Q139789709}}
* <!--Pat Paterson (2008-02) "The Truth About Tonkin"-->{{cite Q|Q133449570}}
* <!--Steven Pinker (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Press, pp. 138-139)-->{{cite Q|Q60412312}}
* <!--Paul Romer (2009-07-31) "A Terrible Thing to Waste"-->{{cite Q|Q139676537}}
* <!--Arthur E. (Ted) Rowse (1992-09) "Kuwaitgate - killing of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers exaggerated-->{{cite Q|Q123698876}}
* <!--John P. Ruehl (2025-11-01) “Which Countries Are on the Brink of Going Nuclear?”, Peninsula Peace & Justice Center-->{{cite Q|Q134465827}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-04) “File: The trap of major rearmament: Geopolitics of peace (in French: “Dossier : Le piège du grand réarmement: Géopolitique de la paix”), Le Monde Diplomatique (https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/04/SACHS/68242).-->{{cite Q|Q134463099}}
* <!--Jeffrey Sachs (2025-02) “Jeffrey Sachs: Speech at European Parliament on February 19, 2025”: Edited transcript and YouTube video (https://newkontinent.org/jeffrey-sachs-speech-at-european-parliament-on-february-19-2025/)-->{{cite Q|Q134463038}}
* <!--Scott Sagan (1993) The limits of safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton U. Pr.)-->{{cite Q|Q136765429}}
* <!--Douglas A. Samuelson (2025-09-26) " Assessing Israel’s Approach in Gaza"-->{{cite Q|Q138843324}}
* <!--Amanda Sauer (2016-05-09) "Political Agenda Setting in Early America: The Barbary Wars"-->{{cite Q|Q139589295}}
* <!--Michael Scheuer (2004) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey’s).-->{{cite Q|Q6006645}}
* <!--Mark Schmeller (2009) "The Political Economy of Opinion: Public Credit and Concepts of Public Opinion in the Age of Federalism"-->{{cite Q|Q139589348}}
* <!--Ahmad Sharawi and Dimitriy Shapiro (2026-04-01) "Ukraine Agrees to Mutually Beneficial Defense Deals With Gulf Arab States"-->{{cite Q|Q139948808}}
* <!--Jeff Stein (2013-12-04) “The Perils of Whistle-Blowing”, Newsweek-->{{cite Q|Q63257553}}
* <!--David Swanson (2022-03-15) " 30 Nonviolent Things Russia Could Have Done and 30 Nonviolent Things Ukraine Could Do"-->{{cite Q|Q134465808}}
* <!-- Xia et al. (2022) Global food insecurity and famine ... from a nuclear war ...-->{{cite Q| Q113732668}}
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[[Category:Media Literacy and You]]
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[[File:Nukes or nonviolence.png|thumb|Nuclear war or nonviolent noncooperation?]]
:''Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. ... This is madness. We must reverse course.''
: -- [[w:António Guterres|UN Secretary General António Guterres]] (2022)<ref>Jacobsen (2024), BBC (2022).</ref>
:This book is a combination instruction manual on [[w:Media literacy|media literacy]] and an invitation to you to support collaborative / crowd-sourced research on how to improve the world's understanding of media literacy and how to accelerate its understanding and use globally for the betterment of humanity.
Part I of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' discusses "The media and political economy". Except in times of terror, massive lawlessness or war, most humans place a high priority on their financial situation, the primary focus of Part I. Part II on "The media and war" focuses on security concerns starting with this chapter on "Deterrence without threat".
== Introduction ==
Every individual and group has a right and an obligation to defend itself. Unfortunately, when most humans<ref>We distinguish here between "humans" and "people" or "persons", because under current US law, corporations are "people" and money is speech, per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Citizens United v. FEC|Citizens United v. FEC]]'' (2010) and many other judicial rulings and US law such as the [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001.</ref> think of defense, they often think of violent responses to provocations.
However, there is a growing body of research documenting
:(a) how most uses of violence are counterproductive, and
:(b) that there are usually nonviolent options to violence that would more effectively promote broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
This research is rarely discussed by major media outlets, because it would offend the "people"<ref>We put "people" in quotes in this essay, because that term includes corporations under current US law.</ref> who control most of the money for the media: Nonviolence threatens their ability to get compliance from security forces. As a result, many elites prefer to use force to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent of humanity. As discussed below, a military posture that supports projecting force beyond one’s own borders may be as likely to ''provoke'' as ''prevent'' an attack.<ref>For example, Lebow (2025) cites some of his previous work with others to support the claim that large militaries have been "more provocative than preventative in" their effects. And Lebow (2024) insists that, "Policymakers respond more instinctively than analytically in deciding that some policy is or is not in the national interest." See also Lebow et al. (2023).</ref>
This chapter outlines a 3-part strategy that research suggests would more likely lead to better outcomes for the vast majority of humans:
# Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.
# Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen.
# Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries.
We now discuss each of these briefly.
== 1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content. ==
It seems that
:''Primary drivers of every major conflict include differences between the media that the different parties find crecible.''
In a recent interview with [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] Professor Emerita of Communications Robin Andersen,<ref name=Andersen><!--Robin Andersen-->{{cite Q|Q132982358}}</ref> she agreed with this claim and added:
:''We only have enemies of our very own making.''
The media are involved in this, because:
:''The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.''<ref>In 1791 James Madison, who represented part of Virginia in the US House of Representatives 1789-1801 and later became the 4th President of the US (1809-1819), said, "Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one." Quoted from the ''[[w:National Gazette|National Gazette]]'' (published 1791-1793) by Schmeller (2009, p. 36) and Sauer (2016, p. 5). Sauer described how the American Revolutionaries, especially the first four US presidents, planted stories in newspapers to build support for how they dealt with the [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were seizing merchant ships, raiding European coastal towns and villages, and selling European captives into slavery. The first two US presidents, [[w:George Washington|Washington]] and [[w:John Adams|Adams]], used that support for protecting US shipping and citizens by paying tribute to government leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The next two presidents, [[w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] and [[w:James Madison|Madison]], convinced Congress to fund a navy and marines to fight the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]]. This included the [[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|Battle of Derna]] (April-May 1805), memorialized in the [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marines' Hymn]], which mentions actions "to the shores of Tripoli". Sauer described how the policies were sold to the public via planted stories in the different partisan newspapers.</ref>
This works because (a) virtually everyone thinks they know more than they do ([[w:Overconfidence effect|overconfidence effect]]), and (b) virtually everyone prefers information and sources consistent with preconceptions ([[w:confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]).
Also, in many, perhaps all, countries, the primary constituency for foreign and military policy is the people with foreign business interests. Many of these people also control substantial portions of the money for the media, which have too often encourage questionable and counterproductive uses of military force.<ref>If we [[w:follow the money|follow the money]], we might find that "watchdogs generally protect the people who feed them", as discussed in the 2025-09-25 interview with British journalist and media reform activist Dan Hind discussing how the British [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]].</ref>
=== Examples ===
A leader in documenting the role of the media in armed conflict is Robin Andersen,<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, 2026).</ref> but she is not alone. For example, [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] journalism professor Kareem El Damanhoury<ref name=Daman><!--Kareem El Damanhoury-->{{cite Q|Q113752441}}</ref> has compared how [[w:Gaza Strip|Gaza]] has been framed differently by [[w:Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]], the [[w:BBC|BBC]]<ref>El Damanhoury et al. (2025).</ref> and [[w:Fox News|Fox]].<ref>El Damanhoury and Saleh (2024).</ref><ref>Some of El Damanhoury's work in this regard [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza|is reviewed in a 2025-11-20 interview with him]].</ref>
==== World War I ====
Andersen's (2006) ''A Century of Media, A Century of War'' begins with a discussion of "The birth of war propaganda" in "The Great War and the Fight between Good and Evil".<ref>Andersen (2006, ch. 1)</ref>
A more detailed but compatible discussion of the media and [[w:World War I|World War I]] is given by [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell Hamilton]]. Among other things, he said: {{quote|
The first iron law of propaganda is that only the enemy does it.<ref>Hamilton (2020, p. 642). See also the [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda|2025-12-11 interview with Hamilton]].</ref>}}
[[File:MB Walker - German bayoneting children - Life - July 25, 1915.png|thumb|left|Figure 1. Stories of German soldiers impaling children on their bayonets were widely reported during the war. However, no credible evidence was found to support these claims when questions were raised after the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alleged German atrocities: Bryce report|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/spotlights/p_alleged_german.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=13 July 2014}}</ref>]]
Andersen (2006, pp. 8-9) said, {{quote|
James Bryce, the former British ambassador to the United States, ... helped prepare a sixty-one page ''Report on the Committee on alleged German Outrages'', which was translated into thirty languages and was said to be based on twelve hundred depositions ... included gruesome and titillating details of how German soldiers publicly raped Belgian girls in the marketplace at Liege and bayonetted a two-year-old child. ... [A]fter the war a Belgian commission of inquiry found no evidence for any major accusation in the report. ...
German propagandists, on the other hand, ... "bungled, because they were naïve: they thought the success of the war depended almost solely on military strategy and therefore they tended to neglect propaganda." ... Thus, when German soldiers shot some Allied nurses who had carried weapons, they admitted it openly. The Allies reported the incident as an atrocity and featured it in press propaganda. When French troops shot German nurses under similar circumstances, the Germans failed to exploit it.}}
==== Jonathan Swift 1710 ====
This is not limited to World War I. In 1710, [[w:Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] reportedly said, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift>Excerpted from a line in [[Wikiquote:Jonathan Swift]] consulted 2026-04-13.</ref>
==== The Marines' Hymn ====
The [[w:Marines' Hymn|Marine Corps Hymn]] begins, {{quote|
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.}}
The "[[w:Battle of Chapultepec|Halls of Montezuma]]" refer to the [[w:Mexican–American War|Mexican–American War]], which was fought to expand slavery first into [[w:Texas|Texas]] -- and supporters of slavery hoped that would help expand slavery further west. The "[[w:Battle of Derna (1805)|shores of Tripoli]]" were part of the [[w:Barbary Wars|Barbary Wars]], which were fought to reduce the need to pay (a) tribute to the [[w:Barbary Coast|Barbary or Berber]] states of [[w:Morocco|Morocco]], [[w:Algeria|Algeria]], [[w:Tunisia|Tunisia]], and [[w:Libya|Libya]] or (b) ransom to [[w:Barbary corsairs|Barbary pirates]], who were otherwise capturing Christians and selling them into slavery.
Did the bottom 99 percent of the US population of that time benefit? Or did these wars (and any tribute and ransom paid by the US government before the Barbary wars) constitute a hidden transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy?
A partial answer to this question is that [[w:tariff|tariff]]s on imported goods covered between 80 and 95 percent of all federal revenue up to 1860, and [[w:excise|excise taxes]] on only a few goods, such as whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar, made up nearly all the rest.<ref>See the section on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States#Historical background|Historical background]]" in the Wikipedia article on "[[w:Excise tax in the United States|Excise tax in the United States]]", accessed 2026-05-26.</ref> The money raised from taxes on income during the Civil War, visible in Figure 3 above, were apparently negligible as a portion of federal revenue during the Barbary Wars and the Mexican-American War.
==== Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: "Betray the nation or do not get elected." ====
Regarding the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], former president [[w:Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] wrote in his autobiography, which appeared in 1963 (he left the presidency 1961-01-20), that he had never communicated {{quote|
with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs [including Vietnam] who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting [leading to the defeat of the French in 1954], possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]].<ref>Eisenhower (1963, p. 372).</ref>}}
[[w:Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy]], who had been elected to the US Senate in 1946 and "experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a" speech during which he said something like, "The [[w:United States Secretary of State|State Department]] is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." McCarthy's mostly baseless claims went largely unchallenged in the media, including accusing the Democrats of "twenty years of treason" for having been allied with the Soviet Union, which took the bulk of casualties during World War II.
By the end of 1953 with (Republican) Eisenhower as president roughly 11 months, McCarthy was complaining about "''21'' years of treason", complaining that Eisenhower was not sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the communists who McCarthy claimed were in the government.<ref>Fried (1997, p. 179).</ref>
Then the French were defeated by Vietnamese communists 1954-05-07 in the [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]]. The [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|1954 Geneva Conference]], which had begun eleven days earlier, 1954-04-26, concluded 1954-07-21 with the "Geneva Accords of 1954".<ref>The [[w:Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], 1954-05-07, effectively ended the [[w:First Indochina War|French Indochina War]]. This led to the [[w:1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva accords of 1954]], officially dated 1954-07-20 but actually signed the following morning. Those accords took effect on three different dates, July 27 and August 1 and 11 in three different sectors of Vietnam. See <!--Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam-->{{cite Q|Q139676410}}</ref> Those accords called for UN-supervised elections for July of 1956, when Eisenhower would presumably be campaigning for reelection. Eisenhower doubtless knew that he might lose his bid for re-election in 1956, if the Communist Ho Chi Minh won elections in July of that year.
:''The consistent suppression of honest portrayal in the major media of that day of the perspective of anyone whom Eisenhower considered "knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs" gave him -- and his successors [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[w:Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and [[w:Richard Nixon|Nixon]] -- the choice between betraying the nation or not getting elected.''
In this environment, the [[w:Operation 34A|US initiated a series of clandestine operations against North Vietnam]] including infiltrating CIA-recruited spies and supporting attacks against North Vietnam by South Vietnamese commandos.<ref>Paterson (2008).</ref> This included a raid 1964-07-30 by South Vietnamese commandos on the island of Hòn Mê, roughly 300 km (180 miles) north of the [[w:Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone|Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone]] in the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin|Gulf of Tonkin]], covered by [[w:DESOTO patrol|US naval vessels]] patrolling in that area. Then during a dark and stormy night six days later, US naval vessels opened fire on radar snow, and President Johnson requested and received Congressional approval of the [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]; then-[[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Robert McNamara|McNamara]] claimed those attacks were "unprovoked".<ref>Karnow (1983, p. 375). See also the section on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution#Congress votes|Congress votes]]" in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref>
In this media environment, only two officials in the US Congress voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: [[w:Ernest Gruening|Ernest Gruening]] (D-AK) and [[w:Wayne Morse|Wayne Morse]] (D-OR). Gruening lost in his next primary campaign to [[w:Mike Gravel|Mike Gravel]], and Morse lost in his next general election campaign to [[w:Bob Packwood|Bob Packwood]]. These results support the previous claim that the major media give politicians the choice:
:''Betray the nation, or do not get elected.''
That resolution became the primary authorization for the US war in Vietnam until Congress ended the funding.
==== Was the Vietnam War lost in Washington or by media biases? ====
[[w:John Mueller|John Mueller]], prolific author, Professor Emeritus of international relations at [[w:Ohio State University|Ohio State University]] and Senior Fellow at the [[w:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]], said that the most effective thing the US did to win the [[w:Cold War|Cold War]] was —
:''nothing'':
Between the [[w:Fall of Saigon|Fall of Saigon]] in 1975 and the inauguration of [[w:Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan]] as President of the US, the US "went into a sort of containment funk: it effectively adopted a policy of complacency (or perhaps of appeasement) as it watched from the sidelines as the Soviet Union … opportunistically gathered a set of Third World countries into its imperial embrace: Angola in 1976, Mozambique and Ethiopia in 1977, South Yemen and Afghanistan in 1978, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979."<ref>Mueller (2021, p. 59).</ref> Nearly all became major economic and political drains on the Soviets with Afghanistan being the worst. And their Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe became a severe economic drain and psychic problem.<ref>Mueller and Graves (2023).</ref>
President Reagan, inaugurated 1981-01-20, had a very different vision of the role of the US in foreign relations from his predecessor, [[w:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]]. In 1983-06-21 Reagan insisted, "We cannot permit the Soviet-Cuban-Nicaraguan axis to take over Central America", because the consequences would include "a tidal wave of refugees ... 'feet people' ... swarming into our country."<ref>Clines (1983).</ref>
Other sources<ref>e.g., Andersen (2006, Part II).</ref> insist the opposite, that the vast majority of deaths in Central America during the Reagan years were poor humans petitioning nonviolently for a redress of grievances, suppressed by terrorist / death squads supported by the Reagan administration largely in violation of laws passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. On 1986-10-05 [[w:Corporate Air Services HPF821|a Nicaraguan soldier with a surface to air missile shot down a C-123]] cargo aircraft carrying supplies to the Contra roughly 35 miles (56 km) north of Costa Rica. Documents found in the wreckage and a confession by the sole survivor led to the [[w:Iran–Contra affair|Iran-Contra hearings]] the following year, during which Lt. Col. [[w:Oliver North|Oliver North]] insisted, "We didn't lose the war in Vietnam ..., we lost it in this city."<ref>Andersen (2006, p. 137). See also, Wikipedia, "[[w:Stab-in-the-back myth|Stab-in-the-back myth]]", accessed 2026-05-13.</ref>
The previous section on the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" provides an alternative narrative of the Vietnam War: If as Eisenhower claimed, "possibly 80 per cent of the [Vietnamese] population would have voted for the Communist [[w:Ho Chi Minh|Ho Chi Minh]]" if elections had been held there, it's hard to imagine how anyone else could have won without aggressive action that actually ''improved'' the lives of Vietnamese peasants in the South. US-led efforts there were officially designed to win "[[w:Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|Hearts and Minds]]" but were implemented with such coercion that the result was the opposite. A cynic might say that it is hard to win people's hearts and minds by killing them.
====Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation====
There is also documentation that the US helped Pakistan get nuclear weapons and destroyed the career of an intelligence analyst, [[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow]], for telling his managers they should not lie to Congress about it. Barlow has insisted that neither Pakistan nor North Korea would have nuclear weapons and Iran would not have a nuclear weapons program today, if the US had followed its own laws. Barlow’s claims, including his punishment by administration officials, have been reported in major media outlets<ref>e.g., Stein (2013). See also Wikipedia, "[[w:Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)|Richard Barlow (intelligence analyst)]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref> but not in a way that would seriously limit the ability — and need — for administration officials to lie to Congress.
If Barlow's claims are accurate, it suggests that US government officials violated US obligations under the [[w:Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons|Non-Proliferation Treaty]] (NPT).<ref>Per the [[w:Treaty Clause|Treaty Clause]] of the US Constitution, a treaty negotiated by the President and approved by the Senate has "the force of federal law."</ref>
==== Nayirah testimony and the 1990-1991 Gulf War ====
A more recent example is the 1990-10-10 testimony by [[w:Nayirah testimony|Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ to the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. She claimed to have seen Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die on the floor after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; she said she had been a volunteer nurse in the hospital at that time.
The failure of journalists, including with the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'', to adequate check facts behind this and other atrocity stories helped convince the US public to support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1990-1991. Nayirah's statements were widely publicized and cited numerous times in the United States Senate and by American president George H. W. Bush to contribute to the rationale for pursuing military action against Iraq. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, [[w:Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah|Saud Nasser Al-Saud Al-Sabah]], "Reps. [[w:Tom Lantos|Tom Lantos]] and [[w:John Porter (Illinois politician)|John Edward Porter]], who sponsored the congressional hearings, had started a group called the Congressional Human Rights Foundation that had received $50,000 from Citizens for a Free Kuwait, as well as free office space in [[w:Hill & Knowlton|Hill and Knowlton]]'s Washington headquarters",<ref>Rowse (1992).</ref> and the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton had made a video while coaching her rehearsing her perjury and used that to prepare a video press release "that eventually reached a total audience of about thirty-five million", 14 percent of the [[w:Demographic history of the United States|US population of 249 million per the census then in process]], with portions aired on the ''[[w:NBC Nightly News|NBC Nightly News]]'' the night after the testimony.<ref>Andersen (2006, pp. 170-171).</ref>
==== 1998 Embassy bombings and September 11 ====
As another example, there is substantial documentation available today that [[1998 Embassy bombings and September 11|the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]], likely would not have occurred if the US had treated the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as law enforcement issues. Muslim clerics all over the world initially condemned those acts. Al-Qaeda was dead. Their funding had largely dried up. And bin Laden was scheduled to be extradited the following month to Saudi Arabia to be prosecuted for treason, where he would likely have been convicted and executed. Mayer (2008, p. 114) claimed those embassy bombings were motivated as retaliation for US support for torture.<ref>For more on torture, see the the section on [[#Make media responsible for harms|Make media responsible for harms]] below.</ref>
But it seemed questionable at best whether major media executives in the US would have given favorable coverage to such a diplomatic solution. Instead, the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan and al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Then Muslim public opinion turned 180 degrees to conclude, "Bin Laden is right: The US ''is'' an evil empire." The US became bin Laden’s only indispensable ally, according to the CIA agent responsible for tracking bin Laden at that time.<ref>Scheuer (2004, p. xv).</ref> Leading Saudis started supporting al-Qaeda, including some working for the Saudi embassy and consulates in the US. Only one country seems to have been involved in the preparations for the September 11 attacks, and that was Saudi Arabia. But Saudis were friends of the Bush family, and a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.<ref>Romer (2009).</ref>
:''Did the US invade Afghanistan and Iraq on grounds that senior journalists and leading media executives should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent — to the detriment of nearly everyone except the "people" who control most of the money for the media?''
:In particular, was Iraqi president [[w:Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein]] really a bigger threat to the US after he invaded Kuwait in 1990 or after the [[w:September 11 attacks|suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001]] than he was during the 1980s, when the US supported him [[w:Iran-Iraq War|killing Iranians]] or [[w:Anfal campaign|his own native Kurds]]?
On 2003-05-29 [[w:BBC|BBC]] journalist [[w:Andrew Gilligan|Andrew Gilligan]] reported that the [[w:Tony Blaire|Blair government]] had "sexed up" [[w:September Dossier|intelligence reports]] issued the previous September to justify supporting the 2003-03-20 [[w:Iraq War|US-led invasion of Iraq]], two months before Gilligan's report. This led to the [[w:Hutton Inquiry|Hutton Inquiry]], which led to the resignations of Gilligan and the BBC's chairman and the firing of the BBC's director-general. However, the British public expressed so many reservations about the Hutton Inquiry that a follow-up investigation was ordered in 2009. This became the "[[w:Iraq Inquiry|Iraq Inquiry]]", whose 2016-07-06 report essentially validated what Gilligan had said just over 13 years earlier. This provides one more example of the 1710 maxim of Jonathan Swift that, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after ... like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."<ref name=Swift/>
====Ukraine war====
Page 1 of the 2023-05-04 edition of ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' carried a headline:
:One year after the invasion of Ukraine: The media, vanguard of the war party,<ref>Halimi and Rimbert (2023) in the French-language original.</ref>
consistent with Andersen (2006).
=== Make media responsible for harms ===
How might the world be different if injured parties could successfully sue major media for harms that result from government policies contradicted by evidence reasonably available to the major media outlets?
For example, how might the world be different if:
* combat veterans or their families could successfully sue major media outlets for biased reporting that stampede the nation into ill advised and counterproductive uses of military force on grounds that leading media personalities should have known at the time were questionable and likely fraudulent?
* Vietnamese or Afghanis or Iraqis or Palestinians or victims in other countries could win similar lawsuits?
* immigrants could sue major media outlets for failing to publish reasonable summaries of the available research that says that immigrants on average are more entrepreneurial<ref>Aghion et al. (2022, pp. 266-270).</ref> and no more likely to engage in criminal activities than native born, benefitting both the sending and receiving countries?<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Immigration|Immigration]] cites research saying, "that migration can be beneficial both to the receiving and sending countries. The academic literature provides mixed findings for the relationship between immigration and crime worldwide. ... [P]ublic perception often exaggerates the connection between immigration and crime, influenced by sensationalised media coverage and political rhetoric." The Wikipedia article on [[w:Immigration and crime|Immigration and crime]] notes that in some countries immigrants are over-represented in prison populations due to violations of immigration law or anti-immigrant biases in criminal justice. The Wikipedia article on "[[w:Sanctuary city|Sanctuary city]]" says that, "Some studies on the relationship between sanctuary status and crime have found that sanctuary policies either have no effect on crime or that sanctuary cities have lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable non-sanctuary cities." All references 2026-05-26.</ref>
* humans tortured by the US could sue the major media for suppressing honest discussion of the research that documents that torture is more likely counterproductive? An important report of the efficacy of torture was published in 1631 by [[w:Friedrich Spee|Friedrich Spee]], a German Jesuit priest and professor. A few years earlier, the Duke of Brunswick had invited Spee and another famous Jesuit scholar to supervise a continuation of the torture of a confessed witch. The Jesuits had previously told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches." The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138-139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134-135). Mackay ( 2009, p. 320).</ref> Crudely similar comments about the counterproductive nature of torture were made by Generals [[w:Stanley McChrystal|Stanley McChrystal]] (2013) and [[w:David Petraeus|David Petraeus]],<ref>DePaulo (2008).</ref> who held command positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The major media in the US has provided ample coverage of, e.g., comments by Donald Trump supporting torture (McCarthy 2016), while largely suppressing honest discussion of the research on it.
Might the world be safer and more prosperous if major media outlets and their executives and journalists could be successfully sued when their biased reporting have substantive negative consequences? Might [[w:Freedom of information|the public's right to receive diverse information]] be advanced in this way, recognizing that false information disseminated by major media outlets can lead to substantive harms, similar to "[[w:Shouting fire in a crowded theater|shouting ''fire'' in a crowded theater]]", while the same information disseminated by minor outlets would ''not'' produce such harms?
Lawsuits of this nature could be facilitated by "group libel" laws. Activists were working to pass such laws in the 1940s. By 1950 those campaigns had been abandoned, according to Barbas (2023).<ref>See also Calvert et al. (2023, pp. 178ff).</ref>
[[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël Eisenstat]] agrees that under [[w:Section 230|Section 230]] of Title 47 of the US Code, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." However, Eisenstat insists that [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy|"an interactive computer service" ''can'' be held liable when their algorithms have substantive negative consequences]], as in the jury verdicts against Meta in New Mexico<ref>Allyn (2026).</ref> and against Meta and Google in Los Angeles.<ref>McQue (2026).</ref> She said, "those technologies, if they are, in the end, contributing to an illegal activity or to harm, that's what we should be addressing. ... The ultimate goal is not to shut down every social media company. The ultimate goal is to figure out what a safer online experience looks like and what accountability looks like when something unsafe happens."
=== in sum ===
You, dear reader, can help overcome these problems by talking, as suggested in the exercises below and the rest of this book. If you can help others become less angry and more willing to agree to disagree agreeably with others, that should reduce the risk of war and improve the prospects for progress on other major problems facing humanity today.
==2. Training in nonviolent noncooperation for anyone willing to listen ==
A major driver of the current conflict between India and Pakistan is mistreatment of Muslims in India. Simulations of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan suggest that such a war would likely produce a nuclear autumn lasting years during which 40 percent of humanity would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Over 90 percent of those would be in countries not involved in the nuclear exchange.<ref>Xia et al. (2022). See also Wikiversity, "[[Responding to a nuclear attack]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
The recent "[[w:2025 India–Pakistan conflict|2025 India–Pakistan conflict]]" was a response by India to violence in Indian-administered [[w:Kashmir|Kashmir]] by terrorists allegedly supported by Pakistan. India would have had much more difficulty justifying violent repression of ''nonviolent'' protests, especially if a more diverse media ecology gave such protests more and more sympathetic coverage.
During the [[w:Great Depression|Great Depression]], ethnic Germans in the [[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]] region of [[w:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] were harder hit by increasing trade barriers than their non-German neighbors. They were therefore more open to populist and extremist movements such as fascism, communism and German irredentism.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Sudetenland|Sudetenland]]", esp. the section on "[[w: Sudetenland#Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Within the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref> If those ethnic Germans had used nonviolent noncooperation to highlight their grievances, and if Czechoslovakia at that time had had a substantially more diverse media system, it seems likely that they could have gotten reasonable redress of grievances. If so, it would have been harder for Hitler to use that as an excuse to invade Czechoslovakia, as he did in 1938.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)]]", accessed 2026-05-05.</ref>
An ideal settlement of the current Russo-Ukraine war might include training in nonviolent noncooperation made more effective through a more diverse media culture as suggested above. A substantial portion of the Ukrainian population, especially the Ukrainian military, are reported to be vicious anti-Russian Nazis, and the Ukrainian government has outlawed many uses of non-Ukrainian languages, especially Russian.<ref>Horton (2024).</ref> A campaign of nonviolent noncooperation with a vigorous, diverse adversarial press would likely make it harder for Ukraine to continue any persecution of Russian speakers. It would also make it harder for major media in the US and Western Europe to suppress honest discussion of anti-Russian racism in Ukraine. Swanson (2022) said that the [[w:Baltic states|Baltic states]] have implemented such training in preparations for a possible Russian invasion; they might be asked to support such training in Ukraine (and elsewhere).<ref>Swanson (2022).</ref>
Organizations offering training in [[w:Nonviolent resistance|nonviolent noncooperation]] include [[w:Nonviolence International|Nonviolence International]] and the [[w:Highlander Research and Education Center|Highlander Research and Education Center]].
=== Life in prison for teaching nonviolence ===
Per the US Supreme Court decision in ''[[w:Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project|Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project]]'' (2010), teaching nonviolence to anyone whom the US State Department claims supports a foreign terrorist organization is "[[w:Providing material support for terrorism|providing material support for terrorism]]", which is a felony under the USA [[w:Patriot Act|Patriot Act]] of 2001. Moreover, if the State Department claims that the death of any "person" resulted from the activities of the designated foreign terrorist organization, the penalty can be life in prison, where "person" is defined in the Patriot Act as "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property".<ref>The treatment of [[w:Sami Al-Arian|Sami Al-Arian]] is worth noting in discussing the Patriot Act. Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin, who earned a doctorate in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering at [[w:North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] in 1985 and taught computer engineering at [[w:University of South Florida|University of South Florida]] (USF) beginning in 1986. He was granted permanent resident status in 1989. In 1993 he earned a Distinguished Teacher Award as a tenured associate professor at USF. He was an [[w:imam|imam]] in a local [[w:mosque|mosque]] and led in other initiatives to promote dialogue and public policy initiatives between the West and Middle East. On September 26, 2001, he appeared on ''[[w:The O'Reilly Factor|The O'Reilly Factor]]'' where he was confronted with a 1988 recording of him shouting "death to Israel". Al-Arian replied that "Death to Israel" meant "death to occupation, ... apartheid, ...oppression," whereupon O'Reilly cut him off and called for the [[w:Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency]] to investigate him. Al-Arian spent most of the next 14 years between that 2001 interview and 2015 in detention, much of it in solitary confinement. This period included a 2005 trial that ended with acquittal on 8 counts and a hung jury on another 9. In 2015 he was deported to Turkey. In 2017, he founded the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at [[w:Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University|Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University]] in Istanbul, Turkey, which he directs. What has been the impact of treatment of Al-Arian on the well-being of the bottom 99 percent of the US and world population?</ref>
How did these provisions get written into the Patriot Act?
That's a question that deserves research, perhaps by asking elected officials in the US Congress and lobbying for their repeal. A speculation consistent with the thesis of this book is that nonviolence terrifies those who control most of they money for the media, because it threatens their ability to get their security forces to follow orders.
==3. Forbid uses of force beyond one’s own borders and covert interference in foreign countries ==
:''[[w:Si vis pacem, para bellum|If you want peace, prepare for war.]]''
: -- ''[[w:De Re Militari|De Re Militari]]'' by [[w:Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus|Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus]] (fourth or fifth century AD)
The record of history is now clear: Those who prepared for war often got war initiated when one party claimed they were being attacked or about to be attacked and believed they would fare better by attacking. Sometimes this occurred when the media environment convinced leaders that their political futures required them to clandestinely provoke foreign entities to do things that could then be denounced as unprovoked to justify military escalation, as mentioned in the previous section.
Samuelson (2025) summarized quantitative analyses of 60 insurgencies since World War II, whose findings included the complete absence of success with counterinsurgencies without large force ratios (at least four, and most often more than ten, times the force of the insurgents) and without "providing a path toward peaceful addressing of grievances". He also noted that, "Brutality toward the civilian population ... tends to inflame the insurgency."<ref>Samuelson (2025) summarized Lawrence (2015).</ref> His analysis gave a pessimistic prognosis for the [[w:Gaza war|Gaza war]] that began 2023-10-07. His conclusions are consistent with the history of the current [[w:Russo-Ukrainian war|Russo-Ukrainian war]], the [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam War]], the [[w:Graveyard of empires|First, Second, and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839-1919), the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), the US-led War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]], the 2001-2011 [[w:Iraq War|Iraq War]], and others.
A key point is that invaders often to lose unless they enter with overwhelming force like Germany in the early stages of World War II: The [[w:Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Czechoslovaks]], [[w:Invasion of Poland|Poles]], [[w:France during World War II|French]], and others were not prepared to fight the Germans, but the [[w:Soviet Union in World War II|Soviets]] were. [[w:Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] doubtless knew that the [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Swiss]] were prepared to fight, so he attacked other countries first. While fighting the Russian invasion, [[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has developed]] military drones that are highly effective relative to the cost, as witnessed by sales of such to Gulf Arab states,<ref>Sharawi and Shapiro (2026).</ref> illustrating the point that foreign invaders often encounter vastly more resistance than they expect -- and should expect highly effective resistance if they invade a country prepared to fight on their own territory.
The rest of this section discusses weaknesses with standard deterrence theory.
===Deterrence theory and nuclear Armageddon===
Standard [[w:Deterrence theory|deterrence theory]] assumes that one's opponents are rational and do not want [[w:Armageddon|Armageddon]]. The record of history summarized above raises questions about this assumption: In World War I, even the "winners" arguably lost more than they gained -- doubtless excepting a few merchants, who made fortunes from what they sold. Many of the other military decisions discussed above seem to have been driven more by the media than military necessity.
Beyond that, at least some portions of the [[w:Islamic State|Islamic State]] reportedly violates this assumption, because it "not only believes in the literal meaning of the coming Armageddon – it sees itself as its chief protagonist."<ref>Misra (2015).</ref> Some [[w:Christian nationalism|Christian nationalists]] promoted to command positions by [[w:United States Secretary of Defense|US Secretary of Defense]] [[w:Pete Hegseth|Hegseth]] and President Trump also seem to believe that Armageddon might be desirable. On 2026-03-03 the [[w:Military Religious Freedom Foundation|Military Religious Freedom Foundation]] said they had received over 200 complaints from over 50 different US military installations with comments like, "President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth", per an email from one [[w:Non-commissioned officer|NCO]].<ref>Nick Mordowanec (2026).</ref> With Hegseth holding monthly Christian worship services in the Pentagon during business hours,<ref>Black (2025), Mayes-Osterman (2025). See also the section on "[[w:Pete Hegseth#Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"|Pentagon Christian worship services and "biblically sanctioned war"]] in the Wikipedia article on [[w:Pete Hegseth|Pete Hegseth]], accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> this suggests that Hegseth could have appointed enough Christian nationalists to key positions to initiate nuclear attacks on Iran or Russia, claiming that President Trump had ordered such whether he had or not.<ref>The [[w:Gold Codes|Gold Codes]] carried in the "[[w:nuclear football|nuclear football]]" required by the [[w:Permissive action link|permissive action link]]s would ''not'' prevent Hegseth and a few others appointed by him from initiating nuclear Armageddon, according to Ellsberg, who had been a nuclear war planner for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, before releasing the ''[[w:Pentagon Papers|Pentagon Papers]]''. Ellsberg (2017, p. 69) insisted that the security provided by those Gold Codes were a hoax, because otherwise a single nuclear detonation on Washington, DC, when both the president and vice president were in town "would would definitively block any authorized, coordinated nuclear response to that or any subsequent nuclear attack."</ref>
The biggest risk today may be the risk of [[w:Nuclear holocaust|nuclear Armageddon]], which seems on average to grow over time consistent with experience with "[[w:system accidents|system accidents]]" in other fields: It is naive to assume that any system as complex as military command, control and communications systems never fail. And managers of complex systems subject to rare, catastrophic failures "learn" from experience that they can take ever greater risks, because they have "safely" done so in the past — until there is a catastrophe:<ref>Kahneman and Klein (2009) found that expert intuition, when it exists, is learned from frequent, rapid, high quality feedback. With anything nuclear, mishaps are so rare that managers develop "expert intuition" that they can "safely" ignore safety concerns -- until there is a catastrophe. See also Sagan (1993).</ref>
==== National security tariffs ====
Free trade agreements supported by the [[w:World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization]] allow exemptions for national security and other objectives. [[Responding to a nuclear attack|Even a minor nuclear war between India and Pakistan would have a negative impact on the entirety of humanity]]. It might therefore be sensible for parties to the [[w:Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons|Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons]] (TPNW) to institute gradually increasing tariffs on nuclear weapon states, not so great as to seriously impact the economy of the nation applying such tariffs but aggressive enough to gradually wean their economy from reliance on trade with nuclear-weapon states that refuse to support the TPNW.
See also the chapter below on [[/Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack/|Responding to a nuclear attack]].
===Research on the effectiveness of deterrence and implications===
Lebow and others have provided substantial documentation of case studies claiming that leaders are often not rational, and deterrence based on threatening use of military force beyond one’s own borders has been ''as likely to provoke as prevent'' undesired behavior.<ref>Lebow (2025, 2024), Lebow et al. (2023).</ref> The most obvious portions of this threat can be entirely eliminated by policies clearly and effectively forbidding use of force beyond one’s own borders. This can be signaled in at least three ways:
* Eliminate all weapon systems like missiles and aircraft with a range of more than, e.g., a hundred miles or 200 kilometers with the possible exception of surveillance only aircraft that cannot be easily configured to carry [[w:Materiel#Military|ordnance]], e.g., explosives. Similarly eliminate nuclear weapons, which few if any countries would want to use for military defense inside their own borders.
* Supply a national guard and reserves with weapons, training, and rules of engagement that prohibit projecting force beyond one’s own borders. Train them also in development and use of improvised explosive devices and other tactics and devices like low cost military drones.
:Afghanistan is said to be the "[[w:Graveyard of empires|Graveyard of empires]]". They defeated the British three times (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919), the Soviet Union (1979–1989), and the US (2001–2021). Each victory came with foreign supplies, but any foreign troops helping Afghanis were primarily under the command of local leaders.
:The [[w:2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 invasion of Iraq]] might have produced [[w:Nation-building|nation-building]] more like the experience of [[w:Nation-building#Germany and Japan after World War II|Germany and Japan after World War II]] if the US had mandated a vigorous adversarial press instead of strict censorship, according to McChesney and Nichols.<ref>McChesney and Nichols (2010, Appendix II. Ike, MacArthur and the Forging of Free and Independent Press, pp. 241-254).</ref> This claim by McChesney and Nichols was not endorsed by [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today#After the war in Germany vs. Iraq|University of British Columbia History professor Heidi Tworek]], who said the democratization efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II were more complicated than that implied by that brief discussion by McChesney and Nichols.<ref>The 2025-07-03 interview with Tworek is available at "[[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]", accessed 2026-05-14.</ref> However, the research by Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022) and the related research on news deserts summarized in the preface to this ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' book largely supports those claims by McChesney and Nichols.
:[[w:Defense industry of Ukraine|Ukraine has become a world leader in military drones]], many of which are dramatically cheaper than alternatives. Most of those have limited range but have been useful for reconnaissance and delivery of ordnance and improving targeting of, e.g., surface to air missiles.
:[[w:Eliot A. Cohen|Eliot Cohen]], who served as a special advisor to [[w:United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[w:Condoleezza Rice|Condoleezza Rice]] from 2007 to 2009, wrote, "As the United States discovered in Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter how large, technologically advanced, and proficient an army is, motivated insurgents can still inflict casualties in the tens of thousands."<ref>Cohen (2022), cited from Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref> Cohen recommended we "Arm the Ukranians now". Horton said that the neoconservatives learned from Iraq War II and Afghanistan that the US "should fight like those who defeated them."<ref>Horton (2024, p. 1026).</ref>
:Leading economist [[w:Jeffrey Sachs|Jeffrey Sachs]] addressed the European Parliament 2025-02-19, claiming that the tragedy that befell Serbia in 1999 and subsequent US uses of force in Iraq and Syria, plus wars in Africa including Syria, Somalia and Libya and the current wars in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, "are to a very significant extent the result of deeply misguided US policies."<ref>Sachs (2025-02).</ref> He said that Europe should craft its own foreign and military policies, independent of the US. ''[[w:Le Monde Diplomatique|Le Monde Diplomatique]]'' noted that Sachs' speech has circulated among social media since ''but has yet to be seriously discussed by major European media.''<ref>Sachs (2025-04; emphasis added).</ref>
* Change the laws of government secrecy so government officials cannot secretly interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries or otherwise project force outside their own borders. This might be achieved in the US in part by requiring anyone with information about questionable actions by government officials to provide such documentation to one or more congressional oversight bodies while also allowing any current or former government employee or contractor to file suit in any US federal jurisdiction if they feel they have been punished for refusing to support questionable activities. In addition, federal judges should be authorized to subpoena classified government documents that may be relevant to any case in their jurisdiction and declassify them subject to appellate review if they believe the national interest would be better served by declassification.
:If the law is changed without a substantive [[#1. Citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference in the content.|citizen-directed subsidies for local news nonprofits with a firewall to prevent political interference]], as discussed above, the change could be merely cosmetic and unconvincing to local public officials and potential adversaries.
:Connelly (2023) noted that US government secrecy has in the past encouraged administration officials to do things to provoke actions by foreign entities that can then be denounced as “unprovoked” to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive uses of military force, as discussed above.<ref>See also Connelly et al. (2023).</ref> A more diverse media culture should make it harder for administration officials to lie to the public and to Congress — and harder to punish government employees who tell their managers that they should not lie to Congress, as they reportedly did to [[#Richard Barlow and nuclear proliferation|Richard Barlow]], mentioned above.
:The Barlow case and many others explain why the US should, e.g., give federal judges the authority to subpoena classified documents and declassify them if they believe the public good is better served from declassification than continued secrecy.<ref>See, e.g., the 2025-05-08 interview with Seth Stern and Lauren Harper discussing what the "[[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]", Graves (2014), and [[w:Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], accessed 2026-05-06. Graves (2021) recommends "Congressional Gold Medals for" Barlow and whistleblowers.</ref>
These policies would make it hard for any foreign leader to justify an attack for multiple reasons: First, it would be difficult to convince their supporters that such an attack is necessary. Second, a rational foreign leader might be hesitant to invade a country that is prepared to fight a guerrilla war. Germany reportedly considered invading [[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during both World Wars I and II]] and decided against it in part because Switzerland had large, well-trained ready reserves, who were ready to fight. Belgium seemed to be an easier route.<ref>Documented in Wikipedia, "[[w:Switzerland during World War I and World War II|Switzerland during World War I and World War II]]", accessed 2026-05-06. Switzerland also has many mountains, which make it easier to defend, but the capabilities of the Swiss military also influenced the German decision to avoid Switzerland.</ref> Third, even if foreign invaders defeat the guerrillas, they should not assume that their invading forces would continue to follow orders. [[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Ninety-nine percent of Danish Jews reportedly survived World War II]] because of Danish noncooperation ''supported by a German diplomat''.<ref>Wikipedia, "[[w:Rescue of the Danish Jews|Rescue of the Danish Jews]]", accessed 2026-05-06.</ref>
With policies like these in place, it would be hard for foreign leaders to convince their supporters of a need to attack, as [[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Putin did when invading Ukraine in 2022]],<ref>The Wikipedia article on "[[w:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]", accessed 2026-05-06, includes a paragraph saying, 'In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians"'. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation. Writing in 2024, Michael McFaul and Robert Person described this essay as representing not only "cynical propaganda" but also Putin's "deeply held and internalized beliefs". See the Wikipedia article for references supporting those claims.</ref> as [[w:2025 India–Pakistan crisis|India did when attacking Pakistan in 2025]], and as [[w:Invasion of Poland|Hitler did when invading Poland in 1939]], to name only three examples.
=== If we continue to base deterrence on threats ===
There are now calls for Europe to get their own nuclear weapons,<ref>Burgard (2025).</ref> while Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea and Taiwan have been suggested as other candidates for acquiring nuclear weapons should they feel a sufficient need.<ref>Ruehl (2024).</ref>
It is difficult to imagine how the number of nuclear weapon states could be increased without increasing the risks of a nuclear war, consistent with the discussion of "[[w:system accident|system accident]]s" earlier in this chapter.
Secondarily, intelligence services with information on political corruption including attempts to intimidate and murder journalists should not be allowed to keep that information secret: They should be required to find ways to leak that information to journalists. Such attacks on journalists in their own country should be exposed and prosecuted if the evidence seems likely to obtain a conviction. Intelligence services with information about such attacks in other countries should be required to find ways to leak it to competent journalists without identifying their sources and methods: Doing so would likely reduce political corruption worldwide and with that the risks of war.
=== Call for help ===
Do you, dear reader, know other serious research not cited herein that might improve this analysis? If yes, you can help improve this discussion by adding comments with citations -- or by adding such citation(s) to the "Discuss" page associated with this chapter, suggesting someone else revise the chapter appropriately.
There are plenty of contrary claims in the major media, but the lead author of this chapter is not aware of any that are based on serious research.
In the absence of such research, the current author finds it difficult to imagine any national defense policies that carry a greater risk of nuclear Armageddon than our current policies, as discussed in the next chapter of this book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'' on "[[Media Literacy and You/Responding to a nuclear attack|Responding to a nuclear attack]]". That chapter, in sum, claims that the ''worst'' response to a nuclear attack would be nuclear response, because it would escalate a catastrophe killing millions of humans to one killing ''billions'', possibly 80 percent of humanity in a war between the US and Russia that lofts so much smoke from burning cities to the stratosphere where it covers the globe depressing crop yields for years during with 99 percent of the humans in the US, Europe and Russia would starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. Moreover, the record of "[[w:System accident|system accident]]s" suggests that the chances of such a war before the end of this century is substantially greater than the 40 percent median estimate based on history mentioned in a presentation on "[[Time to nuclear Armageddon]]" delivered to the 2019 Joint Statistical Meetings.
This chapter is being written in the hopes of inspiring action to improve the prospects for broadly shared peace and prosperity for the long term.
== Exercises ==
1. Disconfirmation bias: Brainstorm your biggest concerns about a current or possible future war.
:1.1. Select the one that is of greatest concern to you currently.
::One issue that may not be a major concern for many but might elicit a broad consensus for action would be a campaign to ask elected officials in the US Congress to explain how we benefit from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 that authorize life in prison for teaching nonviolence.
:1.2. Who are your designated enemies?
:1.3. Research what your designated enemies are saying about your biggest concern.
:1.4. Under what circumstances would you support what you see your designated enemies advocating or doing?
::If you cannot see such circumstances, expand your research: Look for more sources that support your designated enemies.
2. Interacting: Ask others if you can share what you've learned about that conflict. If they say, "No", don't push it. If they agree, share what you've learned in a friendly supportive manner without saying that anything is "true".
::''Show me someone who knows the truth, and I will show you someone who is dangerous.''
:2.1. The primary goal in this is ''not'' to convince anyone that you are right and they are wrong but to lower the level of anger and increase the level of tolerance for dissenting views.
:2.2. Another goal is to comfortably enjoy civil conversations of this nature, agreeing to disagree agreeably and building trusting relationships that support collaboration on issues of common concern.
:2.3. After becoming adept at building collaborations on issues of common concern, you might consider teaching this important skill and approach to issues.
3. Teaching: Each one teach two, as discussed in the section on "[[Media Literacy and You#Text and self-help book and point of discuss|Text and self-help book and point of discuss]]" in the preface to this book.
<!--== See also ==-->
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Media literacy]]
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The Ignorant Observer Framework
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IgnorantObserver
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Reframe Penrose OR as non-exclusive co-contributing mechanism (additive combined-rate model, derivative-of-t_break as discriminator); add 'Two visibility channels' decomposition V_obs = V_std · V_IOF; reclassify controller power P as one possible actuator of C_eff (not central variable); align document URLs with canonical underscore filenames; restore User:Aernoud Dekker authorship link
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{{Research project}}
= The Ignorant Observer Framework =
''This research page is authored and maintained by [[User:IgnorantObserver|Aernoud Dekker]], an independent researcher and the originator of the framework described below. Page text is offered for review, critique, and collaborative refinement under [[Wikiversity:Copyrights|Wikiversity's standard licence]].''
== Status ==
Research project under active development. The framework consists of an interlinked set of technical and interpretive documents published at [https://ignorantobserver.xyz ignorantobserver.xyz] and archived on the [https://osf.io Open Science Framework]. ''The Ignorant Observer'' is the foundational paper. A conceptual bridge, ''The Measurement Problem in IOF'', states what claim the framework is actually making about the measurement basis. The technical bridge, ''Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control'' (BLQC), sets out the framework's falsifiable experimental discriminator. A companion paper, ''A Conditional Derivation of the Binary Born Form under Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control'', derives the binary Born form in the laboratory basis coordinate of a BLQC experiment via a Fisher capacity bridge, conditional on two named bridge assumptions. All work is single-authored.
== Summary ==
The Ignorant Observer Framework proposes that the conventional treatment of quantum measurement idealizes the measurement basis as stably available to the observer. The framework removes that idealization. It treats the measurement basis θ as a physical dynamical variable inside the apparatus, with its own causal history and its own information-production rate. The measurement setting and the measured system are read as descendants of one physical history, not as ancestrally independent ingredients dropped into the experiment from outside. The framework's position on this point is named ''epistemically bounded ancestral correlation'', distinguished from unrestricted (e.g. 't Hooft-style) superdeterminism: the embedded observer cannot, in principle, reconstruct the joint causal ancestry of basis and outcome, so the situation must be represented probabilistically.
Whether the apparatus can stably track θ is a control-theoretic question, governed by an inequality between effective information-channel capacity and the basis-defining dynamics' entropy rate. ''Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control'' (BLQC), the framework's technical bridge to the laboratory, derives — under the assumptions catalogued in the [[#Open objections|Open objections]] section below — a distinctive ''double-exponential'' visibility decay law and a multi-axis falsifiable discriminator. The central test asks whether the visibility-breakdown time ''t''<sub>break</sub> moves with the BLQC deficit κ = ''h''<sub>KS</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2 under independent calibrated variation of effective tracking capacity ''C''<sub>eff</sub>, basis-instability rate ''h''<sub>KS</sub>, and mass geometry. The two candidate mechanisms — finite basis tracking and Penrose Objective Reduction — are not treated as mutually exclusive: the mesoscopic overlap regime is analysed with an additive combined-rate model, and the discriminator is the ''derivative'' of ''t''<sub>break</sub> with respect to each independently varied knob (''C''<sub>eff</sub> and ''h''<sub>KS</sub> at fixed mass geometry isolate the basis-tracking channel; mass, separation, and geometry at fixed ''C''<sub>eff</sub> isolate objective reduction). Controller input power ''P'' is one possible actuator for ''C''<sub>eff</sub>, not the central variable. A separate Fisher-homogeneity module of the protocol tests the Born-derivation bridge by measuring whether the empirical Fisher information ''I''(θ) is approximately constant across the calibrated basis range.
The framework's principal implication for the measurement problem is structural: the Heisenberg cut — the boundary between quantum description and classical record — is not an interpretive convention but a thermodynamic boundary fixed by the apparatus's Landauer-bounded self-tracking budget (see [[#The measurement problem: where the Heisenberg cut sits|the measurement problem: where the Heisenberg cut sits]] below). The double-exponential visibility law and the binary-Born derivation are two consequences of this single reframe, both pinned by the same scalar threshold κ and tested by the same prospective experiment.
A companion paper develops a conditional derivation of the binary Born form ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2) directly in the laboratory basis coordinate of a BLQC experiment. The derivation chains BLQC finite-rate basis tracking → a ''Fisher capacity bridge'' identifying ''C''<sub>eff</sub> with capacity for preserving operational distinguishability of finite observer records → Cencov's uniqueness theorem selecting Fisher–Rao as the invariant distinguishability metric → square-root record coordinates → scalar-threshold homogeneity of κ = ''h''<sub>KS</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2 in θ. The conditional weight is carried by two explicit, named premises — the Fisher capacity bridge and scalar-threshold homogeneity — both empirically testable. The derivation does not derive complex Hilbert space, tensor products, unitary dynamics, or the multi-outcome Born rule. In the updated framing, the binary-Born derivation and the BLQC basis-tracking story are no longer two separate IOF-internal moves: the metric in which finite-rate basis tracking succeeds or fails is the same Fisher–Rao metric that forces the binary probability form, and the same scalar BLQC threshold pins both. They are two consequences of one operational geometry.
The framework as a whole also offers an interpretive extension that connects the technical proposal to existing positions in quantum foundations (Brukner, Rovelli's relational quantum mechanics) and to non-dual philosophy of mind (Advaita Vedānta). These interpretive elements are clearly fenced from the empirical core in [[#Philosophical interpretation|the relevant section below]]. What stands or falls with the experimental discriminator is the framework's specific physical mapping into these positions, not the positions themselves.
== Core question ==
''Can quantum visibility depend on finite observer or apparatus basis-tracking capacity, independently of, and distinguishably from, ordinary environmental decoherence?''
Phrased positively: if the classical degrees of freedom that define and maintain a measurement basis exhibit chaotic dynamics with positive Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy rate ''h''<sub>KS</sub>, and if the effective information channel that constrains those degrees of freedom has capacity ''C''<sub>eff</sub> insufficient to track them, does interference visibility decay in a functional form distinguishable from standard exponential or Gaussian dephasing — and does this decay respond to controller input power in a direction opposite to thermal decoherence?
== Technical proposal ==
The framework introduces the following quantities.
'''Effective channel capacity ''C''<sub>eff</sub>''' (bits/s): the information rate available to the basis-tracking control loop, operationalised as
:''C''<sub>eff</sub> = ''r'' · ''b'' · ''f''
with ''r'' the update rate (Hz), ''b'' the effective number of bits per update that constrain the basis variable θ, and ''f'' ∈ (0,1] the fraction of updates that genuinely constrain θ after overhead and latency. ''C''<sub>eff</sub> is bounded above by the Landauer limit on the controller's actuation:
:''C''<sub>eff</sub> ≤ ''P'' / (''k''<sub>B</sub> ''T'' ln 2)
where ''P'' is controller input power and ''T'' is the temperature at which the controller operates.
'''Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy rate ''h''<sub>KS</sub>''' (nats/s): the information-production rate of the classical degrees of freedom (voltage references, timing circuits, feedback loops) that define and maintain the measurement basis. For chaotic systems, ''h''<sub>KS</sub> equals the sum of positive Lyapunov exponents (Pesin identity). It is estimated operationally from the exponential growth of one-step prediction error on logged controller states. The nats/s convention is used so that the deficit κ below combines ''h''<sub>KS</sub> (nats/s) and ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2 (bits/s converted to nats/s) in consistent units; an equivalent all-bits form would be κ<sub>bits</sub> = ''h''<sub>KS,bits</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub>.
'''Ignorance rate κ''' (s<sup>−1</sup>):
:κ = ''h''<sub>KS</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub> · ln 2
The framework distinguishes two regimes. When κ < 0 (''capacity-wins''), basis-tracking error stays bounded and standard quantum visibility predictions are recovered in the BLQC correction-free limit, modulo ordinary decoherence. When κ > 0 (''chaos-wins''), the variance of the basis-tracking error grows exponentially in time as σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>(''t'') = σ<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup> e<sup>2κ''t''</sup>.
'''Measured visibility ''V''(''t'')'''. Averaging the interference term cos(φ − θ) over a Gaussian distribution of basis-tracking error δθ ∼ ''N''(0, σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>(''t'')) yields, in the small-angle regime,
:''V''(''t'') = exp(−½ σ<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup> e<sup>2κ''t''</sup>)
i.e. a ''double-exponential'' decay of visibility once the chaos-wins regime is entered.
'''Two visibility channels'''. The basis-tracking loss is one of two multiplicative contributions to the observed interference visibility:
:''V''<sub>obs</sub> ≈ ''V''<sub>std</sub> · ''V''<sub>IOF</sub>, with ''V''<sub>IOF</sub> = exp(−½ σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>)
where ''V''<sub>std</sub> is the ordinary environmental/decoherence channel — the visibility standard quantum mechanics already predicts — and ''V''<sub>IOF</sub> is the finite basis-tracking channel derived above. The framework does not deny ''V''<sub>std</sub>; it claims that, in the chaos-wins regime, part of the observed visibility loss belongs to ''V''<sub>IOF</sub> and may be misassigned to standard decoherence if the capacity-instability coordinate κ is not independently varied and tested.
'''Breakdown time ''t''<sub>break</sub>'''. For a chosen visibility threshold ''V''*,
:''t''<sub>break</sub> = (1 / 2κ) · ln(−2 ln ''V''* / σ<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup>) for κ > 0.
''t''<sub>break</sub> is the framework's primary observable.
The technical derivation extends the Data-Rate Theorem of Nair & Evans (2004) and Tatikonda & Mitter (2004) from linear plants to nonlinear, chaotic systems by substituting ''h''<sub>KS</sub> for the sum-of-positive-eigenvalues bound. This extension is an explicit assumption of the framework rather than a proven theorem (see [[#Open objections|Open objections]]).
== Experimental discriminator ==
The framework prescribes the following experimental protocol as its central falsifiable test.
'''Primary controlled actuator''': controller input power ''P'', used only insofar as it produces an independently calibrated change in useful tracking capacity ''C''<sub>eff</sub>. The controller is the physical system whose state defines and maintains the measurement basis (e.g. an interferometer phase-locking loop, a qubit readout chain, the active feedback in a precision interferometer).
'''Held constant''': the environmental temperature ''T'' at which the controller operates, by independent active thermal feedback. Holding ''T'' constant while varying ''P'' is what distinguishes the framework's prediction from standard thermal decoherence (which depends on ''T'' and ignores ''P'').
'''Dependent variable''': the visibility-decay breakdown time ''t''<sub>break</sub>, fitted to interference data at a chosen visibility threshold (e.g. ''V''* = 0.5).
'''Prediction''': ∂''t''<sub>break</sub>/∂''P'' > 0 at clamped ''T'', with the visibility curve ''V''(''t'') fitting the double-exponential form exp(−½ σ<sub>0</sub><sup>2</sup> e<sup>2κ''t''</sup>) better than a standard exponential ''e''<sup>−Γ''t''</sup> or Gaussian ''e''<sup>−γ''t''²</sup>.
'''What would count as falsification'''. Any of the following null findings counts against the framework:
* ∂''t''<sub>break</sub>/∂''P'' ≤ 0 at clamped ''T'' (i.e. increasing controller power does not extend, or shortens, coherence time);
* ''V''(''t'') fits a single-exponential or Gaussian dephasing law significantly better than the double-exponential form, in the regime where the framework predicts the double-exponential should dominate;
* ''t''<sub>break</sub> shows no dependence on ''C''<sub>eff</sub> or ''h''<sub>KS</sub> at fixed mass geometry once ordinary confounds are controlled — i.e. the capacity-instability coordinate κ adds no predictive value beyond a mass-geometry timescale ''t''<sub>OR</sub> ∝ ''s'' / ''m''<sup>2</sup> (a positive [[w:Penrose interpretation|Penrose Objective Reduction]] mass-geometry dependence does not by itself count against the framework, since the two mechanisms are treated as additive, not mutually exclusive);
* ''C''<sub>eff</sub> cannot be calibrated independently of ''t''<sub>break</sub> (in which case the prediction would be unfalsifiable, which would itself count against the framework's experimental status).
The [https://www.qgemproject.com/ QGEM] pathfinder is cited in the BLQC manuscript as one candidate testbed; superconducting-qubit readout chains and precision interferometer phase-locking loops are others.
The framework's comprehensive experimental protocol additionally includes a ''Fisher-homogeneity module'' that tests the Born-derivation bridge. The module measures the Fisher information ''I''(θ) on the operational record family ''p''(''o'' | θ) across the calibrated basis range and asks whether ''I''(θ) is approximately constant, as required by the scalar-threshold homogeneity premise of the [[#Relation to quantum foundations|binary-Born derivation]]. The Fisher-homogeneity module is logically independent of the κ-scaling test of the basis-tracking claim: a BLQC-positive but Fisher-negative result would validate finite-rate basis tracking as a real physical channel while rejecting the binary-Born-derivation bridge as drafted. Simultaneous κ-scaling and Fisher homogeneity would support the stronger claim that one operational geometry controls both basis tracking and binary probability.
== Relation to quantum foundations ==
The framework is connected to, and partly draws from, several existing positions in the foundations of quantum mechanics.
* '''The measurement problem'''. The framework's principal claim about the measurement problem is structural rather than dynamical: the Heisenberg cut is a thermodynamic boundary set by the apparatus's self-tracking budget, not a floating interpretive convention. The measurement problem appears in its sharpest form because standard accounts treat the cut as freely movable; the framework holds it was always pinned by the thermodynamics of basis tracking. The conceptual claim is developed in [[#The measurement problem: where the Heisenberg cut sits|the measurement problem: where the Heisenberg cut sits]] below and at full length in ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Measurement_Problem_in_IOF.pdf The Measurement Problem in IOF]''.
* '''Brukner's information-theoretic reconstructions''' provide a precedent for treating information limits as structural constraints in quantum theory.
* '''Relational Quantum Mechanics''' (Rovelli) takes measurement outcomes to be relative to an observer-system; the framework provides one possible mechanism (finite ''C''<sub>eff</sub>) for what makes one observer's frame physically inequivalent to another's.
* '''Decoherence theory''' is not opposed by the framework. The framework's prediction sits beside ordinary environmental decoherence and is intended to be ''distinguishable'' from it by the sign-reversal under power variation; in the capacity-wins regime (κ < 0) standard decoherence theory is recovered.
* '''Measurement-independence'''. Because the framework treats the measurement basis as a dynamical variable with its own causal history, if extended to Bell-type set-ups it implies a structural — but ''epistemically bounded'' — violation of statistical measurement-independence. The framework's position is named "epistemically bounded ancestral correlation": the setting and the system may share causal ancestry, but the embedded observer cannot reconstruct that ancestry in principle, so the shared ancestry is not a hidden knob for prediction. This is distinguished from unrestricted (e.g. 't Hooft-style structural) superdeterminism. The framework does not derive Bell correlations from first principles; it accepts standard quantum correlations as recovered in the capacity-wins limit, and asks whether finite basis access adds a measurable visibility factor when tracking is stressed. A proper consistency proof, including no-signalling treatment, remains an open question (see [[#Open objections|Open objections]]).
* '''Information geometry'''. The framework's binary-Born derivation runs a directional chain: BLQC finite-rate basis tracking → a ''Fisher capacity bridge'' identifying ''C''<sub>eff</sub> with capacity for preserving operational distinguishability of finite observer records → Cencov's uniqueness theorem selecting Fisher–Rao as the invariant distinguishability metric under sufficient Markov morphisms → square-root record coordinates → scalar-threshold homogeneity of κ = ''h''<sub>KS</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2 in the laboratory basis coordinate → ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2). The connection between statistical distance and quantum transition probabilities is not new — Wootters (1981) showed that quantum distinguishability is naturally expressed in terms of statistical distance — but the framework runs the logic in the opposite direction: it starts from finite-observer record constraints, invokes Cencov uniqueness, and obtains the squared-coordinate binary form from the resulting record geometry, with the laboratory basis coordinate θ identified as the Fisher-arclength-affine coordinate by the BLQC scalar-threshold reading. The binary-Born derivation and the BLQC basis-tracking visibility law are therefore tied to the same operational geometry: the Fisher–Rao metric on records is the metric in which BLQC tracking is calibrated, and the same scalar threshold pins both the basis-tracking task and the binary probability form.
* '''Penrose Objective Reduction''' is treated as a ''non-exclusive'', potentially co-contributing mechanism rather than a rival to be ruled out. In the mesoscopic overlap regime both effects can act together; the framework's protocol analyses the overlap with an additive combined-rate model (alongside mediated and collinear "Bridge-Ansatz" alternatives, within the same regression) and discriminates the contributions by their distinct knobs — ''C''<sub>eff</sub> and ''h''<sub>KS</sub> drive the basis-tracking channel, while mass, separation, and geometry drive ''t''<sub>OR</sub> ∝ ''s'' / ''m''<sup>2</sup>. The numerical proximity of the two timescales in the mesoscopic regime motivates the protocol described in the next section and is treated as suggestive pending experimental evidence.
== The measurement problem: where the Heisenberg cut sits ==
The framework offers a specific reframing of the Heisenberg cut — the boundary between the quantum description used for the measured system and the classical description used for the apparatus and the record. Standard interpretations have placed the cut variously: Von Neumann showed the cut can be moved without changing predictions and treated its location as conventional; decoherence theory sharpens the picture but locates the cut by an external property, the rate of environmental coupling; objective-collapse proposals fix the cut universally at a mass or geometry scale, without reference to who is observing.
The framework places the cut where the observer-apparatus system's thermodynamic budget for self-tracking runs out. The Landauer bound ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ≤ ''P'' / (''k''<sub>B</sub> ''T'' ln 2) sets a hard ceiling on irreversible bookkeeping, and the cut sits at the locus where ''h''<sub>KS</sub> = ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2: on one side the basis-producing dynamics run slower than the dissipation-bounded tracking rate and standard quantum visibility predictions are recovered (modulo ordinary decoherence); on the other side the dynamics outrun the tracking rate and visibility decays with the deficit κ = ''h''<sub>KS</sub> − ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2.
The cut is therefore observer-relative — two apparatuses tracking the same basis with different power budgets, temperatures, or controllers will have their cuts at different places — but not subjective. For any given apparatus the cut is fixed by hardware; the experimenter does not choose where it sits, the hardware does.
This also predicts something conventional cut placement does not: the cut ''moves''. Cooling the apparatus, increasing the available power, or improving the controller raises ''C''<sub>eff</sub> and shifts the cut outward, toward more chaotic basis-producing dynamics. The BLQC test, in this language, is an experiment that measures the motion of the cut.
The measurement problem has historically taken its sharpest form because the Heisenberg cut was floating. The framework does not move the cut to a more comfortable location. It claims the cut was never floating to begin with: it was pinned by the thermodynamics of self-tracking, and the standard interpretations were not reading that ledger.
== Philosophical interpretation ==
''This section describes interpretive extensions of the framework that go beyond the empirical core. Nothing in this section is a load-bearing element of the experimental claim. If the experimental discriminator returns a null result, the claimed physical realization of these interpretive readings within the framework would fall. The interpretive positions themselves — Advaita Vedānta, relational quantum mechanics — do not stand or fall on an interferometry experiment; what stands or falls is the framework's specific physical mapping into them.''
The most direct, accessible statement of the framework's interpretive position is ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Measurement_Problem_in_IOF.pdf The Measurement Problem in IOF]'' (Dekker, May 2026). This conceptual companion to BLQC states the central move — the measurement basis as a physical variable with causal ancestry inside the same history as the system being measured — addresses the standard objections (does this just move the mystery, is this just correctable reference noise, is this just control engineering), and names the position ''epistemically bounded ancestral correlation''. Readers approaching the framework for the first time may find this the cleanest entry point.
A second, distinct interpretive piece is ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Response_to_Rovelli_on_the_Hard_Problem.pdf The Hard Problem Dissolved — But Into What? A Critical Response to Carlo Rovelli's "There Is No 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'"]'' (Dekker, May 2026). The response engages Rovelli's Noema essay, marks the substantial ground it shares with the framework, and identifies where the framework presses beyond Rovelli's deflationary physicalism toward a non-dual reading.
The framework's interpretive layer is developed in dialogue with two existing positions.
The first is Carlo Rovelli's relational quantum mechanics. The framework can be read as supplying a candidate physical mechanism — the ''C''<sub>eff</sub> versus ''h''<sub>KS</sub> inequality — for what makes a measurement outcome relative to an observer rather than absolute. On this reading, the framework is a mechanistic specification of an idea that RQM leaves at the level of principle.
The second is the Advaita Vedānta tradition (Śaṅkara, Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi), in which the apparent independence of the experiencing subject from the perceived world is treated as a structural feature of ignorance (''avidyā'') rather than a metaphysical fact. The framework's σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>(''t'') — the growing basis-tracking error of an observer whose capacity is insufficient to track its own apparatus — admits a structural analogy with avidyā as the phenomenological self-opacity of an embodied subject. The framework neither asserts that this analogy is more than structural nor that any experimental result could confirm or refute Advaita as a philosophical position; it offers the analogy as a way of locating the framework within a non-dual reading of the measurement problem for readers who find that reading useful.
A separate, IOF-internal derivation paper — ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/A_Conditional_Born-Rule_Derivation.pdf A Conditional Derivation of the Binary Born Form under Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control]'' — derives the binary Born form ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2) in the laboratory basis coordinate of a BLQC experiment, via a Fisher capacity bridge from BLQC tracking capacity to Fisher–Rao record geometry. Its metaphysical companion, ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Structural_Resonance.pdf Structural Resonance]'', explains how a structural reading of the ''Katha Upaniṣad'' (subject and witness, layered cognition, invariance under refinement) served as a disciplined search heuristic for the mathematical derivation. The companion does not claim that Vedanta proves the Born rule; it documents the structural overlap between an old analysis of finite observation and a contemporary information-geometric derivation.
Readers who prefer to ignore the interpretive readings should be able to evaluate the framework's empirical content from the [[#Technical proposal|Technical proposal]] and [[#Experimental discriminator|Experimental discriminator]] sections alone.
A further speculative extension, ''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Creation_of_Duality.pdf The Creation of Duality]'', asks whether space, time, objecthood, and gravity-like structure can themselves be read as features of a consistent finite-observer world-model, with a Bridge Ansatz ''E''<sub>G</sub> = (π/2)ℏκ linking the deficit rate κ to a gravitational energy scale via Margolus–Levitin saturation. Its scientific status is contingent on the BLQC experimental discriminator; until then it is offered explicitly as speculation.
== Consequences of a positive result ==
If the experimental discriminator returns the predicted result, several interpretive readings of the framework gain physical support rather than remaining speculative.
''Quantum mechanics as an observer-capacity-dependent regime.'' The framework's "chaos-wins" / "capacity-wins" distinction becomes a physical, not merely conceptual, partition. Standard quantum predictions are recovered to high accuracy in the capacity-wins regime; the framework predicts measurable departures in the chaos-wins regime. The quantum-classical transition then becomes information-theoretic and, in principle, controllable: throttling effective controller capacity should push a system across the transition without changing the plant.
''An epistemic reading of measurement.'' The framework's no-collapse account — measurement as an information-update inside a finite observer rather than a physical event in the world — becomes empirically defensible alongside other interpretations of the measurement problem, rather than a stipulation.
''Measurement-independence and locality.'' The framework's response to the conventional "conspiracy" objection against superdeterminism (common causal past plus a global consistency constraint, in place of fine-tuned initial conditions) becomes a substantive position rather than a philosophical reframing. Whether this amounts to a non-conspiratorial reading consistent with local realism remains a live debate; a positive result moves that debate from speculation onto experimental terrain.
''The Penrose-Objective-Reduction comparison.'' The framework's basis-tracking contribution depends on controller bandwidth rather than mass or geometry. Because the two mechanisms are treated as additive rather than mutually exclusive, the discriminating evidence is a ''t''<sub>break</sub> dependence on ''C''<sub>eff</sub> and ''h''<sub>KS</sub> at fixed mass geometry — which isolates the basis-tracking channel whether or not a Penrose mass-geometry term is also present.
''The interpretive analogy.'' The structural analogy between σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>(''t'') and the Vedantic notion of ''avidyā'' gains a concrete physical anchor rather than remaining purely analogical. The framework's claim is structural rather than metaphysical; a positive result strengthens the structural mapping, but does not itself adjudicate the philosophical positions the mapping connects.
None of these consequences is established by the experimental discriminator on its own. What the test establishes, if positive, is that the framework's bridge from a control-theoretic measurement model to these interpretive readings has a physical basis. The interpretive work in each direction remains.
== Documents ==
The framework's documents are published at [https://ignorantobserver.xyz ignorantobserver.xyz]. Direct links to the principal documents, grouped by their role in the project:
'''Foundational and bridges'''
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Ignorant_Observer.pdf The Ignorant Observer]''' — the foundational paper. Both the philosophical motivation (avidyā as structural ignorance) and the technical groundwork from which the rest of the project grew.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Measurement_Problem_in_IOF.pdf The Measurement Problem in IOF]''' — the conceptual bridge. States what claim the framework is making about the measurement basis, addresses the standard objections, and names the framework's position as ''epistemically bounded ancestral correlation''.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Bandwidth-Limited_Quantum_Control.pdf Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control]''' — the technical bridge. A finite-rate phase-reference test in the Penrose-overlap regime. The framework's falsifiable experimental discriminator.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Concise_Mathematical_Summary.pdf Concise Mathematical Summary]''' — shortest formal map of the IOF variables and BLQC test regimes.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Experimental_Protocol.pdf Comprehensive Experimental Protocol]''' — preregistered prospective experiment discriminating a Penrose-style mass-geometry timescale from the BLQC capacity / instability timescale in the same mesoscopic apparatus.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Questions_and_Answers_IOF.pdf Questions and Answers (IOF)]''' — common questions on the framework addressed in depth.
'''Foundational Extensions'''
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/A_Conditional_Born-Rule_Derivation.pdf A Conditional Derivation of the Binary Born Form under Bandwidth-Limited Quantum Control]''' — derives the binary Born form ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2) directly in the laboratory basis coordinate of a BLQC experiment, via a Fisher capacity bridge from BLQC tracking capacity to Fisher–Rao record geometry. The conditional weight is carried by two named, empirically testable assumptions (Fisher capacity bridge, scalar-threshold homogeneity). Does not derive complex Hilbert space, tensor products, unitary dynamics, or the multi-outcome Born rule. Supersedes an earlier version in which the binary Born form was obtained only in Fisher arclength.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Structural_Resonance.pdf Structural Resonance: A Metaphysical Companion to the Conditional Born-Rule Derivation]''' — explains how a structural reading of the ''Katha Upaniṣad'' served as a disciplined search heuristic for the derivation. Does not claim that Vedanta proves the Born rule.
'''Supplements'''
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Forensic_Signatures.pdf Forensic Signatures]''' — retrospective screening of Chinese 63-qubit, Google Sycamore, and LIGO data for the double-exponential visibility decay signature predicted by BLQC. Motivating evidence for treating LIGO as a candidate regime; not causal attribution. Detailed findings and caveats are discussed in [[#Open objections|Open objections]].
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Creation_of_Duality.pdf The Creation of Duality]''' — speculative extension on appearance, gravity, and information from self-ignorance. Scientific status contingent on the BLQC experimental discriminator.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/The_Capacity-Backaction_Frontier.pdf The Capacity–Backaction Frontier]''' — application to cryogenic quantum error correction. Defines an operational coordinate ρ<sub>CB</sub> = ε<sub>QEC</sub> ''C''<sub>eff</sub> ln 2 / ''h''<sub>eff</sub>(''N'', ''C''<sub>eff</sub>) comparing useful syndrome capacity against the physical instability induced by obtaining and using it.
* '''[https://ignorantobserver.xyz/documents/Biological_Observers.pdf Biological Observers]''' — exploratory supplement on biological timescales.
A full archival deposit of the framework's documents is also available on the Open Science Framework at [https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FCDSN doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FCDSN].
== Open objections ==
The following objections to the framework are listed openly so that reviewers can engage with them directly. Several are diagnosed in the framework's own manuscripts; others reflect critiques the author has received in correspondence or anticipates from sophisticated readers. They are deliberately phrased from outside the framework's assumptions, not from within them.
# '''Useful capacity versus thermodynamic bound'''. The framework uses the Landauer expression ''C'' ≤ ''P'' / (''k''<sub>B</sub> ''T'' ln 2) to relate controller input power ''P'' to channel capacity. Landauer is an ideal upper bound on bit-erasure cost; it does not guarantee that increased ''P'' actually translates to increased ''useful'' basis-tracking capacity. Additional power can equally well couple to actuator noise, electromagnetic leakage, vibration, or backaction channels that do not constrain the basis variable θ. Establishing that Δ''P'' → Δ''C''<sub>eff</sub> in the predicted direction — with realistic loss budgets for the candidate apparatus — is a substantive engineering claim that the framework does not by itself establish.
# '''Existence of positive ''h''<sub>KS</sub> in engineered apparatus'''. Many precision controllers (phase-locked loops, qubit readout chains, interferometer servo systems) are explicitly engineered to suppress chaotic dynamics. The basis-defining degrees of freedom may exhibit colored noise, slow drift, or stochastic control error rather than positive-''h''<sub>KS</sub> chaos in the Pesin sense. If the relevant dynamics are not chaotic in this sense, the ''h''<sub>KS</sub> framing may not apply at all, and a different rate-distortion accounting (or none) would be needed. Even where positive ''h''<sub>KS</sub> can be identified, the operationally relevant rate may differ substantially from textbook surrogate estimates (kicked rotor, logistic map) used illustratively in the manuscripts.
# '''Rate-distortion extension to nonlinear / chaotic systems'''. The mapping from channel capacity ''C'' to angular tracking variance σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup> ≥ ''D''/(''C'' ln 2) assumes a high-rate coder model and the framework extends the Data-Rate Theorem from linear plants to nonlinear chaotic systems by substituting ''h''<sub>KS</sub>. This extension is an explicit assumption, not a proven theorem. If the extension fails, the closed-form visibility law and the κ-regime structure both lose their derivation.
# '''Gaussian small-angle assumption'''. The visibility expression ''V''(''t'') = exp(−½ σ<sub>θ</sub><sup>2</sup>) requires σ<sub>θ</sub> ≲ 1 rad and a Gaussian basis-tracking error distribution. Non-Gaussian, heavy-tailed, or state-dependent δθ would break the closed-form double-exponential law.
# '''Decoherence and control-noise confound'''. Distinguishing the predicted visibility loss from ordinary environmental dephasing, alignment drift, and detector systematics is the central experimental challenge. The framework's answer is the sign-reversal under power variation at clamped ''T'' — a conceptually clean discriminator that is engineering-hard to realise. Independent calibration of ''C''<sub>eff</sub> may be the single largest practical hurdle.
# '''Prior-art and reparameterization risk'''. The proposed double-exponential visibility signature may already be expressible within existing frameworks: compound dephasing channels with two or more contributing rates, classical feedback-loop instability, or hidden-variable control-noise models with appropriate parameter choices. The framework should be able to show that its prediction is genuinely new rather than a reparameterization of one of these known phenomena. The author's adversarial-mimic analysis is in progress, and a positive result on that front would substantially strengthen the framework's empirical claim.
# '''Bell / locality consistency'''. The framework implies a structural violation of statistical measurement-independence. The author's response (common causal past plus global consistency, in place of fine-tuned initial conditions) is a philosophical reframing rather than a no-signalling lemma. A proper consistency proof has not been published.
# '''Forensic-signature interpretation'''. The Forensic Signatures preprint applies a screening protocol to existing data from Chinese 63-qubit processors, Google Sycamore, and LIGO glitch records. The paper's own domain-of-validity statement is that BLQC applies in observer-limited rather than plant-limited regimes, and the protocol finds power-law dominance on the qubit datasets (consistent with that statement) and 43% Gompertz-consistent events on LIGO (consistent with BLQC). The paper flags a controller-regime confound for the LIGO result and is explicit that retrospective findings do not establish causal attribution to BLQC; the case rests on the prospective controlled-capacity experiment. The objection here is the standard one for retrospective signal analyses: even where the predicted geometry is present, it remains compatible with alternative explanations until the controlled experiment runs.
# '''Observer language'''. The framework's "observer" plays two distinct roles: the physical apparatus / controller whose finite ''C''<sub>eff</sub> and ''h''<sub>KS</sub> appear in the equations, and the epistemic subject for whom measurement outcomes are or are not determinate. The framework treats these as connected but not identified, and the distinction is load-bearing. Critics will reasonably worry — especially given the framework's interpretive engagement with non-dual philosophy and the philosophy of mind — that consciousness is being smuggled into the foundations of measurement under physical vocabulary. The framework's defence is that the BLQC experimental claim is stated entirely in apparatus-level terms; whether that defence holds depends on the framework keeping the two senses of "observer" rigorously separate.
# '''Interpretive vocabulary'''. Some of the framework's documents draw on vocabulary from philosophy of mind and non-dual philosophy (notably Advaita Vedānta) alongside the physical derivations. Readers who find this vocabulary off-putting are invited to evaluate the empirical content from the BLQC manuscript, which uses only standard physics and control-theory language.
# '''Conditional Born-rule derivation, scope'''. The framework's binary-Born derivation now obtains ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2) in the laboratory basis coordinate of a BLQC experiment, with the conditional weight stated explicitly as two named premises: the ''Fisher capacity bridge'' (''C''<sub>eff</sub> measures the useful rate of reducing distinguishability error in the operational record family ''p''(''o'' | θ)) and ''scalar-threshold homogeneity'' (the physical basis coordinate θ is homogeneous in the Fisher distinguishability metric on records). Both premises are empirically testable through the Fisher-homogeneity module of the BLQC protocol. The derivation does not derive complex Hilbert space, tensor products, unitary dynamics, the multi-outcome Born rule for arbitrary projective measurements, or the full IOF admissible-history measure μ<sub>A</sub>. Reviewer engagement on whether the Fisher capacity bridge is the right substantive identification of useful tracking capacity, whether scalar-threshold homogeneity is the natural reading of the BLQC threshold in a calibrated basis, whether Cencov-based selection is the correct uniqueness theorem under sufficient Markov invariance, and what would constitute a non-circular extension to multi-outcome records and full Hilbert kinematics, is explicitly invited.
# '''Peer-review status and independent replication'''. The framework has not yet undergone peer review, and the experimental discriminator has not been independently replicated. This is the actual current epistemic status of the work. The framework's case must be evaluated on its merits in the documents linked above and on the conduct of the prospective experiment, not on any external imprimatur.
== Invitation for review ==
This page is offered as a venue for substantive critique. The author is particularly interested in engagement on the following:
* '''From physicists working on quantum control or precision interferometry''': is the proposed sign-reversal under controller-power variation at clamped temperature genuinely distinguishable from known instrumental artefacts (closed-loop resonances, thermal-noise mismodelling, photon-shot-noise rebalancing at higher gain), and what existing apparatus would be best positioned to perform the test?
* '''From decoherence theorists''': under what conditions does the proposed double-exponential visibility law overlap with compound-channel decoherence models in ways that would make the two empirically indistinguishable? Is there a parameter regime where the framework's prediction is genuinely new rather than a reparameterisation of existing models?
* '''From researchers in the foundations of quantum mechanics''': how should the framework's structural — but epistemically bounded — violation of measurement-independence be evaluated against the alternatives in the superdeterminism / retrocausality / many-worlds landscape, and what would constitute a satisfactory consistency proof?
* '''From researchers in information geometry or foundations of probability''': the framework's conditional binary-Born derivation runs from BLQC finite-rate basis tracking via a Fisher capacity bridge and scalar-threshold homogeneity to ''p''(θ) = cos²(θ/2) in the laboratory basis coordinate. The binary case in θ is conditionally closed under the two stated bridge assumptions; the extension to multi-outcome records and the recovery of full Hilbert-space empirical content remain open. Critique on whether the Fisher capacity bridge is the right substantive identification of useful tracking capacity, whether scalar-threshold homogeneity is the natural reading of the BLQC threshold in a calibrated basis, whether Cencov-based selection is the correct uniqueness theorem under sufficient Markov invariance, and what would constitute a non-circular extension to multi-outcome records and full Hilbert kinematics, is welcome.
* '''From philosophers of mind''': the Advaita / RQM interpretive layer is offered conditionally on the empirical core. Is the conditional structure ("these readings are available ''if'' the empirical claim survives") presented clearly enough, or does it still amount to overreach?
Comments, references to prior or parallel work the author may not be aware of, and pointers to potential confounds or alternative explanations are all welcome. Substantive critique on the [[Talk:The Ignorant Observer Framework|talk page]] will be acknowledged in subsequent revisions of the manuscripts.
== References ==
* Brukner, Č., & Zeilinger, A. (1999). Operationally invariant information in quantum measurements. ''Physical Review Letters'', 83(17), 3354–3357.
* Nair, G. N., & Evans, R. J. (2004). Stabilizability of stochastic linear systems with finite feedback data rates. ''SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization'', 43(2), 413–436.
* Penrose, R. (1996). On gravity's role in quantum state reduction. ''General Relativity and Gravitation'', 28(5), 581–600.
* Rovelli, C. (1996). Relational quantum mechanics. ''International Journal of Theoretical Physics'', 35(8), 1637–1678.
* Tatikonda, S., & Mitter, S. (2004). Control under communication constraints. ''IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control'', 49(7), 1056–1068.
* Wootters, W. K. (1981). Statistical distance and Hilbert space. ''Physical Review D'', 23(2), 357–362.
== See also ==
* [[w:Quantum decoherence|Decoherence]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Relational quantum mechanics|Relational quantum mechanics]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Penrose interpretation|Penrose interpretation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Data-rate theorem|Data-rate theorem]] (Wikipedia)
[[Category:Research projects]]
[[Category:Quantum mechanics]]
[[Category:Philosophy of science]]
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== To-do ==
Organize this page in similar fashion to:
*[[AP Biology]]
*[[AP Psychology]]
—[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 03:37, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
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Social Victorians/Irish Aristocracy
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= The Irish Aristocracy at the End of the 19th Century =
== The Irish Peerage ==
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Abercorn|Duke and Duchess of Abercorn]] ===
This dukedom is in the peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
* James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn (1838–1913)
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Marquess of Abercorn
* Viscount Hamilton
=== Duke of Leinster ===
Irish peerage
* Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster (16 August 1851 – 1 December 1893)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p1207.htm#i12063|title=Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster|website=www.thepeerage.com|access-date=2026-05-24}}</ref>
* Maurice FitzGerald, 6th Duke of Leinster, 6 years old when he succeeded to the dukedom<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p2767.htm#i27667|title=Maurice FitzGerald, 6th Duke of Leinster|website=www.thepeerage.com|access-date=2026-05-24}}</ref>
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
# Marquess of Kildare (Irish peerage), did not attend the ball.
# Earl of Kildare (Irish peerage), did not attend the ball.
# Earl of Offaly (Irish peerage)
# Viscount Leinster of Taplow (GB peerage)
# Baron Offaly (Irish peerage)
# Baron Kildare of Kildare (UK peerage)
=== Marquess Conyngham ===
Did not attend the ball but did attend a number of social events about this time.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Earl of Conyngham
=== Marquess of Donegall ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Earl of Donegall, did not attend the ball.
* Viscount Chichester — did not attend the ball; some Chichesters attended social events at about this time.
=== Marquess of Downshire ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Earl of Hillsborough, did not attend the ball, also not at any social events described so far.
=== Marquess of Ely ===
Did not attend the ball.
Subsidiary Titles
* Earl of Ely — did not attend the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Bective|Marquess and Marchioness of Headfort]] ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* [[Social Victorians/People/Bective|Earl of Bective]]
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Marquess and Marchioness of Londonderry]] ===
The Marquess and Marchioness attended the ball, she led one of the courts as Maria Thérèse, plus two of their children attended.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* [[Social Victorians/People/Londonderry|Earl of Londonderry]]
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Lucan|Earl of Lucan]] ===
Some members of the family attended the ball, and the family attended a number of social events at this time.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Ormonde|Marquess and Marchioness of Ormonde]] ===
* James Edward Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde and 21st Earl of Ormonde (1844–1919)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2026-05-03|title=Earl of Ormond (Ireland)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earl_of_Ormond_(Ireland)&oldid=1352334266|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Now extinct; earldom dormant. Castle X was their manor, but they don't appear to have any papers.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
=== Marquess of Sligo ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Earl of Altamont. Did not attend the ball; did not attend any social events analyzed so far.
* Earl of Clanricarde — Did not attend the ball but did attend a few social events about this time.
=== Marquess of Waterford ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
=== Earl of Annesley ===
Did not attend the ball but did attend a number of social events in the 1890s.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Antrim|Earl of Antrim]] ===
Some members of this family attended the ball, though not the earl or countess.
=== Earl of Arran ===
Attended the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Belmore|Earl Belmore]] ===
Did not attend the ball, but did attend a number of social events about this time.
=== Earl of Bessborough ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Caledon ===
Did not attend the ball but did attend a number of social events about this time.
=== Earl of Carrick ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl Castle Stewart ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Cavan ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Clanwilliam|Earl and Countess of Clanwilliam]] ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Cork, Earl of Orrery ===
Cork and Orrery, did attend the ball.
=== Earl of Courtown ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Darnley ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Desmond ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Donoughmore|Earl of Donoughmore]] ===
Did not attend the ball but did attend a number of social events about this time.
=== Earl of Drogheda ===
Did not attend the ball.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Viscount Moore — no evidence of the Viscount or Viscountess Moore at social events at about this time.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Cole|Earl and Countess of Enniskillen]] ===
The Earl and Countess and a daughter attended the ball. Papers in PRONI.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Crichton|Earl of Erne]] ===
Some members of the family attended the ball. Papers in PRONI.
=== Earl of Granard ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Kerry ===
Subsidiary title of the Marquess of Lansdowne (in the peerage of Great Britain). Attended the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Kilmorey|Earl of Kilmorey]] ===
Nellie Countess of Kilmorey attended the ball; Francis, 3rd Earl was alive at the time, did he attend? Both he and she attended a number of social events from about this time.
==== Subsidiary Titles ====
* Viscount Kilmorey (but no longer extant?)
=== Earl of Kingston ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Lisburne ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Longford ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Mayo|Earl of Mayo]] ===
Some members of the family attended the ball.
=== Earl and Countess of Meath ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Mexborough ===
Did not attend the ball
=== Earl of Mornington ===
Subsidiary title of the Duke of Wellington (in the peerage of the UK).
=== Earl of Portarlington ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Roden ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Shannon ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Shelburne ===
Subsidiary title of the Marquess of Lansdowne (in the peerage of Great Britain).
Did not attend the ball, and did not attend any social events analyzed so far.
=== Earl of Tyrone ===
Did not attend
=== Earl of Waterford ===
Not a subsidiary title of the Marquess of Waterford but of the Earl of Shrewsbury in the peerage of England.
=== Earl of Westmeath ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Earl of Winterton ===
Did not attend the ball.
=== Viscount Callan ===
Did not attend the ball, and does not have much if any social presence at about this time. The Viscount Callan is a subsidiary title of the Earl of Denbigh in the Peerage of England.
=== Viscount Dillon ===
Did not attend the ball, but several Dillons attended other social events at about this time.
=== Viscount Gormanston ===
Did not attend the ball, has no social presence in the late 19th-century newspapers at this time.
=== Viscount Grandison ===
Did not attend the ball, has no social presence in the late 19th-century newspapers at this time. The Viscount Grandison is a subsidiary title of the Earl of Jersey in the Peerage of England.
=== Viscount Mountgarret ===
Did not attend the ball, has no social presence in the late 19th-century newspapers at this time.
=== Viscount Valentia ===
Did not attend the ball, attended some social events at about this time. Was on the Welcome Council for the 1887 American Exhibition.
== Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ==
After the forced 1801 Act of Union.
=== Earl of Clancarty ===
Did not attend the ball and attended few social events researched so far.
=== [[Social Victorians/People/Gosford|Earl of Gosford]] ===
The Earl and Countess of Gosford attended the ball, as did a son and a daughter. They attended many social events at about this time.
=== Earl of Limerick ===
Did not attend the ball, but did attend a number of events about this time.
=== Earl of Listowel ===
Did not attend the ball, but hosted and attended social events at about this time.
=== Earl of Norbury ===
Did not attend the ball, but attended some social events at about this time.
=== Earl of Normanton ===
Did not attend the ball, but did attend some social events in the 1880s and 1890s.
=== Earl of Ranfurly ===
Did not attend the ball, and they have a small social presence in the newspapers in the 1880s and 1890s.
=== Earl of Rosse ===
Did not attend the ball, but did attend a few events at about this time.
== Irish Nationalists ==
== Irish Unionists ==
== Irish Aristocrats at the Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 Fancy-dress Ball ==
== References ==
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== Summary ==
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User:Wmbata
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Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments
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Created page with "Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well. * [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]] * [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]] * Padding ==== Padding ==== Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding. With respect to the costumes wor..."
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Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
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Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>
== Footnotes ==
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Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":116">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could b
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_in_a_Park_Met_DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]
Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":75">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":117">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La_laitiere._G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame_A._Aughié,_Friend_of_Queen_Marie_Antoinette,_as_a_Dairymaid_in_the_Royal_Dairy_at_Trianon_-_Nationalmuseum_-_21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]
In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":118">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}</blockquote>
[[File:Robe_à_la_polonaise_jaune_et_violette,_Galerie_des_modes,_Fonds_d'estampes_du_XVIIIème_siècle,_G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]
The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_ooo_356_Grand_habit_de_bal_a_la_Cour_(..),_RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|left|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise]]
The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.)
[[File:Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_sss_384_Robe_de_Cour_à_la_Turque_(..),_RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]
The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":76">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Francais,_1787,_ooo.359,_Habit_de_Cour_en_hyver_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":119">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.
[[File:Crinoline_era3.gif|left|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":119" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":77">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":77" /> (46)</blockquote>R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":2022">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.
[[File:Miss_Victoria_Stuart-Wortley,_later_Victoria,_Lady_Welby_(1837-1912)_1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]
As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices. In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.
[[File:Elisabeth_Franziska_wearing_a_crinoline_and_feathered_hat.jpg|left|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her_Majesty_the_Queen_Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.
[[File:Queen_Victoria_photographed_by_Mayall.JPG|left|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.
[[File:Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii,_photograph_by_John_&_Charles_Watkins,_The_Royal_Collection_Trust_(crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":78">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}</blockquote>This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(1_of_4).jpg|left|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view]]
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(4_of_4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]
The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":132">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":79">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La_Gazette_rose,_16_Mai_1874;_robe_à_tournure.jpg|left|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874]]
In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":710">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this'''].
[[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]
The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.
[[File:Elizabeth_Alice_Austen_in_June_1888.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]].
[[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf_33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]
This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Footnotes ==
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Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":116">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could b
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_in_a_Park_Met_DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]
Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":75">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":117">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La_laitiere._G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame_A._Aughié,_Friend_of_Queen_Marie_Antoinette,_as_a_Dairymaid_in_the_Royal_Dairy_at_Trianon_-_Nationalmuseum_-_21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]
In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":118">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}</blockquote>
[[File:Robe_à_la_polonaise_jaune_et_violette,_Galerie_des_modes,_Fonds_d'estampes_du_XVIIIème_siècle,_G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]
The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_ooo_356_Grand_habit_de_bal_a_la_Cour_(..),_RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|left|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise]]
The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.)
[[File:Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_sss_384_Robe_de_Cour_à_la_Turque_(..),_RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]
The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":76">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Francais,_1787,_ooo.359,_Habit_de_Cour_en_hyver_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":119">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.
[[File:Crinoline_era3.gif|left|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":119" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":77">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":77" /> (46)</blockquote>R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":2022">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.
[[File:Miss_Victoria_Stuart-Wortley,_later_Victoria,_Lady_Welby_(1837-1912)_1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]
As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices. In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.
[[File:Elisabeth_Franziska_wearing_a_crinoline_and_feathered_hat.jpg|left|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her_Majesty_the_Queen_Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.
[[File:Queen_Victoria_photographed_by_Mayall.JPG|left|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.
[[File:Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii,_photograph_by_John_&_Charles_Watkins,_The_Royal_Collection_Trust_(crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":78">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}</blockquote>This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(1_of_4).jpg|left|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view]]
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(4_of_4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]
The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":132">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":79">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La_Gazette_rose,_16_Mai_1874;_robe_à_tournure.jpg|left|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874]]
In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":710">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this'''].
[[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]
The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.
[[File:Elizabeth_Alice_Austen_in_June_1888.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]].
[[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf_33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]
This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Footnotes ==
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Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* Padding
==== Padding ====
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset_-_MET_1972.209.49a,_b.jpg|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|thumb|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's_Corset_LACMA_M.2007.211.353.jpg|none|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":1110">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":116">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could b
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_in_a_Park_Met_DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]
Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":75">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":117">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La_laitiere._G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame_A._Aughié,_Friend_of_Queen_Marie_Antoinette,_as_a_Dairymaid_in_the_Royal_Dairy_at_Trianon_-_Nationalmuseum_-_21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]
In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":118">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}</blockquote>
[[File:Robe_à_la_polonaise_jaune_et_violette,_Galerie_des_modes,_Fonds_d'estampes_du_XVIIIème_siècle,_G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]
The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_ooo_356_Grand_habit_de_bal_a_la_Cour_(..),_RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|left|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise]]
The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.)
[[File:Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_sss_384_Robe_de_Cour_à_la_Turque_(..),_RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]
The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":76">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Francais,_1787,_ooo.359,_Habit_de_Cour_en_hyver_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":119">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.
[[File:Crinoline_era3.gif|left|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":119" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":77">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":77" /> (46)</blockquote>R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":2022">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.
[[File:Miss_Victoria_Stuart-Wortley,_later_Victoria,_Lady_Welby_(1837-1912)_1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]
As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices. In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.
[[File:Elisabeth_Franziska_wearing_a_crinoline_and_feathered_hat.jpg|left|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her_Majesty_the_Queen_Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.
[[File:Queen_Victoria_photographed_by_Mayall.JPG|left|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.
[[File:Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii,_photograph_by_John_&_Charles_Watkins,_The_Royal_Collection_Trust_(crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":78">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}</blockquote>This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(1_of_4).jpg|left|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view]]
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(4_of_4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]
The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":132">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":79">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La_Gazette_rose,_16_Mai_1874;_robe_à_tournure.jpg|left|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874]]
In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":710">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this'''].
[[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]
The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.
[[File:Elizabeth_Alice_Austen_in_June_1888.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]].
[[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf_33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]
This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Footnotes ==
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= Late 19th-century Foundation Garments =
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Padding|Padding]]
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset_-_MET_1972.209.49a,_b.jpg|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|thumb|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's_Corset_LACMA_M.2007.211.353.jpg|none|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":1110">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":116">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could b
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_in_a_Park_Met_DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]
Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":75">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":117">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La_laitiere._G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame_A._Aughié,_Friend_of_Queen_Marie_Antoinette,_as_a_Dairymaid_in_the_Royal_Dairy_at_Trianon_-_Nationalmuseum_-_21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]
In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":118">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}</blockquote>
[[File:Robe_à_la_polonaise_jaune_et_violette,_Galerie_des_modes,_Fonds_d'estampes_du_XVIIIème_siècle,_G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]
The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_ooo_356_Grand_habit_de_bal_a_la_Cour_(..),_RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|left|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise]]
The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.)
[[File:Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_sss_384_Robe_de_Cour_à_la_Turque_(..),_RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]
The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":76">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Francais,_1787,_ooo.359,_Habit_de_Cour_en_hyver_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":119">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.
[[File:Crinoline_era3.gif|left|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":119" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":77">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":77" /> (46)</blockquote>R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":2022">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.
[[File:Miss_Victoria_Stuart-Wortley,_later_Victoria,_Lady_Welby_(1837-1912)_1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]
As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices. In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.
[[File:Elisabeth_Franziska_wearing_a_crinoline_and_feathered_hat.jpg|left|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her_Majesty_the_Queen_Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.
[[File:Queen_Victoria_photographed_by_Mayall.JPG|left|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.
[[File:Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii,_photograph_by_John_&_Charles_Watkins,_The_Royal_Collection_Trust_(crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":78">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}</blockquote>This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(1_of_4).jpg|left|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view]]
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(4_of_4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]
The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":132">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":79">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La_Gazette_rose,_16_Mai_1874;_robe_à_tournure.jpg|left|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874]]
In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":710">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this'''].
[[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]
The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.
[[File:Elizabeth_Alice_Austen_in_June_1888.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]].
[[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf_33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]
This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Padding ==
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Footnotes ==
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= Late 19th-century Foundation Garments =
Foundation structures changed the shape of the body by metal, cane, boning. Men wore corsets as well.
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corset|Corset]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hoops|Hoops]]
* [[Social Victorians/Terminology/Foundation Garments#Padding|Padding]]
== Corset ==
[[File:Corset_-_MET_1972.209.49a,_b.jpg|alt=Photograph of an old silk corset on a mannequin, showing the closure down the front, similar to a button, and channels in the fabric for the boning. It is wider at the top and bottom, creating smooth curves from the bust to the compressed waist to the hips, with a long point below the waist in front.|thumb|French 1890s corset, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC]]
The understructure of Victorian women's clothing is what makes the costumes worn by the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball]] so distinctly Victorian in appearance. An example of a corset that has the kind of structure often worn by fashionably dressed women in 1897 is the one at right.
This corset exaggerated the shape of the women's bodies and made possible a bodice that looked and was fitted in the way that is so distinctive of the time — very controlled and smooth. And, as a structural element, this foundation garment carried the weight of all those layers and all that fabric and decoration on the gowns, trains and mantles. (The trains and mantles could be attached directly to the corset itself.)
* This foundation emphasizes the waist and the bust in particular, in part because of the contrast between the very small waist and the rounded fullness of the bust and hips.
* The idealized waist is defined by its small span and the sexualizing point at the center-bottom of the bodice, which directs the eye downwards. Interestingly, the pointed waistline worn by Elizabethan men has become level in the Victorian age. Highly fashionable Victorian women wearing the traditional style, however, had extremely pointed waists.
* The busk (a kind of boning in the front of a corset that is less flexible than the rest) smoothed the bodice, flattened the abdomen and prevented the point on the bodice from curling up.
* The sharp definition of the waist was caused by
** length of the corset (especially on the sides)
** the stiffness of the boning
** the layers of fabric
** the lacing (especially if the woman used tightlacing)
** the over-all shape, which was so much wider at the top and the bottom
** the contrast between the waist and the wider top and bottom
* The late-19th-century corset was long, ending below the waist even on the sides and back.
* The boning and the top edge of the late 19th-century fashion corset pushed up the bust, rounding (rather than flattening, as in earlier styles) the breasts, drawing attention to their exposed curves and creating cleavage.
* The exaggerated bust was larger than the hips, whenever possible, an impression reinforced by the A-line of the skirt and the inverted Vs in the decorative trim near the waist and on the skirt.
* This corset made the bodice very smooth with a very precise fit, that had no wrinkles, folds or loose drapery. The bodice was also trimmed or decorated, but the base was always a smooth bodice. More formal gowns would still have the fitted bodice and more elaborate trim made from lace, embroidery, appliqué, beading and possibly even jewels.
The advantages and disadvantages of corseting and especially tight lacing were the subject of thousands of articles and opinions in the periodical press for a great part of the century, but the fetishistic and politicized tight lacing was practiced by very few women. And no single approach to corsetry was practiced by all women all the time. Most of the women at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 ball]] were not tightly laced, but the progressive style does not dominate either, even though all the costumes are technically historical dress. Part of what gives most of the costumes their distinctive 19th-century "look" is the more traditional corset beneath them. Even though this highly fashionable look was widely present in the historical costumes at the ball, some women's waists were obviously very small and others were hardly '''emphasized''' at all. Women's waists are never mentioned in the newspaper coverage of the ball — or, indeed, of any of the social events attended by the network at the ball — so it is only in photographs that we can see the effects of how they used their corsets.
==== Things To Add ====
[[File:Woman's_Corset_LACMA_M.2007.211.353.jpg|none|thumb|Woman's Corset LACMA M.2007.211.353.jpg]]
* Corset as an outer garment, 18th century, in place of a stomacher<ref name=":1110">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|419}}
* Corsets could be laced in front or back
* Methods for making the holes for the laces and the development of the grommet (in the 1830s)
== Hoops ==
'''This section is under construction right now'''.
Terms: farthingale, panniers, hoops, crinoline, cage, bustle
Between 1450 and 1550 a loosely woven, very stiff fabric made from linen and horsehair was used in "horsehair petticoats."<ref name=":7">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|137}} Heavy and scratchy, these petticoats made the fabric of the skirt lie smooth, without wrinkles or folds. Over time, this horsehair fabric was used in several kinds of objects made from fabric, like hats and padding for poufs, but it is best known for its use in the structure of hoops, or cages. Horsehair fabric was used until the mid-19th century, when it was called ''crinoline'' and used in the making petticoats again (1840–1865).<ref name=":7" />{{rp|78}} We still call this fabric ''crinoline''. But in the 19th century, people also used the term ''crinoline'' to mean petticoats.
''Hoops'' is a mid-19th-century term for a cage-like structure worn by a woman to hold her skirts away from her body. The term ''cage'' is also 19th century, and ''crinoline'' is sometimes used in a non-technical way for 19th-century cages as well. Both these terms are commonly used now for the general understructure of a woman's skirts, but they are not technically accurate for time periods before the 19th century.
As fashion, that cage-like structure was the foundation undergarment for the bottom half of a woman's body, for a skirt and petticoat, and created the fashionable silhouette from the 15th through the late 19th century. The 16th-century Katherine of Aragon is credited with making hoops popular outside Spain for women of the elite classes. By the end of the 16th century France had become the arbiter of fashion for the western world, and it still is. The cage is notable for how long it lasted in fashion and for its complex evolution.
Together with the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|corset]], the cage enabled all the changes in fashionable shapes, from the extreme distortions of 17th-and-18th-century panniers to the late 19th-century bustle. Early hoops circled the body in a bell, cone or drum shape, then were moved to the sides with panniers, then ballooned around the body like the top half of a sphere, and finally were pulled to the rear as a bustle. That is, the distorted shapes of high fashion were made possible by hoops. High fashion demanded these shapes, which disguised women's bodies, especially below the waist, while corsets did their work above it.
When hoops were first introduced in the 15th century, women's shoes for the first time differentiated from men's and became part of the fashionable look. In the periods when the skirts were flat in front (with the farthingale and in the transitional 17th century), they did not touch the floor, making shoes visible — and important fashion accessories. Portraits of high-status, high-fashion women consistently show their pointy-toed shoes, which would have been more likely to show when they were moving than when they were standing still. The shoes seem to draw attention to themselves in these portraits, suggesting that they were important to the painters and, perhaps, the women as well.
In addition to the shape, the materials used to make hoops evolved — from cane and wood to whalebone, then steel bands and wire. Initially fabric strips, tabs or ribbons were the vertical elements in the cages and evolved into channels in a linen, muslin or, later, crinoline underskirt encasing wires or bands. Fabrics besides crinoline — like cotton, silk and linen — were used to connect the hoops and bands in cages. All of these materials used in cages had disadvantages and advantages.
=== Disadvantages and Advantages ===
Hoops affected the way women were able to move. ['''something about riding'''?]
==== Disadvantages ====
the weight, getting through doorways, sitting, the wind, getting into carriages, what the dances involved. Raising '''one's'''skirts to climb stairs or walk was more difficult with hoop.
['''Contextualize with dates?'''] "The combination of corset, bustle, and crinolette limited a woman's ability to bend except at the hip joint, resulting in a decorous, if rigid, sense of bearing."<ref>Koda, Harold. ''Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.</ref> (130)
As caricatures through the centuries makes clear, one disadvantage hoops had is that they could be caught by the wind, no matter what the structure was made of or how heavy it was.
In her 1941 ''Little Town on the Prairie'', Laura Ingalls Wilder writes a scene in which Laura's hoops have crept up under skirts because of the wind. Set in 1883,<ref>Hill, Pamela Smith, ed. ''Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography''.</ref> this very unusual scene shows a young woman highly skilled at getting her hoops back down without letting her undergarments show. The majority of European and North American women wore hoops in 1883, but to our knowledge no other writer from this time describes any solution to the problem of the wind under hoops or, indeed, a skill like Laura's. <blockquote>“Well,” Laura began; then she stopped and spun round and round, for the strong wind blowing against her always made the wires of her hoop skirt creep slowly upward under her skirts until they bunched around her knees. Then she must whirl around and around until the wires shook loose and spiraled down to the bottom of her skirts where they should be.
“As she and Carrie hurried on she began again. “I think it was silly, the way they dressed when Ma was a girl, don’t you? Drat this wind!” she exclaimed as the hoops began creeping upward again.
“Quietly Carrie stood by while Laura whirled. “I’m glad I’m not old enough to have to wear hoops,” she said. “They’d make me dizzy.”
“They are rather a nuisance,” Laura admitted. “But they are stylish, and when you’re my age you’ll want to be in style.”<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''Little Town on the Prairie.'' Harper and Row, 1941. Pp. 272–273.</ref></blockquote>The 16-year-old Laura makes the comment that she wants to be in style, but she lives on the prairie in the U.S., far from a large city, and would not necessarily wear the latest Parisian style, although she reads the American women's domestic and fashion monthly ''[[Social Victorians/Newspapers#Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]'' and would know what was stylish.
==== '''Advantages''' ====
The '''weight''' of hoops was somewhat corrected over time with the use of steel bands and wires, as they were lighter than the wood, cane or whalebone hoops, which had to be thick enough to keep their shape and to keep from breaking or folding under the weight of the petticoats and skirts. Full skirts made women's waists look smaller, whether by petticoats or hoops. Being fashionable, being included among the smart set.
The hoops moved the skirts away from the legs and feet, making moving easier.
By moving the heavy petticoats and skirts away from their legs, hoops could actually give women's legs and feet more freedom to move.
Because so few fully constructed hoop foundation garments still exist, we cannot be certain of a number of details about how exactly they were worn. For example, the few contemporary drawings of 19th-century hoops show bloomers beneath them but no petticoats. However, in the cold and wind (and we know from Laura Ingalls Wilder how the wind could get under hoops), women could have added layers of petticoats beneath their hoops for warmth.
[[File:Chaise_à_crinolines.jpg|thumb|Chaise à Crinolines, 19th century]]
=== Accommodation ===
Hoops affected how women sat, and furniture was developed specifically to accommodate these foundation structures. The ''chaise à crinolines'' or chair for hoop skirts (right), dating from the 2nd half of the 19th century, has a gap between the seat and the back of the chair to keep a woman's undergarments from showing as she sat, or even seated herself, and to reduce wrinkling of the fabric by accommodating her hoops, petticoats and skirts.
[[File:Vermeer_Lady_Seated_at_a_Virginal.jpg|left|thumb|Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal]]
Vermeer's c. 1673 ''Lady Seated at a Virginal'' (left) looks like she is sitting on this same kind of chair, suggesting that furniture like this had existed long before the 19th century. Vermeer's painting shows how the chair could accommodate her hoops and the voluminous fabric of her skirts.
The wide doorways between the large public rooms in the Palace of Versailles could accommodate wide panniers. '''Louis XV and XVI of France occupied an already-built Versailles, but they both renovated the inside over time'''.
Some configurations of hoops permitted folding, and of course the width of the hoops themselves varied over time and with the evolving styles and materials.
With hoops, skirts were lifted away from the legs and feet, and when skirts got shorter, to above the floor, women's feet had nearly unrestricted freedom to move. Evening gowns, with trains, were still restrictive.
A modern accommodation are the leaning boards developed in Hollywood for women wearing period garments like corsets and long, full skirts. The leaning boards allow the actors to rest without sitting and wrinkling their clothes.
[[File:Pedro_García_de_Benabarre_St_John_Retable_Detail.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a woman wearing a dress from the 1400s holding the decapitated head of a man with a halo before a table of people at a dinner party|thumb|Pedro García de Benabarre, Detail from St. John Altarpiece, Showing Visible Hoops]]
=== Early Hoops ===
Hoops first appeared in Spain in the 15th century and influenced European fashion for at least 3 centuries.
A detail (right) from Pedro García de Benabarre's c. 1470 larger altarpiece painting shows women wearing a style of hoops that predates the farthingale but marks the beginning point of the development of that fashion. Salomé (holding John the Baptist's head) is wearing a dress with what looks like visible wooden hoops attached to the outside of the skirt, which also appears to have padding at the hips underneath it.
The clothing and hairstyles of the people in this painting are sufficiently realistic to offer details for analysis. The foundation garments the women are wearing are corsets and bum rolls. Because none still exist, we do not know how these hoops attached to the skirts or how they related structurally to the corset. The bottom hoop on Salomé's skirt rests on the ground, and her feet are covered. The women near her are kneeling, so not all their hoops show.
The painter De Benabarre was "active in Aragon and in Catalonia, between 1445–1496,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/|title=Saint Peter|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest|language=en-US|access-date=2024-12-11}} https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/10528/.</ref> so perhaps he saw the styles worn by people like Katharine of Aragon, whose hoops are now called a farthingale.
=== Early Farthingale ===
In the 16th century, the foundation garment we call ''hoops'' was called a ''farthingale''. Elizabeth Lewandowski says that the metal supports (or structure) in the hoops were made of wire:<blockquote>''"FARTHINGALE: Renaissance (1450-1550 C.E. to Elizabethan (1550-1625 C.E.). Linen underskirt with wire supports which, when shaped, produced a variety of dome, bell, and oblong shapes."<ref name=":72">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>''{{rp|105}}</blockquote>The French term for ''farthingale'' is ''vertugadin'' — "un élément essentiel de la mode Tudor en Angleterre [an essential element of Tudor fashion in England]."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=2022-03-12|title=Vertugadin|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vertugadin&oldid=191825729|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}} https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertugadin.</ref> The French also called the farthingale a "''cachenfant'' for its perceived ability to hide pregnancy,"<ref>"Clothes on the Shakespearean Stage." Carleton Production. Amazon Web Services. https://carleton-wp-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/84/2023/05/Clothes-on-the-Shakespearean-Stage_-1.pdf (retrieved April 2025).</ref> not unreasonable given the number of portraits where the subject wearing a farthingale looks as if she might be pregnant. The term in Spanish is ''vertugado''. Nowadays clothing historians make clear distinctions among these terms, especially farthingale, bustle and hip roll, but the terminology then did not need to distinguish these garments from later ones.
The hoops on the outsides of the skirts in the Pedro García de Benabarre painting (above right) predate what would technically be considered a vertugado.
[[File:Alonso_Sánchez_Coello_011.jpg|alt=Old painting of a princess wearing a richly jeweled outfit|thumb|Alonso Sánchez Coello, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia Wearing a Vertugado, c. 1584]]
Blanche Payne says,<blockquote>Katherine of Aragon is reputed to have introduced the Spanish farthingale ... into England early in the [16th] century. The result was to convert the columnar skirt of the fifteenth century into the cone shape of the sixteenth.<ref name=":11">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|291}}</blockquote>In fact, "The Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon brought the fashion to England for her marriage to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII in 1501 [La princesse espagnole Catherine d'Aragon amena la mode en Angleterre pour son mariage avec le prince Arthur, fils aîné d'Henri VII en 1501]."<ref name=":0" /> Catherine of Aragon, of course, married Henry VIII after Arthur's death, then was divorced and replaced by Anne Boleyn.
Of England, Lewandowski says that "Spanish influence had introduced the hoop-supported skirt, smooth in contour, which was quite generally worn."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|291}} That is, hoops were "quite generally worn" among the ruling and aristocratic classes in England, and may have been worn by some women among the wealthy bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws addressed "certain features of garments that are decorative in function, intended to enhance the silhouette"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-22|title=Sumptuary law|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and signified wealth and status, but they were generally not very successful and not enforced well or consistently. (Sumptuary laws "attempted to regulate permitted consumption, especially of clothing, food and luxury expenditures"<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-09-27|title=sumptuary law|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sumptuary_law|journal=Wiktionary, the free dictionary|language=en}}</ref> in order to mark class differences and, for our purposes, to use fashion to control women and the burgeoning middle class.)
The Spanish vertugado shaped the skirt into an symmetrical A-line with a graduated series of hoops sewn to an undergarment. Alonso Sánchez Coello's c. 1584<ref name=":11" />{{rp|316}} portrait (right) shows infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia wearing a vertugado, with its "typically Spanish smooth cone-shaped contour."<ref name=":11" />{{rp|315–316}}
The shoes do not show in the portraits of women wearing the Spanish cone-shaped vertugado. The round hoops stayed in place in front, even though the skirts might touch the floor, giving the women's feet enough room to take steps.
By the end of the 16th century the French and Spanish farthingales had evolved separately and were no longer the same garment.
[[File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_('The_Ditchley_portrait')_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_YoungerFXD.jpg|alt=Old oil painting of a queen in a white dress with shoulders and hips exaggerated by her dress|left|thumb|Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Queen Elizabeth I in a French Cartwheel Farthingale, 1592]]
The French vertugadin — a cartwheel farthingale — was a flat "platter" of hoops worn below the waist and above the hips. Once past the vertugadin, the skirt fell straight to the floor, into a kind of asymmetrical drum shape that was balanced by strict symmetry in the rest of the garment. The English Queen Elizabeth I is wearing a French drum-shaped farthingale in Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's c. 1592 portrait (left).
[[File:Hardwick_Hall_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England.jpg|thumb|Hilliard, Hardwick Hall Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, c. 1598–1599]]
In Nicholas Hilliard's c. 1598–1599 portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (right), an extraordinary showing of jewels, pearls and embroidery from the top of her head to the tips of her toes make for a spectacular outfit. The drum of the cartwheel farthingale is closer to the body beneath the point of the bodice, and the underskirt is gathered up the sides of the foundation corset to where her natural waistline would be. The gathers flatten the petticoat from the point to the hem, and the fabric collected at the sides falls from the edge of the drum down to her ankles.
Associated with the cartwheel farthingale was a very long waist and a skirt slightly shorter in the front. A rigid corset with a point far below the waist and the downward-angled farthingale flattened the front of the skirt. Because the skirt in front over a cartwheel farthingale was closer to the woman's body and did not touch the floor, the dress flowed and the women's shoes showed as they moved. Almost all portraits of women wearing cartwheel farthingales show the little pointy toes of their shoes. In Gheeraerts' painting, Queen Elizabeth's feet draw attention to themselves, suggesting that showing the shoes was important.
Farthingales were heavy, and together with the rigid corsets and the construction of the dress (neckline, bodice, sleeves, mantle), women's movement was quite restricted. Although their feet and legs had the freedom to move under the hoops, their upper bodies were held in place by their foundation garments and their clothing, the sleeves preventing them from raising their arms higher than their shoulders. This restriction of the movement of their arms can be seen in Elizabethan court dances that included clapping. They clapped their hands beside their heads rather than over their heads.
The steady attempts in the sumptuary laws to control fine materials for clothing reveals the interest middle-class women had in wearing what the cultural elite were wearing at court.
=== The Transitional 17th Century ===
What had been starched and stiff in women's dress in the 16th century — like ruffs and collars — became looser and flatter in the 17th. This transitional period in women's clothing also introduced the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Cavalier|Cavalier style of men's dress]], which began with the political movement in support of England's King Charles II while he was still living in France. Like the ones women wore, men's ruffs and collars were also no longer starched or wired, making them looser and flatter as well.
For much of the 17th century — beginning about 1620, according to Payne — skirts were not supported by the cage-like hoops that had been so popular.<ref name=":112">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|355}} Without structures like hoops, skirts draped loosely to the floor, but they did not fall straight from the waist. Except for dressing gowns (which sometimes appear in portraiture in spite of their informality), the skirts women wore were held away from the body by some kind of padding or stiffened roll around the waist and at the hips, sometimes flat in front, sometimes not. The skirts flowed from the hips, either straight down or in an A-line depending on the cut of the skirt.
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg|thumb|Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
==== Hip Rolls ====
This c. 1600 Dutch engraving attributed to Maerten de Vos (right) shows two servants dressing two wealthy women in masks and hip rolls. In its title of this engraving the Metropolitan Museum of Art calls a hip roll a ''bustle'' (which it defines as a padded roll or a French farthingale),<ref>De Vos, Maerten. "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982.jpg.</ref> but the engraving itself calls it a ''cachenfant''.<ref name=":20">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref> The craftsmen in the back are wearing masks. The one on the left is making the masks that the shop sells, and the one on the right is making the hip rolls.
The serving woman on the left is fitting a mask on what is probably her mistress. The kneeling woman on the right is tying a hip roll on what is probably hers.
The text around the engraving is in French and Dutch. The French passages read as follows (clockwise from top left), with the word ''cachenfant'' (farthingale) bolded:<blockquote>Orne moy auecq la masque laide orde et sale:
Car laideur est en moy la beaute principale.
Achepte dame masques & passement:
Monstre vostre pauvre [?] orgueil hardiment.
Venez belles filles auecq fesses maigres:
Bien tost les ferayie rondes & alaigres.
Vn '''cachenfant''' come les autres me fault porter:
Couste qu'il couste; le fol la folle veult aymer.
Voy cy la boutiquel des enragez amours,
De vanite, & d'orgueil & d'autres tels tours:
D'ont plusieurs qui parent la chair puante,
S'en vont auecq les diables en la gehenne ardante.
<ref name=":202">De Vos, Maerten (attrib. to). "The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles." Circa 1600. ''The Costume Institute: The Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Object Number: 2001.341.1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82615</ref></blockquote>Which translates, roughly, into<blockquote>Adorn me with the ugly, dirty, and orderly mask:
For ugliness is the principal beauty in me.
Buy, lady, masks and trimmings:
Boldly show your poor [?] pride.
Come, beautiful girls with thin buttocks:
Soon, make them round and cheerful.
I must wear a [farthingale, lit. "hide child"] like the others:
No matter how much it costs; the madman wants to love.
See here the store of rabid loves,
Of vanity, and pride, and other such tricks:
Many of whom adorn the stinking flesh,
Go with the devils to the burning hell.</blockquote>Later versions of hoops were also used to hide or at least de-emphasize pregnancy (see [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline Hoops|Crinoline Hoops]], below).
[[File:The_Vanity_of_Women_Masks_and_Bustles_MET_DT4982_(detail_of_padded_rolls_or_French_farthingales).jpg|thumb|Detail of Maerten de Vos, ''The Vanity of Women: Masks and Bustles'', c. 1600]]
Traditionally thought of as padding, the hip rolls, at least in this detail of the c. 1600 engraving (right), are hollow and seem to be made cylindrical by what looks like rings of cane or wire sewn into channels. The kneeling woman is tying the strings that attach the hip roll, which is being worn above the petticoat and below the overskirt that the mistress is holding up and back. The hip roll under construction on the table looks hollow, but when they are finished the rolls look padded and their ends sewn closed.
Farthingales were more complex than is usually assumed. Currently, ''farthingale'' usually refers to the cane or wire foundation that shaped the skirt from about 1450 to 1625, although the term was not always used so precisely. Padding was sometimes used to shape the skirt, either by itself or in addition to the cartwheel and cone-shaped foundational structures. The padding itself was in fact another version of hoops that were structured both by rings as well as padding. Called a bustle, French farthingale, cachenfant, bum barrel<ref name=":73">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|42}} or even (quoting Ben Jonson, 1601) bum roll<ref>Cunnington, C. Willett (Cecil Willett), and Phillis Cunnington. ''Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century''. Faber and Faber, 1954. Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/handbookofenglis0000unse_e2n2/.</ref>{{rp|161}} in its day, the hip roll still does not have a stable name. The common terms for what we call the hip roll now include ''bum roll'' and ''French farthingale''. The term ''bustle'' is no longer associated with the farthingale.
==== Bunched Skirts or Padding ====
The speed with which trends in clothing changed began to accelerate in the 17th century, making fashion more expensive and making keeping up with the latest styles more difficult. Part of the transition in this century, then, is the number of silhouettes possible for women, including early forms of what became the pannier in the 18th century and what became the bustle in the late 19th. In the later periods, these forms of hoops involved "baskets" or cages (or crinolines), but during this transitional period, these shapes were made from "stiffened rolls [<nowiki/>[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Hip Rolls|hip rolls]]] that were tied around the waist"<ref>Bendall, Sarah A. () The Case of the “French Vardinggale”: A Methodological Approach to Reconstructing and Understanding Ephemeral Garments, ''Fashion Theory'' 2019 (23:3), pp. 363-399, DOI: [[doi:10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862|10.1080/1362704X.2019.1603862]].</ref>{{rp|369}} at the hips under the skirts or from bunched fabric, or both. The fabric-based volume in the back involved the evolution of an overskirt, showing more and more of the underskirt, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Petticoat|petticoat]], beneath it. This development transformed the petticoat into an outer garment.
[[File:Princess_Teresa_Pamphilj_Cybo,_by_Jacob_Ferdinand_Voet.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1670]]
[[File:Caspar_Netscher_-_Girl_Standing_before_a_Mirror_-_1925.718_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg|left|thumb|Netscher, Girl Standing before a Mirror]]
Two examples of the bunched overskirt can be seen in Caspar Netscher's ''Girl Standing before a Mirror'' (left) and Voet's ''Portrait of Anna Pamphili'' (right), both painted about 1670. (This portrait of Anna Pamphili and the one below right were both misidentified with her mother Olimpia Aldobrandini.) In both these portraits, the overskirt is split down the center front, pulled to the sides and toward the back and stitched (probably) to keep the fabric from falling flat. The petticoat, which is now an outer garment, hangs straight to the floor. In Netscher's portrait, the girl's shoe shows, but the skirt rests on the ground, requiring her to lift her skirts to be able to walk, not to mention dancing. The dress in Anna Pamphili's portrait is an interesting contrast of soft and hard. The embroidery stiffens the narrow petticoat, suggesting it might have been a good choice for a static portrait but not for moving or dancing.
Besides bunched fabric, the other way to make the skirts full at the hips was with hip rolls. Mierevelt's 1629 Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (below, left) shows a split overskirt, although the fabric is not bunched or draped toward the back. The fullness here is caused by a hip roll, which adds fullness to the hips and back, leaving the skirts flat in front. In this case the flatness of the roll in front pulls the overskirt slightly apart and reveals the petticoat, even this early in the century. One reason this portrait is striking because Elizabeth Stuart appears to be wearing a mourning band on her left arm. Also striking are the very elaborate trim and decorations, displaying Stuart's wealth and status, including the large ornament on the mourning band.
[[File:Michiel_van_Mierevelt_-_Portrait_of_Elizabeth_Stuart_(1596-1662),_circa_1629.jpg|left|thumb|Michiel van Mierevelt, Elizabeth Stuart, c. 1629]]
[[File:Attributed_to_Voet_-_Portrait_of_Anna_Pamphili,_misidentified_with_her_mother_Olimpia_Aldobrandini.jpg|thumb|Attr. to Voet, Anna Pamphili, c. 1671]]
The c. 1671 portrait of Anna Pamphili (below, right) shows an example of the petticoat's development as an outer garment. In the Mierevelt portrait (left), the petticoat barely shows. A half century later, in the portrait of Anna Pamphili, the overskirt is not split but so short that the petticoat is almost completely revealed. A hip roll worn under both the petticoat and the overskirt gives her hips breadth. The petticoat is gathered at the sides and smooth in the front, falling close to her body. The fullness of the petticoat and the overskirt is on the sides — and possibly the back. The heavily trimmed overskirt is stiff but not rigid. Anna Pamphili's shoe peeps out from under the flattened front of the petticoat.
The neckline, the hipline, the bottom of the overskirt, the trim at the hem of the petticoat and overskirt and the ribbons on the sleeves — as well as even the hair style — all give Pamphili's outfit a sophisticated horizontal design, a look that soon would become very important and influential as panniers gained popularity.
=== Panniers ===
The formal, high-status dress we most associate with the 18th century is the horizontal style of panniers, the hoops at the sides of the skirt, which is closer to the body in front and back. Popular in the mid century in France, panniers continued to dominate design in court dress in the U.K. "well into the 19th century."<ref name=":113">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}} ''Paniers anglais'' were 8-hoop panniers.<ref name=":74">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|219}}
Panniers were made from a variety of materials, most of which have not survived into the 21st century, and the most common materials used panniers has not been established. Lewandowski says that skirts were "stretched over metal hoops" that "First appear[ed] around 1718 and [were] in fashion [for much of Europe] until 1800. ... By 1750 the one-piece pannier was replaced by [two pieces], with one section over each hip."<ref name=":74" />{{rp|219}} According to Payne, another kind of pannier "consisted of a pair of caned or boned [instead of metal] pouches, their inner surfaces curved to the ... contour of the hips, the outside extending well beyond them."<ref name=":113" />{{rp|428}} Given that it is a natural material, surviving examples of cane for the structure of panniers are an unexpected gift, although silk, linen and wool also occasionally exists in museum collections. No examples of bone structures for panniers exist, suggesting that bone is less hardy than cane. Waugh says that whalebone was the only kind of "bone" (it was actually cartilage, of course) used;<ref name=":19">Waugh, Norah. ''Corsets and Crinolines''. New York, NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1954. Rpt. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2000.</ref>{{rp|167}} Payne says cane and whalebone were used for panniers.<ref name=":113" />{{rp|426}} Neither Payne nor Waugh mention metal. Examples of metal structures for panniers have also not survived, perhaps because they were rare or occurred later, during revolutionary times, when a lot of things got destroyed.
The pannier was not the only silhouette in the 18th century. In fact, the speed with which fashion changed continued to accelerate in this century. Payne describes "Six basic forms," which though evolutionary were also quite distinct. Further, different events called for different styles, as did the status and social requirements for those who attended. For the first time in the clothing history of the culturally elite, different distinct fashions overlapped rather than replacing each other, the clothing choices marking divisions in this class.
The century saw Payne's "Six basic forms" or silhouettes generally in this order but sometimes overlapping:
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The fabric bustle. While we think of the bustle as a 19th-century look, it can be found in the 18th century, as Payne says.<ref name=":114">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|411}} The overskirt was all pulled to the back, the fullness probably mostly made by bunched fabric.
# '''The round skirt'''. "The bell or dome shape resulted from the reintroduction of hoops[,] in England by 1710, in France by 1720."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411}}
# '''The ellipse, panniers'''. "The ellipse ... was achieved by broadening the support from side to side and compressing it from front to back. It had a long run of popularity, from 1740 to 1770, the extreme width being retained in court costumes. ... English court costume [411/413] followed this fashion well into the nineteenth century."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|411, 413}}
# '''Fullness in the back and sides'''. "The dairy maid, or [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Polonaise|polonaise]], style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period."<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''Fullness in the back'''. The return of the bustle in the 1780s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
# '''No fullness'''. The tubular [or Empire] form, drawn from classic art, in the 1790s.<ref name=":114" />{{rp|413}}
Hoops affected how women sat, went through doors and got into carriages, as well as what was involved in the popular dances. Length of skirts and trains. Some doorways required that women wearing wide panniers turn sideways, which undermined the "entrance" they were expected to make when they arrived at an event. Also, a woman might be accompanied by a gentleman, who would also be affected by her panniers and the width of the doorway. Over the century skirts varied from ankle length to resting on the floor. Women wearing panniers would not have been able to stand around naturally: the panniers alone meant they had to keep their elbows bent.
[[File:Panniers_1.jpg|alt=Photograph of the wooden and fabric skeleton of an 18th-century women's foundation garment|left|thumb|Wooden and Fabric-covered Structure for 18th-century Panniers]]
[[File:Hoop_petticoat_and_corset_England_1750-1780_LACMA.jpg|thumb|Hooped Petticoat and Corset, 1750–80]]
The 1760–1770 French panniers (left) are "a rare surviving example"<ref name=":15">{{Citation|title=Panniers|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668|date=1760–70|accessdate=2025-01-01}}. The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/139668.</ref> of the structure of this foundation garment. Almost no examples of panniers survive. The hoops are made with bent cane, held together with red velvet silk ribbon that looks pinked. The cane also appears to be covered with red velvet, and the hoops have metal "hinges that allow [them] to be lifted, facilitating movement in tight spaces."<ref name=":15" /> This inventive hingeing permitted the wearer to lift the bottom cane and her skirts, folding them up like an accordion, lifting the front slightly and greatly reducing the width (and making it easier to get through doors). ['''Write the Met to ask about this description once it's finished. Are there examples of boned or metal panniers that they're aware of?'''] The corset and hoops shown (right) are also not reproductions and are also rare examples of foundation garments surviving from the 18th century. These hoops are made with cane held in place by casings sewn into a plain-woven linen skirt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714|title=Woman's Hoop Petticoat (Pannier) {{!}} LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|access-date=2025-01-03}} Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214714.</ref> These 1750–1780 hoops are modestly wide, but the gathering around the casings for the hoops suggests that the panniers could be widened if longer hoops were inserted. (The corset shown with these hoops is treated in the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Corsets|Corsets section]]. The mannequin is wearing a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise undergarment]] as well.)
[[File:Johanna_Gabriele_of_Habsburg_Lorraine1_copy.jpg|left|thumb|Martin van Meytens, Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine, c. 1760]]
In her c. 1760 portrait (left), Johanna Gabriele of Habsburg Lorraine is wearing exaggerated court-dress panniers, shown here about the widest that they got. Johanna Gabriele was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, so she was a sister of Marie Antoinette, who also would have worn panniers as exaggerated as these. Johanna Gabriele's hairstyle has not grown into the huge bouffant style that developed to balance the wide court dress, so her outfit looks out of proportion in this portrait. And, because of her panniers, her arms look slightly awkward. The tips of her shoes show because her skirt has been pulled back and up to rest on them. France had become the leader in high fashion by the middle of the century, led first by Madame Pompadour and then by Marie Antoinette, who was crowned queen in 1774.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-04-23|title=Marie Antoinette|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> Court dress has always been regulated, but it could be influenced. Marie Antoinette's influence was toward exaggeration, both in formality and in informality. In their evolution formal-dress skirts moved away from the body in front and back but were still wider on the sides and were decorated with massive amounts of trim, including ruffles, flowers, lace and ribbons. The French queen led court fashion into greater and greater excess: "Since her taste ran to dancing, theatrical, and masked escapades, her costumes and those of her court exhibited quixotic tendencies toward absurdity and exaggeration."<ref name=":115">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|428}} Both Madame Pompadour's and Marie Antoinette's taste ran to extravagance and excess, visually represented in the French court by the clothing.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in 1778 and 1779]]
The two portraits (right), painted by Élizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in 1778 on the left and 1779 on the right, show Marie Antoinette wearing the same dress. Although one painting has been photographed as lighter than the other, the most important differences between the two portraits are slight variations in the pose and the hairstyle and headdress. Her hair in the 1779 painting is in better proportion to her dress than it is in the earlier one, and the later headdress — a stylized mobcap — is more elaborate and less dependent on piled-up hair. (The description of the painting in Wikimedia Commons says she gave birth between these two portraits, which in particular affected her hair and hairline.<ref>"File:Marie Antoinette 1778-1783.jpg." ''Wikimedia Commons'' [<bdi>Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2 portraits of Marie Antoinette</bdi>] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_1778-1783.jpg.</ref>)
[[File:Queen_Charlotte,_by_studio_of_Thomas_Gainsborough.jpg|left|thumb|Queen Charlotte of England, 1781]]
In this 1781<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wd/jAGip1dpEkf-Fw|title=Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England - Thomas Gainsborough, studio|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en|access-date=2025-04-16}}</ref> portrait from the workshop of Thomas Gainsborough (left), Queen Charlotte is wearing panniers less exaggerated in width than Johanna Gabriele's. The English did not usually wear panniers as wide as those in French court dress, but the decoration and trim on the English Queen Charlotte's gown are as elaborate as anything the French would do.
The ruffles (many of them double) and fichu are made with a sheer silk or cotton, which was translucent rather than transparent. The ruffles on Queen Charlotte's sleeves are made of lace. The ruffles and poufs of sheer silk are edged in gold. The embroidered flowers and stripes, as well as the sequin discs and attached clusters are all gold. The skirt rose above the floor, revealing Queen Charlotte's pointed shoe. Shoes were fashion accessories because of the shorter length of the skirts.
The whole look is more balanced because of the bouffant hairstyle, the less extreme width in the panniers and the greater fullness in front (and, probably, back).
The white dress worn by the queen in Season 1, Episode 4 of the BBC and Canal+ series ''Marie Antoinette'' stands out because nobody else is wearing white at the ball in Paris and because of the translucent silk or muslin fabric, which would have been imported from India at that time (some silk was still being imported from China). Muslin is not a rich or exotic fabric to us, but toward the end of the 18th century, muslin could be imported only from India, making it unusual and expensive.<blockquote>Another English contribution to the fashion of the eighties was the sheer white muslin dress familiar to us from the paintings of Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. In this respect the English fell under the spell of classic Greek influence sooner than the French did. Lacking the restrictions imposed by Marie Antoinette's court, the English were free to adapt costume designs from the source which was inspiring their architects and draftsmen.<ref name=":115" />{{rp|438}}</blockquote>So while a sheer white dress would have been unlikely in Marie Antoinette's court, according to Payne, the fabric itself was available and suddenly became very popular, in part because of its simplicity and its sheerness. The Empire style replaced the Rococo busyness in a stroke, like the French Revolution.
By the 1790s French and English fashion had evolved in very different directions, and also by this time, accepted fashion and court dress had diverged, with the formulaic properties of court dress — especially in France — preventing its development. In general,<blockquote>English women were modestly covered ..., often in overdress and petticoat; that heavier fabrics with more pattern and color were used; and that for a while hairdress remained more elaborate and headdress more involved than in France.<ref name=":116">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|441}}</blockquote>Even in such a rich and colorful court dress as Queen Charlotte is wearing in the Gainsborough-workshop portrait, her more "modest" dress shows these trends very clearly: the white (muslin or silk) and the elaborate style in headdress and hair.
=== Polonaise ===
==== Marie Antoinette — The Context ====
The robe à la Polonaise in casual court dress was popularized by Marie Antoinette for less formal settings and events, a style that occurred at the same time as highly formal dresses with panniers. An informal fashion not based on court dress, although court style would require panniers, though not always the extremely wide ones, and the new style. It was so popular that it evolved into one way court dress could b
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_in_a_Park_Met_DP-18368-001.jpg|thumb|Le Brun, ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'']]
Trianon: Marie Antoinette's "personal" palace at Versailles, where she went to entertain her friends in a casual environment. While there, in extended, several-day parties, she and her friends played games, did amateur theatricals, wore costumes, like the stylization of what a dairy maid would wear. A release from the very rigid court procedures and social structures and practices. Separate from court and so not documented in the same way events at Versailles were.
In the c. 1780–81 sketch (right) of Marie Antoinette in a Park by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,<ref>Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise Vigée. ''Marie Antoinette in a Park'' (c. 1780–81). The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824771.</ref> the queen is wearing a robe à la Polonaise with an apron in front, so we see her in a relatively informal pose and outfit. The underskirt, which is in part at least made of a sheer fabric, shows beneath the overskirt and the apron. This is a late Polonaise, more decoration, additions of ribbons, lace, lace, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ruffles, which did not exist on actual milkmaid dresses or earlier versions of the robe à la Polonaise. Even though this is a sketch, we can see that this dress would be more comfortable and convenient for movement because the bodice is not boned, and wrinkles in the bodice suggest that she is not likely wearing a corset.
==== Definition of Terms ====
The Polonaise was a late-Georgian or late-18th-century style, the usage of the word in written English dating from 1773 although ''Polonaise'' is French for ''the Polish woman'', and the style arose in France:<blockquote>A woman's dress consisting of a tight, unboned bodice and a skirt open from the waist downwards to reveal a decorative underskirt. Now historical.<ref name=":13">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref></blockquote>The lack of boning in the bodice would make this fashion more comfortable than the formal foundation garments worn in court dress.
The term ''á la polonaise'' itself is not in common use by the French nowadays, and the French ''Wikipédia'' doesn't use it for clothing. French fashion drawings and prints from the 18th-century, however, do use the term.<p>
Elizabeth Lewandowski dates the Polonaise style from about 1750 to about 1790,<ref name=":75">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|123}} and Payne says it was "prevalent" in the 1770s.<ref name=":117">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}
The style à la Polonaise was based on an idealization of what dairy maids wore, adapted by aristocratic women and frou-froued up. Two dairymaids are shown below, the first is a caricature of a stereotypical milkmaid and the second is one of Marie Antoinette's ladies in waiting costumed as a milkmaid.
[[File:La_laitiere._G.16931.jpg|left|thumb|Mixelle, ''La Laitiere'' (the Milkmaid)]]
[[File:Madame_A._Aughié,_Friend_of_Queen_Marie_Antoinette,_as_a_Dairymaid_in_the_Royal_Dairy_at_Trianon_-_Nationalmuseum_-_21931.tif|thumb|Madame A. Aughié, as a Dairymaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon]]
In the aquatint engraving of ''La Laitiere'' (left) by Jean-Marie Mixelle (1758–1839),<ref>Mixelle, Jean-Marie. ''La Laitiere'', Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris, Inventory Number: G.16931. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/la-laitiere-8#infos-secondaires-detail.</ref> the milkmaid is portrayed as flirtatious and, perhaps, not virtuous. She is wearing clogs and two white aprons. Her bodice is laced in front, the ruffle is probably her chemise showing at her neckline, and the peplum sticks out, drawing attention to her hips. As apparently was typical, she is wearing a red skirt, short enough for her ankles to show. The piece around her neck has become untucked from her bodice, contributing to the sexualizing, as does the object hanging from her left hand and directing the eye to her bosom. (The collection of engravings that contains this one is undated but probably from the late 19th or early 20th century.)
The 1787 <bdi>Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller</bdi> portrait of Madame Adélaïde Aughié in the Royal Dairy at Petit Trianon-Le Hameau<ref>Wertmüller, Adolf Ulrik. ''Adélaïde Auguié as a Dairy-Maid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon''. 1787. The National Museum of Sweden, Inventory number NM 4881. https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/21931/.</ref> (right) is about as casual as Le Trianon got. A contemporary of Marie Antoinette, she is in costume as a milkmaid in the Royal Dairy at Trianon, perhaps for a theatrical event or a game. Her dress is not in the à la Polonaise style but a court interpretation of what a milkmaid would look like, in keeping with the hired workers at le Trianon.
==== The 3 Poufs ====
Visually, the style à la Polonaise is defined by the 3 poufs made by the gathering-up of the overskirt. Initially most of the fabric was bunched to make the poufs, but eventually they were padded or even supported by panniers. Payne describes how the polonaise skirt was constructed, mentioning only bunched fabric and not padding:<blockquote>The dairy maid, or polonaise, style could be achieved either by pulling the lower part of the overskirt through its own pocket holes, thus creating a bouffant effect, or by planned control of the overskirt, through the cut or by means of draw cords, ribbons, or loops and buttons, [or, later, buckles] which were used to form the three great ‘poufs’ known as the polonaise .... These diversions [the poufs] appeared in the late [seventeen] sixties and became prevalent in the seventies. They were much like the familiar styles of our own [American] Revolutionary War period.<ref name=":118">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|413}}</blockquote>
[[File:Robe_à_la_polonaise_jaune_et_violette,_Galerie_des_modes,_Fonds_d'estampes_du_XVIIIème_siècle,_G.4555.jpg|thumb|Robe à la polonaise, c. 1775]]
The overskirt, which was gathered or pulled into the 3 distinctive poufs, was sometimes quite elaborately decorated, revealing the place of this garment in high fashion (rather than what an actual working dairy maid might wear). The fabrics in the underskirt and overskirt sometimes were different and contrasting; in simpler styles, the two skirts might have the same fabrics. More complexly styled dresses were heavily decorated with ruffles, bows, [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Plastics|plastics]], ribbons, flowers, lace and trim.
The c. 1775<ref name=":21">"Robe à la polonaise jaune et violette, Galerie des modes, Fonds d'estampes du XVIIIème siècle." Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. Inventory number: G.4555. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/palais-galliera/oeuvres/robe-a-la-polonaise-jaune-et-violette-galerie-des-modes-fonds-d-estampes-du#infos-principales.</ref> fashion color print (right) shows the way the overskirt of the Polonaise was gathered into 3 poufs, one in back and one on either side. In this illustration, the underskirt and the overskirt have the same yellow fabric trimmed with a flat band of purple fabric. The 18th-century caption printed below the image identifies it as a "Jeune Dame en robe à la Polonoise de taffetas garnie a plat de bandes d'une autre couleur: elle est coeffée d'un mouchoir a bordures découpées, ajusté avec gout et bordé de fleurs [Young Lady in a Polonaise dress of taffeta trimmed flat with bands of another color: she is wearing a handkerchief with cut edges, tastefully adjusted and bordered with flowers]."<ref name=":21" />
The skirt's few embellishments are the tasseled bows creating the poufs. The gathered underskirt falls straight from the padded hips to a few inches above the floor. Her cap is interesting, perhaps a forerunner of the mob cap (here a handkerchief worn as a cap ["mouchoir a bordures découpées"]).
===== The Evolution of the Polonaise into Court Dress =====
Part of the original attraction of the robe à la Polonaise was that women did not wear their usual heavy corsets and hoops, which is what would have made this style informal, playful, easy to move in, an escape from the stiffness of court life. Traditionally court dress with panniers and the robe à la Polonaise were thought to be separate, competing styles, but actually the two styles influenced each other and evolved into a design that combined elements from both.
By the time the robe à la Polonaise became court dress, the poufs were no longer only bunched fabric but large, controlled elaborations that were supported by structural elements, and the silhouette of the dress had returned to the ellipsis shape provided by panniers, with perhaps a little more fullness in front and back. The underskirt fell straight down from the hip level, indicating that some kind of padding or structure pulled it away from the body.
Court dress required the controlled shape of the skirt and a tightly structured bodice, which could have been achieved with corseting or tight lacing of the bodice itself. In the combined style, the bodice comes to a pointed V below the waist, which could only be kept flat by stays. While the Polonaise was ankle length, court dress touched the floor.
The following 3 images are fashion prints showing Marie Antoinette in court dress influenced by the robe à la Polonaise, made into a personal style for the queen by the asymmetrical poufs, the reduction of Rococo decoration, layers stacked upon each other and a length that keeps the hem of the skirts off the floor.
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_ooo_356_Grand_habit_de_bal_a_la_Cour_(..),_RP-P-2009-1213.jpg|left|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Ball Gown à la Polonaise]]
The 1787 "Grand habit de bal à la Cour, avec des manches à la Gabrielle & c." (left) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a ballgown for the court with sleeves à la Gabrielle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--10ceb0e05fbb45ad4941bed1dacb27f1|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>
This ballgown, influenced by the robe à la polonaise, is balanced but asymmetrical and seems to have panniers for support of the side poufs. The only decoration on the skirt is ribbon or braid and tassels. Contrasting fabrics replace the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]] for more depth and interest. The lining of the poufs has been pulled out for another contrasting color. The print makes it impossible to tell if the purple is an underskirt and an overskirt or one skirt with attached loops of the ribbon-like trim.
(A sleeve à la Gabrielle has turned out to be difficult to define. The best we can do, which is not perfect, is a 4 July 1814 description: "On fait, depuis quelque temps, des manches à la Gabrielle. Ces manches, plus courtes que les manches ordinaires, se terminent par plusieurs rangs de garnitures. Au lieu d'un seul bouillonné au poignet, on en met trois ou quatre, que l'on sépare par un poignet."<ref>"Modes." ''Journal des Dames et des Modes''. 4 July 1814 (18:37), vol. 10, 1. ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=kwNdAAAAcAAJ.</ref>{{rp|296}} ["For some time now, sleeves have been made in the Gabrielle style. These sleeves, shorter than ordinary sleeves, end in several rows of trimmings. Instead of a single ruffle at the wrist, three or four are used, separated by a wrist treatment."] The sleeves on the bodice of robes à la Polonaise seem to have been short, 3/4-length or less.)
[[File:Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français,_1787,_sss_384_Robe_de_Cour_à_la_Turque_(..),_RP-P-2009-1220.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in a Court Dress à la Turque]]
The c. 1787 "Robe de Cour à la Turque, coeffure Orientale aves des aigrettes et plumes, &c." (right) by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a court dress à la Turque with a headdress that has [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Aigrette|aigrettes]] and plumes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/---75499afec371ac1741dd98d769b14698|title=Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 1787, sss 384 : Robe de Cour à la Turque; (...)|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> The "coeffure Orientale" seems to be a highly stylized turban.
This court dress is à la Polonaise in that it has poufs, but it has 2 layers of poufs and an underskirt with a large ruffle. With its unusual striped fabric, its contrasting colors, the very asymmetrical skirt and the ruffles, bows and tassels, this is an elaborate and visually complex dress, but it is not decorated with a lot of [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Frou-frou|frou-frou]].
Several prints in this fashion collection show the robe à la Turque, a late-Georgian style [1750–1790],<ref name=":76">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|250}} none of which look "Turkish" in the slightest. Lewandowski defines robe à la Turque:<blockquote>Very tight bodice with trained over-robe with funnel sleeves and a collar. Worn with a draped sash.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>Her "Robe à la Reine" might offer a better description of this outfit, or at least of the overskirt:<blockquote>Popular from 1776 to 1787, bodice with an attached overskirt swagged back to show the underskirt. .... Gown was short sleeved and elaborately decorated.<ref name=":76" />{{rp|250}}</blockquote>
[[File:Marie_Antoinette_de_modekoningin_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Français_Gallerie_des_Modes_et_Costumes_Francais,_1787,_ooo.359,_Habit_de_Cour_en_hyver_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-2004-1142.jpg|thumb|Marie Antoinette in Winter Court Fashion]]
This 18th-century interpretation of what looked Turkish would have been about what was fashionable and, in the case of Marie Antoinette's court, dramatic.
The 1787 "Habit de Cour en hyver garni de fourrures &c." (right) of Marie Antoinette by printmaker Nicolas Dupin, after a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, shows Marie Antoinette in a winter court outfit trimmed with white fur.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Marie-Antoinette-The-Queen-of-Fashion-Gallerie-des-Modes-et-Costumes-Francais--727dc366885cc0596cd60d7b2c57e207|title=Marie Antoinette: The Queen of Fashion: Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français|website=Rijksmuseum.nl|language=en|access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref> Unusually, this "habit" à la Polonaise has a train. The highly stylized court version of a mob cap was appropriated from the peasantry and turned into this extravagant headdress with its unrealistic high crown and its huge ribbon and bows. This outfit as a whole is balanced even though individual elements (like the cap and the white drapes gathered and bunched with bows and tassels) are out of proportion.
The decadence of the aristocratic and royal classes in France at the end of the 18th century are revealed by these extravagant, dramatic fashions in court dress. These restructured, redesigned court dresses are the merging of the earlier, highly decorated and formal pannier style with the simpler, informal style à la Polonaise. The design is complex, but the complexity does not result from the variety of decorations. The most important differences in the merged design are in the radical reduction of frou-frou and the number of layers. Also, sometimes, the skirts are ankle rather than floor length. The foundation garments held the layers away from the legs, not restricting movement. The different styles of farthingales that existed at the same time are variations on a theme, but the panniers and the Polonaise styles, which also existed at the same time, had different purposes and were designed for different events, but the two styles influenced each other to the point that they merged.
All the various forms of hoops we've discussed so far are not discrete but moments in a long evolution of foundation structures. Once fashion had moved on, they all passed out of style and were not repeated. Except the Polonaise, which had influence beyond the 18th century — in the 1870s revival of the à la Polonaise style and in Victorian fancy-dress (or costume) balls. For example, [[Social Victorians/People/Pembroke#Lady Beatrix Herbert|Lady Beatrix Herbert]] at the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] was wearing a Polonaise, based on a Thomas Gainsborough portrait of dancer Giovanna Baccelli.
=== Crinoline Hoops ===
''[[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crinoline|Crinoline]]'', technically, is the name for a kind of stiff fabric made mostly from horsehair and sometimes linen, stiffened with starch or glue, and used for [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Foundation Garments|foundation garments]] like petticoats or bustles. The term ''crinoline'' was not used at first for the cage (shown in the image below left), but that kind of structure came to be called a crinoline as well as a cage, and the term is still used in this way by some.
After the 1789 French Revolution, for about one generation, women stopped wearing corsets and hoops in western Europe.<ref name=":119">Payne, Blanche. ''History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century''. Harper & Row, 1965.</ref>{{rp|445–446}} What they did wear was the Empire dress, a simple, columnar style of light-weight cotton fabric that idealized classical Greek outlines and aesthetics. Cotton was a fabric for the elite at this point since it was imported from India or the United States. Sometimes women moistened the fabric to reveal their "natural" bodies, showing that they were not wearing artificial understructures.
[[File:Crinoline_era3.gif|left|thumb|1860s Cage Showing the Structure]]
Beginning in the second decade of the 19th century and continuing through the 1830s, corsets returned and skirts became more substantial, widened by layers of flounced cotton petticoats — and in winter, heavy woolen or quilted ones. The waist moved down to the natural waist from the Empire height. As skirts got wider in the 1840s, the petticoats became too bulky and heavy, hanging against the legs and impeding movement. In the mid 1850s<ref name=":119" />{{rp|510}} <ref name=":77">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}those layers of petticoats began to be replaced by hoops, which were lighter than all that fabric, even when made of steel, and even when really wide.
Lewandowski defines 3 kinds of 19th-century cages:<blockquote>cage: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). United Kingdom. Nickname for artificial crinoline; petticoat with whalebone hoops, wire, or watch-string.
cage Americaine: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.). France. Petticoat in which only bottom half was covered with fabric, upper half only boning.
cage empire: Crinoline (1840–1865 C.E.) to Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Popular from 1861 to 1869, slightly trained petticoat made of 30 steel hoops that increased in size as they approached the ground.<ref name=":77" /> (46)</blockquote>R. C. Milliett patented the first cage, or crinoline hoops in 1856 in Paris,<ref>"The Fashion." Citing the Collection of the Kent State University Museum. ''Facebook'' 6 August 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122200374008095594&set=a.122128150262095594. The Fashion's WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBPfXc2UPBIy6Aj651n.</ref> but cages were in use before the patent. Empress Eugénie of France, wife of Napoleon III, used the cage in 1855 to obscure evidence of pregnancy, which let her be more present in public:<blockquote>“On November 23, 1855, Lord Malmesbury went to a dinner at the Tuileries and found Eugénie “looking very handsome, and all appearances concealed by the large dresses now worn.”<ref name=":22">Goldstone, Nancy. ''The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe''. Little, Brown, 2025.</ref>{{rp|296}}</blockquote>The caged crinoline was Eugénie's<blockquote>signature, over-the-top look. An update on the eighteenth-century pannier worn by her muse, Marie Antoinette, the caged crinoline created a skirt so broad that it often made it difficult for a woman wearing one to get through a doorway [like the court panniers of Marie Antoinette's time]. Because they were all the rage at the French court, crinolines were immensely popular for years — Sisi [Elisabeth, Empress of Austro-Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Queen Victoria] owned one ... — but for Eugenie, the dome-shaped skirts had the added advantage, as Malmesbury pointed out, of hiding her condition in case she miscarried again.<ref name=":22" />{{rp|296, n. vi}}</blockquote>The sketch (above left) shows a crinoline cage from the 1850s and 1860s, making clear the structure that underlay the very wide, bell or hemisphere shapes of the era without the fabric that would normally have covered it.<ref>Jensen, Carl Emil. ''Karikatur-album: den evropaeiske karikature-kunst fra de aeldste tider indtil vor dage. Vaesenligst paa grundlag af Eduard Fuchs : Die karikature'', Eduard Fuchs. Vol. 1. København, A. Chrustuabsebs Forlag, 1906. P. 504, Fig. 474 (probably) ''Google Books'' https://books.google.com/books?id=BUlHAQAAMAAJ.</ref> (This image was published in a book in 1904, but it may have been drawn earlier. The [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Chemise|chemise]] is accurate but oversimplified, minus the usual ruffles, more for the wealthy and less for the working classes.) '''The common underwear of this time would have been two individual legs connected at the waist, at most. The woman's crotch would not be enclosed, leaving her exposed if she fell or the wind was strong enough to lift her skirts far enough.'''
[[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louise, Duchess of Manchester (later Duchess of Devonshire)]] must have been wearing a cage like this in 1859 when one of her hoops caught in a stile she was crossing and she fell. She landed "on her feet with her cage and whole petticoats remaining above her head," revealing "to all the world in general and the Duc de Malakoff in particular" that she was wearing "a pair of scarlet tartan knickerbockers," the kind of garment men would wear when hunting.<ref name=":2022">Vane, Henry. ''Affair of State: A Biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire''. Peter Owen, 2004.</ref>
When people think of 1860s hoops, they think of this shape, the one shown in, say, the 1939 film ''Gone with the Wind''. The extremely wide, round shape, which is what we are accustomed to seeing in historical fiction and among re-enactors, was very popular in the late 1850s and early 1860s, but it was not the only shape hoops took at this time. The half-sphere shape — in spite of what popular history prepares us to think — was far from universal.
[[File:Miss_Victoria_Stuart-Wortley,_later_Victoria,_Lady_Welby_(1837-1912)_1859.jpg|thumb|Victoria Stuart-Wortley, 1859]]
As the 1860s progressed, hoops (and skirts) moved towards the back, creating more fullness there and leaving a flatter front. The photographs below show the range of choices for women in this decade. Cages could be more or less wide, skirts could be more or less full in back and more or less flat in front, and skirts could be smooth, pleated or folded, or gathered. Skirts could be decorated with any of the many kinds of ruffles or with layers (sometimes made of contrasting fabrics), and they could be part of an outfit with a long bodice or jacket (sometimes, in fact, a [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Peplum|peplum]]). As always, the woman's social class and sense of style, modesty and practicality affected her choices. In her portrait (right) Victoria Stuart-Wortley (later Victoria, Lady Welby) is shown in 1859, two years before she became one of Queen Victoria's maids of honor. While Stuart-Wortley is dressed fashionably, her style of clothing is modest and conservative. The wrinkles and folds in the skirt suggest that she could be wearing numerous petticoats (which would have been practical in cold buildings), but the smoothness and roundness of the silhouette of the skirt suggest that she is wearing conservative hoops.
[[File:Elisabeth_Franziska_wearing_a_crinoline_and_feathered_hat.jpg|left|thumb|Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska, 1860s]]
The portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska (left) offers an example of hoops from the 1860s that are not half-sphere shaped and a skirt that is not made to fit smoothly over them. The dress seems to have a short peplum whose edges do not reach the front. She is standing close to the base of the column and possibly leaning on the balustrade, distorting the shape of the skirt by pushing the hoop forward.
This dress has a complex and sophisticated design, in part because of the weight and textures of the fabric and trim. The folds in the skirt are unusually deep. Even though the textured or flocked fabric is light-colored, this could be a winter dress.
The skirt is trimmed with zig-zag rows of ruffles and a ruffle along the bottom edge. The ruffles may be double with the top ruffle a very narrow one (made of an eyelet or some kind of textured fabric). Both the top and bottom edges of the tiered double ruffles are outlined in a contrasting fabric, perhaps of ribbon or another lace, perhaps even crocheted. Visual interest comes from the three-dimensionality provided by the ruffles and the contrast caused by dark crocheted or ribbon edging on the ruffles. In fact, the ruffles are the focus of this outfit.
[[File:Her_Majesty_the_Queen_Victoria.JPG|thumb|Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, 1861]]
The photographic portrait (right) of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, in evening dress with diadem and jewels, is by Charles Clifford<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ppgcfuck|title=Queen Victoria. Photograph by C. Clifford, 1861.|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en|access-date=2025-02-03}}</ref> of Madrid, dated 14 November 1861 and now held by the Wellcome Institute. Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-20|title=Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> so this carte-de-visite portrait was taken one month before Victoria went into mourning for 40 years.
This fashionable dress could be a ballgown designed by a designer.
The hoops under these skirts appear to be round rather than elliptical but are rather modest in their width and not extreme. That is, there is as much fullness in the front and back as on the sides. In this style, the skirt has a smooth appearance because it is not fuller at the bottom than the waist, where it is tightly gathered or pleated, so the skirts lie smoothly on the hoops and are not much fuller than the hoops. The smoothness of this skirt makes it definitive for its time.
Instead of elaborate decoration, this visually complex dress depends on the woven moiré fabric with additional texture created by the shine and shadows in the bunched gathering of the fabric. The underskirt is gathered both at the waist and down the front, along what may be ribbons separating the gathers and making small horizontal bunches. The overskirt, which includes a train, has a vertical drape caused by the large folds at the waist. The horizontal design in the moiré fabric contrasts with the vertical and horizontal gathers of the underskirt and large, strongly vertical folds of the overskirt.
[[File:Queen_Victoria_photographed_by_Mayall.JPG|left|thumb|Queen Victoria photographed by Mayall. early 1860s]]
The carte-de-visite portrait of Queen Victoria by John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (left) shows hoops that are more full in the back than the front. Mayall took a number of photographs of the royal family in 1860 and in 1861 that were published as cartes de visite,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2024-11-08|title=John Jabez Edwin Mayall|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref> and the style of Victoria's dress is consistent with the early 1860s.
The fact that she has white or a very light color at her collar and wrists suggests that she was not in full mourning and thus wore this dress before Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861. We cannot tell what color this dress is, and it may not be black in spite of how it appears in this photograph. Victoria's hoops are modest — not too full — and mostly round, slightly flatter in the front. The skirt gathers more as it goes around the sides to the back and falls without folds in the front, where it is smoother, even over the flatter hoops. This is a winter garment with bulky sleeves and possibly fur trim. Except for what may be an undergarment at the wrists, this one-layer garment might be a dress or a bodice and skirt (perhaps with a short jacket). Over-trimmed garments were standard in this period. Lacking layers, ruffles, lace or frou-frou, the simple design of Victoria's dress is deliberate and balanced — and looks warm.
The bourgeois, inexpensive-looking design of this dress echoes Victoria's performance of a queen who is respectable and responsible rather than aristocratic and "fashion forward." So she looks like a middle-class matron.
[[File:Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii,_photograph_by_John_&_Charles_Watkins,_The_Royal_Collection_Trust_(crop).jpg|thumb|Queen Emma Kaleleokalani of Hawai'i, 1865]]
The portrait (right) of Queen Emma of Hawaii — Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke — is a carte de visite from an album of ''Royal Portraits'' that Queen Victoria collected. The carte-de-visite photograph is labelled 1865 and ''Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands'',<ref>Unknown Photographer. ''Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke, Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1836-85)''. ''www.rct.uk''. Retrieved 2025-02-07. https://www.rct.uk/collection/2908295/emma-kalanikaumakaamano-kaleleonalani-naea-rooke-queen-of-the-kingdom-of-hawaii.</ref> possibly in Victoria's hand. How Victoria got this photograph is not clear. Queen Emma traveled to North America and Europe between 6 May 1865 and 23 October 1866,<ref>Benton, Russell E. ''Emma Naea Rooke (1836-1885), Beloved Queen of Hawaii''. Lewiston, N.Y., U.S.A. : E. Mellen Press, 1988. ''Internet Archive'' https://archive.org/details/emmanaearooke1830005bent/.</ref>{{rp|49}} visiting London twice, the second time in June 1866.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal|date=2025-01-07|title=Queen Emma of Hawaii|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}</ref>
In her portrait Queen Emma is standing before some books and an open jewelry box. She shows an elegant sense of style.
The silhouette shows a sophisticated variation of the hoops as the fullness has moved to the back and the front flattened. The large pleats suggest a lot of fabric, but the front falls almost straight down. The overskirt and bodice are made from a satin-weave fabric, and the petticoat has a matt woven surface. The overskirt is longer in the back, leading us to expect the petticoat also to be longer and to turn into a train. Although the hoops cause the skirt to fall away from her body in back, the skirt does not drag on the floor as a train would and just clears the floor all the way around.
This optical illusion of a train makes this dress look more formal than it actually was. The covered shoulders and décolletage say the dress was not a formal or evening gown. In fact, this looks like a winter dress, and the sleeves (which she has pushed up above her wrist) are wrinkled, suggesting they may be padded. Queen Emma seems to have worn veils like this at other times as well, especially after the death of her husband, as did Victoria, so this is also not her wedding dress.
Popular history has led us to believe that crinoline hoops were half-spherical and always very wide, but photographs of the time show a variety of shapes for skirts, with many women wearing skirts that had flatter fronts and more fabric in the back. In fact, also in the 1860s, according to Lewandowski, a version of the bustle — called a crinolette or crinolette petticoat — developed:<blockquote>Crinolette petticoat: Bustle (1865–1890 C.E.). Worn in 1870 and revived in 1883, petticoat cut flat in front and with half circle steel hoops in back and flounces on bottom back.<ref name=":78">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|78}}</blockquote>This development of a bustle mid century is the result of construction techniques that include foundation structures and specifically shaped pattern pieces to achieve the evolving silhouette, in this case part of the general movement of the fullness of skirts away from the front and toward the back. The other essential element of these construction techniques is angled seams in the skirts, made by gores, pieces of fabric shaped to fit the waist (and sometimes the hips) and to widen at the bottom so that the skirt flares outward.
==== The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise ====
The Polonaise style was revived in the last third of the 19th century, but the revival did not bring back the 18th-century 3 poufs. The robe à la Polonaise had evolved. The foundation that created the poufs is gone, replaced possibly in fact by the crinolette petticoat or something like it. The panniers — and the 2 side poufs they supported — have gone, and the bulk of the fabric has been bunched in the back.
Also, the poufs on the sides have been replaced with a flat drape in front that functions as an overskirt.
The Polonaise dress (below left and right), in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is English, dating from about 1875.<ref name=":18">"Woman's Dress Ensemble." Costumes and Textiles. LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. https://collections.lacma.org/node/214459.</ref> The sheer fabric has red "wool supplementary patterning" woven into the weft.<ref name=":18" /> Because the mannequin is modern, we cannot be certain how long the skirts would have been on the woman who wore this dress.
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(1_of_4).jpg|left|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, front view]]
[[File:Woman's_Polonaise_Dress_LACMA_M.2007.211.777a-f_(4_of_4).jpg|thumb|English Polonaise, c. 1875, side view]]
The dress has an overskirt that is draped up toward the back and pulled under the top poof. The underskirt gets fuller at the bottom because it is constructed with gores to create the A-line but it is also slightly gathered at the waist.
The vertical element is emphasized by the angled silhouette and the folds caused by the gathering at the waist. The ruffles and lace form horizontal lines in the skirts. The skirts are very busy visually because of pattern in the fabric and the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements as well as the ruffles, some of which are double, and the machine-made lace at the edge of the ruffles. The skirts look three dimensional because of these elements and the layering of the fabric, multiplying the jagged-edged red "supplementary patterning."
The fabric of the overskirt is cut, gathered and draped so that the poufs in back are full and rounded, but they are also possibly supported by some kind of foundation structure. The lower pouf in back introduces the idea that the fullness in the back is layered, making this element of the Polonaise a kind of precursor to the bustle and continuing what the crinolette petticoat began in the 1860s. This layering of the lower pouf also indicates one way a train might be attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the hoops her fictionalized self wore the century before, unusually, and calls her dress a Polonaise. Although they are common in current historical fiction, descriptions of foundation garments are rare in the writings of the women who wore them or in the literature of the time. In ''These Happy Golden Years'' (1943), Wilder gives a detailed description of the undergarments as well as the foundation garments under her dress, including a bustle, and talks about how they make the Polonaise look on her:<blockquote>Then carefully over her under-petticoats she put on her hoops. She liked these new hoops. They were the very latest style in the East, and these were the first of the kind that Miss Bell had got. Instead of wires, there were wide tapes across the front, almost to her knees, holding the petticoats so that her dress would lie flat. These tapes held the wire bustle in place at the back, and it was an adjustable bustle. Short lengths of tape were fastened to either end of it; these could be buckled together underneath the bustle to puff it out, either large or small. Or they could be buckled together in front, drawing the bustle down close in back so that a dress rounded smoothly over it. Laura did not like a large bustle, so she buckled the tapes in front.
Then carefully over all she buttoned her best petticoat, and over all the starched petticoats she put on the underskirt of her new dress. It was of brown cambric, fitting smoothly around the top over the bustle, and gored to flare smoothly down over the hoops. At the bottom, just missing the floor, was a twelve-inch-wide flounce of the brown poplin, bound with an inch-wide band of plain brown silk. The poplin was not plain poplin, but striped with an openwork silk stripe.
Then over this underskirt and her starched white corset-cover, Laura put on the polonaise. Its smooth, long sleeves fitted her arms perfectly to the wrists, where a band of the plain silk ended them. The neck was high with a smooth band of the plain silk around the throat. The polonaise fitted tightly and buttoned all down the front with small round buttons covered with the plain brown silk. Below the smooth hips it flared and rippled down and covered the top of the flounce on the underskirt. A band of the plain silk finished the polonaise at the bottom.<ref>Wilder, Laura Ingalls. ''These Happy Golden Years.'' Harper & Row, Publishers, 1943. Pp. 161–163.</ref></blockquote>When a 20th-century Laura Ingalls Wilder calls her character's late-19th-century dress a polonaise, she is probably referring to the "tight, unboned bodice"<ref name=":132">“Polonaise, N. & Adj.” ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2555138986.</ref> and perhaps a simple, modest look like the stereotype of a dairy maid. While the bodice was unboned, the fact that she is wearing a corset cover means that she is corseted under it.
==== Bustle or Tournure ====
As we have seen, bustles were popular from around 1865 to 1890.<ref name=":79">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|296}} The French term ''tournure'' was a euphemism in English for ''bustle''. The article on the tournure in the French ''Wikipédia'' addresses the purpose of the bustle and crinoline:<blockquote>Crinoline et tournure ont exactement la même fonction déjà recherchée à d'autres époques avec le vertugadin et ses dérivés: soutenir l'ampleur de la jupe, et par là souligner par contraste la finesse de la taille; toute la mode du xixe siècle visant à accentuer les courbes féminines naturelles par le double emploi du corset affinant la taille et d'éléments accentuant la largeur des hanches (crinoline, tournure, drapés bouffants…).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2023-10-27|title=Tournure|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournure|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref>
[Translation by ''Google Translate'': Crinoline and bustle have exactly the same function already sought in other periods with the farthingale and its derivatives: to support the fullness of the skirt, and thereby emphasize by contrast the finesse of the waist; all the fashion of the 19th century aimed at accentuating natural feminine curves by the dual use of the corset refining the waist and elements accentuating the width of the hips (crinoline, bustle, puffy drapes, etc.).]</blockquote>Hoops' final phase was the development of the bustle, which as early as the 1860s was created by one of several methods: by draping the dress over a crinolette petticoat or some other structure, or by pulling the fabric to the back and bunching it with pleats or gathers. The overskirt so popular with the revival of the Polonaise pulled additional fabric to the back of the skirt, the poufs supported by some substructure, bunched fabric, padding and, often, ruffled petticoats. The bustle, then, is more complex than might be normally be thought and more complex than some of the earlier foundation garments in the evolution of hoops, in part because the silhouette of hoops (and dresses) was changing more rapidly in the last half of the 19th century than ever before.
[[File:La_Gazette_rose,_16_Mai_1874;_robe_à_tournure.jpg|left|thumb|"Toilettes de Printemps," 1874]]
In fact, fashion trends were moving so fast at this point that the two "bustle periods" were actually only two decades, the 1870s and the 1880s. Bustle fashion was at its height for these two decades, which saw the line of the skirts change radically. As the bustle developed, the 1870s ruffles disappeared, replaced by draping and layering, which made the bustles more complex visually.
"Toilettes de Printemps" (left), an 1874 French fashion plate, shows two women walking in the country, the one in green wearing an extremely long and impractical train. Both of these have several rows of ruffles beneath the overskirt — a short-lived fashion. The ruffles, which disappear in the 2nd bustle period, create a fullness in the front of the skirt at the bottom. The bodice of both dresses connects to an overskirt, like a jacket. The excess skirt fabric is draped in the back over a foundation structure.
Plumes makes the hats tall, part of the proportioning with the bustle. The dog at the feet of the woman in the green dress recalls the dogs ubiquitous in earlier portraiture.
The most common image of the bustle — the extreme form of the 1880s — required a complex foundation structure, one of which was "steel springs placed inside the shirring [gathering] around the back of the petticoat."<ref name=":710">Lewandowski, Elizabeth J. ''The Complete Costume Dictionary''. Scarecrow Press, 2011.</ref> (296) Many manufacturers were making bustles by this time, offering women a choice on the kinds of materials used in the foundation structures ['''check this'''].
[[File:Somm26.jpg|thumb|Henry Somm, 1880s]]
The Henry Somm watercolor (right) offers a clear example of how extreme bustles got in the mid 1880s, in the 2nd bustle period. Henry Somm was the pen name that François Clément Sommier (1844–1907) used on his paintings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2025-02-01|title=Henry Somm|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Somm&oldid=222597815|journal=Wikipédia|language=fr}}</ref> He was in Paris beginning in the 1860s and so was present for the Civil War of 1870–71 and the rise of Impressionism in that highly political and dangerous context.<ref>Smee, Sebastian. ''Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism''. W. W. Norton, 2024.</ref>
Somm's c. 1895<ref>"File:Somm26.jpg." Henry Somm, "An Elegantly Dressed Woman at a Door (wearing mid-1880s bustled fashions)," c. 1895. June 2025. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somm26.jpg.</ref> impressionist painting shows an immediate moment — an elegant mid-1880s woman outside a door, her right hand and face animated, as if she is talking to someone standing to our left.
Her skirt is quite narrow and flat in front with yards of fabric draped in poufs over the huge foundation bustle behind. This dress has no ruffles or excessive frills. The narrow sleeves and tall hat, along with the umbrella so tightly folded it looks like a stick, contribute to the lean silhouette. Details of the dress are not present because this painting is impressionistic rather than realistic, showcasing the play of light on the fabric and the elegance of the woman. The square corner of the front overskirt is not realistic draping, perhaps an artifact of the painter working from memory rather than a model.
[[File:Elizabeth_Alice_Austen_in_June_1888.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth Alice Austen, 1888]]
The 1888 photograph of American photographer Elizabeth Alice Austen (left) is also from the 2nd bustle period. The very stylish Austen is wearing a bustle that is large but not as extreme as they got. The design of her dress is sophisticated and complex with the proportions more clearly presented than we see in paintings or fashion plates. Her plumed hat is tall, one of the vertical elements, along with the slim line of the bodice, sleeves and skirt. The overskirt is pulled to Austen's right so that it does not lie flat in front. The overskirt and bustle are made from 3 different fabrics with 3 different patterns. The front drape and bodice are made of a light-colored fabric with a light striped pattern, and the bustle has 2 fabrics, a shiny reflective material with no pattern and a strongly striped section that matches the underskirt. The strongly and horizontally striped fabric in the underskirt contrasts with the vertical line of the outfit itself.
In spite of the very strong contrasts in the stripes and horizontal and vertical elements, Austen's dress has a light touch about it. With the draped overskirt in front and the complex construction of the bustle, Austen's dress makes a delicate reference to the poufs of the [[Social Victorians/Terminology#The 19th-century Revival of the Polonaise|Polonaise revival]].
[[File:Cperrien-fashionplatescan-p-vf_33.jpg|thumb|Fashion plate, mid-1880s]]
This mid-1880s fashion plate (right) has caricatures for figures, with the usual minuscule waists and feet, exaggerated height and bustles, and general lack of realism in the details of the dresses. In fact, the drawing obscures what is necessary to understand how they were constructed, but it is useful because of the 3 different ways bustles are working in the illustration.
The little girl's overskirt and sash function as a bustle, independent of whatever foundation garments she may be wearing. The two women's outfits have the characteristic narrow sleeves and tall hats, and the one in white is holding another extremely narrow umbrella as well.
The bustle on the red-and-white dress is draped loosely over the very large foundation structure that was typical of the 1880s. The striking red jagged edges define the draping of the overskirt in front and the ruffles on the sides. These ruffles are unlike the ruffles of the 1870s, which added volume. They are flattened essentially into layers, preventing them from sticking out and providing texture rather than fullness. The front overskirt is very flat and the back overskirt contributes to the bustle.
The front of the bodice on both dresses extends to a point determined by the corset and typical of Victorian shaping. The waist treatment on the green dress visually lengthens the point to an extreme. The front of the green skirt is draped and layered. Tiny pleats peep out from below the skirt on both women's dresses. The child's dress has 3 flat pleated ruffles in front that contrast with the fuller but still controlled folds in the back.
These dresses have strongly vertical lines with contrasting horizontal lines in the bustles and trim.
Conclusion
'''Trains, skirt length, movement, materials, one evolutionary process, natural fabrics, accelerating change in fashion, designers and seamstresses, medium of our illustrations'''
== Padding ==
Some kinds of padding were used in the Victorian age to enlarge women's bosoms and create cleavage as well as to keep elements of a garment puffy. In the Elizabethan era, men's codpieces are examples of padding.
With respect to the costumes worn at fancy-dress balls, most important would be bum rolls and cod pieces.
What are commonly called '''bum rolls''' were sometimes called roll farthingales, French farthingales or padded rolls.
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}
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== May 2026 ==
The external link you added to [[Child development]] has been removed because it seems to involve advertising. Sincerely, James -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:21, 28 May 2026 (UTC)
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2811760
2811759
2026-05-28T10:22:07Z
Jtneill
10242
2811760
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== May 2026 ==
The external link you added to [[Child psychology]] has been removed because it seems to involve advertising. Sincerely, James -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - <small>[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]</small> 10:21, 28 May 2026 (UTC)
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File:VLSI.Arith.2A.CLA.20260528.pdf
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329871
2811766
2026-05-28T11:05:14Z
Young1lim
21186
{{Information
|Description=Carry Lookahead Adders 2A traditional (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
2811766
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text/x-wiki
== Summary ==
{{Information
|Description=Carry Lookahead Adders 2A traditional (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
== Licensing ==
{{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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File:VLSI.Arith.2B.CLA.20260528.pdf
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329872
2811767
2026-05-28T11:05:51Z
Young1lim
21186
{{Information
|Description=Carry Lookahead Adders 2B simplified (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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2811767
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== Summary ==
{{Information
|Description=Carry Lookahead Adders 2B simplified (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
== Licensing ==
{{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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File:C04.SA0.PtrOperator.1A.20260528.pdf
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329873
2811769
2026-05-28T11:18:59Z
Young1lim
21186
{{Information
|Description=C04.SA0: Address and Dereference Operators (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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2811769
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== Summary ==
{{Information
|Description=C04.SA0: Address and Dereference Operators (20260528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
== Licensing ==
{{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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File:Laurent.5.Permutation.6C.20260528.pdf
6
329874
2811771
2026-05-28T11:27:15Z
Young1lim
21186
{{Information
|Description=Laurent.5: Permutation 6C (2026528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
2811771
wikitext
text/x-wiki
== Summary ==
{{Information
|Description=Laurent.5: Permutation 6C (2026528 - 20260527)
|Source={{own|Young1lim}}
|Date=2026-05-28
|Author=Young W. Lim
|Permission={{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
}}
== Licensing ==
{{self|GFDL|cc-by-sa-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0}}
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