Abstract
This study examines the types of clothing worn by African American women living in the state of Georgia between 1890 and 1914. The researchers used historical photographs as primary sources to document clothing. The photographs are located in three collections: Spelman College, Atlanta University, and the Georgia Department of Archives and History. The clothing in each photograph was recorded and compared to styles of clothing advertised in national magazines of the period corresponding to the date of the photograph. Analysis revealed that (a) African American women in Georgia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries wore clothing similar in style to fashions advertised and illustrated in magazines and newspapers of the period, and (b) some items of dress were distinctive, that is, not illustrated in national periodicals of the time.
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