Books in the exhibition

Want to know more about the books on display in the exhibition Costume Balls: Dressing Up History, 1870-1927? Full online versions can be found here.

Guidebooks, fashion plates and picture books

Inspiration for characters and costumes came from a wide range of sources, including guidebooks offering encyclopedic lists of characters, descriptions of what to wear, and sometimes even patterns that could be purchased by mail order.

Browsing through these guidebooks and fashion plates reveals the repertoire of Eurocentric cultural reference points of the time

A closer reading of guidebooks of the period offers a great deal of insight into Victorian popular culture. Their catalogue of stereotypes and racist tropes notably demonstrates deeply entrenched beliefs in white superiority.

	Compte-Calix, François Claudius, Les travestissements élégants. Les Modes Parisiennes, Paris, 1864. McCord Stewart Museum, M2023X.5.6.1-15
	Goubaud, Abel, Travestissements, Paris, [1880–1890]. Gift in memory of Moe Lippman, McCord Stewart Museum, M977.45.3.1
	Goubaud, Abel, Travestissements, Paris, [1880–1890]. Gift in memory of Moe Lippman, McCord Stewart Museum, M977.45.3.2
	Goubaud, Abel, Travestissements, Paris, [1880–1890]. Gift in memory of Moe Lippman, McCord Stewart Museum, M977.45.3.3
	Holt, Ardern. Fancy Dresses Described; or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls. 5th ed. London: Debenham and Freebody, 1887.
	Holt, Ardern. Fancy Dresses Described; or, What to Wear at Fancy Balls. 6th ed. London: Debenham and Freebody, 1896.
	Holt, Ardern, Gentlemen’s Fancy Dress: How to Choose It. London: Wyman & Sons, 1882.
	Le Bal Costumé, Paris, Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1879. McCord Stewart Museum, M2024.61.1
	Masquerade and Carnival: Their Customs and Costumes. New York: Butterick, 1892.
	Miller, Samuel, Children’s Fancy Costumes, Londond, 1885. McCord Stewart Museum, M2024.61.2

Souvenir publications

The efforts put into creating souvenirs of these events reveal their importance to those who organized and attended them. Souvenir publications were created for the balls that Lady Aberdeen organized in 1896 in Ottawa and 1897 in Toronto.

	Book of the Victorian Era Ball: Given at Toronto on the Twenty Eighth of December MDCCCXCVII. Toronto: Rowsell & Hutchison, 1898. McCord Stewart Museum, M984.313.1
	Illustrations of the Historical Ball Given by Their Excellencies the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen: Ottawa, 1896. Ottawa: Durie, 1896. McCord Stewart Museum, M21227.5