Library displays World War I In Style plates online
By INGA LUKAVICIUTE
Although the library is undergoing transitions and many books and services are moving, this special collection’s exhibit will stay where it was put on display on the Web.
The “In Style: Fashion Plates from 1790 to World War I” exhibit, launched digitally in April is the first online exhibit at the Henry Madden library, said Monica Fusich, the reference librarian who designed this exhibit.
The fashion plates, the hand-colored engravings depicting popular fashions published in French, English and some other countries’ periodicals, were donated to the special collections library by Cynthia Bower Smith of Fresno.
Fusich, who has taught a class on the history of fashion, proposed the idea of featuring some of the fashion plates in a digital exhibit as her project during her sabbatical leave.
“Having time on sabbatical, I was able to research the topic,” Fusich said. “Librarians are very interested in the Internet and its capabilities.”
The exhibit gives a brief description of the history and techniques of fashion plates. Fusich wrote a detailed description of the plates and divided them into five periods: Directoire/Empire, Romantic, Crinoline, Bustle and Nineties, and Edwardian and World War I. A reference list is included for those interested in researching more on the topic, Fusich said. Fusich took some Web design classes to learn how to put the exhibit online.
“We don’t have any immediate plans to do any more digital exhibits in the near future, but we hope to do a lot more in the not-too-distant future,” said Tammy Lau, the head of special collections.
The images were collected by Charlotte Northrup Little, a seamstress whose hobby was collecting fashion plates. The collection was preserved by her daughter, Charlotte Little Bower, and donated to the special collections library by Bowers’ daughter, Cynthia Bower Smith, in 2003.
The exhibit is displayed on the special collections library’s exhibits Web page at www.lib.csufresno.edu/subjectresources/specialcollections/exhibits.html.
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