Category: Research

16th century, Elizabethan, Research, Research Publications

Queen Elizabeth I as Mother, Nurse and Caregiver of the Realm

Sarah Bendall

Depicting Elizabeth I as mother of her people featured in many discourses during the Tudor queen’s reign. She had responded to her minister’s inquiries about marriage only days into her first parliament in 1559 by stating that she was content to remain a virgin and ‘a good mother of my Country’ until the time came… Continue reading Queen Elizabeth I as Mother, Nurse and Caregiver of the Realm

reconstruction, Research, Research Publications

New Publication + Free Preview

Sarah Bendall

I'm delighted to announce that my new edited volume, Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe: Bodies, Gender, and Material Culture, co-edited with Serena Dyer, has been published by Amsterdam University Press. You can read the foreword and introduction for FREE, here. This volume focuses on the body of the maker to ask how… Continue reading New Publication + Free Preview

17th century, Research, Seventeenth-century fashion

Did Seventeenth-Century English Women Wear Drawers?

Sarah Bendall

A question I see pop up often, and one that continues to spark much debate in online costuming communities and between historians of dress is: Did early modern women wear anything under their skirts? If so, did they wear drawers? Susan North's recently published book, Sweet and Clean?, is one recent scholarly text that has… Continue reading Did Seventeenth-Century English Women Wear Drawers?

17th century, 18th century, Manuscript / Archival Research, Research, Seventeenth-century fashion, Stuart

Second Book Announcement: The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens

Sarah Bendall

I’m excited to finally share that I’ve signed a contract with Bloomsbury Visual Arts (an imprint of Bloomsbury Academic) for my next book, The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens: Gender and Work in the Royal Wardrobe and the Fashion Marketplace The book examines the lives and changing work of the women who made, sold,… Continue reading Second Book Announcement: The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens

17th century, 18th century, Manuscript / Archival Research, Research, Stuart

Quilted Petticoats in the Seventeenth Century

Sarah Bendall

Quilted petticoats in England and America are usually attributed to and discussed in the context of the eighteenth century. This is likely due to the fact that all the earliest surviving quilted petticoats (to my knowledge) date from this period. Quilted Petticoat, c. 1740-60 (made), 1870-1910 (altered), British. Victoria and Albert Museum, T.430-1967. I am… Continue reading Quilted Petticoats in the Seventeenth Century

16th century, Armour, Manuscript / Archival Research, Object Research, Research, Research Publications

Fortuna and virtù: Embodying Classical Concepts in Renaissance Armour

Sarah Bendall

The first half of the sixteenth century was a period dominated by repeated conflicts in Europe. The immense amounts of practical and ceremonial arms and armour that these conflicts required fuelled this so-called golden age of armour production seen in key centres of production such as Milan, Augsburg, and Tyrol. During these times of occupation,… Continue reading Fortuna and virtù: Embodying Classical Concepts in Renaissance Armour