For the past two weeks, I’ve been struggling to define what I could feasibly write about during the coming weeks. From the practical viewpoint of a historian, national topics are appealing; one’s research material is physically closer, in one’s language, culturally familiar, and questions are limited to a certain extent by national borders. And yet transnational inquiry would seem to deepen our understanding of the past, especially in studying eras before state sovereignty was as rigid as it is today. There’s no reason for a false dichotomy here because, even if most non-academic readers would struggle to move beyond their own nationally-defined worldviews, including the “movement of peoples, ideas, technologies and institutions across national boundaries” (Tyrell 2007, p. 3) would simply deepen anyone’s existing understanding of the past.
I’m personally fascinated by researching and physically recreating clothing from the late 18th century, with the goal of using these in ‘public history’ (ie. living history museum programs). I find that building clothing is a hugely useful way to engage people with the historical period I’m passionate about, because it provokes conversation (there’s no way to not react to someone dressed in 250 year old fashion). Similarly, complex ‘academic’ topics can be grounded in concrete items, for instance, an interaction that begins with someone listening to the ticking of an antique verge-fusee watch, and ends with a discussion of conceptions of time before the industrial revolution! At present because of my involvement with a Tall Ship and French nonprofits in the naval town of Rochefort, I’ve been researching the dress of French sailors from 1778 to 1786, and reproducing their clothing for my own use at the site.
In a certain respect much of this is already transnational, namely, in mapping the multiple flows of materials, fashions, and influences that determined how sailors dressed. For instance, the textiles being used are often produced within France, but some come from around the world (eg. Dutch linen, Chinese silk). Maritime working garments are sometimes shared by seamen from various countries (like ‘petticoat breeches’) and sometimes are nationally specific (for instance, French sailor wear sashes, while Anglo-American ones do not). In finding primary sources like estate inventories (bureaucratic lists of dead mens’ clothing and effects) I have to go to France’s ‘National Archives’ at Paris; but I also get to collaborate with French friends who help me translate and understand these texts, or specialize in areas that I lack understanding. In essence, in studying the dress of sailors from one nation (France), I have to had to contextualize the transnational connections of what they wore and why.
Now my only question is how to relate this topic to this MO3351 course, and compress this body of material to a relevant question/topic ; do you have any ideas you can offer?
Thanks for this. It is sometimes a challenge to find the right line between working with material culture and writing something that is more history and art history. I wonder in your case, if one way to engage would be to look at materials that made these clothes? If you were to go through all these clothes and see what they are made of: are there shifts in fashion that are connected to globalising flows of new or old materials?
I would see it similarly to Konrad’s comment. Working on material culture may lead to a microscopic approach on specific styles, clothes etc. Which is not to say that it could not work. But it may be tricky to trace connections and circulations of knowledge and materials. What could be the kind of “OXO” connectivity in the area of your expertise and interest that shows an enhanced understanding of sailors’ clothing through a transnational way of seeing (again: connections, cotton).
If sailors along with their appearance and ways of clothing are defined as a social group, is there a trend towards nationalising, uniformity along national dress codes at some point? A sort of “detransnationalisation” of this specific group?
To Dr. Lawson’s comment, my reason for approaching the nitty-gritty details of textiles (for instance) is not larger economic history, but simply so I can reproduce these groups based on solid evidence. In that I’ve been cautioned against an excessive focus on material culture, which isnboth a means AND an end to me. You’re absolutely right in cautioning that I need to frame my question carefully – thank you!
Dr. Struck’s final comment is one I could probably treat with more evidence, at least at present. Comparing the appearance of French and British sailors for instance, ways in which their clothing and fashions differ and are similar, and how this comparison changes, or doesn’t, over time; would that be pertinent to transnational history?
Just a quick thought I had on this I remember in geography in school we were taught about all the different countries it took to produce one pair of modern jeans so maybe something like that? A particular item or trend in clothing then trace the routes of the design from practical reasons through to aesthetic trends as well as looking at where different material elements where made through to where the raw materials came from. If you were able to identify a good example either that survives or that is portrayed in an artwork or similar your end result could be a visual display of how many countries went into the development and production of one item of clothing.