Figure 1: About six weeks before Lanah Sawyer joined a gentleman calling himself “lawyer Smith” for an evening walk on the Battery, John Drayton sketched this scene. Despite the various ways in which women’s gown were constructed and styled, fashion favored similar elements: big hats, shawls, fitted bodices, and voluminous skirts gathered in the rear. John Drayton, “A View of the The Battery,” engraving, 11.6 x 15.6 cm (detail), in his Letters from the Eastern States (Charleston, S.C., [1794]), courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University.
Welcome to Commonplace, a destination for exploring and exchanging ideas about early American history and culture. A bit less formal than a scholarly journal, a bit more scholarly than a popular magazine, Commonplace speaks—and listens—to scholars, museum curators, teachers, hobbyists, and just about anyone interested in American history before 1900. It is for all sorts of people to read about all sorts of things relating to early American life—from architecture to literature, from politics to parlor manners. It’s a place to find insightful analysis of early American history as it is discussed in scholarly literature, as it manifests on the evening news, as it is curated in museums, big and small; as it is performed in documentary and dramatic films and as it shows up in everyday life.
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How to cite Commonplace articles:
Author, “Title of Article,” Commonplace: the journal of early American life, date accessed, URL.
Sophie White, “Trading Looks Race, Religion and Dress in French America,” Commonplace: the journal of early American life, accessed September 30, 2019, https://commonplace.online/article/trading-looks-race-religion-dress-french-america/
Joshua R. Greenberg, editor
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