Mrs. Charles H. Ashdown

Mrs. Ashdown's book is fun, but not very reliable as a source. One can't entirely blame her for this; costume research was still new and full of Victorian misconceptions when this book was written (early 20th century). The book includes several lovely full-color photo plates in which people wear reconstructed costumes of various periods. We now know that many of the details in Ashdown's book are not correct, but the effort put into these photos is still admirable. (Note that the woman on the cover wearing a 14th century cotehardie is clearly wearing a turn of the 20th century corset!) I suggest that you not use this as a main source for costuming research, but it is a fun book to look through if you can avoid the pitfalls.… (meer)