Although women's charitable bazaars have contributed millions of
dollars to important causes and institutions, they have long been
thought of-by both historians and the public-as trivial events.
Beverly Gordon corrects this view in Bazaars and Fair Ladies, the
first history of women's fundraising fairs in the United States.
Tracing their development from the early 1800s to the present day,
Gordon show how women's fairs have reflected and influenced
American culture, including styles of display and presentation,
forms of public entertainment, attitudes about consumption and
commodities, and perceptions of other cultures and of the past.
Gordon surveys the fundraising fair phenomenon through its various
names and incarnations, including ladies' sales, ladies' fairs,
fancy fairs, fetes, festivals, carnivals, boutiques, and church or
charity bazaars, and the many causes these events have benefitted,
such as abolition, suffrage, and war relief. Drawing on a wide
variety of historical documents-newspaper and magazine accounts,
souvenir programs, photos, scrapbooks-as well as on fictional
representations, interviews with fairgivers, and participant
observation, Gordon provides detailed descriptions of fairs
characteristic of specific periods, recreating what it felt like to
walk into a Civil War sanitary fair or into Boston's "Atlantic City
Boardwalk" fair of 1922. Throughout, she analyzes the ways in which
the fundraising fair functioned as a vehicle for aesthetic and
social meaning, creating rich environments that celebrated communal
bonds. Gordon stresses the role women's bazaars played within the
larger fair culture, demonstrating that many of the trends evident
in American agricultural and trade fairs and international
exhibitions had their origins in women's fundraisers. Highlighting
changes in fair themes, aesthetic environments, consumer fashions,
and critical responses from the public, Gordon also looks at
similarities and differences among participants from varied ethnic
and geographic communities. Gracefully written and abundantly
illustrated, Gordon's study of this vital American cultural
institution sheds light on 175 years of women's creativity,
fellowship, and community-building. The Author: Beverly Gordon is a
professor in the Environment, Textiles, and Design Department and
serves the folklore and women's studies programs at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of several books, including
Shaker Textile Arts and American Indian Art: The Collecting
Experience.
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