Speaking of fashion and costume, Sports Uniforms was a tentative paper idea for the course, “Sports as Performance”:
“For my paper topic I was thinking about looking at different sports uniforms. I could discuss the performance of gender and the theatrical quality of some sports’ “costumes,” and maybe one I do some research I will have to narrow my topic.”
 |
“Unknown. “Jackson College women’s basketball team on court” 1939. Tufts University. Digital Collections and Archives. Medford, MA. http://hdl.handle.net/10427/37838 (July 12, 2011). |
The faculty felt that this might be bit of a tough topic for the student, but the professor also added in the email to me:
“I think it’s really original and interesting, so i hope she can pull it off.” “She will probably need your help to figure out how to approach it and where to find some sources, particularly on the history of costume in theatre and history of sport uniforms…)
I must say I enjoy my work as a research librarian most of the time; I get to read a lot. Let’s get to work on this one now.
Here is a start. A line of inquiry might suggest itself; by that time, new questions will lead other databases.
1. For a historical account or cases of sports uniforms, the database, America: History and Life, provides these citations:
Bloomers and Beyond: North Carolina Women’s Basketball Uniforms, 1901-1997. Southern Cultures 1997 3(3): 52-67 16p.
(request through InterLibrary Loan)
Warner, Patricia Campbell. The Comely Rowers: The Beginnings Of Collegiate Sports Uniforms For Women Crew At Wellesley, 1876-1900. Clothing & Textiles Research Journal 1992 10(3): 64-75.
Lee, James. This Club Does Not Play In Fashion’s Dress. International Journal of the History of Sport 2007 24(11): 1421-1429.
Tisch library has the following documents and books:
Sarah A. Gordon “Any desired length: negotiating gender through sports clothing, 1870-1925.” In Beauty and business: commerce, gender, and culture in modern America, edited by Philip Scranton. New York: Routledge, 2001.
” Uniforming Sportswomen”, a photography essay in Major Problems in American Sport History: Documents and Essays, edited by Steven A. Riess. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
2. On the issue of gender in topic of sports uniforms, I turn to the databases GenderWatch%