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Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 5:29 am
by das
Help Wanted--Citation Lost!

In the introduction to one of Dr. William Rossi's books or articles on shoes, he opines that he'd encountered no other industry so overloaded with quasi-historical myths and bunk as shoemaking... But I cannot find it. Any help will be greatfully appreciated.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 9:10 am
by kemosabi
If you don't have this already; Here is the Stonehill College archive catalog for Rossi's collection.

Rossi Archive

Maybe this can help narrow your search.(?) There are several titles dealing with "myth".

Cheers,
-Nat

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 10:24 am
by das
Nat,

Great post. I'd wondered who eventually got Rossi's stuff.

All I need is the title, date, and page(s) of his discussion of myth-ridden shoe hist. It's not in 'Sex', must have been an article, bunt dang if I can find which one here so far.

Dan? DW? Larry? "Beuller? "Anybody"?

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 3:19 pm
by tmattimore
Footwear news Jan 1997

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 3:22 am
by das
Tom,

Name of article/essay? What page #?

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 4:23 am
by tmattimore
Footwear's myths versus facts is the title. I have a request in for an interlibrary loan at the University for four issues but they are apparently out on loan.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 8:26 am
by walrus
Al
I went Through all the articles That Dr. Rossi sent me during our correspondence about the Podometrics book and sizing fitting discussions. The only thing I have is a copy of the article called Shoe Sizes The Big Bamboozle in Podiatry Management.June 1994. In that he talks about the myths involved in shoe sizes,and how the standard was developed .

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:31 am
by das
Thanks Larry, but it wasn't that one.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:57 am
by psrivats
All, my alma mater has really a good subscription (both regular and electronic) to most journals/articles/books. If anyone is looking for a specific article, please feel free to contact me with a message/email clearly stating the article name and author name and I'll be happy to locate a copy for you. If only paper article is available, the library will scan a pdf-copy on request as well.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:45 pm
by sorrell
I've read somewhere that at some point (in the 1800's I believe) the shoemaking trade was second only to farming in the number of people it employed. Does anyone know where I can find that information?

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:28 pm
by hidesmith
Lisa,
If you check census records of the era, you might find occupations. In my research of the 1880s in Epsom, NH, I discovered that, while there were shoe factory workers, there were also MANY who were listed as shoemakers and farmers. The two often co-mingled - they cropped in the summer and made shoes in the winter. Here in Epsom, there are still a few 'ten-footers', in other words, small buildings that were used as shoe shops, still found on farms.

My first attempt at "self-publishing" involved a diary kept my neighbors of Penny's great-grandfather who were farmers and shoemakers. They got what we might call kits from the big factories in Andover and Stoneham, Mass. and made women's and youth's turn-shoes on their kitchen table. They also had cattle and made butter for resale.
Beware of this avenue, though - it is addicting. During my research, I discovered that Penny's great-grandfather was a shoemaker before he purchased the farm (in 1873) that we still own. There is what may have been originally a shoemaker's ten-footer that was converted to a corn crib still on the property, and I found his lasting jack partially buried under the barn. Making connections with the past takes time, but is pretty darned cool when it happens!

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:15 am
by das
Lisa,

The cite you seek is J. L. Bishop's 1868, 'History of American Manufactures 1608-1860', vol. II, pp.470-471. Based on the 1860 Census:

"The manufacture of boots and shoes employs a larger number of persons than any other single branch of American industry, not excepting the cotton manufacture. The total number of hands employed in 1860 was 123, 026; of whom 28,514, or nearly one fourth, were females."

Bishop notes that there were 12,487 boot and shoe making establishments nation wide by 1868

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:05 pm
by sorrell
Al,
Thank you! I've wished several times I could remember that bit of information.

Lisa

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 2:48 am
by das
Lisa,

Glad to help. Now it's "permanently" on the vast Internet to boot.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:31 am
by dw
Just to be clear--in case I'm not reading or interpreting the words correctly...


"Not excepting cotton manufacturing" means not leaving it out of the equation, does it not?

Which suggests that the sentence could have read...

"The manufacture of boots and shoes employs a larger number of persons than any other single branch of American industry."

First, not second. Is that correct?

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[center]Little Jack Dandiprat in a white petticoat,
The longer he lives, the shorter he grows.[/center]

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:12 am
by das
DW,

You might be onto something there; however, Bishop was working from the "last" available US Census (1860) prior to his 1868 publication, at which time a significant number of US agricultural workers were still slaves. Question this begs is, did the 1860 Census count only paid workers, or include slaves? I have always erred on the side of safety, parsing Bishop by saying, "shoemaking was second only to agriculture just before the Civil War" broke out". Flip-side there is, while the war was a boost to manufacturing (army footwear), it did not take us from tiny to huge IOW--we already were huge. Exports... The British called it "the American Invasion" by the 1880s.

The number of US shoe-workers/firms increased steadily until 1929, sort of leveled-off mid 20thc, before it fell off a cliff in the last 25 years or so. US import penetration is currently something north of 99% now--that is >99% of all footwear sold in the US is foreign-made. Shows you how fickle history is, huh?

We're hardly alone. In the 1738 Parliament reckoned 600-700 firms in London (largest city in the world at the time), plus maybe 30,000 more shoemakers operating "off the books". Today there are _____(?) left in London.

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:51 am
by danfreeman
Doesn't Ries call our trade the most numermous of all?

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:34 pm
by danfreeman
Pardon me: the correct quote is, "I believe that there is no trade so numerous as ours." Page ix, John Rees (not Ries)

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:33 am
by das
Here's a link to an on-line version of Ernfird Jafvert's 1938 book on historical shoes--a rare find these days in the flesh Never mind the Swedish, the illustrations alone are worth the price of admission: http://ludvigs.nu/?page_id=809

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:01 pm
by sorrell
Does anyone know anything about this shoe; what this style is called, where it came from, what it's used for?

Never mind, I'm following the image upload instructions and it won't let me upload a picture.

Lisa

(Message edited by sorrell on October 05, 2012)

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 4:21 am
by das
Lisa,

When you can the pix up, I'd love to see Image

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:16 am
by paul
It's that pesky back slash and brackets. I do a cut a paste from the format section and fill in the parts that relate.
Come on Lisa, you can do it. :-)

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:24 am
by derrick_fischer
Image

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:58 am
by sorrell
Trying again now that I'm back in my shop. Does anyone know anything about this type of shoe?
14974.jpg

Re: Through the Mists of Time...

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:59 am
by sorrell
Two other views...
14976.jpg
14977.jpg