A few tidbits may surprise the reader: millinery and dressmaking were "...the fourth most important occupational category for women in 1870; only domestic servants, agricultural laborers, and seamstresses were more numerous." In 1900, dressmaking still ranked third while millinery was fourteenth (p.
Gamber also finds strong evidence of the working class origins of many of the "Madams" and, she argues, dressmaking and millinery was one of the few paths to independence for the working class daughter.
In this portion of the work Gamber does a superb job using millinery trade journals and the publications of the proponents of "scientific" dress-cutting techniques to substantiate her story of de-skilling and de-feminizing millinery and dressmaking.
Very through 17 lessons on millinery processes; trimming; mourning millinery; children's millinery; stock-keeping; starting a millinery business; the designer in the workroom; glossary of millinery and dry goods terms, by a leading milliner whose career spanned Paris, London and New York.
Mostly from the point of view of large millinery wholesalers and retailers, rather than individual female milliners, but gives idea of transition to mass-production and the relationship between department stores and wholesalers, and individual milliners.
Please note: this bibliography was compiled in relation to a research project on the millinery trade in Ontario, 1850-1930, and does not pretend to be exhaustive.
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