Dated Images

Finely dressed lady carrying a walking stick in ersatz mountain scene.

Here is a good example of mid-1870s style, with the floor-sweeping dress trailing off behind this erstwhile mountain climber. She is of course not really in the mountains, but in the photographic studio of J Ganz in Zurich, standing next to a huge paper-maché boulder.

This image also demonstrates the universality of women’s fashion in the 19th century — this lady would not look out-of-place in London or Boston in that year. They were all wearing whatever was in vogue in Paris, with only minor local variations.