August 17, 2001

A Scholar's CD-ROM Chronicles 19th-Century Women's Clothing

By JESSICA LUDWIG

Bell-shaped skirts narrowed and lightweight bodices became armorlike -- those are two of the changes that occurred in American fashion over the course of the 19th century. A new CD-ROM, American Dresses, 1780-1900: Identification and Significance of 148 Extant Dresses, chronicles the evolution of clothing for women.

"To us now, it seems there were some remarkable changes, but they were part of a process," says Elsie Frost McMurry, a 93-year-old professor emerita of textiles and apparel