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The reviews for the movie are in, but what about the reviews for our resources?

We gathered our information about corsetry from many sources: fashion and history books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, websites, and articles. We cast a wide net over the topic, looking at corset construction, history, sociological impacts and more. From our many and varied sources we gained insight into the subject of corsetry.

Specific controlled vocabulary was chosen from back-of-the-book indexes, and respected sources such as the Art and Architecture Thesaurus. We also examined many other sources such as books, websites, and glossaries; we used these sources to understand the meanings and relationships of all the terms, and to determine literary warrant. Pre-coordinated terminology was often found in corset image captions - "19th century peacock-blue nainsook summer corset" - and textual material, while post-coordinate terminology was found more readily in indexes and glossaries. Literary warrant for current terminology came mostly from websites and modern books, while historical texts were used for literary warrant for the historical terms.

As we came to the close of the information gathering stage, our focus narrowed specifically to detailed information on 19th century corsets - corset types, construction, components, materials, and colors. As a result, some sources were extremely valuable for terminology, others less so, as they covered concepts we excluded from the final thesaurus.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Aitchison, Jean, Alan Gilchrist, and David Bawden. Thesaurus Construction and Use: a Practical Manual. Fourth edition. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.

This book was a valuable resource when it came to the production of the thesaurus. The excellent examples helped clarify some of the thorny relationships. It also provided inspiring examples and guidance for thesaurus formats.

Getty Research Institute. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus Browser. <http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/> (14 February 2002.)

This highly respected on-line thesaurus was useful for insight into the construction and use of online thesauri.

Merriam-Webster OnLine: The Language Center. Collegiate Dictionary. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/home.htm> (14 February 2002.)

This is our definitive source for spelling. Although the film production is taking placing in England, and the thesaurus team is Canadian, the film's major release is in the US; marketing of merchandise will focus on the United States. We made the difficult, but realistic decision to use American versions as our preferred spelling so as not to confuse the target audience, our American neighbours. We included Canadian/British equivalents as entry terms.

National Information Standards Organization. Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 1993.

What can we say? It was always by our side as we worked through the steps involved in the production of our thesaurus. By project's end, we were quoting section numbers by heart. Count nouns: 3.5.1. Literary warrant: 3.6.2.1. The hierarchical relationship: 5.3. We loved the guidelines for the straightforward presentation and for the examples that cleared the somewhat muddy waters.

Stephenson, Susie. Senior Instructor and Coordinator of Information Technology. School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. University of British Columbia. Canada. 2002.

This resource was the definitive source for answers when all other sources failed us.

The Lord of the Rings website. <http://www.lordoftherings.net/> (9 February 2002).

This is the homesite for the Lord of the Rings trilogy movie production. This and other movie websites fueled our creative juices when we were in design mode for our website. The link "shop" provided us with ideas for merchandising concepts for our film. Although we narrowed our focus to "corsets" for our thesaurus, our imaginations went wild with proposals for our own "action figures", posters, linens, perfumes, daggers, and accessories!

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CORSET-RELATED RESOURCES

Books

Benson, Elaine, and John Esten. Unmentionables: A Brief History of Underwear. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

This book traces the history of underwear from prehistory to current times, beginning with Adam and Eve's fig leaves, and ending with the twentieth century. It contains a variety of images: fine art, photographs, sketches, advertisements, and cartoons. The authors describe the social history and psychological foundations of many forms of underwear. The section that covered corsets discussed their common usage from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. It provided a small number of terms on the materials of corsets, such as whalebone and reed, as well as related garments such as chemise and corset covers. It also confirmed literary warrant for the terminology found in other sources.

Carter, Alison. Underwear: The Fashion History. New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1992.

The book's text and glossaries were useful in helping us to decide on terminology, descriptors, relationships, literary warrant, and spelling. What is the relationship between 'stays', corsets, and 'bodies'? Should they be equivalent terms for our users in our thesaurus? The 'undergarments glossary' was one of the sources that prevented exsanguinations when there were disagreements about relationships of our terms as it provided clear definitions of corsetry terminology. The 'fabric glossary' was useful in providing definitions, and determining relationships and differences between fibers, fabrics, weaves, and materials. And as was the case with some other sources, the index provided a wealth of terms, but was not well devised. Many indexers seem not to have a good grasp on the subject of corsetry.

Ewing, Elizabeth. Dress and Undress: A History of Women's Underwear. New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1978.

Like many of our other monographs, this book provided a variety of terms for corsets, colors, corset components, and more. The black and white drawings of nineteenth century corsets were very useful in determining the functions of the corset components, and contemporaneous corset styles. Corset terminology was found in a number of chapters, as the book progressed through the history of women's underwear. As well, the index provided guidance when finalizing our choice of descriptors.

The chapter in this book, Dressed to Kill, with crinolines and tight lacing inspired the title of the movie.

Ewing, Elizabeth. Fashion in Underwear. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1971.

This book studies the history of the "fashionable" use of underwear from 3000 BC to 1971 AD. It is argued that until the dawn of fashion, underwear existed but did not have any social significance. The author believes that the underwear worn beneath fashion is what has defined, through body shaping, the Western history of fashion. It is suggested that the beginning of the story of underwear as fashion coincided with the prototype of the corset in the 12th century Cottonian manuscript, presented in 1700 to the British nation by Sir John Cotton. Approximately one half of the book examines the pivotal role that the corset played in redefining the shape of women's (and men's) waists, from the Elizabethan period to the early twentieth century. Although a few new thesaurus terms were found in this book, it primarily confirmed the literary and user warrant of our thesaurus terms. The short four-page index was repetitive and confirmed thesaurus terms found in other sources.

Picken, Mary Brook. The Fashion Dictionary: Fabric, Sewing, and Apparel as Expressed in the Language of Fashion. Revised and enlarged. Edited by Claire Valentine. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1973.

A good source for checking spellings, terms, and definitions.

Tortora, Phyllis, and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1989.

This survey of fashion stretches from the ancient world c. 3000 B.C. until 1970. Part V, The Nineteenth Century (1800-1900) is divided into four chapters, all of which reported on underwear of the period. The text provided only a smattering of terms, as underwear, particularly corsets, was only a small part of the descriptions of nineteenth century clothing. The index also provided some terms. This source confirmed literary warrant for some of our terms.

Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1954.

This is an established and much cited resource in the literature (print and web resources) pertaining to the history of underclothes in the Western World. It addresses the changing silhouette of women's fashions, as shaped by underlying underwear styles throughout history. This resource was perhaps the most useful in that it was exhaustive in focus and included contemporary sources of images, comments, and anecdotes. It was well organized according to type and historical period and, although an older publication, it still serves as an excellent resource for costume designers constructing historically accurate versions of corsets and crinolines worn by women since the sixteenth century. It was particularly useful for our purposes and was our authoritative resource when determining the preferred terms used during our specific period of interest (the nineteenth century). The general glossary, glossary of materials, and index were used extensively as authoritative resources for the clarification of meaning, use, and application of our thesaurus terms.

Willett, C., and Phillis Cunnington. The History of Underclothes. London: Michael Joseph, 1951.

From stays and bustles in the 1400s, chitterlings and chemises in the 1700s, to brassieres in the 1900s, a fascinating history of underclothes, their functions, evolution, social significance, materials, and construction. Not only was this chronological history of underclothes useful for determining terminology and literary warrant, but for determining the corsets that would have been extant at the time of our film's storyline. As was the case for many of our sources, there were many terms that were fascinating to read about for the sheer joy of the vocabulary: farthingale, stomacher, bum roll, nether integuments, cami-knickers, and more. Black-and-white drawings, photographs of historical corsets, and contemporaneous cartoons show both the undergarments and how they are worn. This helped us determine functions of the corset components, and often clarified seemingly synonymous terms. Despite the book's date of publication, the information on corsetry in the 19th century was current for our purposes. Modern-day non-preferred terms came from other sources.

Willett, C., and Phillis Cunnington. The History of Underclothes. Revised by A.D. Mansfield and Valerie Mansfield. London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1981.

At first glance, this seemed like an excellent resource for thesaurus terms for corsets. However, it was sociological in its tone and covered the evolution of various types of both men's and women's underwear over the past six centuries. It did have a useful Glossary of Materials that was more expansive than some of our other resources. The book was organized in a very clear chronological fashion that helped to quickly clarify the use of preferred and related terms as well as the actual colors used in the manufacture of corsets during the nineteenth century. The Index was useful as a cross reference to the other Index resources that we used.

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Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Thesauri

Encyclopedia Americana. International Edition. s.v. "Corsets."

General encyclopedias being a prime source for basic knowledge in any given subject area, (and in the hopes that our users would have at least basic knowledge of our particular subject area) the Encyclopedia Americana was expected to serve as fodder for entry terms the average person would be likely to use when searching for items indexed using our thesaurus. In this respect it served very well, containing an article on our topic that was significantly longer and more detailed than that found in The New Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Inc. 10th edition. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1998.

A good general use dictionary that, like Roget's Thesaurus, served as a good double-check for common terminology used for 'corsets' today.

New Encyclopaedia Brittanica Micropaedia: Ready Reference. 15th edition. s.v. "Corsets."

The Micropaedia contained a short overview article explaining in general terms what corsets are, their history, purpose, construction and materials. As a general audience publication, it served as a decent source for basic corset-related terms that might be considered common knowledge to most people of modern times, and that may therefore serve as useful entry terms.

New Encyclopaedia Brittanica Macropaedia: Knowledge in Depth. 15th Edition. s.v. "Dress and Adornment."

While the Macropaedia tends to contain more in-depth and lengthy articles, it appears that 'corsets' was not a topic worthy of more in-depth and lengthy treatment. As such, 'corsets' appeared sporadically in this publication, yielding far fewer terms than hoped.

Oxford English Dictionary. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Being arranged chronologically, the Oxford English Dictionary was a good source for understanding what 'corset' meant at what time in history. Being comprehensive, it was also an excellent source for alternate spellings of the word 'corset', which later became useful entry terms.

Roget's International Thesaurus. Robert Chapman, ed. 5th edition. New York: Crowell, 1992.

A general-purpose thesaurus, Roget's served as a cross reference for any corset-equivalent terms that may have been missed in the general-audience encyclopedias. The entry for 'corsets' was short, and many of the terms were somewhat out of date and therefore not much use. Still, it was good to use this tool.

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Websites

Heavnbound Garments/RealCorsets.com. Corseting Dictionary. <http://www.realcorsets.com/> (7 February 2002).

Heavnbound (sic) Corsets is a commercial site for the sale and distribution of corsets made by a group of corset designers. It has many links to other sites related to ordering stock or custom made corsets and includes limited links to other related commercial sites (referral and bridal resources) and a wonderfully informative dictionary. This dictionary was used extensively during the development of the preferred and related terms used in our thesaurus. Terms were cross-referenced to the Glossaries and Indexes in our book sources. There was a measurement and ordering page in the site that provided us with reliable measurement terms and was a great resource when designing our own Merry Widow Project merchandise site.

Long Island Staylace Association. Dictionary of Corset-Related Terms and Words. <http://www.staylace.com> (28 January 2002).

The Long Island Staylace Association is an advocacy group for those who are keenly interested in the more erotic aspects of corsetry, a direction we ultimately chose not to travel in our project. Despite the website's focus, we found it useful for the corset dictionary it includes, and for the Resource List which links to other corset websites. The Resource List is "one of the most internationally comprehensive documents of its type", and provided links to many other websites that gave us a broad overview of corsetry concepts and current terminology for user warrant. The dictionary at this site was most useful for corset terminology and definitions, and gave us some definitions that were lacking in other sources. It was one of the few sources to make clear that 'whalebone' used in historical corsets is not the inflexible rib bones, but rather the more flexible, cartilaginous baleen found in the mouths of some species of whales.

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Articles

Cooke, Rachel. "Buns of Steel." Review of The Corset: A Cultural History, by Valerie Steele. New Statesman 22 October, 2001. <http://www.finarticles.com/cf_O/mOFQP/4560_130/79587273/print.jhtml> (6 February 2002).

This article ended being of little value to the production of our thesaurus. It is a book review of a book that considered the controversy surrounding the use of the corset as a cultural symbol of oppression, sexuality, and fetishism from a contemporary cultural theory perspective. Many of the terms used were "loaded" with symbolic meaning and could not be used as "empty" terms related to corsets as historical clothing objects. Rather, the author reinforced the fetishism of the corset as a racy and sexually empowered object, rich with iconography, which is quite outside the parameters of our analysis.

Davies, Mel. "Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the 19th Century". Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol 24, no 4 (1982): 611-641.

This article is a scholarly piece that proposes a thesis that the fashion of corset wearing and practice of tight lacing may have contributed to a decline in middle-class fertility during the 1840s and 1850s Great Britain. The author presents extensive description and analysis of the physical effects of the middle-class preoccupation with class and status, which became manifest through their imitation of upper-class fashions such as the corset. The author tries to place corset wearing and tight lacing in the greater context of the Victorian society which regarded incapacitated, idle women as a reflection of their husbands' wealth and material success. This article proved to be a gold mine of physiologic terminology related to the use of corsets. This widened the scope of possible terms, but ultimately, when we narrowed our focus to marketing 19th century corsets, the terms were not used. The medical conditions that corsets and tight lacing could inflict on a woman were contrary to our marketing concept of corsets so we stayed away from this area! Boo-hoo.

Gau, Colleen. "Stella Blum Grant Report: Physiologic Effects of Wearing Corsets: Studies with Reenactors." Dress: the Annual Journal of the Costume Society of America, 26 (1999): 63-70.

This article reports on the results of a research study supported by a Stella Blum research grant conducted circa 1998. The study attempted to determine the effect of corset wear on lung capacity. The subjects were women who played roles of inhabitants of a nineteenth century historical farm and village setting in Iowa. The study reproduced those of two nineteenth century physicians, one English and one American, who worked during a period of time when there was considerable controversy about the use of corsets by women, and men for that matter. The study used modern equipment in laboratory testing as well as anecdotal reports from the subjects during their reenactments of various active and sedentary chores, and confirmed the hypothesis of significant negative physiological repercussions from wearing corsets. The article provided a large number of terms, although they were eventually not used as they fell outside the scope of our thesaurus. Terms ranged from long term conditions such as organ displacement and muscle atrophy to shorter term problems with backache, shortness of breath, and fainting.