FREE: Early 1897 Picture REDUCING THE SURPLUS James M. Divas Stereoview Girls Dressing

The listing, Early 1897 Picture REDUCING THE SURPLUS James M. Divas Stereoview Girls Dressing has ended.

Original
JAMES M. DAVIS
New York,
STEREOVIEW
OF
Girls getting dress.
11913 REDUCING THE SURPLUS.
Photographed and Published by
B.W. Kilburn - Littleton, N.H.
copyright 1897
The corset, like the bra today, was an essential part of clothing. Without the garment, a dress would not fit and your figure would look very dowdy indeed! While most women did not have 18" waists, a nice nipped in waist creating a nice hourglass shape, was the desired look. Most women did not practice "tight lacing" as it was heavily frowned upon and was not practical for the amount of physical labour a woman had to endure 100 years ago.
Many women only corsetted about 2"- 5" down from their natural waist measurement.

Although extreme tight lacing was not a common occurence, this stereoview photo from the turn of the 20th century make fun of what lengths a woman would go through to get that waist down.
This stereoview dates from 1897 and is "Reducing the surplus" genre. The girl on the left helps her sister lace her overbust corset tightly by having one striped stocking foot in the small of her back. You can see that she has managed to get the corset closed all the way.
Stereo view cards had two pictures mounted for parallel viewing, on 7 x 3.5 inch heavy cards, usually curved slightly with axis along the long length. The pictures were taken with a two-lensed camera, recording the subject from two points of view separated by about 2.5 inches, duplicating what our two eyes see.