Episode 244: Kimberly Alexander, Shoe Stories from Early America

by Emily SneffJune 25, 2019

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There’s an old saying that tells us we should walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. It’s a reminder that we should practice empathy and try to understand people before we cast judgement.

As it happens, this expression is right on the mark because it seems when we use shoes as historical objects, we can learn a LOT about people and their everyday lives and actions.

Kimberly Alexander, museum specialist, lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era, joins us to help us better understand shoes and what they can tell us about the everyday lives of early Americans.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Kimberly Alexander, museum specialist, lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, and author of Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era, joins us to explore early American shoes and what they can tell us about the everyday lives of early Americans.

As we converse, Kimberly reveals how we can read shoes for information and what they can tell us about early America; How early Americans purchased shoes and the work eighteenth-century shoemakers performed to produce them; And, how politics informed the fashion choices early Americans made.

What You’ll Discover

What shoes can tell us about early America
The importance of research questions
How to read shoes for historical information
George Washington and his shoes
The deliberateness of early Americans’ choices and fashion
Cordwainers and shoe makers
Role women played in early American shoe manufacture
How early Americans shopped for and purchased shoes
Early American designer shoes and shoe brands
The early American second-hand clothing trade
American importation preferences
The cost of shoes in early America
Shoes as political statements
The shoes of the enslaved
What shoes let us see about early America

Links to People, Places, and Publications

Kimberly Alexander
Kimberly on Twitter: @SilkDamask
Kimberly’s Facebook Page
Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era
Fashioning the New England Family
Strawbery Banke Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Historic New England
Bostonian Society
T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, how might our understanding of early America and the daily life of early Americans be different if archives had shown an equal preference for collecting everyday objects? How might our understanding of early America and its daily life be different if we had more access to a historical record of everyday shoes?