What Were They Wearing? Lancastrians and Others at the Time of the Revolution

Historic Rock Ford's Fashion Lecture Series welcomes Robert S. DuPlessis as he presents “What Were They Wearing? Lancastrians (and Others) at the Time of the Revolution.” This lecture is from 2 PM to 4 PM.

Though only settled in the 1720s, by 1760 Lancaster was already the largest inland town in British North America and had become an important commercial center for the “Indian trade,” the furs and skins supplied by Native Americans, as well as for agricultural and metal goods that settlers produced. How did this bustling trade affect the material lives of residents of the borough and its rural hinterland? To what extent did they participate in the consumer revolution that northwestern European nations and their North American colonies experienced? Did the kinds of changes in material culture observed in Philadelphia, with which Lancaster had close economic links, also affect the borough and surrounding countryside? Or did Lancastrians develop a characteristic inland or frontier material culture?

This presentation will begin at 2 PM in the Langmuir Education Room located on the first floor of the Rock Ford Barn. Visitors may park in the area located behind the Barn. Prior to the lecture, attendees may visit the Snyder Gallery and our 2026 Focus Exhibit. The Snyder Gallery closes at 4 PM.

About the Presenter: Robert S. DuPlessis, Isaac H. Clothier Professor of History Emeritus at Swarthmore College, studies consumption, material culture, trade, and Atlantic economies between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His research has been supported by, among others, the Guggenheim, Camargo, and Fulbright Foundations, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Humanities Center.