Figure 1.--A HBC reader has provided this charming photograph of himself and his brother taken in 1948 with their pet guina pigs. He is the younger boy wearing his first pair of corduroy shorts. He remembers them as brown and very soft and velvety.

Some interesting details are available on specific families as well as articles from fashion magazines. We have also added some historical accounts as well as published memoirs. We have also included named portraits, even though there is often little information available. HBC's English readers are encouraged to provide HBC information about their personal experiences or historical accounts with which they are familiar. These personal accounts add greatly to the other informnation HBC has garnered from fashion magazines, catalogs, and available images. Often the personal perspective is not avialable from these other sources. Thus these personal accounts are a very important part of HBC. We now have accounts dating back to the 1850s. While we do not yet have every decade covered, some decades are covered in considerable detail.

Organizational Note

It is of course not possible to organize people's lives into decades. We have thus decided to archive each account in the decade in wgich their account begins. This means that in any give decade section that some of the accounts could either incluede information on the preceeding or succeding decades. So please keep this in mind if you are searching for information on any specific decade.

Chronlogy

Here we list the various English personal experience pages chronologically. Some interesting details are available on specific families as well as articles from fashion magazines. We have also added some historical accounts as well as published memoirs. We have also included named portraits, even though there is often little information available. HBC's English readers are encouraged to provide HBC information about their personal experiences or historical accounts with which they are familiar. These personal accounts add greatly to the other informnation HBC has garnered from fashion magazines, catalogs, and available images. Often the personal perspective is not avialable from these other sources. Thus these personal accounts are a very important part of HBC. We now have accounts dating back to the 1850s. While we do not yet have every decade covered, some decades are covered in considerable detail.

Alphabetical List

Here we list the various English personal experience pages alphabetically.

School Experiences

In addition to these accounts, HBC readers have also provided accounts of their school experiences. These are personalmaccounts that focus primarily on school experiences. Some of te accounts archived in the school section here could have also been archived because the reader began with school experiences and later expanded his account so the two sections are overlap somewhat.

Contributing Personal Accounts

Some readers have expressed an interest in contributing their own personal account to the HBC archive, but are not sure how to begin. We incourage you to do so. These accounts add wonderful insights to the clothing depicted in the English section. The best way to begin is to look at some of the accounts already archived here. That will give some ideas. Note that some of these accounts are quite detailed. Others are just brief snipets. They is room at HBC for both. Some viewes have asked HBC to provide questions they can answer as they find this easier than writing an account from scratch. We will be glad to do this, just contact HBC through the e-mail link below.

Created: March 9, 1999
Last updated: 11:59 PM 7/29/2010