The picturebook is a selection of English and Scottish images mainly from the 1640s intended primarily as a costume guide. The plan is to stick to this narrow geographical remit (though I occasionally stray in date) and not show (as far as is possible to tell) the kind of pictures from the Netherlands or France that are often used as evidence for clothes worn in the English Civil War. I have no problem with others using Low Countries pictures as evidence, but as the body of images grows here it is possible to spot trends and fashions in the clothes worn in the British Isles during the period without resorting to what our forebears would have considered foreign pictures.
I’m trying to get my head around the best way to sort the images and make them accessible. For the meantime, tags seem the best method, and I’ve also categorized each image to indicate what class of person is shown. You’ll find the tags & categories on the right hand side of the home page, or at the bottom if you’re mobile surfing. Let me know please if anthing is particularly good or annoying/difficult to use.
I’m also aware that you may occasionally see advertisements on the blog. This is purely a wordpress thing, to keep the site free for me to use. I make no money from posting here.
The 1640s Picturebook 