Participant Info

First Name
Nora Ellen
Last Name
Carleson
Affiliation
University of Delaware
Website URL
https://www.noraellencarleson.com/
Keywords
US history, material culture, cultural history, dress history, fashion history, design history, First Ladies, Progressive Era, Gilded Age, political history, women and gender, museums, history of collecting, visual culture
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I’m a scholar of the seemingly frivolous things that everyone tends to ignore. In essence, I study the images and things that we’ve gotten rid of because they “weren’t important.”

 

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the History of American Civilization Program at the University of Delaware.  A historian with over ten years of experience in the Museum field, I am passionate about public history and telling diverse and inclusive histories.

My dissertation, “From Paul Revere to Plains Indians, and Peruvian Textiles: The Politics of Progressive Era Fashion in America, 1880-1930”  explores how the emergence of a “distinctly” American fashion style both reflected and shaped Progressive Era ideologies such as nativism, nationalism, imperialism, race science, euthenics, and eugenics while ultimately creating the modern American fashion industry.  

In 2013, I received my M.A. in History of Decorative Arts and Design from the Smithsonian Institution in partnership with George Mason University upon completing my thesis titled: Harry Collins and the American Art of Dress: 1884-1980.”  In 2019 I earned a MA in History from the University of Delaware and in 2020 I completed the Graduate Museum Studies Certificate Program.

Recent Publications

Carleson, Nora Ellen, “Harry Collins and the Birth of American Fashion, 1910–1950,” The Journal of Dress History, Volume 2, Issue 2, Summer 2018, The Association of Dress Historians, London, England, pp 2-14. 
https://www.dresshistorians.org/journal

 

Carleson, Nora Ellen. “Lottie Barton, Nineteenth-Century Baltimore’s Premier Modiste and Fashion Smuggler” in Maryland Historical Society. Spectrum of Fashion. (Baltimore, MD, Maryland Historical Society, 2019), p. 25-40.

Media Coverage
On The Record. "The Historic Fashions of Maryland." WYPR Baltimore. First broadcast September 4, 2019. Hosted by Sheilah Kast. Produced by Maureen Harvie.
Country Focus
US History
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
5, 8, 9
Expertise by Topic
American Presidents, Art & Architectural History, Gender, Material Culture, Museums, Politics, Public History, Women, World War I