I’ve been informed that my lecture on stays, material culture, and early American women’s history will air again this weekend on C-SPAN 3: Saturday at 11:20 a.m., Sunday at 6:20 a.m. (for the after-hours crowd, I guess, or the extremely bored parents of insanely early-rising infants), and Monday morning at 7:20, EST.
Of course, the streaming video is still available, at any hour of the day or night that suits you.
For the real costume history junkies among you: check out this video of a woman dressing another one in Ursuline choir nun habit. (Follow that link, then click the link on the right side of the page under “Vidéos” that says, “L’habit religieux des Ursulines de Québec.”) It’s in French, as it’s on a website assembled by Laval University in Québec, but even non-French speakers can get the gist. I believe the woman explaining the habit is Soeur Marguerite Chénard. She sure looks like the nuns who still live and work at the Ursuline convent in Québec, in any case.
My nun doll!
This description is part of a website that explores the religious history and heritage of the province of Québec. There are dozens of webpages with videos just describing the historical costumes of each different women’s and men’s religious orders! Check out the prominent use of nun dolls in this explanation of the evolution of the habits of the Sister-Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary. The last 90 seconds of this video shows a clothing ceremony from the late 1950s, with a huge class of novices in wedding-like attire as they take the white veil.
Endless fun, no?
Historiann 
Love the nun doll. My question about that habit is whether you could dress yourself? The head gear looks almost impossible to do on yourself…
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I’ve wondered about that too. It’s something for which one might need a mirror at least, if not a partner, and it’s also something about which the convent records are silent. The description on the website is very detailed, but it doesn’t say precisely how the nuns got dressed.
I would imagine that it’s easier to do once you’ve done it every day for a few years.
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Love the nun doll!
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I’ll try to catch this thing this weekend, although without a t.v. it may be via the streaming video. The last time I tried I think it was voice-only. Anything I ever did media-wise may still be out there, at least the occasional student will rush up and say I was on the night before at 4 a.m., or whatever. I do have an IMdb listing, though, bizarrely enough, from a brief talking head gig that I’ve never actually seen. And purely by alphabetical coincidence, I guess they list the first two names on each project as “starring,” so there I am, “starring” as a tired prof., in a jacket and tie. It was *not* a “breakthrough” or “crossover” moment.
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It’s oddly disconcerting to see that photograph of the nun doll on your blog, after I got accustomed to seeing cheesecake pin-up posters accompanying your prose. Something feels off, even with the corset.
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I understand that some readers may prefer the cheesecake cowgirls & other pinups. But those exist for me only in digital form–I’m much more selective in my personal doll collection. (But if you look closely, that nun doll looks suspiciously like a barbie underneath the cap, wimple, robe, and veil.)
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“But if you look closely, that nun doll looks suspiciously like a barbie underneath the cap, wimple, robe, and veil.”
Hahahahahahah! Awesome.
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I enjoyed the lecture very much. I DVR one of these CSPAN lectures a few times/month, and sadly I admit a certain voyeuristic thrill at watching fellow history professors — what are they wearing, are they boring, are students paying attention, do they use technology.
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Thanks! I hope I offered comfort, or solace, or at least a voyeuristic thrill.
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