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A severity of plainness: the culture of female riding dress in America during the 1920s and 1930s

This article presents a critical discussion of historical female riding dress. It brings together an account of what was worn by riders as well as a discussion of the socio-cultural meanings this specialist clothing engendered. With its mix of material object and immaterial meaning, the paper offers original perspectives and argues for an understanding of riding dress as more than the sum of its actual parts. The article presents previously unpublished primary source material from the interwar period. These sources expand the limited body of existing scholarship, which has focused on the Victorian era.

The article was ‘double-blind’ peer reviewed and selected for inclusion in a special edition of Annals of Leisure Research, the Australian and New Zealand Leisure Studies Association’s journal, published by Taylor and Francis. The editor’s letter in the journal states the significance of the research: “Goodrum shows the rich potential of archival research for understanding leisured experiences...She also provides a view of a potential future for leisure studies” (Carr and Duncan 2012: 2).

Archive research for the article was conducted at the National Sporting Library and Museum (NSL&M), Virginia, USA under the aegis of the John H Daniels Fellowship programme. A public lecture was delivered, showcasing the content of the article, as part of the NSL&M ‘roundtable’ discussion series in Middleburg, Virginia (March 2011).