Horsewhipping

History

The Australian curriculum: History

The Australian Curriculum: History aims to ensure that students develop:

interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens
knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society
understanding and use of historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability
capacity to undertake historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources, and in explanation and communication.

This resource contains extracts from the Australian Curriculum and is current as at 25 May 2011. © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2010.
ACARA neither endorses nor verifies the accuracy of the information provided and accepts no responsibility for incomplete or inaccurate information. You can find the unaltered and most up to date version of this material at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home
This material is reproduced with the permission of ACARA.

History activities [1]

Activity 1: Fashion

Show details

Subtheme(s): Fashion; Gender roles and stereotypes; Social order and education

In this clip, we see the young boys in the Owen family wearing the fashions of the times. In the early 19th century, fashion was used to display the wealth and status of the wearer.

Discover

Ask students to observe what the boys are wearing. Ask the class to research early 19th-century clothing using the internet and/or library resources, Students can use the following questions as a guide:

How was clothing made in this era?
What fabrics were used?
What are the names of the different garments worn by the boys?
In what ways did clothing reflect a person's status?
What is different about these clothes in comparison to what children wear today?

Ask students to look at posters and advertising from the early 19th century. Have the students reflect on how these compare to today's advertisements. Direct the students to compare the style of fonts, the layout and the language used in the different advertisements.
The following websites may be useful:

Australian History Research, 'Victorian Fashions',
http://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/victorian-fashions/
History, 'A Colonial Gentlemen's Clothing: A glossary of terms', http://www.history.org/history/clothing/men/mglossary.cfm
Fashion-Era, 'Victorian Society', http://www.fashion-era.com/victorians.htm
Victoriana, 'Regency Era', http://www.victoriana.com/Regency-Era/
Victorian, Civil War and Edwardian period 1830s–1910,
http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/victorian.htm
19th Century Fashion, http://www.angelfire.com/ar3/townevictorian/victorianfashion.html

Reflect

Ask students to create an advertisement promoting fashion for the wealthy in Davey's time. Students should write a few lines that will help to sell the significance and luxury of the garments for the wealthy wearer. Ask them to describe the material/s used, how they were made and where they could be purchased.
Alternatively, students could create 'Then and now' cut-out fashion dolls. Have students create one doll representing a wealthy child of Davey's time, and one doll representing an expensively dressed child of today. Ask students to reflect on how each era used clothing to convey a sense of status and importance.