Louisa in Style: Conversation with Lauren Stern about May Alcott Nieriker and Historical Dress

Meet Lauren Stern: a researcher interested in social and material history. She has been a staff member at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House since 2006, where she has worked to bring New England history alive through summer camps, museum tours, and living history programs. In this episode, Lauren discusses her experiences at Orchard House as well as her research on the life of May Alcott Nieriker. As an expert in historical fashion, Lauren also discusses the fashion trends during the decades of Louisa May Alcott's adulthood, from Victorian sleeve trends and bustles, to corsets and the Alcott's involvement in dress reform.Lauren is also a dance historian and performer with the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, where she gets to wear all those ball dresses she makes. She blogs about her research and experiments at plaidpetticoats.blogspot.com, and makes short-form dance history videos on tiktok (@plaidpetticoats). She has also made her own pickled limes.In addition to Lauren's personal website, she recommends the following resources: https://twistedpreservation.com/ https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/search/collection/fashionhttps://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/archival_objects/284321