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LEISURE
STUDIES
IN A
GLOBAL
Modern ERA

Vintage Homes
& Leisure Lives
Ghosts & Glamour

SAMANTHA HOLLAND
Leisure Studies in a Global Era

Series Editors
Karl Spracklen
Leeds Beckett University
Leeds, United Kingdom

Karen Fox
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
In this book series, we defend leisure as a meaningful, theoretical, fram-
ing concept; and critical studies of leisure as a worthwhile intellectual and
pedagogical activity. This is what makes this book series distinctive: we
want to enhance the discipline of leisure studies and open it up to a richer
range of ideas; and, conversely, we want sociology, cultural geographies
and other social sciences and humanities to open up to engaging with
critical and rigorous arguments from leisure studies. Getting beyond con-
cerns about the grand project of leisure, we will use the series to demon-
strate that leisure theory is central to understanding wider debates about
identity, postmodernity and globalisation in contemporary societies
across the world. The series combines the search for local, qualitatively
rich accounts of everyday leisure with the international reach of debates
in politics, leisure and social and cultural theory. In doing this, we will
show that critical studies of leisure can and should continue to play a
central role in understanding society. The scope will be global, striving to
be truly international and truly diverse in the range of authors and topics.
Editorial Board: John Connell, Professor of Geography, University of
Sydney, USA; Yoshitaka Mori, Associate Professor, Tokyo University of
the Arts, Japan; Smitha Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Wellesley
College, USA; Diane M. Samdahl, Professor of Recreation and Leisure
Studies, University of Georgia, USA; Chiung-Tzu Lucetta Tsai, Associate
Professor, National Taipei University, Taiwan; Walter van Beek, Professor
of Anthropology and Religion, Tilburg University, The Netherlands;
Sharon D. Welch, Professor of Religion and Society, Meadville Theological
School, Chicago, USA; Leslie Witz, Professor of History, University of
the Western Cape, South Africa.

More information about this series at


http://www.palgrave.com/series/14823
Samantha Holland

Modern Vintage
Homes & Leisure
Lives
Ghosts & Glamour
Samantha Holland
Leeds Beckett University
Leeds, United Kingdom

Leisure Studies in a Global Era


ISBN 978-1-137-57617-0    ISBN 978-1-137-57618-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57618-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953561

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018


The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John
C. Waddell, 1987

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature


The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom
In memory of my grandmother
Marion Holland née Clayton
1916–1998
Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the 20 participants of this study who gave up their time
and kindly allowed me a glimpse into their homes (and their cupboards
and wardrobes!).
Thank you to the participants who gave me permission to use their
photographs.
Thank you to the people who kindly filled in the online questionnaire;
many put a lot of time and thought into it and I appreciate it. I plan for
it to form the basis of further work.
Thank you to:
the owners of the vintage shop in which I collected observations and
data. They were very welcoming and helpful at all times;
the administrator/owner of ‘Coco Vintage’, the online vintage selling
group, for allowing me to post asking for respondents and participants—
and for our chats ‘behind the scenes’;
Vintage Life magazine for printing my letter;
Sharla Plant and Jack Redden at Palgrave Macmillan;
and Leeds Beckett University who funded the data collection.
Thanks also to my kind and eagle-eyed friend Sarah Kelsey and my
equally kind and eagle-eyed husband Sam Hinchliffe, for proofreading
and commenting on the chapters. (Of course all errors are my own.)

vii
viii Acknowledgements

Thank you to Cathy Killick, Wendy Robinson, Jo Reynolds, Evie


Southgate, Leanne Norman, Liz Powner, and Vicki Robinson who all
found themselves in the middle of conversations about second-hand
clothes or about writers’ block. (This won’t change!)
Thanks to my mother Josephine Hammond, my uncle Harbie Holland,
and my stepmother Mary Callaghan who all sent me cuttings about vintage
‘goings-on’.
At this point I’d also like to thank my mum for always being preter-
naturally calm about whatever weird vintage get-up I was wearing.
Contents

1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday  1


What Is Vintage?  4
The Study  11
Book Outline  12
References 13

2 Studying Vintage (Or, What I Did) 17


Interviews and Ethnography  19
The Participants  22
Field Diary  26
Online Data Collection  31
Auto-ethnography 32
References 39

3 ‘With Sentiment Still Attached’: An Overview of Vintage 41


The Questionnaire  42
Beginnings and Inspiration  45
Definitions 49
‘The Story’  50
Custodianship 53
Day to Day  58
ix
x Contents

Final Thoughts  62
References 63

4 ‘A Form of Time Travel’: Everyday Vintage 65


At Home with It All  70
Vignette: The Period Kitchen  82
References 90

5 ‘Search for Hours in a Dark Room’: Finding Vintage 93


Routines and Practices 100
Selling ‘Vintage’ 105
Observations in a Vintage Shop 109
References117

6 Expertise, Knowledge, and Inherited Memories121


Imagined Memories 123
The Freelance Expert 125
Preserving the Past for the Future 131
Collections135
Order and Disorder 143
Vignette: Elizabeth and Richard’s Vintage Christmas 145
References150

7 Dressing Up and ‘Wardrobe Moments’153


Looking Back: Gendered Bodies 155
Second-Hand Hauntings 159
‘Wardrobe Moments’ 165
Vignette: Liza’s Wardrobe 172
References176

8 ‘Sensual and Imaginative’: Glamour and the Vintage Body179


The Favourite Decades 181
Vignette: Hedy’s Hats 192
Fur194
Contents
   xi

Smoking200
Costume or Outfits? 203
References205

9 Virtual and Physical: Vintage Places and Spaces207


Subcultural Capital 209
Subcultural Production 215
Reproduction219
Events223
References229

10 Conclusion: “I Like Living with the Past”233


References244

References245

Index255
List of Figures

Photo 4.1 Kim’s kitchen (Photo: With permission) 84


Photo 4.2 Elizabeth and Richard’s kitchen (Photo: Author’s own) 86
Photo 4.3 Betty and Harry’s kitchen (Photo: Author’s own) 88
Photo 4.4 Betty and Harry’s kitchen (Photo: Author’s own) 89
Photo 5.1 Kings cross car boot sale, London, April 2017
(Photo: Author’s own) 99
Photo 5.2 Charity shop (now closed), UK. Summer 2014
(Photo: Author’s own) 102
Photo 5.3 Vintage fair UK, December 2015 (Photo: Author’s own) 106
Photo 6.1 Betty’s handbag and bangle collection
(Photo: Author’s own) 126
Photo 6.2 Dorothy’s Tiki collection (Photo: With permission) 142
Photo 6.3 RAF Christmas Day menu 1944 (Photo: Author’s own) 147
Photo 6.4 Christmas vintage fair in UK. December 2016
(Photo: Author’s own) 149
Photo 7.1 Some of Liza’s 1960s clothes, in one of her wardrobes
(Photo: Author’s own) 174
Photo 8.1 The only photo I have ever seen of my grandmother
wearing a hat. She is on the far right of the photo,
wearing a fur coat (Photo: Author’s own) 194
Photo 8.2 Some of Hedy’s hats (Photo: With permission) 195

xiii
xiv List of Figures

Photo 8.3 Pocket ashtray/compact by Stratton (Photo: Evie


Southgate, with permission) 202
Photo 9.1 Vintage event flyers, spring 2016 (Photo: Author’s own) 208
Photo 10.1 Holiday best clothes, 1940s (Photo: Author’s own) 234
1
Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts,
and the Everyday

What is a vintage item, a dress, say, or a cup or a handbag? It is historical


artefact and personal possession; it’s not in a museum behind glass, it is
next to your skin, or held against your lips, or carried with you wherever
you go. As a used item it holds something of its previous owners inside
itself, which in turn imbues it with emotion and value. That ‘something’
may be a smell or a physical clue such as a hair or a stain; or it may be a
name or story, or just a feeling. It is a ghost, but you can hold it in your
hands.
It could be unique, or rare, even if it is dusty and unloved when you
first see it. You might have not seen another like it in 10 years of collect-
ing, and you may guess that you won’t see another exactly like it in your
lifetime. Even if it was mass produced maybe it was much loved or much
used and so more likely to have been broken and never made its long
journey into the present. That’s why so few of certain things survive. So
it is a time traveller. It holds the power to evoke a lost era, lost lives, and
forgotten ways. It fills us with the joy, pleasure, regret, thwarted desires,
and sadness which constitute nostalgia. ‘Nostalgia’ is from the Greek,
with nostos meaning to return home, and algia meaning a painful condi-
tion. Living with vintage is about memory (our own and others’), the

© The Author(s) 2018 1


S. Holland, Modern Vintage Homes & Leisure Lives, Leisure Studies in a Global Era,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57618-7_1
2 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

trajectory of autobiography and self, and about constant changes b­ alanced


by carefully guarded continuities. It is what Tim Edensor (2008, p. 324)
describes as the absent presence and Ben Highmore (2011, p. 82) calls ‘a
snapshot from the perspective of eternity’.
The rise of vintage is in tandem with what Sharon Macdonald (2013,
p. 168) argues is ‘the musealisation of everyday life’, such as in folk life
heritage museums such as Beamish in the UK but also ‘which have flour-
ished especially in parts of Europe that are relatively marginal within late
capitalism’ (ibid., p. 191). This kind of ‘memory preoccupation’ (ibid.,
p. 123) has given rise to a proliferation of museums from the large to the
tiny (such as the Bakelite museum in Somerset in the UK), memorials,
family histories, memoirs from the self-published ‘person in the street’ to
those ‘by’ celebrities but actually ghostwritten, heritage projects, and re-­
enactment societies.
Wearing, buying, and living with vintage is increasingly a theme all
around us, popping up on TV, in the media, in books. There are a pleth-
ora of ‘how to style your home’ or ‘how to style yourself ’ books and
coffee table books. The novel The Improbability of Love (Rothschild
2015) is about provenance and the history (indeed, the character and
opinions) of an old item, a small painting dating from the eighteenth
century. The Nakano Thrift Shop (Kawakami 2016) is a Japanese novel
about the characters in a second-hand shop in a suburb of Tokyo. As the
owner of the shop explains to the narrator: ‘“these are not antiques,
they’re second hand goods” … The shop was crammed with the kind of
items found in a typical household from the 1960s and later.’ There are
articles in newspapers about men or women whose homes and attire are
entirely vintage. The ‘Raincoats’ episodes of US television series Seinfeld
(CBS 1994) was an early reference to second-hand clothes accruing
monetary value. Students at my place of work are currently (at spring
2017) planning to open and run a ‘campus thrift shop’ and are appealing
for volunteers and donations. Every month in the UK magazine Homes
and Antiques, there are references to how collectors like the story and
provenance of items. For example, three mentions of an item ‘telling a
story’ in the July 2016 issue; and in the March 2017 issue, ‘I’ve always
been drawn to things with a sense of history. It just doesn’t excite me to
buy new.’ This kind of choice denotes a level of choice and privilege,
1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday 3

about having the time and money to search, but also shows an interest
in seeking the ghosts in things.
As Elizabeth E. Guffey (2006) tells us, ‘the resurgence of interest in the
art and design of the late nineteenth century suggests the beginning of a
unique post-war tendency: a popular thirst for the recovery of earlier, and
yet still modern, periods at an ever-accelerating rate’ (Guffey 2006, p. 8).
There are, of course, many epochs in history when design has co-opted
earlier periods such as the Grecian revival in the 1890s, or the Egyptian
revival in the 1920s, where Egyptian motifs were used in architecture,
decorative arts, clothes, jewellery, and furniture. This craze was inspired
by Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, but there were
earlier similar crazes, such as when Napoleon conquered Egypt in the late
1700s. So there is evidence that humans have always appreciated earlier
design styles. Old things, such as clothes, speak to us. As Elizabeth Wilson
(1985, p. 1) notes:

We experience a sense of the uncanny when we gaze at garments that had an


intimate relationship with human beings long since gone to their graves. For
clothes are so much a part of our living, moving selves that, frozen on a display
in the [costume museums] they hint at something only half understood, sinis-
ter, threatening; the atrophy of the body and the evanescence of life.

Even the most ‘out of fashion’ style is likely to return to being in vogue,
given long enough. However, as both Guffey (2006) and Angela
McRobbie (1994) point out, revival is now at an ever-increasing speed;
and unlike nineteenth-century revivalism such as that of the Pre-­
Raphaelite Brotherhood, John Ruskin, and Augustus Pugin, retro or vin-
tage styles do not look to the distant past. Instead, we turn to the recent
past, often within living memory such as the continued popular interest
in clothes which belonged to famous women and which represent to us
both the icon herself and an era, for example, Jacqueline Kennedy’s
clothes at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001; and at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Kylie Minogue’s outfits (2007);
The Supremes’ performance outfits (2008); and Grace Kelly’s clothes
including her wedding dress (2010) and clothing worn by Twiggy, Sandy
Shaw, and others from the 1960s (2016).
4 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

But many of the cultural icons and preoccupations of the 1930s


onwards occupy us still, for example, in 2015 The Guardian newspaper in
the UK reported that ‘Max Factor has appointed Marilyn Monroe as its
new “global ambassador”, leaving some people bemused at the idea of
selecting an ambassador who has been dead since 1962 … But Monroe
represents just what Max Factor wants to resuscitate: the glamour for
which the company was once a byword … “Marilyn made the sultry red
lip, creamy skin and dramatically lined eyes the most famous beauty
look of the 1940s, and it’s a look that continues to dominate the beauty
and fashion industry. It is the ultimate look that defines glamour –
nothing else compares,” the spokeswoman said’ (Churchwell 2015).
Using cosmetics, surgery, and hair dye, the legend has it that ‘Norma
Jeane was changed by someone else into the glamorous movie star Marilyn
Monroe’ (ibid.). But what was the ‘glamour’ of Monroe, a woman so
crippled by self-doubt that she was famous for arriving late on set, always
wishing to find love and ultimately for (possibly?) fatally overdosing. Her
death was over half a century ago, and yet still we are transfixed by her.
Similarly, Superman and Wonder Woman, first drawn in the 1930s and
1940s, respectively, are both the subjects of recent films, as part of a wider
revival of DC Comics’ and Marvel Comics’ characters, and yet are still
somehow relevant to us today.

What Is Vintage?
There is an ever-increasing interest in ‘vintage’ as an academic subject,
with most of the studies being about design, consumption, and retailing,
such as studies about ‘retro’ retailers (Crewe et al. 2003; McColl et al.
2013; Baker 2012, 2013) or consumers (Cassidy and Bennett 2012;
Cervellon et al. 2012; Dowling Peters 2014; Hansson and Brembeck
2015). For example, Lauren Dowling Peters (2014) studies the shoppers
who attend the Brooklyn flea market, and Hansson and Brembeck (2015)
study the Gothenburg flea market, with attendant issues of authenticity
and performance of knowledge. McRobbie (1994), Jenns (2004, 2015),
Veenstra and Kuipers (2013), and Fischer (2015) also examine issues
about authenticity. Tracy Diane Cassidy and Hannah Rose Bennett
What Is Vintage? 5

(2012, p. 240) argue that the rise of vintage is a result of the current eco-
nomic climate, as well as a change in attitudes about old clothes and
other items, vintage nods in current fashion collections, a reaction against
‘fast fashion’, and a lack of individuality. Fred Davis, writing in 1979
about nostalgia, sees ‘retro’—that which we often now call vintage—as
an upheaval of taste, and a shake-up of the messages and meanings of
second hand. Davis’s understanding of the appeal of retro lay in the hip-
pie culture of the 1960s when a generation of young adults set out to
unpin ideas about what was tasteful or acceptable and to challenge the
messages and meanings of their social and cultural worlds. ‘The attributes
of retro, its self-reflexiveness, its ironic reinterpretation of the past, its
disregard for the sort of traditional boundaries that had separate “high”
and “low” art, all echo the themes found in Postmodern theory’ (Davis
1979, p. 21). Davis sees a nostalgia boom as a result of a period of social
upheaval and possible through technology. For example, with the advent
of the internet second-hand clothes can now be accessed easily, from sell-
ers anywhere in the world; in fact, such is the success of second-hand
clothes on eBay and other auction sites that charity shops have suffered as
a result. Expensive clothes were passed down through wealthy families,
or, conversely, through poor families who could not afford to buy more
(hand-me-downs). In the twentieth century, second-hand clothes became
the preserve of the art student or the hippy, finding items from charity
shops and markets. Angela McRobbie (1989, p. 42) describes how
second-­hand style in the 1980s was ‘marked out by a knowingness, a will-
ful anarchy and an irrepressible optimism, as indicated by colour, exag-
geration, humour and disavowal of the conventions of adult dress’.
Conversely, the participants of my study (who dress in vintage all of the
time, and style their homes entirely in vintage, and consider themselves
‘purists’ in that they don’t mix eras), in fact, also wore colourful and exag-
gerated outfits, but outfits which were dependent on the fashions of pre-
vious decades, relying on the conventions of adult dress, on embodied
and gendered labour (such as glamour), on knowledge of social and fash-
ion history, and subcultural capital. McRobbie notes that 1980s second-­
hand styles ‘play[ed] with the norms, conventions and expectations of
femininity, post-feminism. Each item is worn self-consciously with an
emphasis on the unnatural and the artificial’. But the styles adopted by
6 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

the participants predate second wave feminism and the gains for women
that feminism fought for; the styles favoured by the participants have few
or none of the gender-neutral or physically freeing aspects of feminist and
post-feminist attire. Many of the participants came from subcultures
such as those McRobbie describes, and as a result had a reserve of dress
knowledge. All of the participants had an interest in fashion history,
including fashion photography, which, surprisingly, neither are at all nec-
essary if you follow mainstream/current fashion. Aleit Veenstra and
Giselinde Kuipers (2013, p. 355) look at vintage collection as ‘a form of
consumption rather than an expression of subcultural identity’ but my
data, particularly from the ‘full-time vintage’ participants, refutes that
and shows that they are sufficiently cohesive as a group or community to
justify using the term ‘subculture’—I return to these definitions in Chap.
9. Interestingly, whilst refuting subculture as a way of conceptualising
collecting vintage, Veenstra and Kuipers go on to mention it on almost
every page, perhaps revealing that, after all, vintage does have links to
subcultural elements. However, they also (ibid., p. 363) argue that whilst
vintage is not subcultural they also point out that it isn’t mainstream
either, which I did find.
What is thought of as ‘vintage’ has become increasingly flexible with
even relatively new clothes now listed as ‘vintage’ or ‘retro’ in order to
maximise their appeal. The meaning has been ‘gradually creeping into
daily usage over the past thirty years’ (Guffey 2006, p. 9; also see Fischer
2015). I mentioned it in 2004. Despite the term vintage enjoying an
ever-increasing everyday usage, there remains a lack of precise definition
(Jenss 2005 in Palmer and Clark 2005; Jenss 2015; Mackinney-Valentin
2010). As Julie McColl, Catherine Canning, Louise McBride, Karina
Nobbs, and Linda Shearer argue, ‘the term vintage is multi-faceted’
(McColl et al. 2013, p. 140), an assertion which is quickly apparent when
searching for an absolute definition, or any attempt to clarify one. And
this lack of clarity has persisted, due to the fluctuations of vintage mar-
kets and fashions, from Nicky Gregson and Louise Crewe in 2003 to
Aleit Veenstra and Giselinde Kuipers writing a decade later in 2013. For
example, Baker (year) uses ‘retro’ to apply to what I am calling ‘vintage’,
although my own preference is ‘second-hand’. Veenstra and Kuipers
What Is Vintage? 7

(2013, p. 356) state that vintage began in the 1990s and that to count as
‘vintage’ items must be at least 25 years old. I have read or been told 20
years, or 30, but the general idea seems to be agreed. For example, during
my research for this book I had a conversation with a colleague aged in
her twenties during which she told me she collects vintage handbags. I
enthusiastically asked for more detail, to which she told me she collects
1980s bags, considerably deflating my enthusiasm. We then had a mod-
erately intense but good-natured discussion about why I thought the
1980s cannot count as vintage, and she thought that they could. Much
of my argument was that vintage referred to items of an identifiably dif-
ferent era from the current one, and to me the 1980s did not offer enough
distance or difference (yet) to be included. But to my colleague the 1980s
were a dim and distant time, most of which was before she was even born.
I used this discussion later, during some of the interviews, as a way to
elicit definitions and meanings from them. I discuss the definitions and
personal meanings of different terms in later chapters, using interview
data from participants and questionnaire data from respondents. For
example, the participant Dorothy said, ‘I suppose I would use the term
vintage, or I would say original. I use the term original quite a bit as well,
so it’s original 50s, original 60s, or whatever.’ But I focus in this chapter
on the understandings of vintage used in existing literature.
Cassidy and Bennett (2012, p. 240) also trace the beginning of the
popularity of vintage to the 1990s which might surprise people who were
mods or rockabillies in the 1980s. Several studies conflate the meanings
of vintage and retro. Guffey’s (2006) book concentrates on the history of
design, choosing to call all revivals and pastiches of older design styles
‘retro’. Guffey (2006, p. 6) argues that it is a ‘kind of subversion in which
the artistic and cultural vanguard began looking backwards in order to go
forwards’. But she also adds that ‘“retro” can serve as little more than a
trendy synonym for “old-fashioned” or simply “old” … [or] as shorthand
for a period style situated in the immediate post-war years’ (ibid., p. 9).
Similarly, Sarah Elsie Baker’s (2013) small-scale study referred to the
terms vintage and mid-century modern, but used the term retro to cover
all periods and types of post-war design. Baker’s data collection was con-
ducted primarily in 2005 and 2006, the same period as the publication
8 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

of Guffey’s book, and since then the popularity, accessibility, and value of
‘retro’ items has shifted considerably, so that neither book now feels to be
defining retro adequately. Retro, after all, is Latin for ‘back’ or ‘back-
ward’, whereas vintage has traditionally and commonly been used to refer
to something which has both age and value (particularly of a high-quality
wine). There are many layers of meaning, both individual and collective,
which lend the terms for post-war design more nuance than simply lump-
ing them together under the banner of ‘retro’. I have reached an under-
standing of the different forms of vintage from my reading, participant
observation, and data collection, particularly using the replies given when
I asked for a definition. So in this book the terms are used as follows:
vintage for anything second-hand from the 1930s to the end of the
1960s. For my participants, anything after the late 1960s is not yet old
enough to be desirable as an example of vintage design. The 1970s is
‘retro’, as are design items like furniture or radios, which explicitly copy
or hark back to earlier eras. The 1980s and 1990s are the recent past, too
recent to yet be counted.
Mid-century modern refers to style and design from the end of the
1940s to the early 1960s.
Antique is the 1920s or earlier.
Repro refers to the ‘reproduction’ of vintage clothes, made from origi-
nal patterns, often with original fabric or, at least, with original buckles,
buttons, and other notions. There is a debate about the difference between
‘good’ and ‘bad’ repro, which I return to in later chapters.
The terms ‘vintage’ and ‘second-hand’ were once interchangeable and
in the following chapters I use both. Second-hand is a term now used by
only the most stalwart and/or long-term collectors and enthusiasts.
Second-hand is my preference.
Maria Mackinney-Valentin (2010) divides ‘vintage’ into three categories:

1. Material revival: actual physical things, such as clothes or homewares,


which she calls ‘vintage’.
2. Immaterial revival: a ‘look’, that is, ‘high-end, midrange or fast fash-
ion’ and ‘designer labels’ have incorporated ‘looks’ into their ranges.
3. Literal revival: direct copies of past fashions.
What Is Vintage? 9

Using the definitions I used above, we see that number 1 refers to


articles older than the late 1960s; number 2 can refer to one era referenc-
ing another, for example, ‘80s does 40s’; and number 3 can refer to repro
or reproduction garments.
I return to all of these definitions and debates in more detail in later
chapters. It is important to remember that there will always be changes in
definition because of changes in markets and fashions.
Vintage clothes have now become a form of ‘fast fashion’, but for many
it has become a way of life, where daily identities are bound up in styles,
fashions, and ways of living from previous eras. ‘Vintage’ and second hand,
and their popularity, arguably lie at the intersection of fast fashion, new
technologies, and social media, and the consequent ‘speeding up’ of time,
and people being constantly ‘on’ and contactable (ref, ref). As Maxine Bédat
and Michael Shank (2016) tell us, ‘Fast fashion is the second most polluting
industry on the planet … the apparel industry contributes 10% of global
emissions.’ And yet fashion is absent in climate talks and is left out of the
discourse about carbon footprints, renewable energy, or conservation. And
Bédat and Shank point out, ‘more than 150 billion new articles of clothing
are produced annually. People don’t keep their clothing anymore; it is no
longer owned, it is consumed. They wear and discard it quickly.’ So where
are these billions of items made? Another concern is that, to cut costs, pro-
duction is sent to countries with cheap labour, where safety standards are
low and workers are exploited. Sending production abroad means that an
estimated 800,000 clothing industry jobs were lost in the USA alone, in the
space of just a few decades. There are many issues in design—for example,
we want durability, we want energy efficiency and recyclability. We want
objects to be more sustainable: environmentally, socially, and financially.
Recycling was mentioned by only one of my participants:

Carmen: I am a big supporter of eco-fashion and sustainability so it


also feeds into that side of my nature. Not wasting anything.
I like to call it eco-vintage.

I draw on Jonathan Chapman’s (2015) work about how designers must


begin to think about the ‘emotional durability’ of new items—that is, how
10 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

long do people want to keep their items, what narratives can we build
around these items, how can we ensure that people bond sufficiently with
their things so that they don’t want or expect to throw them out after only
a short time? Amy Twigger Holroyd (2016, p. 276) argues that in order to
slow down our turnover and consumption of new products, we look more
closely at the meanings and practices of what we currently consume:

In order to pursue genuine sustainability, rather than merely lessen the


impacts of an unsustainable system, we in the global North must dramati-
cally reduce our consumption of new clothing. This is difficult for many to
countenance; the present ‘fast fashion’ system is well established, and cloth-
ing consumption and fashion participation are fundamentally intertwined
in contemporary consciousness. However, designers and activists are work-
ing to develop an appealing version of fashion which is not dependent on
a rapid turnover of clothing items … With this in mind, there is a growing
interest in dress-related practices which slow down the consumption of
clothing and offer an alternative means of participating in fashion.

Twigger Holroyd is here referring mainly to clothes made at home, but


could just as easily be referring to vintage clothing, as could Chapman.
The ‘temporalities of objects’ (Jenss 2015, p. 12) means that there is an
assumption that people have an appetite only for the new and for the
now; that they will discard their cars or phones or clothes after very little
wear or use. As I say in Chap. 3, there is little time between seasons or
upgrades to adequately begin to love a possession. But vintage challenges
the assumption, evidenced by the concurrent rise of vintage along with
its unlikely bedfellows fast fashion and social media. The more frequently
we are offered cheaper newer objects the more interest grows in the past,
and in preserving the past. For example, in towns and cities all over the
world, from Eugene, Oregon, in the USA to Sheffield, Yorkshire, in the
UK, people are organising to prevent the destruction of century-old street
trees, for the beauty of their neighbourhoods, for ecological reasons, and
for their children and the future. Mature trees, like vintage items (and,
indeed, the terms vintage and mature can be used very similarly when
talking about good wine), stir in us feelings of emotion, connection, and
custodianship. If we are interested in the future we have to also learn to
look to the past.
The Study 11

The Study
The study is based on original empirical international data. It is about a
group of people who wear vintage all the time (of different eras, not all
are 1950s, e.g. although some are) and their homes are styled entirely or
almost entirely the same. I wanted to try to understand the meanings of
‘vintage’ for them (when vintage was their everyday life) through their
daily practices and accrued knowledge.
The first thing I did was to design an online questionnaire, to provide
me with a broad overview of how and where vintage fans were, what they
do, and what they like. Ultimately I had so many detailed and interesting
questionnaire responses (more than 200) that Chap. 3 is dedicated to
them. The respondents differed from the participants in that many of
them mixed eras and decades, and some of them were new to vintage.
I talked to people in the UK in person, and I conducted online inter-
views with people in other countries (the USA, Australia, and mainland
Europe); the attitudes, beliefs, aesthetics, and practices were remarkably
similar across all the countries, which is one of the things I hoped to
ascertain. I saw (in person or in photographs) the participants’ homes,
décor, wardrobes, cupboards, and collections.
I spent a year attending vintage events, spaces, shops, festivals, dance
classes, themed cafes—in fact, anywhere I thought I could observe vin-
tage fans and their actions. (This was less arduous than it perhaps sounds
as I regularly attend vintage events anyway and have done for many
years.) I also spent some time observing in one particular vintage shop, to
give me an insight into how people ‘experience’ old clothes. The study
was given ethical approval by my institution, and the respondents, par-
ticipants, and shop customers all remain anonymous.
Love has a presence throughout this book; it is worth remembering that
love is often a great motivator, in everything we do, if we are lucky—
romantic love, filial love, but also underrated sorts of love such as that for
a pet, who feels like a family member. It is even possible for love to
­motivate academic work. It is also true about the participants of this study,
who loved collecting, wearing, and living with second-hand things. And
whilst I mention love in Chaps. 4 and 6 (and emotion in Chap. 2) you
will not find it in the following pages as much as it should be, especially
12 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

considering that love motivated the practices, lifestyle, and collections of


the participants. Their love might take the form of nostalgia for a lost
place or time, or a lost relative such as a grandparent; it also took its form
for some participants in a love of their country, in patriotism (which
needn’t necessarily be aligned with jingoism or the far right). During the
interviews I was told how much people loved their things, loved the look,
loved the lifestyle, loved the hunt for things. Of course, love is perhaps an
overused word, or used casually in everyday speech when it should denote
deep feeling and attachment. But central to it all, throughout, was a love
of the stories and provenance of items, of inherited memories, and a stated
love of all that their vintage clothes and homes represented. Love perme-
ated every stage of this study.

Book Outline
This book does three key things:

First, it focuses on emotion and connection, narrative, and nostalgia to


understand how vintage fans live with their belongings;
Second, it looks at custodianship and the ‘ghosts’ and spectral remains
inherent in any ‘vintage’ lifestyle;
And third, it examines how gender and embodiment are played out
through, for example, an adoption of glamour.

In writing about the meanings and practices of the participants’ ‘vin-


tage’ lives, I develop ideas about home and domesticity, authenticity and
subcultural capital, emotional durability, memory, and heritage. I also
place them, wherever possible, in a historical framework, such as the his-
tory of second-hand markets. This is to contextualise the time periods or
eras, and specific outfits or items that the participants refer to. So whilst
the book is about the meanings and practices of leading vintage lives now,
related to gender, age, class, and ethnicities, it also includes background
information about the time periods themselves.
Chapter 2 gives a full account of the methods of the research, with
details of what I did and why. Many academic books still do not include
a methods section, surprisingly. However, I believe that methods, data,
References 13

and theory or ‘findings’ are all interconnected which is why I include that
chapter. Historically and currently, too many researchers give no sense of
what they did and whether they feel any responsibility to their ‘subjects’
(which I enclose in disapproving air quotes). The researcher and the par-
ticipants do not exist in isolation, there is necessarily a relationship and
the power dynamics may work both ways but only the researcher is
obliged to act ethically and respectfully. The methods will always impact
on the resulting theory.
Each chapter from 3 onwards will draw on empirical data from the
questionnaire, the interview transcripts, and observations from my field
diary. The overall structure reflects the main themes and practices dis-
cussed in the interviews: home, shopping and selling, collecting, clothes
and storage, and networks and events.
Chapter 3 looks at the questionnaire data, including ideas about ghosts
and spectral remains, provenance, and nostalgia.
Chapter 4 is about identity, emotional durability, hauntings, and the
history of kitchens.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on shopping, knowledge and expertise, authen-
ticity, on collecting, hoarding, and divesting.
Chapters 7 and 8 examine wardrobes, clothing, glamour, and embody-
ing the past including discussions about real fur, smoking, wearing hats,
and representations of women in period films.
Chapter 9 looks at subcultural capital and production, and at the
events and spaces where vintage fans go.
Finally, in the Conclusion I return to the main themes of the chapters,
through a discussion about what we might have learnt about the mean-
ings and practices of living entirely ‘vintage’.

References
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Baker, S. E. (2013). Retro Style. Class, Gender and Design in the Home. London:
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14 1 Introduction: Nostalgia, Stuff, Ghosts, and the Everyday

Bedat, M., & Shank, M. (2016, November 16). There Is a Major Climate Issue
Hiding in Your Closet: Fast Fashion. Co.Exist. https://www.fastcoexist.
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Cassidy, T. D., & Bennett, H. R. (2012). The Rise of Vintage Fashion and the
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Chapman, J. (2015). Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences and
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2017.
Crewe, L., Gregson, N., & Brooks, K. (2003). The Discursivities of Difference:
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Davis, F. (1979). Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: Free
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Downing Peters, L. (2014). Performing Vintage: The Cultivation and
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Edensor, T. (2008). Mundane Hauntings: Commuting Through the
Phantasmagoric Working-Class Spaces of Manchester, England. Cultural
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Fischer, N. L. (2015). Vintage, the First 40 Years: The Emergence and Persistence
of Vintage Style in the United States. Culture Unbound, 7, 45–66.
Guffey, E. E. (2006). Retro. The Culture of Revival. London: Reaktion Books.
Hansson, N., & Brembeck, H. (2015). Market Hydraulics and Subjectivities in
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Jenss, H. (2015). Fashioning Memory: Vintage Style and Youth Culture. London:
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Wilson, E. (1985). Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. London: Virago.
2
Studying Vintage (Or, What I Did)

The guiding principle of this book is to centralise the personal meanings,


and the routinised embodiment and materiality, of people who choose to
wear and collect vintage clothes and objects, to find ‘the ways in which a
setting uniquely makes sense’ (Hine 2015, p. 31). The guiding principle
of this book is necessarily and implicitly (inherently, in fact) about the
process of the methodology and data collection, in order to conceptualise
vintage lives. My belief in the importance of an account of the methodol-
ogy is best justified by Beverley Skeggs (2002, p. 17) who asserts that it

provides an underpinning for the rest of the [research] as methodology


underpins all theory. To ignore questions of methodology is to assume that
knowledge comes from nowhere allowing knowledge makers to abdicate
responsibility for their productions and representations … Methodology is
itself theory. [my emphasis]

I would echo Shane Blackman (2007, p. 708) here, who discloses that
he undertook research with ‘New Wave girls’ out of ‘emotional commit-
ment and love’, in my case the ‘love’ being that for second-hand things
and for people who appreciate them. I also agree with Rachel Thomson

© The Author(s) 2018 17


S. Holland, Modern Vintage Homes & Leisure Lives, Leisure Studies in a Global Era,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57618-7_2
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
the approval of the governor of the islands, authorize the
cities and towns to form among themselves associations or
communities for determined ends, such as the construction of
public works, the creation and foundation of beneficent,
charitable, or educational institutions, for the better
encouragement of public interests or the use of communal
property.

{389}

"ARTICLE 54.
It shall be the duty of commanding officers of military
districts, immediately after the publication of this order, to
recommend to the office of the military governor in which towns
within their commands municipal governments shall be
established, and upon approval of recommendations, either
personally or through subordinate commanders designated by
them, to issue and cause to be posted proclamations calling
elections therein. Such proclamations shall fix the time and
place of election and shall designate three residents of the
town who shall be charged with the duty of administering
electors' oaths; of preparing, publishing, and correcting,
within specified dates, a list of electors having the
qualifications hereinbefore set forth, and of presiding at and
making a due return of the election thus appointed. The
proclamation shall specify the offices to be filled, and in
order to determine the number of councilors the commanders
charged with calling the election shall determine, from the
best available evidence, the class to which the town belongs,
as hereinbefore defined; the classification thus made shall
govern until the taking of an official census. The first
alcaldes appointed under the provisions of this order shall
take and subscribe the oath of office before the commanding
officer of the military district or some person in the several
towns designated by said commanding officer for the said
purpose; whereupon the alcalde so sworn shall administer the
said oath of office to all the other officers of the municipio
there elected and afterwards appointed. The election returns
shall be canvassed by the authority issuing the election
proclamation, and the officers elected shall assume their
duties on a date to be specified by him in orders.

"ARTICLE. 55.
Until the appointment of governors of provinces their duties
under this order will be performed by the commanding officers
of the military districts. They may, by designation, confer on
subordinate commanding officers of subdistricts or of other
prescribed territorial limits of their commands the
supervisory duties herein enumerated, and a subordinate
commander so designated shall perform all and every of the
duties herein prescribed for the superior commanding officer.

"ARTICLE. 56.
For the time being the provisions of this order requiring that
alcaldes be elected, in all cases shall be so far modified as
to permit the commanding officers of military districts, in
their discretion, either to appoint such officers or to have
them elected as hereinbefore prescribed. The term of office of
alcaldes appointed under this authority shall be the same as
if they had been elected; at the expiration of such term the
office shall be filled by election or appointment.

"ARTICLE 57.
The governments of towns organized under General Orders No.
43, Headquarters Department of the Pacific and Eighth Army
Corps, series 1899, will continue in the exercise of their
functions as therein defined and set forth until such time as
municipal governments therefor have been organized and are in
operation under this order."

United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,


House Document Number 659.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).


Appointment of the Second Commission to the Philippines and
the President's instructions to it.
Steps to be taken towards the establishment of civil
government, and the principles to be observed.

On the 7th of April, 1900, the President of the United States


addressed the following communication to the Secretary of War,
appointing a Second Commission to the Philippines, "to
continue and perfect the work of organizing and establishing
civil government" in the Islands, and defining the principles
on which that work should proceed: "In the message transmitted
to the Congress on the 5th of December, 1899, I said, speaking of
the Philippine Islands: 'As long as the insurrection continues
the military arm must necessarily be supreme. But there is no
reason why steps should not be taken from time to time to
inaugurate governments essentially popular in their form as
fast as territory is held and controlled by our troops. To
this end I am considering the advisability of the return of
the commission, or such of the members thereof as can be
secured, to aid the existing authorities and facilitate this
work throughout the islands.'

"To give effect to the intention thus expressed I have


appointed the Honorable William H. Taft of Ohio, Professor
Dean C. Worcester of Michigan, the Honorable Luke I. Wright of
Tennessee, the Honorable Henry C. Ide of Vermont, and
Professor Bernard Moses of California, Commissioners to the
Philippine Islands to continue and perfect the work of
organizing and establishing civil government already commenced
by the military authorities, subject in all respects to any
laws which Congress may hereafter enact. The Commissioners
named will meet and act as a board, and the Honorable William
H. Taft is designated as President of the board. It is
probable that the transfer of authority from military
commanders to civil officers will be gradual and will occupy a
considerable period. Its successful accomplishment and the
maintenance of peace and order in the meantime will require
the most perfect co-operation between the civil and military
authorities in the island, and both should be directed during
the transition period by the same executive department. The
commission will therefore report to the Secretary of War, and
all their action will be subject to your approval and control.

"You will instruct the commission to proceed to the City of


Manila, where they will make their principal office, and to
communicate with the Military Governor of the Philippine
Islands, whom you will at the same time direct to render to
them every assistance within his power in the performance of
their duties. Without hampering them by too specific
instructions, they should in general be enjoined, after making
themselves familiar with the conditions and needs of the
country, to devote their attention in the first instance to
the establishment of municipal governments, in which the
natives of the islands, both in the cities and in the rural
communities, shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their
own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are
capable, and subject to the least degree of supervision and
control which a careful study of their capacities and
observation of the workings of native control show to be
consistent with the maintenance of law, order, and loyalty.
The next subject in order of importance should be the
organization of government in the larger administrative
divisions corresponding to counties, departments, or
provinces, in which the common interests of many or several
municipalities falling within the same tribal lines, or the
same natural geographical limits, may best be subserved by a
common administration. Whenever the commission is of the
opinion that the condition of affairs in the islands is such
that the central administration may safely be transferred from
military to civil control, they will report that conclusion to
you, with their recommendations as to the form of central
government to be established for the purpose of taking over
the control.
{390}

"Beginning with the 1st day of September, 1900, the authority


to exercise, subject to my approval, through the Secretary of
War, that part of the power of government in the Philippine
Islands which is of a legislative nature is to be transferred
from the Military Governor of the Islands to this commission,
to be thereafter exercised by them in the place and stead of
the Military Governor, under such rules and regulations as you
shall prescribe, until the establishment of the civil central
government for the islands contemplated in the last foregoing
paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise provide. Exercise
of this legislative authority will include the making of rules
and orders, having the effect of law, for the raising of
revenue by taxes, customs duties, and imposts; the
appropriation and expenditure of public funds of the islands;
the establishment of an educational system throughout the
islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient
civil service; the organization and establishment of courts;
the organization and establishment of municipal and
departmental governments, and all other matters of a civil
nature for which the Military Governor is now competent to
provide by rules or orders of a legislative character. The
commission will also have power during the same period to
appoint to office such officers under the judicial,
educational, and civil service systems and in the municipal
and departmental governments as shall be provided for. Until
the complete transfer of control the Military Governor will
remain the chief executive head of the Government of the
islands, and will exercise the executive authority now
possessed by him and not herein expressly assigned to the
commission, subject, however, to the rules and orders enacted
by the commission in the exercise of the legislative powers
conferred upon them. In the meantime the municipal and
departmental governments will continue to report to the
Military Governor, and be subject to his administrative
supervision and control, under your direction, but that
supervision and control will be confined within the narrowest
limits consistent with the requirement that the powers of
government in the municipalities and departments shall be
honestly and effectively exercised and that law and order and
individual freedom shall be maintained. All legislative rules
and orders, establishments of Government, and appointments to
office by the commission will take effect immediately, or at
such times as it shall designate, subject to your approval and
action upon the coming in of the commission's reports, which
are to be made from time to time as its action is taken.
Wherever civil Governments are constituted under the direction
of the commission, such military posts, garrisons, and forces
will be continued for the suppression of insurrection and
brigandage, and the maintenance of law and order, as the
military commander shall deem requisite, and the military
forces shall be at all times subject, under his orders to the
call of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and
order and the enforcement of their authority.

"In the establishment of Municipal Governments the commission


will take as the basis of its work the Governments established
by the Military Governor under his order of Aug. 8, 1899, and
under the report of the board constituted by the Military
Governor by his order of January 29, 1900, to formulate and
report a plan of Municipal Government, of which his Honor
Cayetano Arellano, President of the Audencia, was Chairman,
and it will give to the conclusions of that board the weight
and consideration which the high character and distinguished
abilities of its members justify. In the constitution of
Departmental or Provincial Governments it will give especial
attention to the existing Government of the Island of Negros,
constituted, with the approval of the people of that island,
under the order of the Military Governor of July 22, 1899, and
after verifying, so far as may be practicable, the reports of
the successful working of that Government, they will be guided
by the experience thus acquired, so far as it may be
applicable to the conditions existing in other portions of the
Philippines. It will avail itself, to the fullest degree
practicable, of the conclusions reached by the previous
commissions to the Philippines. In the distribution of powers
among the Governments organized by the commission, the
presumption is always to be in favor of the smaller
sub-division, so that all the powers which can properly be
exercised by the Municipal Government shall be vested in that
Government, and all the powers of a more general character
which can be exercised by the Departmental Government shall be
vested in that Government, and so that in the governmental
system, which is the result of the process, the Central
Government of the islands, following the example of the
distribution of the powers between the States and the National
Government of the United States, shall have no direct
administration except of matters of purely general concern,
and shall have only such supervision and control over local
Governments as may be necessary to secure and enforce faithful
and efficient administration by local officers.

"The many different degrees of civilization and varieties of


custom and capacity among the people of the different islands
preclude very definite instruction as to the part which the
people shall take in the selection of their own officers; but
these general rules are to be observed: That in all cases the
municipal officers, who administer the local affairs of the
people, are to be selected by the people, and that wherever
officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in
any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if
they can be found competent and willing to perform the duties,
they are to receive the offices in preference to any others.
It will be necessary to fill some offices for the present with
Americans which after a time may well be filled by natives of
the islands. As soon as practicable a system for ascertaining
the merit and fitness of candidates for civil office should be
put in force. An indispensable qualification for all offices and
positions of trust and authority in the islands must be
absolute and unconditional loyalty to the United States, and
absolute and unhampered authority and power to remove and
punish any officer deviating from that standard must at all
times be retained in the hands of the central authority of the
islands.
{391}
In all the forms of government and administrative provisions
which they are authorized to prescribe, the commission should
bear in mind that the government which they are establishing
is designed not for our satisfaction, or for the expression of
our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace, and
prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands, and the
measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs,
their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent
consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable
requisites of just and effective government.

"At the same time the commission should bear in mind, and the
people of the islands should be made plainly to understand,
that there are certain great principles of government which
have been made the basis of our governmental system which we
deem essential to the rule of law and the maintenance of
individual freedom, and of which they have, unfortunately,
been denied the experience possessed by us; that there are
also certain practical rules of government which we have found
to be essential to the preservation of these great principles
of liberty and law, and that these principles and these rules
of government must be established and maintained in their
islands for the sake of their liberty and happiness, however
much they may conflict with the customs or laws of procedure
with which they are familiar. It is evident that the most
enlightened thought of the Philippine Islands fully
appreciates the importance of these principles and rules, and
they will inevitably within a short time command universal
assent. Upon every division and branch of the government of
the Philippines, therefore, must be imposed these inviolable
rules: That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; that private property
shall not be taken for public use without just compensation;
that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the
witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance
of counsel for his defense; that excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishment inflicted; that no person shall be put twice in
jeopardy for the same offense, or be compelled in any criminal
case to be a witness against himself; that the right to be
secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be
violated; that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
exist except as a punishment for crime; that no bill of
attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed; that no law
shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the
press, or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and
petition the Government for a redress of grievances; that no
law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that the free
exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship
without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed.

"It will be the duty of the commission to make a thorough


investigation into the titles to the large tracts of land held
or claimed by individuals or by religious orders; into the
justice of the claims and complaints made against such
landholders by the people of the island or any part of the
people, and to seek by wise and peaceable measures a just
settlement of the controversies and redress of wrongs which
have caused strife and bloodshed in the past. In the
performance of this duty the commission is enjoined to see
that no injustice is done; to have regard for substantial
rights and equity, disregarding technicalities so far as
substantial right permits, and to observe the following rules:
That the provision of the treaty of Paris pledging the United
States to the protection of all rights of property in the
islands, and, as well, the principle of our own Government,
which prohibits the taking of private property without due
process of law, shall not be violated; that the welfare of the
people of the islands, which should be a paramount
consideration, shall be attained consistently with this rule
of property right; that if it becomes necessary for the public
interest of the people of the islands to dispose of claims to
property which the commission finds to be not lawfully
acquired and held, disposition shall be made thereof by due
legal procedure, in which there shall be full opportunity for
fair and impartial hearing and judgment; that if the same
public interests require the extinguishment of property rights
lawfully acquired and held, due compensation shall be made out
of the public Treasury therefor; that no form of religion and
no minister of religion shall be forced upon any community or
upon any citizen of the islands; that, upon the other hand, no
minister of religion shall be interfered with or molested in
following his calling, and that the separation between State
and Church shall be real, entire, and absolute.

"It will be the duty of the commission to promote and extend,


and, as it finds occasion, to improve, the system of education
already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this
it should regard as of first importance the extension of a system
of primary education which shall be free to all, and which
shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and
for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. This
instruction should be given in the first instance in every
part of the islands in the language of the people. In view of
the great number of languages spoken by the different tribes,
it is especially important to the prosperity of the islands
that a common medium of communication may be established, and
it is obviously desirable that this medium should be the
English language. Especial attention should be at once given
to affording full opportunity to all the people of the islands
to acquire the use of the English language. It may be well
that the main changes which should be made in the system of
taxation and in the body of the laws under which the people
are governed, except such changes as have already been made by
the military Government, should be relegated to the civil
Government which is to be established under the auspices of
the commission. It will, however, be the duty of the
commission to inquire diligently as to whether there are any
further changes which ought not to be delayed, and, if so, it
is authorized to make such changes, subject to your approval.
In doing so it is to bear in mind that taxes which tend to
penalize or to repress industry and enterprise are to be
avoided; that provisions for taxation should be simple, so
that they may be understood by the people; that they should
affect the fewest practicable subjects of taxation which will
serve for the general distribution of the burden.

{392}

"The main body of the laws which regulate the rights and
obligations of the people should be maintained with as little
interference as possible. Changes made should be mainly in
procedure, and in the criminal laws to secure speedy and
impartial trials, and at the same time effective
administration and respect for individual rights. In dealing
with the uncivilized tribes of the islands the commission
should adopt the same course followed by Congress in
permitting the tribes of our North American Indians to
maintain their tribal organization and government, and under
which many of those tribes are now living in peace and
contentment, surrounded by a civilization to which they are
unable or unwilling to conform. Such tribal governments
should, however, be subjected to wise and firm regulation;
and, without undue or petty interference, constant and active
effort should be exercised to prevent barbarous practices and
introduce civilized customs. Upon all officers and employés of
the United States, both civil and military, should be
impressed a sense of the duty to observe not merely the
material but the personal and social rights of the people of
the islands, and to treat them with the same courtesy and
respect for their personal dignity which the people of the
United States are accustomed to require from each other. The
articles of capitulation of the City of Manila on the 13th of
August, 1898, concluded with these words: 'This city, its
inhabitants, its churches and religious worship, its
educational establishments, and its private property of all
descriptions, are placed under the special safeguard of the
faith and honor of the American Army.' I believe that this
pledge has been faithfully kept. As high and sacred an
obligation rests upon the Government of the United States to
give protection for property and life, civil and religious
freedom, and wise, firm, and unselfish guidance in the paths
of peace and prosperity to all the people of the Philippine
Islands. I charge this commission to labor for the full
performance of this obligation, which concerns the honor and
conscience of their country, in the firm hope that through
their labors all the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands may
come to look back with gratitude to the day when God gave
victory to American arms at Manila and set their land under
the sovereignty and the protection of the people of the United
States.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).


Speech of Senator Hoar against the subjugation and
retention of the Islands by the United States.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May).


Filipinos killed, captured and surrendered from the breaking
out of hostilities with them to May, 1900.
Losses of American army.

In response to a resolution of the United States Senate, May


17, 1900, the following report, by cable, from Manila, was
made by General MacArthur:

"Filipinos killed, 10,780;


wounded, 2,104;
captured and surrendered, 10,425;
number prisoners in our possession, about 2,000.

No systematic record Filipino casualties these headquarters.


Foregoing, compiled from large number reports made immediately
after engagements, is as close an approximation as now
possible, owing to wide distribution of troops. More accurate
report would take weeks to prepare. Number reported killed
probably in excess of accurate figures; number reported
wounded probably much less, as Filipinos managed to remove
most wounded from field, and comparatively few fell into our
hands. Officers high rank and dangerous suspicious men have
been retained as prisoners; most other men discharged on field
as soon as disarmed. Propose to release all but very few
prisoners at early date."

56th Congress, 1st Session,


Senate Doc. 435.

For returns of casualties in the American army during the same


period,

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May-November).


The question in American politics.

See (in this volume)


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 {July).


Appeal of citizens of Manila to the
Congress of the United States.

An appeal "to the Congress of the United States," dated at


Manila, July 15, 1900, and signed by 2,006 of the inhabitants
of the city, who were said by Senator Hoar and Senator Teller
to be "the leading people of that section of country—lawyers
and bankers and professional men generally" was presented to
the Senate on the 10th of January, 1901. It opens as follows:

"The undersigned, Filipinos and peaceful inhabitants of this


city, in their own name and in the name of the misnamed
'irreconcilables,' respectfully present themselves and submit
to the worthy consideration of the Congress of the United
States of America the following appeal: "The people of the
Philippine Islands, in view of their calamitous condition,
demand in the name of her sons, in the name of all races, in
the name of humanity, that an end be put to the misfortunes
which afflict them which, while they distress and agonize her,
compel her to struggle for the rights that are hers, and for
the maintenance whereof she must, if necessary, continue to
pour out her blood as she has so constantly and generously
done on battlefields, in the woods, on the mountains, in the
city, everywhere! The blood which has been shed and that is
still being shed, and which will continue to be shed until she
has secured her rights, is not shed because of the intrigues
of a few who, according to misinformed persons, desire to
exploit the people and enrich themselves at the cost of their
brother's blood. It has, gentlemen, sprung from the hearts of
the people, who alone are the real strength of nations, the
sovereign king of races, the producers of the arts, of
science, of commerce, of wealth, of agriculture, of
civilization, of progress, and of all the productions of human
labor and intelligence, in all of which the people of the
Philippine Islands had made great progress. The Filipinos were
not sunk in lethargy, as some untruthfully assert. They
suffered, but the hour to break their chains came to them in
August, 1896, and they proclaimed to the world their
emancipation."

{393}

The paper proceeds to review the circumstances of the revolt


against Spanish rule which broke out in 1896, and the later
circumstances of the conflict between Filipinos and Americans
at such length that it cannot be given in full. Its aim and
its spirit may be sufficiently shown by quotation of the
following passages from the closing parts of the appeal:

"Even supposing that America should force us to submit, and


after many years of war the country should submit, as the
lesser evil, to the proclamation of an ample autonomy, that
autonomy would not produce a sincere bond of friendship
between the two people, because, having sacrificed herself for
her independence, the country could not look with affection upon
those who would be the only obstacle to her happiness. She
would always retain her aspirations, so that autonomy would be
a short 'interregnum' which the country would necessarily take
advantage of to regain new strength to be used in the
attainment of her high political ideals, happen what may, and
perhaps in some hour of peril strike a fatal blow at a hated
oppressor. … In giving this warning we do not forget the good
Americans whom we sincerely respect; we are mindful of the
rupture of our good relations with the United States; we are
mindful of the blood which will again run on the soil of our
country. We see in that autonomy a new and sorrowful page in
the history of the Philippines, and therefore we can not but
look upon it with horror. Our people have had enough of
suffering. … They steadfastly believe that their independence
is their only salvation. Should they obtain it, they would be
forever grateful to whomsoever shall have helped them in their
undertaking; they would consider him as their redeemer, and
his name will be engraved with bright letters in the national
history, that all the generations to come may read it with
sublime veneration. America, consistent with her tradition, is
the only one which could play that great rôle in the present
and future of the Philippines. If she recognizes their
independence, they could offer her a part of the revenues of
the Philippine state, according to the treaty which shall be
stipulated; the protection in the country of the merchandise
of the United States, and a moral and material guarantee for
American capital all over the archipelago; finally, whatever
may bring greater prosperity to America and progress to the
country will, we doubt not, be taken into account in the
treaty which shall be celebrated.

"That the independence of the country will be attended with


anarchy is asserted only by those who, offending the truth and
forgetting their dignity, represent the Filipinos under
horrible colors, comparing them to beasts. Their assertions
are backed by isolated acts of pillage and robbery. What
revolution of the world was free from such deeds? At this
epoch passions are unrestrained; vengeance finds opportunity
to satisfy itself; private ambitions are often favored by the
occasion. Could such criminal deeds be avoided? Pythagoras
said: 'If you like to see monsters, travel through a country
during a revolution.' …

"In order to end our appeal we will say, with the learned
lawyer, Senor Mabini: 'To govern is to study the wants and
interpret the aspirations of the people, in order to remedy
the former and satisfy the latter.' If the natives who know
the wants, customs, and aspirations of the people are not fit
to govern them, would the Americans, who have had but little
to do with the Filipinos, be more capable to govern the
latter? We have, therefore, already proven—

1. That the revolution was the exclusive work of the public;

2. That in preparing it they were moved by a great ideal, the


ideal of independence;
3. That they are ready to sacrifice their whole existence in
order to realize their just aspirations;

4. That in spite of the serious difficulties through which


they are passing, they still expect from America that she will
consider them with impartiality and justice, and will
recognize what by right belongs to them, and thus give them an
opportunity to show their boundless gratitude;

5. That the annexation of the Philippines to America is not


feasible;

6. That the American sovereignty is not favored by the


Philippine people;

7. That an ample autonomy can not be imposed without violating


the Filipino will;

8. That the Filipinos are firm for self-government.

"From this it results that the only admissible solution for


the present difficulties is the recognition by America of the
independence of the Filipinos. In saying this we do not
consider either the nullity or the legality of the Paris
treaty on our country, but the well-known doctrine of the
immortal Washington, and of the sons of the United States of
America, worthy champions of oppressed people. Therefore we,
in the name of justice and with all the energies of our souls,
demand—

1. That the independence of the Filipinos be recognized;

2. That all the necessary information regarding the events


which are taking place, concerning the peaceful towns and
places which are supporting the arms of the revolution, be
obtained from Filipinos who, by their antecedents and by their
actual conduct, deserve the respect and confidence of the
Filipino people."

Congressional Record,
January 10, 1901, page 850.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September).


Adoption of civil service rules.

See (in this volume)


CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September-November).


Civil government of the Islands by the President's Commission.
Legislative measures.
Report of the Commission.

"In April of this year the second Philippine commission, of


which Honorable William H. Taft, of Ohio, Professor Dean C.
Worcester, of Michigan, Honorable Luke I. Wright, of
Tennessee, Honorable Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Professor
Bernard Moses, of California, were members, sailed for Manila
with the powers of civil government prescribed in the
instructions of April 7, 1900 [see above]. After devoting
several months to familiarizing themselves with the conditions
in the islands, this commission on the 1st of September, 1900,
entered upon the discharge of the extensive legislative powers
and the specific powers of appointment conferred upon them in
the instructions, and they have since that time continued to
exercise all that part of the military power of the President
in the Philippines which is legislative in its character,
leaving the military governor still the chief executive of the
islands, the action of both being duly reported to this
Department for the President's consideration and approval. …
On consultation with the commission, and with the President's
approval, a note of amnesty was issued by the military
governor, dated June 21, 1900, and supplemented by a public
statement by the military governor, under date of July 2,
1900, based, in the main, upon the instructions to the
commission.
{394}
… In pursuance of them something over 5,000 persons, of all
grades of the civil and military service of the insurrection,
presented themselves and took the following oath: 'I hereby
renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary
governments in the Philippine Islands and recognize and accept
the supreme authority of the United States of America therein;
and I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to that government; that I will at all times
conduct myself as a faithful and law-abiding citizen of said
islands, and will not, either directly or indirectly, hold
correspondence with or give intelligence to an enemy of the
United States, neither will I aid, abet, harbor, or protect
such enemy. That I impose upon myself this voluntary
obligation without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion, so help me God.' This number included many of the
most prominent officials of the former Tagalog government. …

"The commission in its legislative action is following the


ordinary course of legislative procedure. Its sessions are
open, and its discussion and the proposed measures upon which
it is deliberating are public, while it takes testimony and
receives suggestions from citizens as if it were a legislative
committee. Its first legislative act was the appropriation, on
the 12th of September, of $2,000,000 (Mexican), to be used in
construction and repair of highways and bridges in the
Philippine Islands. The second act, on the same day, was an
appropriation of $5,000 (Mexican) for a survey of a railroad
to the mountains of Benguet, in the island of Luzon. The
proposed railroad, about 45 miles in length, extending from
the Manila and Dagupan road, near the Gulf of Lingayen, to the
interior, will open, at a distance of about 170 miles from
Manila, a high tableland exceedingly healthy, well wooded with
pine and oak, comparatively dry and cool, and where the
mercury is said to range at night in the hottest season of the
year between 50° and 60° F. The value of such a place for the
recuperation of troops and foreign residents will be very
great. The third act of the commission was an appropriation
for the payment of a superintendent of public instruction.
They have secured for that position the services of Frederick
W. Atkinson, recently principal of the high school of
Springfield, Massachusetts, who was selected by the commission
for that purpose before their arrival in Manila.

"Before the 1st of September a board of officers had been


engaged upon the revision of the tariff for the islands in the
light of such criticisms and suggestions as had been made
regarding the old tariff. The commission has considered the
report of this board, and after full public hearings of
business interests in the island has formulated a tariff law
which has been transmitted to the Department. … A
civil-service board has been constituted by the commission
[see, in this volume, CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900). They
have secured from the United States Civil Service Commission
the experienced and capable services of Mr. Frank M. Kiggins,
and a civil-service law has been enacted by the commission
providing for the application of the merit system to
appointments in the island."

United States, Secretary of War, Annual Report,


November 30, 1900, pages 25-27.

A report by the Commission, dated November 30, was received at


Washington late in January, 1901. Of the legislative work on
which it entered September 1st, and which, at the time of
reporting, it had prosecuted during three months, the
Commission speaks as follows:

"It adopted the policy of passing no laws, except in cases of


emergency, without publishing them in the daily press after
they had passed a second reading, and giving to the public an

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