'Queen Fashion'. Written Feb. 1865.

Bookseller Notes

A good manuscript copy, in its original roll case, of the text of this successful and fascinating satirical lecture on fashion by the American lawyer and politician L. Bradford Prince (1840-1922) from Flushing, New York. He was later Governor of the New Mexico Territorial Court in 1878-82 and 14th Governor of New Mexico Territory in 1889-93. The handmade roll lists the numerous cities, mostly located in New England, where the lecture was delivered all except one in the dozen years before his first major office, between 1864 and 1878. At the time, first as a law student at Columbia, and then a member of the New York State Assembly and Senate, Bradford Prince toured the States extensively, to deliver lectures for '$25 and travelling expenses' (see The Round Table, 20 Mar 1869). Several American newspapers of the time list Queen Fashion among the lectures of the week. This satirical piece has remained (as far as we have been able to ascertain) unpublished, and is not listed among the highlights of Bradford Prince's papers at the Museum of New Mexico. Replete with stereotypes and the odd historical anecdote, it provides nevertheless a fascinating insight on opinions on fashion and society held by an educated young New Yorker in mid-19th century America. His satirical takes on fashion span clothes, hair-style and food ('pork and molasses', 'corn dodgers walloped in truck'). They also include brief mentions of New York characters he knew: the bar tender Gus Page, who travelled Europe as Augustus Gustavus Page; Maggie Plum, 'known to us all for selling peanuts in pleasant weather, and sweeping the crossing during snow and mud, at the corner of Pearl St'; and the wealthy Richard Smyth Esq., with a mansion in Fifth Avenue. He also discusses the sight of young women going to college. (Although the editorial annotations may suggest direct authorial intervention, we have not been able to compare this copy to Bradford Prince's handwriting.)