File

Covering the period of the 1880s to the 1930s, this file documents the activities and advertising practices of various Canadian and American women's undergarment manufacturers and merchants. It contains one business card and various promotional materials.

A business card from Guthrie's, a manufacturer in St. Catharines, Ontario, and an advertising flyer from the American company Ball’s Corset both boast of their respective "health" corsets. Ball's Corset promotes its product as being "health preserving," thanks to the addition along the sides of a "coiled wire spring elastic section," while Guthrie's notes that its corset is "Recommended by the Medical Faculty generally." A handwritten note on the back of the latter's card confirms that on May 21, 1881, [R.] La Fontaine received the sum of $6.50 as payment in full for corsets.

The file also contains a catalogue of C/B à la Spirite corsets manufactured by American company Strouse, Adler & Co., based in New Haven, Connecticut. The numerous models on offer are pictured in "Plates Illustrated in Color from Photographs." This elaborate tome, entitled La divine créature, presents an idealized image of women in a text that praises their spirit, charm and beauty. The corset ensures a graceful silhouette. It is thus seen as a key element in the art of dressing which, although codified, is said to reveal the inner self of the woman who masters it: "Woman derives her chief pleasure in giving expression to self through the pretty employments of her toilette. In all her world of sunlight and gayety, of duties, diversions, and languors, she knows no time when purpose and instinct are so united, heart and mind so blended, as in the processes of dressing. […] Then it is she conceals natural charms to reveal the inner charms of her mind through her attire—her interpretation of the beautiful."

Finally, the file contains a flyer from Silhouette, a foundation garment manufacturer whose Montreal offices were located in the Dominion Square Building, St. Catherine Street West. The contact information of a local representative has been added to the flyer by hand. Two leaflets—one in French and one in English—from the Canadian division of the Spirella company, based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, provide instructions for how to put on and adjust the company's corset. The French version also includes washing instructions.