Dress Development

Dress Development. 1923, by *Mary Brooks Picken, copyrighted by International Educational Publishing Company. File photo; photo is representative. Softcover, staple-in-fold binding,” x 8?”, 61 pages. Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences, Inc.

*Mary Brooks Picken was an American who authored 96 needlework books between 1915 and 1957 about sewing and the textile arts. Her books were highly regarded and used as text book in many home economics classes in schools of higher learning. Her Fashion Dictionary, published by Funk and Wagnalls in 1957, is the first dictionary in the English language to be published by a woman. She founded the Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was an authority on dress, fabric, design, sewing, and fashion.