The 19th Century provides a concise account of the wide variety of costume and fashion created during this period. Spanning backwoodsmen of Tennessee to the Southern Belles of the Deep South, this volume covers a broad spectrum of material.

Chapters profile new frontiers in the Americas, 19th-century Canada, the first peoples, French and Anglo trappers and fishermen, the Canadian Pacific railroad workers, and the whaling industry of New England, as well as farmers, cowboys, ranchers, and buffalo hunters. A section on the Far West looks at Native Americans of the Northwest, California, the Great Basin and plateau states, as well as the Mormons and Forty-niners. Latin American coverage includes the Gauchos of Argentina, the Portuguese, Creole and African populations, as well as the military and freedom fighters. Coverage devoted to nations and costumes of mainland Europe looks at France and the Napoleonic style, the royal courts of Spain and Portugal, the Italians and Greeks, and the fashions of Russia, Poland, and Germany.