Fashioning the American Man: The Arrow Collar Man, 1907–1931

This essay is about the Arrow Man, one of the most successful advertising images in early twentieth–century America, and a visual representation of the New Man. The Arrow Man was created by a noted artist, J. C. Leyendecker, to sell the Arrow collar, a new version of detachable collars, a wardrobe staple for most US men and all but working–class men in Britain and Europe since the 1840s. The Arrow Man’s story is part of the transformations in masculine ideals and physical appearance, heightened by the new visual and consumer culture. He carried messages of men’s self–management of appearance and public performance from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth, where it changed from a mark of European gentility into that of the typically American white–collar man. His story is part of fundamental shifts in the US: new occupational and social class configurations and emerging American popular culture.     

“If voting could change anything it would be illegal”∗

Colin Crouch (ed.), Participation in Politics, British Political Sociology Yearbook, Vol. 3, Groom Helm, London, 1977; $38.50.     

The Hidden Meaning of Forms: Methods of Recording Paleolithic Parietal Art

There are many restrictions placed on researchers studying Paleolithic Cave art due to the constraints of conservation that limit direct contact with the original works. This paper discusses how recent advances in technology have revolutionized the study and interpretation of Paleolithic cave art. The interpretation of Paleolithic symbolic systems is a complex process and hypotheses must be applied to cave art with the greatest of precision. A detailed analysis of the painted or engraved surfaces leads to a greater understanding of both the techniques employed and the actual sequence in which parietal compositions were executed. By unlocking the creative process followed by Upper Paleolithic artists we are able to glimpse the artist’s motivations and to understand a portion of the art’s hidden meaning.

A Crisis of Confidence? Parliament and the Demand for Hospital Reform in Early‐15th‐ and Early‐16th‐Century England

This article examines attempts made by the Commons in the parliaments of April 1414 and 1512 to address the corruption, neglect and poor administrative standards deemed endemic in the nation's hospitals and almshouses, and to remedy a perceived lack of facilities for the care of sick paupers. Despite early (but short‐lived) support from the crown, the first initiative failed, partly because of its association with heretical demands for the disestablishment of the English Church. Although the underlying reasons for institutional decline were often more complex than the reformers cared to suggest, their campaign did inspire a number of hospitals and their patrons to rectify abuses. At the same time, individuals and organisations throughout society invested in new foundations, generally under lay management, for the residential accommodation of the elderly and reputable poor. These measures sufficed until the arrival of endemic pox, along with mounting concerns about vagrancy and disorder, prompted another parliamentary petition for the investigation and reform of charitable institutions. Notable for its emphasis upon the sanitary imperative for removing diseased beggars from the streets, and thus eliminating infection, the bill of 1512 also attacked the proliferation of fraudulent indulgences, which raised money under false pretences for houses that were hospitals in name only. This undertaking also failed, almost certainly because the lords spiritual had, again, drawn the line at the prospect of lay intervention in overwhelmingly ecclesiastical foundations. Both bills are reproduced in full in an appendix, that of 1512 appearing in print for the first time.