B O O K S

Click for larger image



1983. 20 pages.
0896721124
978-0-89672-112-8

Amanda's New Life: A Journal of Fashion History through Paper Dolls

By Betty J. Mills
Illustrated by Lynette C. Ross

This episode of The Amanda Series, Amanda's New Life, continues the story of the young woman who pioneered from Tennessee to Texas with her parents in 1838. Beginning her journey (and her journal) in Book I, Amanda Goes West, the narrative is illustrated with authentic fashions appropriate to the period. Interspersed are historical facts, cultural events, and social history of Texas on its new frontiers.

Based on actual accounts of young women who pioneered in Texas and using as guidance existing garments and artifacts from The Museum Collection, the story has been woven with fact-based details by a long-time Museum Costume Curator. Illustrations are original art works by a professional fashion illustrator who incorporates knowledge of construction with her artistic renderings.

While Book I dealt with the trip by wagon train and settlement on a new frontier, Book II takes Amanda through marriage, movement to a new frontier, Texas statehood, motherhood, loneliness, and happy times. Book III will cover the Civil War period, acquisition of a sewing machine, more weddings, arrival of grandchildren, a trip to the Nation's Centennial Exposition, and another new world in Amanda's Home on the Range. Throughout the series, the reader will be charmed with the skillfully illustrated journal entries relating to Amanda, her family, her life, and her world.

Unique in the paper doll world, The Amanda Series brings you not only style guidance associated with paper dolls, but a story based on facts, to be relived and to reawaken the world of another era. Whether cut out for play or displayed for enjoyment, it promises to be a conversation piece, a fashion reference, a collector's treasure, and a source of entertainment.