<p>This collection is about how women were viewed and how they presented themselves before the year of 1865. There are many indirect ways to show how women were looked at during this time. During this time, there were no electronics, so pictures of women were actually paintings. In majority of the paintings of women, they all posed the same way; Facing forwards, Straight peaceful faces, with their hands positioned in front of them. In many paintings women wore jewelry, which indirectly suggested a higher social class. A lot of paintings found during this time period were paintings of white women, black women were rarely painted, if painted at all. The reason being is that this was the period during slavery. Black women were not respected or thought of as people like how white women were. There were also paintings of women and children. Women were more family oriented, they were the one's to take care of the household while men worked to take care of their households, although, around 1865 is when women started to take a stance for what they believed in and women's rights. </p> <p>Women during this time were completely different from women of today; how they dressed, why they dressed the way they did, their body figures, and etc. How women dressed during this time period correlated mainly with their social class. Women of a higher social class wore more expensive jewelry, mainly pearls. They also wore higher heels, while lower class women wore shorter pump heels. Women during this time period were also smaller. They had smaller waists, smaller feet, and smaller body parts in general. </p> <p>All this information is important because it not only shows how much women have evolved from this time period, but also shows how some things remained the same. </p>