Early Consumption: 18th century British, French and North American Shoes

Riello’s research at the ROM contributed to the completion of his PhD thesis, “The Boot and Shoe Trade in London and Paris in the Long Eighteenth Century: An International Perspective,” by supporting his historical analysis of shoemaking in 18th-century France and Britain with a close analysis of the extant shoes of the time in the ROM’s collection. He produced a detailed survey (including information on the use of labels, the sizes, styles, methods and materials of production, etc.) of the shoes in the process. He intended to construct a new methodology with his object-based study which incorporated both consumption--objects as commodities--and production within the same theoretical framework.