The Gentleman’s Page is a wonderful collection of images and period information about the life, dress, and behavior of nineteenth century men. The site is designed and maintained by Walter Nelson, a historian and collector of nineteenth century clothing, and sponsored by the Lively Arts History Association (LAHA), a California non‐profit corporation. The site, part of the Costume Web Ring, received recognition from both the Scout Report (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu) and Academic Info (http://www.academicinfo.net).
The splash page provides a good introduction of the topic and has a clean and logical layout. Navigation is mostly confined to the left frame, but there are some internal links within the main text of some pages. Also included in the left frame are links to a support page for anyone interested in making a contribution, contact information, a class offered by Nelson, and a site search function. The site also includes a banner at the top of the right frame on each page that contains links to LAHA, Home, Attire, Banner, and Resources. The navigation scheme is reasonably consistent.
The site has three main divisions: attire, behavior, and resources. Each division is further organized into specific examples. For example, the attire category includes narrower topics such as informal attire, neck ties and collar shirts, and vests. The author uses an impressive number of images of primary sources and excerpts from popular period publications. Nelson also uses digital photos of items from his own collection, which provide color and detail unavailable in the images from primary resources.
The strength of this Web site lies in its content. The information is provided in a thoughtful and informative manner, and the amount of information for each topic is also appropriate and well selected. Nelson does a good job of mixing his narrative with primary material, and he is obviously very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his subject. Overall, this is a highly recommended site.
