9422051 DOMOSH This project combines several themes of current geographic research: determinants of urban form; expansion and maintenance of economic demand in wealthy societies; and the effects of differential gender roles on the geography of the individual, household, and the local region. The specific topic of the project is the ways in which New York's Broadway and Fifth Avenue became "Ladies' Mile," the premier shopping district for middle-class women in mid-nineteenth-century New York City. The investigator will make use of atlases, photographs, popular magazines, trade journals, city directories, and women's diaries of the period to document the transformation, uses, and users of the district. Data collection from the atlases, photographs, and directories will be straightforward, while the magazines and diaries will be subjected to content analysis and interpreted within the context of the original author and audience. Under investigation are the relative contributions of advertising, the popular press, building characteristics, and mix of land uses to the image and success of this retail development. In addition to documenting an important development in American mercantile history, the project's findings will contribute to the understanding of interaction among cultural, economic, and geographic developments within cities.
