Cambridge historian reveals fascinating new insights into life of Samuel Pepys

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PhD researcher Marlo Avidon publishes images from Pepys’ private collection of fashion prints for the first time

Most of what we know about Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), the famous English diarist and naval administrator, comes from the diary that he kept from 1660–69. However, Pepys lived for another 34 years and while surviving letters offer clues, we know less about the second, more privileged half of his life.

Cambridge historian Marlo Avidon offers precious new insights having studied Pepys’ private collection of fashion prints in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Pepys had been a student. 2024 marks the 300th anniversary of Magdalene acquiring Pepys’ private library including his original diaries.

 
“Pepys felt he had to walk a really fine line, especially early in his career. His father was a tailor, his mother a washerwoman, and throughout his life Pepys was profoundly worried about how he was perceived and took steps to manage his image. The diary shows his anxieties as a young adult. The prints show that his determination to prove himself, using clothes and cultural capital, continued throughout his life.”

Avidon studied Pepys’ print collection as part of her PhD research into the role of fashion in the identity construction of elite women in the late 17th Century. Appearing in the journal ‘The Seventeenth Century’, Avidon’s article publishes eight images from the collection for the first time.

 

 

Image
Inside the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Credit: Douglas Atfield
Inside the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Credit: Douglas Atfield
 
Marlo Avidon
PhD Candidate in History:
“Pepys stopped writing his diary just as his career was taking off. It’s really challenging to access Pepys' later life. These prints provide a unique opportunity to consider his attitudes to fashion in this period.”