Sharing the Stories

During the pandemic, I began research armed with my curiosity about the city’s corset industry in a room full of city directories at the library of what was then known as the Worcester Historical Museum (now Museum of Worcester). I started by looking for clues about a local female factory owner I had heard about. Digging for information about her life led me to discover the city’s dozens of other factories and sole proprietors in the corset industry. They deserved limelight, I thought. So I wrote a few profiles and created a website.

“This,” people started telling me, “should be a book.”

tHE book TOUR

April 5, 2027 – evening – time tbd

Millbury Women’s Club at the Asa Waters Mansion

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March 6, 2027 at 11am

Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter NSDAR, Worcester, MA  (private event)

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January 10, 2027 at 3pm

Linden Place, Bristol RI

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December 12 at 2pm 

Robbins Library, Arlington MA

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October 27, 2026 at 6:30pm

Beaman Memorial Library, West Boylston MA

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October 21, 2026 at 6:30pm

Worcester Public Library, Worcester MA

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October 17 at 2pm

Barnes & Noble, Natick MA

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October 4 at 2pm

Mendon Historical Society, Mendon MA

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September 19, 2026 at 1pm

A Great Notion, Auburn MA

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September 2, 2026 at 7pm

Milford Town Library, Milford MA

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August 26, 2026 The Culture Show on WGBH (interview with Jared Bowen)

August 12, 2026 at 7pm

TidePool Bookshop, with Phyllis Wong, author of We Kept Our Towns Going

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May 16, 2026 at 2pm

The Official Book Launch event at the Museum of Worcester, Worcester, MA

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October 25, 2025, 3pm

175th anniversary of the first national women’s rights convention celebration at Mechanics Hall, spoke as part of a full-day event celebrating that anniversary and signed a small batch of review copies of the book.

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May 18, 2024  2pm

Talk at the Blackstone River Valley Heritage Center | 3 Paul Clancy Way Worcester, MA, 01607 | (508) 373-7056

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March 13, 2024  7pm

Book talk at the Shrewsbury Public Library 

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October 26, 2023, 5pm

Worcester Women’s History Project and the Worcester Historical Museum announced their new partnership at an event at the museum where Anne Marie read from several chapters of the book, shared images, answered questions.

https://www.wwhp.org/node/1628

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October 18, 2023 6:30pm

Book talk at the Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton, Massachusetts
https://bigelowlibrary.org/

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September 29 , 2023 2pm

Book talk sponsored by the Langley-Adams Library in Groveland, Massachusetts held at Nichols Village auditorium
https://langleyadamslib.org/  |  http://www.nichols-village.com/

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April 28, 2023

Worcester Historical Museum newsletter April 2028 feature on National Tell a Story Day
“Read the recent story of one researcher, Anne Marie Murphy, and her efforts to tell the story of Worcester’s extensive corset industry. Read more in ‘Form, fit, and fortunes: Researcher unravels story of Worcester’s corset industry,’ in the current issue of Worcester MAGAZINE.”

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April 19, 2023

“Form, fit, and fortunes: Researcher unravels story of Worcester’s corset industry”
Project featured in Worcester Magazine
https://www.worcestermag.com/

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March 17, 2023
Interview with the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project, will appear at their website later this year.
https://www.wwohp.org

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March 13, 2023

Visit to Clark University’s History 120 class Writing History which “introduces students to the discipline of history, with emphasis on the different types of historical writing and on the issues involved in the research and writing of historical studies.”
https://catalog.clarku.edu

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October 26, 2022 5:30pm

TidePool Book Shop, Worcester Massachusetts.
Discussion and book signing with Phyllis Wong, author of We Kept Our Towns Going: The Gossard Girls of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Anne Marie Murphy, author of the forthcoming book City of Corsets.
https://www.tidepoolbookshop.com/event/

I am in awe of your tenacity, energy & amazing research skills. Your book is a triumph.
Chuck Arning
retired from National Park Service
It's an extraordinary history ... with amazing photographs and illustrations.
Jared Bowen
Emmy Award-winning executive arts editor at WGBH, host of The Culture Show.
Murphy’s exhaustive research feels rollicking and joyful. She tells the stories of enterprising women we would have loved to meet for drinks after work. And as a costume designer, it’s fascinating to read how many of the exact same techniques and materials are used today in theater, dance, and opera as were originally employed in nineteenth-century Worcester, Massachusetts. This book is historical yet fresh, and even a little dishy. Following these women who found their fortunes in garments that were meant to control and restrain them is a fist-pumping adventure. The reader will cheer on talented entrepreneurs while Murphy gives these ladies the last laugh.
Kathleen Doyle
costume designer, kathleendoyledesign.com
A Proper Fit uncovers the diverse experiences of the intrepid women—from young factory hands to independent entrepreneurs—whose labor and agency shaped Worcester’s thriving corset industry. By restoring the city’s forgotten female corset-makers to their proper place, Anne Marie Murphy rectifies the historical record and enriches the understanding of this contentious but once ubiquitous foundation garment.
Kristina Haugland
corset historian and former costume and textiles & curator, Philadelphia Museum of Art
So glad to see such a packed room and an engaged audience. And selling out of your books – amazing! Worcester is a fascinating city, and we owe a debt of gratitude to historians and researchers like you who keep the past alive and honor the legacy of those who built our community.
Linda Rosenlund
Worcester Women's History Project
A fascinating look at corsets and the women who made them; Murphy weaves personal stories of corset-makers with urban history—interspersed with accurate answers to frequently asked questions about corsets.
Valerie Steele
director and chief curator, The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology)
A deep dive into the history of both a garment and a city, A Proper Fit is a fascinating visit to a once-thriving industry driven and supported by thousands of women in a city of innovation, diversity, access, and opportunity. While much has been written about the history of the corset, Murphy's in-depth, years-long study brings to life personal stories in America's shift from rural farm economy to urban industry. A Proper Fit is a fascinating account of a city full of female corset makers -- from one-woman shops to large-scale factories -- at a time of world-wide fashion-driven cinching, compressing, and sculpting.
Bill Wallace
Executive Director, Museum of Worcester

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