The materials that decorate our homes and protect us from cold, light, and prying eyes reveal as well as conceal. Drapery and curtain designs tell the story of great shifts in home and work life that accompanied innovations in textile manufacturing technology and the fashion industry over the course of the nineteenth century.

"Capricious Fancy" chronicles the changes in fashionable curtain and drapery styles in the United States and Europe during the Industrial Revolution. This unique compilation contains hundreds of illustrations, most in full color, reproduced from more than one...