The author recommends Two Centuries of Costume in America, 1620-1820 , volumes 1 and 2, by Alice Morse Earle (Dover Publications, 1976), and Suiting Everyone: The Democratization of Clothing in America , by Claudia B. Kidwell and Margaret C. Christman (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1974). The latter, now out of print, is available at some libraries.