Some of the earliest photographs taken in Wales in the 1850s were of women in borrowed Welsh costume. Within a decade, commercial photographers began to produce sets of photographs of older women in their own best costumes or of younger women in borrowed costumes. By the 1880s a few women wore traditional Welsh costume for cartes de visite portraits which they distributed to family and friends. Welsh and English photographers, including John Thomas of Liverpool and Llangollen and John Turnor Mathias of Cardigan, produced staged costume photographs for sale to collectors.

This exhibition took place at the National Library of Wales between 21 June and 4 October 2008.