Elizabeth L. Block

Elizabeth L. Block, an art and culture historian, is a Senior Editor in the Publications and Editorial Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

She writes the popular Gilded Age Fashion newsletter and Instagram account @elizabethlblock.

Dr. Block earned her PhD in art history at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, with a focus on 19th-century American painting. She also holds an MA in American Studies from Columbia University, and a BA in English from The George Washington University.

Gilded Age Fashion: 50 Iconic Looks and the Stories Behind Them (Hardie Grant, 2026) is available now.

Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing (MIT Press, 2024) is the winner of the Costume Society of America’s 2025 Millia Davenport Publication Award. The book has been featured in Forbes, Hyperallergic, Daily Art Magazine, Town & Country, The New York Post, and more.

Her book Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion (MIT Press, 2021), won the Victorian Society in America book award 2022, and was shortlisted for the Association of Dress Historians 2022 Book of the Year. The book was reviewed widely in academic journals in the fields of fashion history, American history, art history, and business history.

She provides interviews to BBC, WWD, The Guardian, and multiple podcasts, including Dressed: The History of Fashion and The Gilded Gentleman. She speaks widely at venues such as the National Arts Club and The New York Historical.

Her articles appear in Town & Country digital, Slate, The Magazine Antiques, American Art, and Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.

She has received fellowships at the American Antiquarian Society, Winterthur Museum and Gardens, and for the Attingham Summer School.