The obvious question when pausing to look at the footwear that line Tozzer Library’s newest exhibition is, “These shoes were made for…walking?”

And the phrase is a fitting title for the exhibit.

The exhibit comprises approximately 60 pairs of shoes from around the world, culled from the Peabody Museum’s holdings of more than 500.

“The hardest part of the whole thing was deciding what to leave out,” says Pamela Gerardi, who curated the exhibit. The ones that did make the final cut span more than 200 years of shoemaking, three continents and a size range of 17 inches—providing a comprehensive visual survey of what people put on their feet.

One common thread of the exhibit is the changing relationship between stylistic form and practical function.

“At the beginning, only function influences form,” Gerardi says. “Then fashion gets ahold of it.”

And fashionable function can mean anything from producing a mincing step to keeping feet from touching steaming bathhouse floors, she says.

The first case in the exhibit examines the sensible shoe, including the oldest pair of shoes in the collection, moccasins found in a cave in Utah and made from the forelegs of an elk.

Gerardi describes them as “basically a footbag” and points out that they illustrate many of the features of early footwear: the lack of distinction between right and left, men’s and women’s, and sole and top.

Other displays are devoted to departures from the basics, which Gerardi terms “the long and short of fashion.” There are thick boots and delicate heels, pointed toes and towering platforms, each with its own fascinating origins.

Gerardi says a pair of Iranian Turkish slippers dating from about 1867 are her favorite items in the collection.

“I love the curl of the toes,” she says.

The shoes are gold, red and green, and the tip bends back almost the entire length.

At one point, curled toes became so exaggerated that legislation was passed setting limits by class. This particular pair measures 20 and a quarter inches from heel to toe.

Today, the average shoe length is about half that size.