At the other end of the spectrum are the Chinese lotus shoes, where the “ideal” length is about three inches.

“The fascination of smallness in feet is worldwide,” Gerardi says, “but nowhere so much as in China.”

But she says that five to five-and-a-half inches was more common, and that many tactics were used to make the foot appear smaller. The tiniest shoes may even have been just for show.

Despite its small size, the exhibit has garnered a great deal of attention.

“There’s something in our makeup that makes us need to ornament our clothes and ourselves,” Gerardi says. “And I think people are attracted to the topic of shoes especially.”

She says she hopes that one result will be a closer study of the cross-cultural characteristics of footwear.

“There are masses of work that can be done,” she says.

When asked how the exhibit came about, Gerardi says with a laugh, “It’s all Harvard Magazine’s fault.”

Three years ago, the magazine published a feature on the University’s connection to the shoe industry, according to Gerardi.

The editors requested photographs of interesting shoes to accompany the article, and the Peabody Museum scoured its collection.

“Everybody sat there looking at that table full of shoes and thought, ‘This would make a great exhibit,’” Gerardi says.