In the Swan's Shadow/Civil War Women

"...aren't you hot in that?"

[history-of-fashion]

1860 Miklós Barabás - Portrait of Mrs Mocsáry Lajos

(Private collection)

[jewellery-box]

Ball dress

American or French

about 1858

MFA Boston

Silk plain weave (taffeta), machine net (tulle) and silk bobbin lace; trimmed with silk ribbon, embroidered silk net, and silk flowers

[theebonswan]

Silk Taffeta Three-Piece Evening Dress, ca. [late] 1860s

Tan silk taffeta evening dress with bright pink taffeta accents, box neckline, front pointed waist, and full circular skirt with detachable pink taffeta belt. Unlabeled Mary D. Doering Archive No.: DRW.133.1860ABC

Approximate Measurements:

BODICE Shoulders: 14" Chest: 33" Waist: 22.5" Length (underarm to hem): 6.5" Sleeve (center back neck to hem): 27.5"

SKIRT Waist: 22" Hips: 56" Length (side waist band to hem): 46" Belt Length: 16.5" Belt Width (waist): 22" Property of Mary D. Doering, Falls Church, Virginia

Hindman Auctions

[theebonswan]

[Cameo] Brooch, ca. 1860

MEDIUM: Shell, gold

PERIOD: Circa 1860

DIMENSIONS: 2.5 × 2 × 0.38 in. (6.4 × 5.1 × 1 cm)

CLASSIFICATIONS: Accessories, Women's

CREDIT LINE:ler, 1936

OBJECT NUMBER: 940

COLLECTIONS: Women's Costume

Monmouth County Historical Society, New Jersey

A large oval cameo brooch, depicting a kneeling child in prayer, with a tree at left. The cameo is held in a plain gold setting with a pin and open loop closure back.

Cameos have been popular since ancient Egypt and have been made of a variety of materials. During the nineteenth century, shell cameos were particularly popular for both women's and men's jewelry. The large oval cameo in the Association's collection is carved from shell, using the different colors within the shell itself for depth and contrast. A brooch of this type would have been worn at the neck of a woman's gown, offset by a decorative lace or embroidered collar.

This brooch was donated to the Historical Association by Elizabeth Casler West (1870 - 1949). A lifelong Middletown resident, Casler West was the daughter of William T. and Isabella Van de Vort Casler. At the time of the donation, Casler stated that the cameo pin had belonged to Elizabeth Conover of Monmouth County.

[theebonswan]

Benjamin Vautier (1829–1898) Portrait of the artist's wife, 1864 Deutsch: Bildnis der Frau des Künstlers Benjamin Vautier, Öl auf Leinwand, 51 x 41 cm, Standort: Museum Oskar Reinhart, Winterthur, SIK-ISEA Inventarnummer 27693 Date 1864 Source Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz Image via Wikimedia

[theebonswan]

Day dress owned by Julia Norton Hartshorne, ca. 1868.

PLACE MADE: San Francisco or New York, U.S.A. MEDIUM: Cotton gauze, silk, glazed cotton PERIOD: 1868 DIMENSIONS: 57 × 23 in. (144.8 × 58.4 cm) CLASSIFICATIONS: Costume, Women's CREDIT LINE: Gift of Mary Minturn Adams in memory of her Hartshorne Ancestors, 2018 OBJECT NUMBER: 2018.10.32 COLLECTIONS: Women's Costume

A woman's one-piece gown of open weave black cotton gauze, with a front hook and eye closure and "dog leg" waistband closure at left front waist. The gown has a high collar, slightly dropped shoulder seams, long shaped sleeves, and a skirt with gored front panels and gathered back waistband flowing into a long trained hem. The skirt is lined with plain black silk, with an additional 12" high glazed brown cotton hem facing. The gown is trimmed with striking cornsilk yellow cotton fringe along with rows of three-dimensional cylindrical woven bands, appearing to be of stiffened cornsilk yellow cotton threads. The gown also includes a separate and removable waistband sash with an attached front rosette of black gauze and cornsilk fringe and a draped rear overskirt. The gown's bodice is lined with glazed off-white and glazed brown cotton with additional boning channels enclosing whalebone stiffening.

The wardrobe of Julia Norton Hartshorne, carefully preserved and protected in the years following her untimely death at the age of thirty, provides a rare glimpse into virtually an entire wardrobe of one woman at one moment in time. It is not uncommon for special garments of one particular person to be saved over time from various special occasions. Julia's wardrobe, however, presents a slice of a moment in time in her fashion choices. This particular gown is one of the more quirky in Julia's wardrobe, almost "concept fashion" in design. The unknown dressmaker relied on bold texture contrasts, with the matte black cotton gauze, so loosely woven as to give a rough appearance. The cornsilk yellow trimming is a profound contrast and appears to be of matte cotton fibers. The second type of trimming is a woven matte fiber, possibly cotton, appearing to be woven in the round, resulting in a cylindrical "ribbon." Many dressmakers regularly traveled to France and England to purchase fabrics, ribbons, and trimmings for their customers.

Monmouth County Historical Society, New Jersey

[remainsoflilies]

A mourning brooch featuring locks of hair belonging to Cornelia Ray Hamilton, a granddaughter-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. After Cornelia's death in December of 1867, her widow was gifted this brooch from his mother.

The underside is engraved "Cornelia Ray Hamilton. /BORN DEC. 26TH..1829. DIED DEC 1ST.. 1867." A paper label adhered to the underside of the original leather case bears the handwritten inscription "Gold & pearl breastpin/ with C. Hamilton's hair - / given to me by Mother/ January 1868."

[theebonswan]

Margaret Stoutenborough Hubbard, ca. 1850-55

ARTIST: Harvey Jenkins

MEDIUM: Oil on canvas

PERIOD: ca. 1850 - 1855

DIMENSIONS: 35.5 × 28.6 in. (90.2 × 72.6 cm)

CLASSIFICATIONS: Portraits

CREDIT LINE: Gift of Franklin J. Gronde, in memory of his wife, Katherine Holmes Gronde, 1965

OBJECT NUMBER: 1983.554

COLLECTIONS: Portraits

Monmouth County Historical Society, New Jersey

Description

Three-quarter length portrait of an elderly woman with brown hair facing forward, wearing a black dress with white lace collar and a brooch, a black shawl, and a white lace day cap. She is sitting in a floral red-upholstered chair, and is holding a book in her clasped hands.

Curatorial Remarks

Harvey Jenkins first appeared in Monmouth County in 1849. He remained in the Middletown area until his death in 1908. A Civil War veteran, Jenkins was very active in the Red Bank post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Most of his portraits were painted before his military service. He supported himself later in life by teaching music. Jenkins portrays his subjects in a very honest manner, with special skill in depicting fabrics and lace. The Association’s collection includes a signed Jenkins portrait of Margaret Hubbard's husband Samuel (1983.555), as well as pastel portraits of Margaret Hubbard’s parents, and her daughter Rebecca, all three by Micah Williams.

Notes

Margaret Stoutenborough was born in Holmdel in 1794, the daughter of John Stoutenborough and Catherine Holmes. She married in 1818 to Samuel Hubbard, lived near Red Bank, and died in 1874.

[theebonswan]

Appliqué president's wreath quilt, ca. 1870

Appliqué president's wreath quilt, ca. 1870, 96'' x 96''. Liveauctioneers .  

[theebonswan]

Outdoor carousel, poss. around Champs-Élysées, Paris. ca. 1860s. via eBay.

[the-girl-from-another-time]

Watching period dramas these days like:

Her hair should be up.

THAT IS NOT A FRENCH HOOD

This is pre-19th century. Why the HELL are they wearing trousers?

Corsets DO NOT work like that.

What ... is ... that?

Back-lacing

WHERE IS HIS FREAKING CRAVAT (alternatively: Why is it tied like that? Why?)

Would it physically kill you to button that up properly?

Seriously, what is this aversion to showing off men’s legs? Cowards.

Also, codpieces? Only ugly villains get codpieces. Our sexy heroes do not get burdened with codpieces because we have to show that they are Sexy and Heroic.

Apparently we’re just going to forget about the existence of hats. And bonnets. I see how it is.

The hairstylists vaguely glanced at actual period hairstyles and went “nah, we have Creative Vision.”

I don’t care that Big Clothes Volume isn’t sexy in the 21st century. It WAS sexy in the 16th century. Give me Big Clothes Volume!!

That looks like something from either a Barbie movie or modern Haute Couture, but whatever it is, it ain’t historical.

Chemise? We don’t know her.

Skirt hiking

It is the medieval period and there are no headdresses or veils in sight. Suspicious.

Powdered wigs? On OUR aristocratic 18th century characters? Hahahahahahahahaha, no. —Hollywood

[theebonswan]

There are many, many shows I'm not allowed to watch. Historical shows...and paranormal shows.

[theebonswan]

Beilage zur Allgemeinen Musterzeitung, August 1864. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[through-a-historic-lens]

Unidentified African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters, between 1863-1865

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 36, 8 septembre 1862

Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

[history-of-fashion]

ab. 1860 Sally Paul at Lynn (photo by unknown photographer)

(Norfolk Museums Collections)

[rudjedet]

[tuulikki]

My favourite 🙄 thing about the internet is people shrieking “historians ignore/don’t want you to know [x]!!” while citing historians’ work

[theebonswan]

All day...every freakin' day.

[theebonswan]

Star of Bethlehem pieced quilt, ca. mid-19th c.

 Star of Bethlehem pieced quilt, ca. mid-19th c. The Charleston Museum (South Carolina).