Clothing & Accessories

Work, play, fashion, economic class, religious faith, even politics—all these aspects of American life and more are woven into clothing. The Museum cares for one of the nation's foremost collections of men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories—from wedding gowns and military uniforms to Halloween costumes and bathing suits.

The collections include work uniforms, academic gowns, clothing of presidents and first ladies, T-shirts bearing protest slogans, and a clean-room "bunny suit" from a manufacturer of computer microchips. Beyond garments, the collections encompass jewelry, handbags, hair dryers, dress forms, hatboxes, suitcases, salesmen's samples, and thousands of fashion prints, photographs, and original illustrations. The more than 30,000 artifacts here represent the changing appearance of Americans from the 1700s to the present day.

This English watch was a part of a technical fix applied to U.S.
Description
This English watch was a part of a technical fix applied to U.S. railroads following accidents in the middle of the 19th century.
Back then timetables governed train arrivals and departures, established train priorities, and ensured that trains did not collide on single-track lines. Clocks in railroad stations and watches held by conductors and engineers helped to enforce the timetables.
But in the middle of the 19th century, timepieces in use on the railroads varied wildly in quality and availability to employees of the line. There was no single standard of quality for railroad timekeepers. After a horrific fatal accident on the Providence & Worcester Railroad in August 1853, caused in part by the inaccuracy of a conductor's watch, some railroads in New England responded to public criticism of their industry by tightening up running rules and ordering top-quality clocks and watches for their employees.
This is one such high-quality railroad watch.
An official representing the Vermont Central Railroad and three other New England lines, William Raymond Lee, ordered watches and clocks in late 1853 from William Bond & Sons, Boston, the American agent for Barraud & Lund of London. The English firm delivered the first of the timepieces in January 1855. The Vermont Central purchased fifteen watches for $150 each and one clock for $300.
Barraud & Lund, founded in 1750 by Huguenot watchmaker Francis-Gabriel Barraud, had a long-standing reputation for high-quality timepieces, including marine chronometers, clocks and watches. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the firm had extensive foreign markets and added John Richard Lund, a chronometer maker, to their business.
William Bond & Son, the firm named on the watch's dust cap, was one of the principal timepiece purveyors of nineteenth-century America. Intimately connected to navigation and commercial shipping, the firm rated and repaired marine chronometers for the busy port of Boston and supplied instruments of all sorts to agencies of the federal government-specifically, the coast survey, the topographical engineers, and the navy. The firm, whose original business provided time for navigating at sea, branched out with the railroad business to perform the same service on land.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1853
maker
Barraud & Lund
ID Number
1999.0278.01
catalog number
1999.0278.01
accession number
1999.0278
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (William Bradford Reed). Facsimile of sitter's signature is below the image.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (William Bradford Reed). Facsimile of sitter's signature is below the image.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1855
depicted
Reed, William Bradford
maker
Wagner & McGuigan
Traubel, Morris H.
ID Number
DL.60.3128
catalog number
60.3128
accession number
228146
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T.
Description
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T. Gratacap, a New York City luggage maker by trade, is often credited as the developer of this style of fire helmet. Gratacap created a specially treated leather helmet with a segmented “comb” design that led to unparalleled durability and strength. The elongated rear brim (also known as a duckbill or beavertail) and frontpiece were 19th century innovations that remain the most identifiable feature of firefighter’s helmets. The body of the helmet was primarily designed to deflect falling debris, the rear brim prevented water from running down firefighters’ backs, and their sturdy crowns could aid, if necessary, in breaking windows.
This white leather helmet was made by Henry T. Gratacap of New York, New York around 1850. The helmet has eight combs and a metal frontpiece holder in the shape of a greyhound. A red felt sweatband with maker’s label is inside the crown. The helmet has an embossed floral design around the brim, and the date “1811” is painted in gold on the rear brim. The owner’s initials, “W.I.N.,” are painted in red on the rear brim’s underside.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1850
maker
Gratacap, Henry T.
ID Number
2005.0233.0174
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.0174
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T.
Description
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T. Gratacap, a New York City luggage maker by trade, is often credited as the developer of this style of fire helmet. Gratacap created a specially treated leather helmet with a segmented “comb” design that led to unparalleled durability and strength. The elongated rear brim (also known as a duckbill or beavertail) and frontpiece were 19th century innovations that remain the most identifiable feature of firefighter’s helmets. The body of the helmet was primarily designed to deflect falling debris, the rear brim prevented water from running down firefighters’ backs, and their sturdy crowns could aid, if necessary, in breaking windows.
This leather helmet was manufactured around 1858. The black leather hat has 32 combs and stamped ivy-vine scrollwork around the rim. The back brim of the helmet has a metal frontpiece insert that bears the inscription “Presented to J.H. Bryant, Clerk of Washington Engine No. 5 Charleston by John Wildly Fireman of Oceanus No. 11 of New York, July 4 1858.” The helmet has a metal lion frontpiece-holder mounted on the crown, with a frontpiece of black and red painted leather. The frontpiece reads “Washington/1” with a crossed hook and ladder behind the “1” in the center of the frontpiece. Not much is known about Washington Engine No. 5, but Oceanus No. 11 consisted of mechanics and operated from Franklin Square in New York. Oceanus No. 11 was renowned for its friendly competitions with rival companies in bouts of engine racing and pumping exhibitions.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1858
maker
unknown
ID Number
2005.0233.0196
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.0196
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T.
Description
The traditional American leather firefighter’s helmet with its distinctive long rear brim, frontpiece, and crest adornment was first developed around 1821-1836 in New York City. Henry T. Gratacap, a New York City luggage maker by trade, is often credited as the developer of this style of fire helmet. Gratacap created a specially treated leather helmet with a segmented “comb” design that led to unparalleled durability and strength. The elongated rear brim (also known as a duckbill or beavertail) and frontpiece were 19th century innovations that remain the most identifiable feature of firefighter’s helmets. The body of the helmet was primarily designed to deflect falling debris, the rear brim prevented water from running down firefighters’ backs, and their sturdy crowns could aid, if necessary, in breaking windows.
This black leather fire helmet dates to the mid-19th century. The helmet has eight combs, an embossed ivy-vine design around the brim, and a metal eagle frontpiece holder mounted to the crown of the helmet. The grey frontpiece reads “STOCKTON/2/WMH.’
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
maker
unknown
ID Number
2005.0233.0192
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.0192
The first firm to mass-produce watches by machine was the American Watch Company of Massachusetts. Oliver B.
Description
The first firm to mass-produce watches by machine was the American Watch Company of Massachusetts. Oliver B. Marsh, one of the firm's earliest watchmakers, designed and made this watch as a prototype.
The appetite for watches in the United States in the early part of the 19th century was huge; about $46 million worth were imported between 1825 and 1858, especially from England Switzerland. To tap into this market, a few Americans attempted to develop watches domestically, but probably no more than two thousand watches were made in the United States before the 1850s.
In that decade, watchmakers at what would become the American Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, developed the world's first machine-made watches. They completely redesigned the watch so that its movement could be assembled from interchangeable parts made on specialized machines they invented just for that purpose. They also developed a highly organized factory-based work system to speed production and cut costs.
The firm was launched in 1849 in a corner of the Howard & Davis clock factory in Roxbury, near Boston, where Edward Howard and Aaron Dennison experimented with completely new designs for watches and the machines to make them. With expert help from a cadre of experienced mechanicians and funding from Howard's father-in-law, the Boston mirror maker Samuel Curtis, the enterprise got under way.
Dennison had absorbed techniques for the mass production of firearms with interchangeable parts during a visit at the Springfield Armory. The primary measures the new firm adopted from arms making were a tight organization, a critically important machine shop, and a manufacturing system that relied on models. Waltham designers made a model watch and a master set of gauges to fit it, and every watch part made thereafter was measured against the corresponding model part.
In its first decade, the firm's work was largely experimental, but by late in 1852, Howard and Dennison finally had products-seventeen watches, made mostly by hand by brothers Oliver and David Marsh. One of these prototypes, a watch made by Oliver Marsh, survives in the collections of the museum.
O. B. Marsh's watch was large compared to other pocket watches of the time. The white- enamel dial indicated minutes around the rim and featured four smaller dials indicating hours (at 6:00) seconds (at 12:00), days of the week (at 9:00) and date (at 3:00).
The design of these first watches, eight-day movements with two mainsprings, gave way to a simpler one, a watch that ran on one mainspring for a little more than a day. Although superficially similar to English watches of the time, the new American watch featured a mainspring in a "going barrel." This meant a watch without the traditional fusee and chain to equalize the force of the unwinding spring. This was a watch with fewer parts to make.
The next hundred Waltham watches, built on the new model, took until the fall of 1853. The third batch of nine hundred sold for just $40 each, cased. An imported movement of the same quality cost twice as much.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1849-1851
Date made
ca 1852
manufacturer
Waltham Watch Company
maker
American Waltham Watch Co.
Oliver B. Marsh
Oliver B. Marsh, for American Watch Co.
ID Number
ME.334625
accession number
310796
catalog number
334625
According to the family, it is most likely that this dress belonged to Adeline Barr Miller. Adeline was one of four daughters of Oliver Barr and Melinda Griffin.
Description
According to the family, it is most likely that this dress belonged to Adeline Barr Miller. Adeline was one of four daughters of Oliver Barr and Melinda Griffin. While the parents spent their early years in Pennsylvania, by the 1840s they were living in Aurora, Illinois, where all four daughters were married. The Reverend Oliver Barr was a leading minister in the Christian Church and an early supporter of the founding of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was killed in a train accident five months before the college opened.
This dress is particularly interesting in its use of the stripes in the fabric to emphasize the long-waisted silhouette fashionable in the period. Because differing fabrics were used for reinforcement and facings (perhaps scraps remaining from other projects), the dress was probably made at home by a member of the family. The seamstress who made the dress was semi-skilled. She knew how to cut the fabric using the design to emphasize the fashionable silhouette. However, the way the fan is controlled at the shoulders is not particularly well done, and the piping at the neck is not done in a standard manner. It may be that someone who was more skilled cut the fabric and someone less skilled sewed the garment.
This one-piece dress is constructed from printed cotton in a floral pattern with stripes of red flowers and brown leaves on a cream ground alternating with red flowers in the center of brown leaves outlined in cream on a brown ground. There is a slightly dropped round neckline in the front and a round neckline in the back of the bodice with bias piping at the neckline. A fan front in the bodice is created using stripes in the fabric vertically with pleats radiating out and releasing near the shoulders and then gathering into the side back shoulder seams. The side front bodice pieces are cut with stripes on the horizontal. The bodice forms a slight “V” waist in front and is straight in the back with piping in the waistline seam. The back of the bodice has one piece on either side of the center back with a center back opening that overlaps slightly to cover a thirteen hook-and-eye closure extending from the neck to the waist. The inside of the opening is reinforced under the hooks-and-eyes with an applied band of cream colored cotton printed in blue and brown. Long, narrow sleeves open at the inside seam at the wrist opening. The skirt section is narrowly pleated to the bodice, and the skirt hem is faced with dark blue cotton with a small white geometric print. The bodice is lined with natural colored cotton.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1842-1850
user
Miller, Adeline Barr
maker
unknown
ID Number
CS.321800.001
catalog number
321800.001
accession number
321800
The frontpiece (also known as shield or badge) of firefighting helmets has been a distinctive part of the American firefighter’s helmet since it was developed by Henry Gratacap in the early 19th century. These frontpieces displayed a variety of information.
Description (Brief)
The frontpiece (also known as shield or badge) of firefighting helmets has been a distinctive part of the American firefighter’s helmet since it was developed by Henry Gratacap in the early 19th century. These frontpieces displayed a variety of information. The fire company's name and number appeared, often alongside the city or town where it was based. The frontpiece could also include the owner's initials and rank. Most fire helmets had leather frontpieces, but frontpieces could also be made of metal, especially on presentation helmets or those worn in parades.
This black leather frontpiece dates to the second half of the 19th century. It has raised golden leather lettering that reads “YANKEE/5/WORCHESTER.” The faded painted gold word “EX” can be seen above the number “5.” Yankee Engine Company No. 5 operated in Worchester, Massachusetts.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1854
maker
unknown
ID Number
2005.0233.1454
accession number
2005.0233
catalog number
2005.0233.1454
This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England.
Description
This 1850 print offers a defense of slavery in America by satirically comparing it with a perceived system of “wage slavery” in England. In the top panel, two Northern men and two Southern men look upon a group of seemingly content slaves who are shown dancing, playing music, and smiling. The Northerners are surprised at this scene, amazed to find that popular assumptions at home about slavery were unfounded. The Southerners hope that the Northerners will return home with a new perspective on slavery, but demonstrate their readiness to fight for their rights if necessary. The lower panel shows a gathering of people outside of a cloth factory in England. On the side of the factory, a sign reads, “Sale / A Wife to be Sold.” On the left, a young farmer talks to his childhood friend, who appears as an old man. The older figure explains that life in a British factory producing cloth ages one more quickly, and that the workers die of old age at 40. To their right, a mother looks down upon her three children, lamenting “What wretched slaves, this factory life makes me & my children. Continuing right, two factory workers contemplate running away to the coal mines, where they would only work for 14 hours instead of their current 17. On the far right, two rotund men, a priest and a tax collector, approach the workers with books labeled “Tythes” and “Taxes.” In the right corner, a man thanks God that he will soon die and be free of his “factory slavery.” Below the panels is included a portrait of the bust of George Thompson, a Scottish abolitionist. An accompanying quote from Thompson reads, “I am proud to boast that Slavery does not breathe in England,” although the creators of this print would argue otherwise. It was printed by British born John Haven ( born ca 1817), who was active in New York City at 3 Broad Street 1846-1848. He then moved to 86 State Street, Boston where he was active 1848-1850. He is known for designing maps as well as for prints on Manifest Destiny and prints with political commentary.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850
depicted
Thompson, George
maker
Haven, Joshua P.
ID Number
DL.60.3490
catalog number
60.3490
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater w
Description (Brief)
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class, and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This is a black and white print; full length of three children. The girl and boy are on either side of a baby that is seated on a stool or outdoor cushioned bench. All three children are in fancy dress.
The print was produced by Sarony & Major. Napoleon Sarony and his partner Henry B. Major were former employees of Nathaniel Currier prior to establishing their firm in New York City in 1846.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1850
maker
Sarony & Major
ID Number
DL.60.2225
catalog number
60.2225
accession number
228146
Black and white print of forty-two bust portraits; each is in an oval frame containing the person's name.
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of forty-two bust portraits; each is in an oval frame containing the person's name. The portraits are arranged in two concentric ovals around a title and a small scene of Boston across the Charles River with the state capitol building in the background.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1856
lithographer
Homer, Winslow
artist
Bufford, John Henry
publisher
Usher, James M.
ID Number
DL.60.2583
catalog number
60.2583
accession number
228146
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater w
Description
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This colored print is of a little girl seated on the floor with a high silk hat placed between her legs. She is pouring water from a cup into the hat and is stirring it with a parasol. A piece of lace hangs over the side of the hat. She is surrounded by a pitcher containing a doll turned upside down, a folded fan with a tassel, a spoon, a dish, and an ink well which is on its side spilling ink onto a piece of paper with an envelope.
This print was published by Currier & Ives and Louis Maurer. Louis Maurer (1832-1932) was born in Biebrich, Germany, the oldest of five children. Maurer had a multitude of talents including expert knowledge of conchology, an accomplished flutist, expert marksmen, a skillful painter and a talented lithographer. In 1851 his family moved from Germany to the United States. Maurer first worked for T.W. Strong and shortly after was hired by Nathaniel Currier of Currier & Ives. He worked exclusively for Currier & Ives from 1852 – 1860, before he went to work for Major & Knapp, the successor of Sarony & Major. He continued to work for Currier & Ives by commission but in 1872 he started his own partnership with F. Heppenheimer, Maurer & Heppenheimer. This company specialized in labels, show cards and letterheads. He retired in 1884 and died at the age of one hundred.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1857
maker
Currier & Ives
Maurer, Louis
ID Number
DL.60.2393
catalog number
60.2393
accession number
228146
Black and white print of two boys, Henry Luke Rowland (standing) and Lewis Smith Davis (kneeling) in a forest clearing. One boy holds up a rabbit while the other resets a home-made wooden trap.
Description (Brief)
Black and white print of two boys, Henry Luke Rowland (standing) and Lewis Smith Davis (kneeling) in a forest clearing. One boy holds up a rabbit while the other resets a home-made wooden trap. Their clothes, though upper class in origin, are torn and patched and include high boots, a fur cap, vest, and fitted coat.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1854
depicted
Rowland, Henry Luke
Davis, Luke Smith
maker
Goupil and Company
artist
Mount, William Sidney
ID Number
DL.60.2438
catalog number
60.2438
accession number
228146
This hand-colored print depictsthe first of the eight scenes based on George Cruikshank's The Bottle. The series shows the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. The print is an interior scene of a man, a woman, and three children.
Description
This hand-colored print depictsthe first of the eight scenes based on George Cruikshank's The Bottle. The series shows the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. The print is an interior scene of a man, a woman, and three children. The man and woman are seated at a table where he's pouring a drink for her. They are surrounded by comfortable middle-class furnishings that include a fireplace with stove insert, pictures on the wall, and a tall case clock. A cat and a kitten play by the fire near the two younger children.
This print is by the English artist George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Cruikshank’s father, Isaac Cruikshank, was an artist who specialized in song sheets and caricatures and trained George and his brother Robert Cruikshank in these arts. George started as a caricaturist for magazines and children’s books. His most famous works included The Bottle and The Drunkard’s Children, designed and etched by Cruikshank to show the wickedness of alcohol. Cruikshank's father and brother were both alcoholics and he himself drank heavily until he took a vow of abstinence in 1847. The prints were originally published by David Bogue, who published most of Cruikshank’s works in the 1850s. David Bogue (1807–1856) was born in Scotland and moved to London in 1836. Bogue began working in Charles Tilt's bookshop as a publisher and bookseller in 1836 and became Tilt's partner in 1840. Bogue bought the shop in 1843. He was the principle publisher of Cruikshank’s short-lived periodicals, brief illustrated stories, and the Comic Almanack1835-53. David Bogue published The Bottle series in 1847. Bogue suffered from heart disease and died in 1856 at the age of 48.
This print was produced by lithographer Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881). He was the youngest of the four Kellogg brothers, all of whom were lithographers. The brothers were born in Tolland, Connecticut, a small town located near where the family business was established in Hartford. E.C. Kellogg was the only brother among the Kelloggs to receive his professional training in Hartford. In 1840, Elijah Chapman Kellogg, along with his brother Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872), took over the D.W. Kellogg & Co. after Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874), its founder, moved west. Elijah and Edmund Kellogg were responsible for most of the company’s future partnerships. Elijah Chapman Kellogg retired in 1867.
Harry T. Peters appears to have only acquired this one Kellogg version of the series.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1854
distributor
Thayer, Horace
maker
Kellogg, Elijah Chapman
Maker
unknown
original artist
Cruikshank, George
ID Number
DL.60.2951
catalog number
60.2951
accession number
228146
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1850
maker
Sarony, Napoleon
ID Number
DL.60.2525
catalog number
60.2525
accession number
228146
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book.
Description
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action.
Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith. While riding aboard a Mississippi riverboat on his journey to be sold downriver, Tom would occupy his time sitting among cotton bales and reading from his Bible. After he introduces himself to the saintly Eva, the young girl decides to ask her father to buy Tom. This print, illustrating a scene from Chapter 14 of the novel, depicts the pair’s first meeting. Tom has one hand placed on his Bible, while his other, enchained by a manacle, motions towards Eva. With his confident pose and flowing robes, Tom looks more like a classical philosopher than a slave learning to read. Eva, reclining on a bale of cotton, appear almost doll-like. After Tom rescues Eva from her fall overboard into the waters of the Mississippi, her father agrees to buy him.
Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was published around 1853 as the second in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, Godey’s Lady’s Book. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally serialized in the National Era, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1853
originator of scene
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
maker
Strong, Thomas W.
ID Number
DL.60.2374
catalog number
60.2374
accession number
228146
This black and white lithograph is a 3/4 length portrait of Jenny Lind wearing a formal gown with a lace shawl and holding a handkerchief in her lap. Her signature serves as the title. This print is modeled after a well-known daguerreotype by M. A. and S.
Description
This black and white lithograph is a 3/4 length portrait of Jenny Lind wearing a formal gown with a lace shawl and holding a handkerchief in her lap. Her signature serves as the title. This print is modeled after a well-known daguerreotype by M. A. and S. Root and is on thin, white paper which has been pasted to heavier cream-colored paper.
Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was an opera singer often described as “The Swedish Nightingale” for the range, purity, and melodiousness of her soprano voice. Born Johanna Maria Lind in Stockholm, Lind trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, began performing in her teens, and was soon creating a sensation on tours throughout Europe. When she made her London debut in 1847, frenzied theatergoers set off a stampede as they entered the theater. Queen Victoria was among those who attended that opening night performance. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen is said to have fallen in love with Lind and to have written fairy tales with her in mind, including “The Nightingale.” She also won the admiration of composers like Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, and Felix Mendelssohn, who became a close friend. In addition to Lind’s vocal gifts, she was greatly admired as a model of piety, simplicity, and generosity. In 1849, although only 29 years old, she announced her retirement from opera and turned to performing Romantic and Swedish folk songs. She resumed her operatic career in 1850, when she launched an American tour under the management of the showman P. T. Barnum. He promoted her arrival with such fanfare that she was greeted by a crowd numbering in the thousands when she sailed into New York’s harbor. She traveled across the United States and to Cuba and Canada in the year that followed, often donating her profits to the endowment of free schools in Sweden and other charitable causes. Lind and Barnum ended their partnership in 1851, but she continued to tour on her own for another year.
In 1852, Jenny Lind married her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt, and continued to appear in occasional European concerts as Jenny Lind Goldschmidt. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 67. Although critics have debated whether her talent measured up to her reputation, her legendary popularity lives on in memorials and monuments around the world. She has inspired books, films, and a series of Swedish banknotes, while schools, streets, parks, hospitals, pies, clothing, and cigars all carry her name. Even a clipper ship, the USS Nightingale, and the Gold Rush town of Jenny Lind, California have been named in her honor.
This lithograph was produced by Nagel & Weingaertner and C. G. Crehen. Louis Nagel was born in Germany ca. 1817 and began working in New York as early as 1844. There he was involved in two partnerships, Nagel & Mayer (1846) and Nagel & Weingaertner (1849-1856). In 1857, he moved to San Francisco. Charles G. Crehen (1829-ca 1891) was a portrait painter, lithographer, and printer in New York.
Marcus Aurelius Root (1808-1888) was a photographer and daguerreotypist born in Granville, Ohio. He studied painting and penmanship before turning to daguerreotyping and became one of the early practitioners of the new art. He worked in Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then in 1849 established a gallery in New York with his brother Samuel. The Root brothers were the first to produce daguerreotypes of Jenny Lind. After being disabled in a train accident, Marcus Root devoted himself to writing about photographic history and aesthetics. His book The Camera and The Pencil: Or the Heliographic Art, published in 1864, argued that photographers should be as highly esteemed as artists, and that much more was involved in photography than simply operating a camera. In recognition of his pioneering achievements, Root's daguerreotypes of famous people were included in an exhibition at the 1876 American centennial celebration in Philadelphia.
Samuel Root (ca. 1819-1889) was a daguerreotypist born in Granville, Ohio. He learned the art of daguerreotyping from his brother Marcus and the two opened a gallery in New York in 1849. Samuel Root later moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he opened another daguerreotype business. He also published photographic books on Dubuque residences and businesses.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850
copyright holder; publisher
Schaus, William
depicted
Lind, Jenny
maker
Nagel & Weingaertner
Crehen, C.G.
original artist
M.A. & S. Root
maker
Crehen, C.G.
ID Number
DL.60.3066
catalog number
60.3066
accession number
228146
Color print, two horizontal panels depicting twenty one figures: twelve men, two women, and six children in fashions from 1852-53.
Description (Brief)
Color print, two horizontal panels depicting twenty one figures: twelve men, two women, and six children in fashions from 1852-53. The upper panel depicts an outdoor scene with a park overlooking a town in the background; the bottom panel depicts an outdoor scene with a lake in the background. Numbers below the figures are keyed to a separately printed descriptive text.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1852
maker
Sinclair, Thomas
ID Number
DL.60.3072
catalog number
60.3072
accession number
228146
Colored print celebrating the laying of the Transatlantic cable on September 1, 1858.
Description (Brief)
Colored print celebrating the laying of the Transatlantic cable on September 1, 1858. Depicts torchlight procession spanning the continents in the central image, with portrait vingettes of Cyrus Field, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Morse, and Captain Hudson in each of the four corners.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1858
depicted
Franklin, Benjamin
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
Field, Cyrus W.
maker
Weingartner, Adam
ID Number
DL.60.2490
catalog number
60.2490
accession number
228146
This colored print shows a couple in various stages of a relationship. The figures are depicted on ascending steps, from "Quizzing" on the lower left to the top center, titled "The Marriage", and then descending to the last step at bottom right, titled "The Divorce".
Description
This colored print shows a couple in various stages of a relationship. The figures are depicted on ascending steps, from "Quizzing" on the lower left to the top center, titled "The Marriage", and then descending to the last step at bottom right, titled "The Divorce". Allegorical vignettes below the figures also depict each stage. In the center are verses that corresponded with each scene. This comic print presents an image similar to the popular ladders or stairs of life prints which first appeared in the 16th Century but were popular as 19th Century prints.
This print was produced by the lithography company, E. C. Kellogg and Company. The company was a continuation of the Kellogg family firm. In 1851, after the brief partnership of Kellogg & Comstock disbanded, E.C. Kellogg continued running the business under the name E.C. Kellogg & Co. His brother, E.B. Kellogg, rejoined the firm in 1855, and it became known as E.B. & E.C. Kellogg and Company.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1852
distributor
Horace Thayer & Company
maker
E.C. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2934
catalog number
60.2934
accession number
228146
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater w
Description
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This three-quarter length hand colored print is of young woman apparently floating in space. She holds a red shawl in both hands, which is billowing behind and above her head. She is wearing a simple long sleeved green dress and above her head is a glowing six-pointed star.
This lithograph was published by the D.W. Kellogg & Co and Willis Thrall (1800-1884). Willis Thrall was born in Connecticut and died in Hartford, Ct. He was a publisher of maps, prints and engravings. He published many early D.W. Kellogg lithographs in Hartford in the 1830’s. He left the publishing business to become a rule and hardware manufacturer and owned a hardware manufacturing firm with his son, Edward B. Thrall, called Willis Thrall & Sons.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1833-1852
publisher
Thrall, Willis
lithographer
D.W. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2316
catalog number
60.2316
accession number
228146
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater w
Description
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This hand colored print is an interior scene of four children with an adult dog and four puppies. One child is seated in an ornate chair; the others are gathered around the chair and footstool. The furnishings depicted include an elaborate carpet, a floral arrangement and rich drapery. A ball, doll and book are in the foreground. The children wear fancy dress.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. Edmund Burke Kellogg and Elijah Chapman Kellogg were brothers of the founder of the Kellogg lithography firm, Daniel Wright Kellogg. After D.W. Kellogg moved west, his two brothers took over the family lithography firm in 1840 and changed the name to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. The youngest of the four Kellogg brothers, these two were responsible for the continued success of the family firm. These two brothers were also involved in the eventual partnerships between the company and Horace Thayer in 1845 or 1846, John Chenevard Comstock in 1848 and William Henry Bulkeley in 1867.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1852-1856
maker
E.B. and E.C. Kellogg
ID Number
DL.60.2247
catalog number
60.2247
accession number
228146
Colored print of two men dressed in sporting attire and standing in a wooded glen, confering across a fence about the news in the New York "Herald." One man holds a pitchfork, the other has a rifle that is leaning against the fence and a dead bird that is lying on the ground next
Description (Brief)
Colored print of two men dressed in sporting attire and standing in a wooded glen, confering across a fence about the news in the New York "Herald." One man holds a pitchfork, the other has a rifle that is leaning against the fence and a dead bird that is lying on the ground next to the rifle.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1854
publisher
Knoedler, M.
lithographer
Thielley
artist
Mount, William Sidney
ID Number
DL.60.2437
catalog number
60.2437
accession number
228146
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater w
Description
Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This hand colored print is an interior scene of a family of five seated in the parlor. The father is seated on an ornate red upolstered sofa, his young son leaning against his knee holding a ball or piece of fruit, perhaps an apple. An infant sits in the mother's lap, while the eldest child, a daughter stands alongside the mother, entertaining the baby with her doll. The mother is seated in an upholstered red chair. Heavy drapes, a partial view of a landscape picture in a fancy frame, a patterned rug and foot pillow on floor complete this domestic scene. The couple gaze at each other and compositionally depict a balanced and equal family unit. This is one of several prints with the same title, depicting a contented family. These happy family scenes were meant to contrast with the restless, discontented bachelor prints.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm of Kelloggs & Comstock. In 1848, John Chenevard Comstock developed a partnership with E.B. and E.C. Kellogg. In 1850, Edmund Burke Kellogg left the firm, leaving his brother Elijah Chapman Kellogg and J.C. Comstock to run the lithography firm as Kellogg and Comstock. The short-lived partnership disbanded in 1851. It was not until 1855 that Edmund Burke Kellogg rejoined his brother E.C. Kellogg and continued the success of the family’s Lithography firm.
date made
1850
distributors
Ensign, Thayer and Company
maker
Kelloggs & Comstock
ID Number
DL.60.2261
catalog number
60.2261
accession number
228146
maker number
266

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