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.

Black and white print; half length portrait of a man (R. Walsh Jr.) with his head resting on his hand and his elbow resting on an open book.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; half length portrait of a man (R. Walsh Jr.) with his head resting on his hand and his elbow resting on an open book.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Sully, Thomas
Childs, Cephas Grier
ID Number
DL.60.3135
catalog number
60.3135
accession number
228146
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (Henry Inman). Facsimile of sitter's signature is below the image.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (Henry Inman). Facsimile of sitter's signature is below the image.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Inman, Henry
maker
Prevost, Victor
Nagel, Louis
original artist
Lazarus
ID Number
DL.60.3127
catalog number
60.3127
accession number
228146
Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Alois Senefelder).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Alois Senefelder).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Senefelder, Alois
maker
Waldeck, Franz
ID Number
DL.60.3124
catalog number
60.3124
accession number
228146
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (James Fenimore Cooper).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man (James Fenimore Cooper).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Cooper, James Fenimore
publisher
Peabody & Co.
Childs & Inman
maker
Pendleton's Lithography
ID Number
DL.60.3130
catalog number
60.3130
accession number
228146
Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Daniel Griffith,1803-1878, a pioneer and founder of Springport Township, Michigan)Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; oval bust portrait of a man (Daniel Griffith,1803-1878, a pioneer and founder of Springport Township, Michigan)
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Griffith, Daniel
maker
unknown
ID Number
DL.60.3137
catalog number
60.3137
accession number
228146
Black & white print; 1/2 length portrait of a man (possibly J.P. Morgan).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; 1/2 length portrait of a man (possibly J.P. Morgan).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Campbell, V. Floyd
ID Number
DL.60.3112
catalog number
60.3112
accession number
228146
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap.
Description
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap. She is wearing a large green bonnet or hood called a calash because of its resemblance to the folding top of an 18th-century carriage known as a calash.
"The Green Calash" was shown at the Smithsonian as part of a print exhibition in November 1936. Other exhibitors were Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements, Margaret Hoyt, and Lesley Jackson. Clements and Hale experimented extensively with color printmaking throughout their careers. They were especially inspired by French artist René Ligeron's 1924 treatise on color intaglio, which Hale translated into English for the Smithsonian exhibition. Clements wrote to curator R.P. Tolman that she and Hale had "been working on an interesting line of experiments in printing etchings in color" and that they had "lately gained better control of the medium, and greater simplicity."
The 1936 exhibition came near the end of Hale's and Clements's careers. By that time they had been producing prints for more than sixty years. Their work was included in the first exhibition of etchings exclusively by women at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1887. Curator Sylvester R. Koehler included more than 400 etchings by twenty-five artists in a very successful exhibition titled Women Etchers of America. In 1888 the Union League Club in New York exhibited the same works, plus about 100 more by eleven additional women. A traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of these two ground-breaking shows, American Women of the Etching Revival, was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. The NMAH lent works by Hale, Clements, and other women printmakers, and the Museum showed the exhibition in Washington in 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1925
ID Number
GA.17165
catalog number
17165
accession number
142035
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
Black and white print, half length portrait of a man (Timothy Cole) at a pulpit. He has one hand raised and another on a book, which is resting on the pulpit.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print, half length portrait of a man (Timothy Cole) at a pulpit. He has one hand raised and another on a book, which is resting on the pulpit.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Cole, Timothy
maker
Moore, Thomas
original artist
Howes, S.P.
ID Number
DL.60.3206
catalog number
60.3206
Color print of three men seated around a campfire while a fourth man tends donkeys. Rocky hill formations in the background. Plate from "U.S.P.R.R. Exp. & Surveys, 35th Parellel."Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Color print of three men seated around a campfire while a fourth man tends donkeys. Rocky hill formations in the background. Plate from "U.S.P.R.R. Exp. & Surveys, 35th Parellel."
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Sinclair, Thomas
artist
Tidball, J. C.
ID Number
DL.60.3868
catalog number
60.3868
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man in clerical garb (the Reverend Edward Sprague).Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print; bust portrait of a man in clerical garb (the Reverend Edward Sprague).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Sprague, Edward
maker
Pendleton's Lithography
original artist
Belknap, Zedekiah
ID Number
DL.60.3129
catalog number
60.3129
accession number
228146
Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation.
Description
Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation. Dramatic changes in weather patterns have the potential to affect millions of people, as do warnings issued by the National Weather Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Robert Ricks, chief NWS forecaster on duty at the Slidell, Louisiana weather station the morning of August 28, studied the computer maps of Hurricane Katrina's movement across the Gulf of Mexico. At 10:11 that morning, he quickly composed an urgent and unambiguous weather alert, what became the most accurate prediction of Katrina's impact. "A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH . . ." it began. "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS . . . PERHAPS LONGER . . . ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL . . . ALL WOOD-FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED . . . WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS . . . NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED . . . LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED . . . "
To comfort him during his forecasting assignment that day, and in the chaotic days immediately after, Ricks carried this Catholic rosary given to him by his grandmother. He later donated it to the Smithsonian as a symbol of his own perilous journey through the arms of Hurricane Katrina.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
August - September 2005
user
Ricks, Robert
referenced
National Weather Service
ID Number
2006.0220.01
accession number
2006.0220
catalog number
2006.0220.01
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 half length hand colored portrait print depicts a young woman wearing a velvet hat accented with an ostrich feather. Her dark red dress is accented with a high white collar. Around her waist is a belt with a gold buckle. She wears a long necklace around her neck and gold drop earrings.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm of D.W. Kellogg & Co. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded the company in 1830 Hartford, Connecticut. Before the opening of its first retail store in 1834, D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg established the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1833-1842
maker
D.W. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2510
catalog number
60.2510
accession number
228146
"The Red Shawl" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by May Gearhart (1872–1951). Although she created landscape prints like her sister Frances, May Gearhart also made prints of figure subjects.
Description
"The Red Shawl" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by May Gearhart (1872–1951). Although she created landscape prints like her sister Frances, May Gearhart also made prints of figure subjects. "The Red Shawl" is an image inspired by one of her trips to Mexico.
In the print, a woman shown in profile holds a small bouquet of flowers while walking along a cobblestone sidewalk next to a white building. Her layered clothing, Gearhart's skillful use of color, and the deep shadows give the impression of a cold, but sunny morning. The woman is wearing a full, plaid, violet skirt and a red shawl. Her slightly bowed head is covered by a yellow kerchief and her face is shadowed.
Gearhart achieved a watercolor effect by thinning oil-based inks. This tiny print is very loosely rendered, a characteristic of the soft ground technique. Although the process of printmaking usually involves creating a set of identical images, Gearhart often printed in small editions, using different shades of ink for each print to produce unique impressions.
The Gearhart sisters both taught school, and they worked closely with two brothers, Benjamin and Howell Brown, to establish and support printmaking organizations in California. The Gearharts and the Browns exhibited their prints at the Smithsonian in the 1920s, and they all made generous donations of their work.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
[1920]
graphic artist
Gearhart, May
ID Number
GA.13357
catalog number
13357
accession number
70154
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 half length hand colored portrait print depicts a young woman with a rose adorning her dark upswept hair. She wears a red dress with huge puffy sleeves, a gold striped shawl and gold drop earrings on her right ear.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm of D.W. Kellogg & Co. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded the company in 1830 Hartford, Connecticut. Before the opening of its first retail store in 1834, D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg established the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1833-1842
maker
D.W. Kellogg and Company
ID Number
DL.60.2509
catalog number
60.2509
accession number
228146
Colored print; landscape scene showing small town on a harbor with two steam ships on the water. Large mountain looms in right background. Several people stroll on a dirt road in right and left foreground. Palm trees at left and in foreground indicate a tropical climate.
Description (Brief)
Colored print; landscape scene showing small town on a harbor with two steam ships on the water. Large mountain looms in right background. Several people stroll on a dirt road in right and left foreground. Palm trees at left and in foreground indicate a tropical climate. Proof before letters.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
maker
Schile, Henry
ID Number
DL.60.2468
catalog number
60.2468
accession number
228146
Black and white print, bust length self-portrait of a man (Napoleon Sarony) wearing a coonskin hat.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print, bust length self-portrait of a man (Napoleon Sarony) wearing a coonskin hat.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Sarony, Napoleon
maker
Sarony, Napoleon
ID Number
DL.60.3204
catalog number
60.3204
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1825 - 1835
fashion
19th century
ID Number
CS.287645.001
catalog number
287645.001
Black & white print; three quarter portrait of minister standing in clerical garb (Thomas De Witt) with his hand on an open book on a table beside him.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black & white print; three quarter portrait of minister standing in clerical garb (Thomas De Witt) with his hand on an open book on a table beside him.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
maker
Endicott, George
original artist
Waldo and Jewett
ID Number
DL.60.3145
catalog number
60.3145
accession number
228146
Day laborers found plenty of work in New Orleans in the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
Description
Day laborers found plenty of work in New Orleans in the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Mammoth quantities of trash removal from devastated homes and businesses, clean-up, and reconstruction offered the promise of gainful employment to anyone willing and able to undertake heavy labor. The possession of technical skills was less important than pure muscle power and persistence.
Mexican immigrant Francisco Zu&ntild;eiga, wearing this heavy, tooled leather back-support belt, was waiting in a downtown gas station in December 2005 for drive-up labor needs when he was approached instead by a Smithsonian team looking for something to acknowledge this aspect of the human response to Katrina. Much has been made of the outpouring of volunteerism after the hurricane, but another form of service was the individual with an aching back willing to labor under very adverse conditions for the hope of a small wage.
Location
Currently not on view
Associated Date
2005
user
Zuniga, Francisco
ID Number
2006.0018.01
catalog number
2006.0018.01
accession number
2006.0018
For much of the nineteenth century, ladies' fashion required very small waists. The most common way to achieve this was to wear a tight laced corset, which could be adjusted according to the specific garment it accompanied.
Description
For much of the nineteenth century, ladies' fashion required very small waists. The most common way to achieve this was to wear a tight laced corset, which could be adjusted according to the specific garment it accompanied. Like this example, many of them were handmade to fit an individual, although they were also available in shops.
One of the most intimate pieces of scrimshaw a whaleman could produce was a bone or baleen busk, or corset stiffener. These were carved and given to a crewman's loved one, who then inserted it into a matching sleeve on her corset as a unique memento of her beloved's feelings.
One side of this whalebone busk contains three cityscapes, two of which have busy ports with lots of shipping. The other side has eight vertical pictures, topped by a full frontal portrait of a beautiful young woman. She may represent the recipient of this busk. Below her is a city scene with multiple church steeples over a flag in a precinct. A multi-colored circular geometric pattern is at the center, above a garden scene over a delicate basket of flowers. Next is a three-masted warship, and at the bottom is a large rural villa overlooking a walled garden. Can these pictures be woven into a story?
date made
mid-nineteenth century
mid-1800s
fashion
19th century
ID Number
DL.374478
catalog number
374478
accession number
136263
For much of the 19th century, ladies’ fashion required very small waists. The most common way to achieve this was to wear a tightly laced corset, which could be adjusted according to the specific dress it accompanied.
Description
For much of the 19th century, ladies’ fashion required very small waists. The most common way to achieve this was to wear a tightly laced corset, which could be adjusted according to the specific dress it accompanied. Like this example, many corsets were handmade to fit an individual, although they were also available in shops.
One of the most intimate pieces of scrimshaw a whaleman could produce was a bone or baleen busk, or corset stiffener. These were carved and given to a crewman’s loved one, who then inserted it into a matching sleeve on her corset as a unique memento of her beloved’s feelings.
Each of these busks has a cityscape etched into one side. The other side of one has eight pictures, topped by a portrait of a beautiful young woman. The other has a plaintive love poem on the back.
date made
mid-1800s
collected
1951-06-29
fashion
19th century
ID Number
TR.388604
catalog number
TR*388604
accession number
182022
Women and ships were the most popular subjects for scrimshaw carved by crewmen on long, slow whaling voyages.
Description
Women and ships were the most popular subjects for scrimshaw carved by crewmen on long, slow whaling voyages. In this deeply engraved example, a beautifully coiffed and fashionable young lady, possibly in mourning dress, has pulled a locket from her bodice and is gazing at the image of a smiling young man. The curls of her girlish hairstyle would indicate that she is unmarried, although the traditional ring finger of her left hand is not shown. The mid-19th-century date of this tooth is suggested by the style of the dress.
Date made
ca 1840
maker
unknown
ID Number
TR.374506
catalog number
374506
accession number
136263
This 1836 caricature of Andrew Jackson symbolizes his fight to revoke the charter of the Second National Bank. Long distrusting of banking systems and a strong advocate for specie –silver and gold, Jackson made neutralizing the National Bank a top priority of his administration.
Description (Brief)
This 1836 caricature of Andrew Jackson symbolizes his fight to revoke the charter of the Second National Bank. Long distrusting of banking systems and a strong advocate for specie –silver and gold, Jackson made neutralizing the National Bank a top priority of his administration. In this image the twenty four heads on the snake represent the twenty four state branches of the National Bank, with the largest head belonging to bank president and Jackson foe, Nicholas Biddle of Pennsylvania. Jackson’s weapon of choice to defeat the snake is a cane labeled “Veto,” symbolizing his unprecedented use of the presidential veto power. Jackson used that executive power more than any other president, and it is ultimately what afforded him the opportunity to shut down the National Bank. Aiding Jackson in his fight against the snake is Vice President Martin Van Buren depicted holding the head of political rival and former president, John Quincy Adams, and fictional character, Major Jack Downing. Created by journalist Seba Smith, the allegorical persona of Downing symbolized the common man and came to typify the New England Yankee as full of common sense.
The lithographer of this print is Henry R. Robinson (1827-1877). Robinson worked in New York, and had a store to sell his prints. In 1842, he was arrested for selling obscene pictures and books leading to the September 28, 1842 court case, People vs H. R. Robinson found in the District Attorney Indictment Papers, Municipal Archives. He was politically affiliated with the anti-Jackson Whig party which was made obvious by the wig silhouette used in 1838 as an advertising logo for his shop.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1836, March
depicted
Van Buren, Martin
Jackson, Andrew
Adams, John Quincy
originated character
Smith, Seba
depicted
Biddle, Nicholas
artist
Hoffy, Alfred M.
maker
Robinson, Henry R.
ID Number
DL.60.3333
catalog number
60.3333

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