Cultures & Communities - Overview
Furniture, cooking wares, clothing, works of art, and many other kinds of artifacts are part of what knit people into communities and cultures. The Museum’s collections feature artifacts from European Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, African Americans, Gypsies, Jews, and Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The objects range from ceramic face jugs made by enslaved African Americans in South Carolina to graduation robes and wedding gowns. The holdings also include artifacts associated with education, such as teaching equipment, textbooks, and two complete schoolrooms. Uniforms, insignia, and other objects represent a wide variety of civic and voluntary organizations, including youth and fraternal groups, scouting, police forces, and firefighters.
"Cultures & Communities - Overview" showing 9 items.
Woman's Dress, 1936
- Description
- Mrs. Bertrand Cohn purchased this "Delphos" dress in Paris in 1936. When she returned to New York, she wore it to the Metropolitan Opera with silver shoes and a diamond necklace. She later donated the dress to the Smithsonian.
- The designer, Mariano Fortuny, was born in Granada, Spain, in 1871 to a family of artists. After his father’s death in 1874, the Fortunys lived in Paris and Spain and eventually settled in Venice, Italy. Inspired by his surroundings and encouraged by his family, Mariano became a painter. Fortuny's artistic interest covered a range of creative endeavors, from sculpture, photography, and interior design to stage and set design and stage lighting. His interest in dyes and chemistry led him to textile and costume design, for which he is best known today.
- Influenced by Orientalism and neoclassicism, Fortuny created lush and decorative fabrics. Using a mixture of hand and screen printing to decorate the fabrics allowed him the freedom to experiment and design. His most famous design was the "Delphos," a classic pleated tea gown he began making around 1907 and continued until his death. Named after a Greek classical sculpture, the Delphos dress was a simple column of vertical pleats permanently set in silk by a process never successfully duplicated. Fortuny considered his dress concepts to be inventions, and in 1909 he patented the pleating process and the machine he invented and copy-righted the design of the dress. These dresses were meant to be stored by rolling them lengthwise, twisting them into a ball and placing them in an oval miniature hat box (we have the one that came with this dress), thus preserving the pleats and keeping the shape of the dress.
- Avant-garde American dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis wore Fortunys because of their interest in the body and movement. Originally made to be worn as teas gowns for entertaining at home, the gowns were seen outside the home by the 1930s.
- This two-piece tubular cut tea gown is constructed of a finely pleated rose-colored silk. It is full length with openings at the side seams to form armholes. The wide scoop neckline has a drawstring encased along the inside edge, and there are two rows of stitching on either side of the shoulder seams. Silk cording evenly threaded with yellow glass beads with black and red stripes is stitched along the side seams and the armhole edges. The separate belt is made of rose-colored silk painted with a silver metallic pattern of trailing oak leaves and dots.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- user
- Mrs. Bertrand W. Cohn
- designer
- Fortuny, Mariano
- ID Number
- CS*322625.002
- catalog number
- 322625.002
- accession number
- 322625
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1900 - 1910 Chinese American Woman's Blouse
- Description (Brief)
- In America, Mrs. Lee wore this tunic-length satin blouse with side buttons made from 1890 Hong Kong coins. The generously cut blouse or sam, often reaching the calf, was worn over trousers.
- Mrs. Lee wore traditional Chinese clothes when she occasionally accompanied her children to the local movie houses. According to her daughter Grace, since she did not understand English she made up her own storyline to accompany the films’ images.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1905
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.08
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.08
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1915 - 1925 Chinese American Girl's Trousers
- Description (Brief)
- One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
- Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.10
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.10
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1915 - 1925 Chinese American Girl's Vest
- Description (Brief)
- One of the Lee daughters wore this casual Chinese-style outfit on special occasions, for none of the children wore Chinese dress for every day wear. The trouser band or fu tau , translated as the “head of the trousers,” was folded over and secured with a belt or cord and covered by the vest.
- Lee B. Lok, his wife Ng Shee, and their seven children lived above the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store in New York City's Chinatown. Though the children wore Western clothes and participated in the local Scout troop and other clubs, their parents required them to attend Chinese school each day, from 4-7 PM.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.11
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.11
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Circa 1930 Women's Gown (cheong sam)
- Description
- The donor, Virginia Lee, posed in a similar cheong sam for a US World War II poster and for the "Miss China" contest in New York. Also known as a qu pao, the Chinese traditional loose dress shape was modified by Western designers in the 1920's to be more close-fitting to accentuate a woman's figure. The altered dress form became broadly popular in the United States as evening wear in the late 1950's and 1960's.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- user
- Mead, Virginia Lee
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.16
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.16
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1905 Chinese American Woman's Skirt
- Description (Brief)
- Ng Shee (1874 - ?) had this two paneled skirt as well as trousers made in Hong Kong at the time of her marriage to Mr. Lee B. Lok in China around 1900. After the marriage Ng Shee lived with her mother in law in China until she joined Mr. Lee in New York City in 1906.
- The pleated skirt was often worn with a rectangular apron or wei chu’u over a pair of matching trousers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.20
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.20
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1905 Chinese American Woman's Trousers
- Description (Brief)
- Ng Shee (1874 - ?) had this two paneled skirt as well as trousers made in Hong Kong at the time of her marriage to Mr. Lee B. Lok in China around 1900. After the marriage Ng Shee lived with her mother in law in China until she joined Mr. Lee in New York City in 1906.
- The pair of matching trousers was often worn under the pleated skirt with a rectangular apron or wei chu’u.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.21
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.21
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1925 - 1930 Chinese American Woman's Skirt
- Description (Brief)
- Mrs. Lee ordered this skirt from China to wear on formal occasions, such as weddings. The waistband, of a different fabric, was covered by a blouse.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2000.0274.02
- accession number
- 2000.0274
- catalog number
- 2000.0274.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1895 - 1896 Chinese American Man's Gown
- Description (Brief)
- Lee B. Lok (1869-1942) immigrated to San Francisco from Guangdong Province, China in 1881 and soon after moved to New York City's Chinatown where he worked in the Quong Yuen Shing & Co. store.
- Lee B. Lok ordered this gown from China to wear at the 1896 arrival ceremony in New York of Li Hongzhang, emissary of the Empress Dowager of China. Soon after Lee came to America he abandoned Chinese clothes for daily use and cut his queue. However on special occasions Lee wore clothing that identified him as Chinese. This Manchu style gown splits at the back, front, and both sides to allow for easy movement on horseback – a reflection of the Manchu people’s equestrian background.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1896
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1992.0620.24
- catalog number
- 1992.0620.24
- accession number
- 1992.0620
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center