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.

Date made
1823-12
ID Number
CS.228001.1609
catalog number
228001.1609
Date made
1809-06
ID Number
CS.033675.206
catalog number
033675.206
Date made
1817-11
ID Number
CS.228001.0021
catalog number
228001.0021
This watch belonged to Sir Sandford Fleming, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Description
This watch belonged to Sir Sandford Fleming, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway. About 1880, Fleming devised a plan for worldwide time zones and had a complicated watch made to reflect both zoned time and local time.
The maker of Fleming's watch is the London firm of Nicole, Nielsen & Co. Successor to a business founded by Swiss immigrants Adolphe Nicole and Jules Capt in the late 1830s, the firm made high-quality timepieces. Fleming ordered the watch through retailer E. White, also of London.
Fleming's first notions about time reform emerged on a trip to Ireland in 1876, when he missed a train because he misread a timetable. His initial plan concentrated on replacing the two twelve-hour designations of the day, A.M. and P.M., with a twenty-four hour system. Almost immediately, though, he expanded his ideas about time reform to propose a system he called variously "Terrestrial Time," "Cosmopolitan Time," and "Cosmic Time"-a division of the globe into twenty-four zones, each one hour apart and identified by letters of the alphabet.
As the 1880s began there was no binding international agreement about how to keep time for the world. Traditionally, each country used its own capital city or main observatory for measuring time and designating lines of longitude on national maps. After publication of the British Nautical Almanac began in 1767, many nations came to use Greenwich time for navigation and some scientific observations. Local mean time served for all other activities.
Added emphasis on Greenwich had come from North America when the railroads there voluntarily adopted a standard zoned time in 1883. In that system, the zones were based on meridians counted west from Greenwich, England, at zero degree of longitude.
Fleming was not the first or only proponent of world standard time. Quirico Filopanti, an Italian mathematics and engineering professor, for example, published a scheme based on twenty-four zones counted from Rome as prime meridian in 1858.
Organized international support emerged slowly for fixing a common prime meridian. Not until October 1884 did diplomats and technical specialists gather to act on scientific proposals. The International Meridian Conference, held in Washington, DC, recommended that the nations of the world establish a prime meridian at Greenwich, count longitude east and west from the prime meridian up to 180 degrees in each direction, and adopt a universal day beginning at Greenwich at midnight. Although the International Meridian Conference had no authority to enforce its suggestions, the meeting resulted in the gradual worldwide adoption of a time-zone based system with Greenwich as zero degrees.
The military and some civilian science, aviation and navigation efforts still use alphabet identifiers for time zones. The time of day in Zone Z is known as "Zulu Time." The zone is governed by the zero degree of longitude that runs through Greenwich.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1880
maker
Nicole, Nielsen & Co.
ID Number
1990.0659.01
catalog number
1990.0659.01
accession number
1990.0659
Date made
1823-01
ID Number
CS.228001.0277
catalog number
228001.0277
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1822-01
ID Number
CS.228001.0253
catalog number
228001.0253
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1810-11
ID Number
CS.033675.205
catalog number
033675.205
Date made
1823-01
ID Number
CS.228001.0275
catalog number
228001.0275
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1816-11
ID Number
CS.244128.097
catalog number
244128.097
Date made
1810-03
ID Number
CS.228001.0118
catalog number
228001.0118
This dress, designed by Jeanne Lanvin, was worn by Marjorie Wilder, who may have been known as Martha as a child. She was born, we believe, in 1891, in Kentucky to Amanda and Wilson Wilder. Information about her life is sketchy, but around 1910 or 1911 she married Edward A.
Description
This dress, designed by Jeanne Lanvin, was worn by Marjorie Wilder, who may have been known as Martha as a child. She was born, we believe, in 1891, in Kentucky to Amanda and Wilson Wilder. Information about her life is sketchy, but around 1910 or 1911 she married Edward A. English of Atlanta, Georgia. Unfortunately, that marriage lasted only a short time, as Mr. English died within a few years of their marriage. It was, however, around the time of their marriage that this dress was made. According to the donor, who was an old friend, Mrs. English wore the dress to a garden party at the American Embassy in London in 1911. This corresponds with the 1911 date written on the label. We speculate that the trip to Paris and London may have been a wedding trip for the newlyweds, but to date, we have been unable to find any documentation to confirm this speculation. The style of the dress, with its youthful appearance, would have been appropriate for a new, young bride. Later, Marjorie moved to New York City, where she married James Cunningham and became part of the social set. According to articles in the New York Times, she made several trips to Europe during this marriage. After the marriage ended in divorce, she married a third time in 1943 to I. Henry Walker, who died a few months later. According to the donor, Marjorie died in 1953 in a boating accident.
Jeanne Lanvin was born in Paris, France in 1867. She began her fashion career, which lasted over fifty years, as a milliner, opening her own establishment in Paris in 1889. Her daughter inspired her to branch out into making children's clothing, and she began selling matching mother and daughter garments. As those children became adults, her styles evolved to include wedding and evening gowns that would appeal to youthful women as well as more mature women. Before World War I, Lanvin created her famous "robes des style” which was based on eighteenth-century designs. These full skirted dresses with waists remained popular into the early 1920s. By 1925, she was frequently featured in Vogue with both text and illustrations. She preferred clear, subtle and feminine colors, especially a shade of blue that became known as “Lanvin blue.” The use of cummerbunds and net openings with piping, which were both used in this dress, were indicative of her feminine and youthful designs of the early twentieth century.
This one-piece "robes de style" dress is constructed of green silk taffeta. A cape-like collar of net with a pleated taffeta ruffle applied in a swag pattern with loops of bias piping between ruffles is attached to a low, round neckline edged with narrow bias piping. The bodice is gathered to the waist and the yoke at the front and the back with piping at the lower edge. A center back opening has a hook-and-eye closure at the neck. Barrel shaped buttons, covered with bias piping, extend from part way down the back to just above the waist and from below the waist into the skirt section with bias piping loops on the right side of the back for closure. A cummerbund style waistband is quilted and applied to the dress just above the waist fastening at the center back with three barrel shape buttons and loops. Elbow-length sleeves have fullness at the armholes that is controlled with pleats. Shirring at the elbow of the sleeves is covered with cuffs of the same construction as the collar. The skirt section is gathered at the waist. The lower portion of the skirt is also made of the same construction as the collar. An attached petticoat of white chiffon has a band of green taffeta at the lower portion that is visible beneath the net of the skirt. The dress is unlined, with a wide, heavy grosgrain band attached to the waist on the inside extending above and below the waist. All seams are hand finished. The label, which reads "Jeanne Lanvin Paris" and "Ae 1911," is sewn to the inside of the waistband. The waist measures 26 ½ inches.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1916 - 1918
1911
maker
Lanvin, Jeanne
wearer
Walker, Marjorie Wilder English Cunningham
maker
Lanvin, Jeanne
ID Number
CS.293275.001
catalog number
293275.001
accession number
293275
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1806-06
ID Number
CS.228001.0103
catalog number
228001.0103
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1823-01
ID Number
CS.228001.0268
catalog number
228001.0268
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1814-05
ID Number
CS.244128.100
catalog number
244128.100
Date made
1818-02
ID Number
CS.228001.0192
catalog number
228001.0192
Date made
1822-07
ID Number
CS.228001.0256
catalog number
228001.0256
Date made
1822-04
ID Number
CS.228001.0252
catalog number
228001.0252
Date made
1809-07
ID Number
CS.228001.0107
catalog number
228001.0107
This particular paper dress was known as a “Poster Dress,” being the invention of Harvey Gordon, an American artist who was living in England. He thought that paper could be treated as if it were cloth.
Description
This particular paper dress was known as a “Poster Dress,” being the invention of Harvey Gordon, an American artist who was living in England. He thought that paper could be treated as if it were cloth. When these dresses were introduced in the United States in 1968 they sold for $3.00. This dress was purchased and worn by Jean Stuart, wife of the donor, in Washington, D.C. She liked the idea of paper dresses and was particularly drawn to this one because the cat depicted in the design resembled her own cat. This cat dress was featured, along with some of the other Poster Dresses, in Life magazine on April 5, 1968.
The disposable dress was a short-lived phenomenon from about 1966 to 1968. It started when the Scott Paper Company came up with an idea to sell its paper towels by demonstrating that the paper was attractive enough to be worn. With a mail-in promotion in magazines, the company invited consumers in 1966 to send a coupon from a Scott product, along with $1.25, in order to receive a paper dress of either a black and white Op Art pattern or a red bandana print. The campaign became an overnight sensation, with over 500,000 dresses shipped. The demand for the dresses spurred other companies to develop new textures, finishes, and colorful prints. The big appeal for these dresses was their eye-catching patterns and images. People hosted paper parties in their home and for charity balls, which were called “paper balls.” Some wore disposable paper wedding dresses, bathing suits, jewelry, and underwear. By 1968, however, paper dresses lost their appeal. Wearers found them to be ill-fitting and uncomfortable, the painted surfaces were often unstable, and there were concerns about flammability. Most importantly, their novelty had worn off due to overexposure.
This one-piece paper dress is a black and ecru print of a blown-up cat photo. The image of the cat’s face is off center and covers most of the upper portion of the dress. The same photo is positioned on both the front and the back. The dress is a sleeveless A-line cut with a scooped neckline in the front and the back. It is constructed with shoulder and side seams and darts for fitting. The neckline, armholes, and bottom edge are left raw with no finishing. The dress measures 34 inches at the center back.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1968-1969
user
Stuart, Jean
maker
Poster Dress
ID Number
1996.0365.001
accession number
1996.0365
catalog number
1996.0365.001
Date made
1817-07
ID Number
CS.228001.0186
catalog number
228001.0186
This black and white etching is the last of eight scenes designed and etched by George Cruikshank depicting the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. This print is an interior scene of a cell with a man huddling in a corner before a caged fire.
Description
This black and white etching is the last of eight scenes designed and etched by George Cruikshank depicting the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. This print is an interior scene of a cell with a man huddling in a corner before a caged fire. He is being visited by his grown children, now a thief and a woman of shame. A guard is visible through an open doorway in the background. This series is a folio edition. On the reverse of Plate I. is the title page of the series and an inscription from the artist, including the cost of one shilling or six shillings for prints block tinted for shading on finer paper. The series is contained in a portfolio.
This series of prints 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. These prints were 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 Almanack 1835-53. David Bogue published The Bottle series in 1847. Bogue suffered from heart disease and died in 1856 at the age of 48.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1847
maker
Cruikshank, George
publisher
Bogue, David
ID Number
DL.60.2917
catalog number
60.2917
accession number
228146
This black and white etching is seventh of eight scenes drawn by George Cruikshank depicting the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. This print is an interior scene of a crowd gathered around the body of a dead woman.
Description
This black and white etching is seventh of eight scenes drawn by George Cruikshank depicting the progressive degeneration of a family due to the evils of drinking. This print is an interior scene of a crowd gathered around the body of a dead woman. The weapon, a broken bottle, lies on the floor at her feet. The husband stands next to the fireplace and is being seized by a policeman. Another policeman consoles and interrogates the crying daughter, who is pointing to the broken bottle. The son, also crying, stands next to the fireplace. This series is a folio edition. On the reverse of Plate I. is the title page of the series and an inscription from the artist, including the cost of one shilling or six shillings for prints block tinted for shading on finer paper. The series is contained in a portfolio.
This series of prints 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. These prints were 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 Almanack 1835-53. David Bogue published The Bottle series in 1847. Bogue suffered from heart disease and died in 1856 at the age of 48
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1847
maker
Cruikshank, George
publisher
Bogue, David
ID Number
DL.60.2916
catalog number
60.2916
accession number
228146
A color print of a race in progress across turf between a brown and black stallion. The former is ahead by nearly one length. The jockeys wear close fitting white breeches, high top boots, and distinctly colored jackets and caps.
Description
A color print of a race in progress across turf between a brown and black stallion. The former is ahead by nearly one length. The jockeys wear close fitting white breeches, high top boots, and distinctly colored jackets and caps. Rolling hills are in the distance.
The Flying Dutchman was bred on February 22, 1846 by Henry Vansittart in Yorkshire, England. His sire was Bay Middleton, an undefeated racer, and his dam was Barbelle. Lord Eglinton had agreed to purchase all of her foals for $1,000, and when he came to own the Dutchman, he sent the foal into training under John Fobert. As a two year old, the Dutchman was undefeated. His biggest race was the Epsom Derby in 1849. The Dutchman had not raced beforehand and was believed to be unfit, but his jockey Charles Marlow was able to ride the horse to the win. That race was the only time a whip was ever needed on the Dutchman in his career. His “Great Match” was his race against Voltigeur (pictured here). It was held at York on May 31, 1851. The Dutchman won by a length and was immediately retired to stud after. As a stud, the Dutchman was eventually sold to Napoleon III’s National Stud farm, where he stood until his death and became the top sire from 1855-62. In his career he won $6,575 and 14 of his 15 races, and he is considered one of the greatest British race horses of the century. He died in 1870.
Voltigeur was foaled in 1847 by Robert Stephenson in Hart, Durham, England from Voltaire and Martha Lynn. Robert Hill, a trainer for Lord Zetland bought the colt for $1,000 after he failed at sales because of his pedigree. Voltigeur was sent to training in Yorkshire and was ultimately win the Epsom Derby and the St. Leger. His most famous race was the “Great Match” against the Flying Dutchman, after which he continued his racing career for another year before standing for stud. As a stud, he was located in Middlethorpe before a fractured hind leg forced him to be put down in 1874 at Aske Hall. His legacy lived on in the Great Voltigeur Stakes, a trial competition for the St. Leger.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
after May 1851
maker
Currier, Nathaniel
original artist
Herring, J.F. Sr.
Harris, J.
ID Number
DL.60.3245
catalog number
60.3245

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