![Irma G. Bowen Historic Clothing Collection](../../assets/md5images/79fb2d13d6420897fde6225f0710bbc3.jpg)
Preview
![image preview](https://scholars.unh.edu/bowen_collection/1505/preview.jpg)
Creator
Unknown
Date Created
c. 1865
Subject
Costume; Clothing; Main garments; Dresses
Description
c. 1865. Brown wool challis one-piece dress, printed with pink and orange flowers and brown and green leaves, closing in front, with full-length curved-seam sleeves, sewn-in engageantes, and floor-length skirt pleated to the bodice with slightly more fullness to the back.
The bodice is made of three pieces: two front panels with two boned darts each and one piece of boning at the right opening edge, and a single center-back panel with curved tucks at side back. It opens in front with fourteen concealed hooks and eyes. The neck has a 1.9 cm / 0.75 in. high standing band collar and the waistline is round. The bodice is flat lined with brown cotton.
The shoulders are dropped and the sleeves are full-length, with a curved two-seam construction first introduced between 1884-1868. They are smoothly inserted into the scye with no gathers, bell toward the elbow, and narrow back down at the wrist. White cotton mull engageantes, or under-sleeves, with a drawstring at their top edge and a ruffled cuff embroidered with whitework flowers and vines have been attached to the dress cuffs with large basting stitches. These are done with a dark green thread which goes through the outside of the cuffs with no attempt to hide them.
The skirt is floor-length and full, slightly longer in back than in front, and has slightly more fullness in back than in front. The skirt is made of seven straight 59.7 cm / 23.5 in. wide panels sewn selvedge to selvedge, and is pleated directly to the bodice in a pattern of five wide double-stacked box pleats. It has one hook at eye at the waist and is lined at the hem only, with polished brown cotton 19.1 cm / 7.5 in. high.
There is piping at the scyes and at the waist. Double rows of brown plain woven silk ribbon are stitched in parallel at the bicep and at the cuff. Hand-sewn.
Extent
Bust: 85.1 cm / 33.5 in.
Waist: 62.2 cm / 24.5 in.
Sleeve: 55.9 cm / 22 in.
Shoulder seam: 24.1 cm / 9.5 in.
Hem: 417.8 cm / 164.5 in.
Length (skirt front): 101.6 cm / 40 in.
Length (skirt back): 109.2 cm / 43 in.
Provenance
Gift of Mrs. F.W. Cutting
Museum Number
52
Publisher
University of New Hampshire Library
Medium
Wool
Contributor
Astrida Schaeffer, photographer/curator
Date Digitized
4-12-2019
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Keywords
Dresses, c. 1865, One-piece dresses, Wool challis, Brown (color), Printed, Flowers, Pink (color), Orange (color), Leaves, Green (color), Boned darts, Tucks, Hooks and eyes, Standing band collar, Cotton lining, Dropped shoulders, Full-length sleeves, Engageantes, Cotton mull, White (color), Drawstring, Ruffled cuff, Embroidery, Whitework, Vines, Dark green (color), Round waistline, Floor-length skirt, Full skirt, Polished cotton lining, Silk ribbon, Piping, Hand-sewn, Cutting (donor)
Comments
The Irma G. Bowen Historic Clothing Collection digital catalog was produced by the UNH Library Digital Collection Initiative, supported in part by a grant from the Mooseplate program and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Additional funding provided by the E. Ruth Buxton Stephenson Memorial Fund.
Photography copyright, Astrida Schaeffer.