Day Dresses

[DJenne]

I had posted this before in a thread on CW ancestors but will do it again here:

This group photo is from about 1867-1868 and shows my great grandmother second from left (not dated but she was born in 1851 and looks about 16 0r 17 in the photo) with other girls in her class at Augusta Female Seminary, later Mary Baldwin College, in Staunton, Virginia. On the back it gives their names and hometowns. Three are from New Orleans, including my ancestor and three are from Virginia. Interestingly, the first girl on the left is from Big Lick, Va. which I found was the name of Roanoke prior to 1882.

Wow! What a portrait. I love how casual and comfortable they all are. Such a refreshing change from the usual seated/stiff/staring poses. Any idea who took the photo?

 

[DJenne]

View attachment 69093

Boston MFA ca 1865

Okay, you know every woman who saw this dress went home and tried to copy it. Simple, but so elegant.

I certainly want it! Just gorgeous.
My husband's great grandmother in a similar day dress. She lived on a working farm, so the raised hem is more practical I think.

 

[RobertP]

Wow! What a portrait. I love how casual and comfortable they all are. Such a refreshing change from the usual seated/stiff/staring poses. Any idea who took the photo?

Thanks. Unfortunately there is no photographer named. It appears to be a school photo.

 

[RobertP]

Thanks. Unfortunately there is no photographer named. It appears to be a school photo.

Edit to earlier post. She was born in 1852, not 1851. I found her class pin, it says 1870-71, and she appears in the Augusta Co., Va. 1870 census as a student at the Seminary, 17 from La. So, since it was a two year school the picture could be as early as 1869 or as late as 1871.

 

[DJenne]

Edit to earlier post. She was born in 1852, not 1851. I found her class pin, it says 1870-71, and she appears in the Augusta Co., Va. 1870 census as a student at the Seminary, 17 from La. So, since it was a two year school the picture could be as early as 1869 or as late as 1871.

Nice to have found extra pieces. The last two photos I posted are from Rockbridge county. There were photographers out there (especially Michael Miley and his son in Lexington, VA) taking everyday, beautiful portraits, with more casual poses. The library of Virginia has a Flickr album of his studio portraits that needs identifying.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_virginia/sets/72157634770132008

 

[18thVirginia]

I certainly want it! Just gorgeous.
My husband's great grandmother in a similar day dress. She lived on a working farm, so the raised hem is more practical I think.
View attachment 69200

I would agree that the women on a working farm might be well off with a raised hem. As a young woman, I wore a fashionable floor length cotton dress with a flounce around the bottom to Christmas Eve church services. Being a clumsy person, when they handed out the little candles and we lit them, I dropped mine on the floor. Before I could grab it during the hymn, I noticed that my dress was on fire. Only slightly and I put it out with my shoe, but it gave me a new respect for women who managed those garments all the time!

 

[RobertP]

CDV of my gg-grandmother, mother of the schoolgirl posted earlier in this thread. Back of the photo says S. Anderson imperial photography Studio, 183 Canal St., N.O. - Three Sister Bldgs.

A google search shows Anderson to have been a successful photographer during the Union occupation of the city. He moved to this location in 1868 for a brief time. The dress looks very CW era to me but I'm no expert.

 

[18thVirginia]

Can't recall without looking it up, but Anderson's may have had several different places of business, so you might be able to look at the dates for the address and date your photograph more closely.

 

[18thVirginia]

Silk, cotton, wool. 1864-65
This is one of the finer seamstresses that Allie mentioned.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/103567?enlarge=true

 

[18thVirginia]

Okay, I know that this dress has already been posted above, but I just found a similar reenactor dress and had to put them both together.

The promenade dress

And the reenactor dress.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/219761656788133677/

 

[18thVirginia]

Visiting dress, silk, cotton, glass. 1863-65, metmuseum.org

 

[18thVirginia]

I certainly want it! Just gorgeous.
My husband's great grandmother in a similar day dress. She lived on a working farm, so the raised hem is more practical I think.
View attachment 69200

Two of my husband's ancestresses on the farm burned to death when their dresses caught fire, one a child when they were burning grass and one a young mother, from 2 separate families, so I'd think that lots of the tasks of a farm woman were even more dangerous with a floor-touching hemline.

Here's a photo of some textile factory women in raised dresses. It was considered dangerous around the machines to have floor length dresses and more trouble to pick up shuttles or other tools which would fall to the floor.

pinterest.com

 

[DJenne]

Two of my husband's ancestresses on the farm burned to death when their dresses caught fire, one a child when they were burning grass and one a young mother, from 2 separate families, so I'd think that lots of the tasks of a farm woman were even more dangerous with a floor-touching hemline.

Here's a photo of some textile factory women in raised dresses. It was considered dangerous around the machines to have floor length dresses and more trouble to pick up shuttles or other tools which would fall to the floor.

View attachment 69448

pinterest.com

That's a horrific situation.

 

[18thVirginia]

18thVirginia,

Is it true that when a woman was working at some chore, especially one that required a lot of effort, that the hoop was not worn under the dress?

Sincerely,
Unionblue

@unionblue, here's a story that explains a little about the difficulty of dealing with a hoop, so I'm guessing that for household chores, the average woman wore a dress sans hoop. The average day dress also had a skirt that was of a smaller circumference, thus requiring less of a cage to hold the skirt out. I believe that some of the finest dresses that we see required 25 yards of fabric for the skirts. The story:

Emerson's United States Magazine

July 1857, Page 108

A HOOP CATASTROPHE

The Richmond Whig says: a few Sundays ago, a modest young gentleman of our acquaintance attended the morning service in one of our fashionable churches. He was kindly shown into a luxuriously cushioned pew, and had hardly settled himself and taken an observation of his neighbors, before a beautiful young lady entered , and, with a graceful wave of the hand preventing our friend from rising to give her a place, quietly sunk into a seat near the end. When a hymn was given out, she skillfully found the page: and, with a sweet smile that set his heart a thumping handed her neighbor the book. The minster raised his hands in prayer, and the fair girl knelt; and in this posture perplexed her friend which most to admire, her beauty or her devoutness. Presently the prayer was concluded, and the congregation resumed their seats. Our friend respectfully raised his eyes from the fair form he had been so earnestly scanning, lest when she looked up she would detect him staring at her. After a couple of seconds, he darted a furtive glance at the charmer, and was astonished to see her still on her knees. He looked closely, and saw that she was much affected trembling in violent agitation, no doubt from the eloquent power of the preacher. Deeply sympathizing, he watched her closely. Her emotion became more violent; reaching hand behind her, she would convulsively grasp her clothing and strain as it were to rend the brilliant fabric of her dress. The sight was exceedingly painful to behold, but he still gazed, like one entranced, with wonder and astonishment. After a minute, the lady raised her face, heretofore concealed in the cushion, and with her hand made an unmistakable beckon to our friend. He quickly moved along the pew toward her, and inclined his ear, as she evidently wished to say something. "Please help me, Sir," she whispered; "my dress has caught, and I can't get up." A brief examination revealed the cause of the difficulty; the fair girl wore fashionable high heeled shoes; kneeling upon both knees, those heels of course stuck out at right angles. and in this position the highest hoop of her new-fangled skirt caught over them, and thus rendered it impossible for here to raise herself or straighten her limbs. The more she struggled the tighter was she bound; so she was constrained to call for help. This was immediately, if not scientifically, rendered; and when the next prayer was made she merely inclined herself upon the back of the front pew, thinking no doubt, that she was not in praying costume.


http://www.blockaderunner.com/nlc/info.html

 

[18thVirginia]

This homespun dress from the Atlanta History Collection may be closer to what many farm women wore when they were working at chores:

Reenactor in a similar kind of dress

http://www.blockaderunner.com/nlc/3.html

 

[18thVirginia]

Young girl with a day dress

pinterest.com

 

[18thVirginia]

FIGURED SILK DAY DRESS, 1858-1862 2-piece chocolate brown silk faille w/ small gold floral brocade, box pleated skirt, bodice w/ bishop's sleeve, etched brass ball buttons.

pinterest.com

 

[18thVirginia]

Note that this last dress (and the 1865 dress shown earlier) have the skirt's fullness mostly toward the back and is almost flat across the front. It also has a train effect in back. This trend started during the last year or two of the CW, although many women weren't able to switch until after the war. By the end of the 1860s, this trend led to bustles and big bows in the rear, with a tight skirt front. Since my abdomen definitely protrudes in front (almost as much as my rear), this is not a fashion I'd want to copy for myself! I'm thankful that I chose to re-enact a period when being large below the waist was the height of fashion! This dress is wonderfully elegant, but not for me!

Thank you, Mary Dee for adding your expertise to the thread. Keep it coming. Your comments are helpful to this photo geek who always needs to see actually pictures to visualize the women of the 1860s. I'm appreciative of all commentary from you, James B White, Unionblue and anyone else who has done personal research into the area of Civil War women's fashions.

Here's dress from 1865--or later--that shows what you're talking about with the movement of the skirt to the back.

 

[18thVirginia]

View attachment 69941
SOUTHERN ILLUSTRATED NEWS, November 8, 1862, p. 3, c. 2

The Home-Spun Dress.

We have received the following spirited letter from our sprightly correspondent "Louise," which we take the liberty of publishing:

C________, Va.

Messrs. Editors:--Do give me your sympathies and attention for a brief space, while I tell you what a mortification I suffered Sunday on account of wearing a home spun dress—but, first, let me ask you a question: don't you think it would be more patriotic in our girls to wear home spun dresses, instead of wearing such doleful faces about the blockade, just because they can't get such lots of fine dresses and other finery as they used to in times back? I think so, Messrs. Editors, and I hope you do, too. Every second lady you meet up here in C_____ has her face elongated to twice its natural length because, as she says, there's no "dry-goods" in the stores, "and what are we to do for wearing apparel?" If I suggest home-spun, O! such a thing is not to be thought of. Well, Messrs. Editors, I bought me a home-spun dress, had it made up and wore it to church on Sunday last. When I took my seat. I looked around and saw a smile, or a sneer, on the lips of our "would be" aristocratic ladies. They whispered and nudged each other, and were even rude enough to direct their glances straight at me. If they call that good manners, their code and mine slightly differs on the subject. I am only a little girl, and I felt like crying, but I managed to listen with tolerable attention to the sermon. Just as soon as I got home I sat down to write to you about it, feeling sure of your sympathy. I just made up my mind that every one of those ladies I saw laughing at my home spun dress were nothing but "Yankees." Now would you advise me to wear that dress again, or doff it entirely to please the over-refined taste of these C______villains? Do answer me something—I think it would be nice to answer this question about home-spun dresses in your paper. Suppose you ask "Hard Cracker" what he thinks of it. Hoping to be excused for trespassing so long on your time, I remain yours,

Respectfully, Louise.


Advise you to wear it again? Why, most assuredly; and when it is worn out, send us a piece, that we may put it away with other highly prized mementoes of this war, to remind us in after years that there was one brave little heart somewhere in the Old Dominion, that pulsated with genuine patriotism, and with whom "duty" was a higher word than "fashion." Don't mind the whispers and s******s of those who, while they profess great patriotism, had rather give aid and comfort to the enemy by the purchase of his silks and satins, with which to please the stay-at-home sneaks, than to encourage home industry and win the admiration of all earnest and sensible men. Many a soldier, as he reads your letter today in camp, will say, "Well, boys, I'll bet a month's rations that little girl will make some lucky fellow a good wife, and no mistake!" What says our particular friend, "Hard-Cracker?"—Eds.


http://theebonswan.blogspot.com/201...1T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=50&view=snapshot

 

[18thVirginia]

1865 American - silk, metal, cotton day dress, Met Museum
metmuseum.org