Left to right:
Child's dress, 1860s
Printed cotton calico
American
Gift of
Dress, c. 1895
Printed cotton calico
American
Gift of Mrs. Leon Woolsey 1967.c.10
Apron, c. 1875
Linen
American
Gift of anonymous donor 00.95.373
Maternity Dress, c. 1860
Printed cotton calico
American
Gift of Mr. David Reinders 1979.c.96
Dress (bodice and skirt), 1880
Printed cotton calico
American
Gift of Mr. David Reinders 1979.c.112.A-B
The American pioneer Clara Hildebrand wrote these words concerning the woman’s role on the frontier: "What was the work of a farm woman in those early days? . . . Hers was the work of the Wife and Mother, the Helpmate of her husband, the Homemaker and the Home-helper."
Pioneer women who made the extraordinary westward crossing were faced with extreme conditions. Making do became an art. Men and women worked as partners to do whatever had to be done to survive. In these circumstances women experienced an autonomy that they could have never dreamed of before.
Clothing was simple and practical. A woman might only have a few gingham or calico dresses for the year, aprons were important to protect the dresses from wear and to minimize cleaning.
These printed cotton calico dresses were all worn by American pioneer women. The triangular shaped fade marks on the blue dress on the right are evidence of its wearer’s many duties. One faded area on the skirt, at the cuff level, resulted from the woman’s holding babies in an era before plastic diapers. The wearer of this dress probably made it at home on a treadle sewing machine, for it is constructed with the single-thread chain stitch produced by the first commercially available sewing machines. She probably followed a commercially printed paper pattern, which enabled women all over the country to copy current fashions. And in fact, even though this dress was made for everyday wear, it still has a moderate bustle.
The maternity dress has a cylinder printed textile design typical of American manufacturing in the mid-nineteenth century. Clothing worn during pregnancy was usually a simplified adaptation of the fashions of the time, and this dress was modified for growth by adding a drawstring at the waist. This example is one of the few maternity dresses to survive, since such clothes often wore out or faded from repeated wear.
Young girls learned to sew and perfect their stitches by doing samplers. They also watched over younger siblings and learned the duties of homemaking through their chores.
David Reinders, a theatre designer from Arizona State University, donated a core group of the nineteenth century clothing to the fashion design collection. He not only recognized the value of collecting and preserving fashionable dress but also of everyday clothing. The importance of this acquisition has been recognized by their inclusion in many Fashion Design exhibitions at the Phoenix Art Museum.
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