The guest curator of the new Eras of Elegance 1750-1920s fashion exhibit at the Sigal Museum in Easton admits she did not know what she would find when she signed on for the job.
In the introduction to the exhibit’s catalogue, Dr. Karin J. Bohleke, director of Fashion Archives and Museum of Shippensburg University, writes, “My first visit…exceeded my expectation. As I explored each box, I realized that the costume collection was not merely ‘very good.’ In fact it was outstanding.”
With Kathleen Coddington, chairperson of Eras of Elegance, Sigal Museum curator of collections Andria Zaia and museum curator Nancy O’Hanlon, Bohleke, who guest curates for a number of collections, knew that this was going to be a standout fashion exhibit. It opened with a reception on November 22 and will run at the Sigal until September 2015. The Sigal Museum is the home of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society.
On a recent afternoon Coddington, O’Hanlon and museum graphic designer Heather Reinert were busy overseeing and putting the finishing touches on the exhibit. Almost all of the dresses were donated to the museum by Easton and Northampton County residents and are part of the museum’s permanent collection. Easton family names like Bixler and Mitman are among them.
The 100 dresses and other garments that are on display are a small part of the museum’s collection of over 1000. “Some of them were given to us as far back as the 1930s and 40’s,” says O’Hanlon.
As fashions changed over the years people whose long gone relatives had dressed at the height of fashion in the 1880s all seemed to have one thought: it seems a shame to throw them out so lets empty grandma’s trunk and give her dresses to the historical society. “And were very glad they did,” remarks O’Hanlon.
Going to see this exhibit is like getting into a time machine. Visitors first step back into the 1750’s. French and Indian War conferences were being held in Easton and the ladies who wore the two stylish calash bonnets on display were probably loyal subjects of King George II. The headgear with raised ridges took its name from the calash coaches whose coverings they resembled.
Next stop is 1785-1790. In Philadelphia the Continental Congress is meeting to write the Constitution. In the fashionable drawing rooms of the city the delegates are entertained at dinners and balls by ladies in silk dresses like the one on display.
By now the viewer is in the 19th century. Ladies have unburdened themselves of some of the previous era’s heavy garb. The daring drop of the neckline has caused some gentlemen to gape.
But Paris has decreed it so and Paris, as O’Hanlon notes, was the center of fashion from the 17th century to the 20th century. In New York a young writer named Washington Irving is making fun of the ladies who would rather risk pneumonia in a gauzy dress then be out of fashion.
The 1830s and 1840s mark the start of America’s Industrial Revolution and cotton cloth produced in the textile mills of New England is being transformed into the chief dress material. The leg of mutton sleeve comes into fashion and goes out.
Queen Victoria is on the throne and modesty in dress is in vogue. A lavender print silk gown from 1840 on display was owned by Mrs. Margaret McMurtrie and worn to celebrate the inauguration of William Henry Harrison at an Easton inn. Visitors are left to wonder how she breathed with that corseted waist.
Now it is on to the Civil War era 1860s. North and South go their separate ways. But women can agree on one thing, hoopskirts are the fashion. Big balloon skirts supported by steel hoops are the rage.
One American visitor to Paris in that era noted in her diary that “hoops are still in vogue…on the Champs-Elysees, the ladies occupy so much space in carriages that it is as much as one can do to find the poor gentlemen’s heads.”
Coddington, who with her husband Neil, is a Civil War re-enactor in Northampton County’s 153rd Pennsylvania Regiment, has worn some 19th century fashions. She notes that, using popular fashion magazines, women who could not afford expensive Paris gowns by the renowned fashion house of Worth could make dresses like them.
Peace is declared. Hoops are out and by the 1870s and 80s the bustle has arrived.
Described as a way to “build you up” in the back they could be seen at fashionable Easton events like a Lafayette graduation or a charity ball.
Also on display is a delightful black morning robe or house coat. It was considered just the thing to wear when writing letters to friends while sipping the morning hot chocolate or getting together a list of things that Bridget the cook would need to purchase at the market.
By the 1890s a new century is in sight. Women are demanding the right to vote. And daringly they are taking the air in ice skating parties wearing costumes like the beautiful blue one that is on display here. Nearby is a dress that could have been worn by the Gibson Girl, a creation of the popular illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. It has the perfect accessory of the era, high button shoes.
The exhibit ends with the 1920s. At the decade’s start, the fashion writer for the New York Times noted that women’s skirts, then nine inches above the ground, had lifted “beyond any modest limitation.” The colorful dresses of the late 20s on display show the flappers didn’t stop there with skirts daringly rising, with the stock market, to the knee before dropping with the crash.
The Sigal exhibit has one more treat in store, a chance to look at a collection of 19th century wedding dresses worn by Easton women. With a fond farewell and a slight sigh, eras of elegance are over.
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