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Black satin dress; "v" neckline with piping; pleated from shoulder to center front of bodice; pleated double sleeve trimmed with black loop trim. Full sleeve gathered at cuff with smocking with four self covered buttons at cuff. Bodice pointed at front; boned and padded; cartridge pleats all around; bodice lined with glazed cotton. Center pleated panel with loop trim from waist to hem; false right and left front pockets with loop trim; hem lined with brown glazed cotton.
dresses (garments)
cotton (textile)
satin
silk (textile)
Dress
Dress
Displayed in Cherished Possessions, 2003-2005, with collar #1929.1112 and cuffs #1927.390ab: This dress was very fashionable in the mid-1840s, when Ann Eliza Bradlee Spear Dutton of Boston, Massachusetts, first wore it. She would have been in her mid fifties when the dress was new, and a rich black satin dress with expensive trim would have been a very satisfactory choice for a woman of her age, not necessarily worn for mourning.
When the dress was long out of fashion, Ann Eliza's daughter, Mary, claimed it as her own soon after her mother's death, attaching a note that read, This satin dress is the property of Mary M. Dutton from mother D. - March 1875.
Unknown
Gift of Miss Mary Eustis
1940.200
Probably Massachusetts (United States)
Probably Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
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