Exploring the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society

In early 2011, we visited the Connecticut Historical Society to see their exhibition, "Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840."  The exhibit profiled the variety of needle crafts created by the women of early Connecticut, and included everything from crewel bed hangings to mourning art to embroidered shoes to samplers to a whitework gown to quilts and quilted petticoats (and much more besides).  Our post on the exhibit discusses in detail several of the items on display, and also links to the book/catalogue assembled for the exhibit, which is fantastic and an excellent investment to add to the library of any historical fashion or needle arts enthusiast.

For those of you who aren't familiar with CHS, the museum exclusively collects artifacts and antiques with a known New England provenance.  What is particularly unique about their holdings, however, is that most of their pieces can be even more specifically tied to Connecticut itself.  Because of this, the ladies of our reenacting unit have been very eager to study the eighteenth-century clothing and accessories in the collection to help us improve the regional details of our interpretation of our CT Revolutionary War ancestors.  In mid-January, our lovely Distaff Coordinator was able to arrange a private study session with CHS's costume and textiles curator, enabling a small group of us the privilege to handle and closely examine each and every one of the costume items in the museum's collection that is dated between 1750 and 1800. 

Although the photos we took during our study time are exclusively for private research purposes and thus cannot be shared here, thanks to CHS's fabulous and ever-expanding eMuseum, we can nonetheless give you a comprehensive overview of some of the fantastic items we were able to see!  First, we all drooled (almost literally) over five gowns, all dating to the second half of the eighteenth century.  All can be found in the online catalogue (direct links don't seem to work, I apologize!).  One of my favorites was a dark ground chintz with a red and pencil blue floral design (dated 1775-85; CHS acc. no. 1959.54.4), its skirt and the front of the center-closing bodice pieced to within an inch of its life.  The fabric is some of the most stunning cotton I've seen (so much prettier in person!), so light-weight and thin and fully retaining the crispness and subtle sheen that characterizes true eighteenth-century chintz.  It's actually a lot darker than it appears in the eMuseum photo below, being closer to black than the chocolate brown it seems to be here.

Brown chintz round gown, 1775-1785 (CHS acc. no. 1959.54.4) .

Photo linked from the CT Historical Society eMuseum.

Other highlights from the day included two sets of stays (one sized to a child of about age three), several calash bonnets, some stunning brocade shoes, the red quilted calamanco petticoat we had oogled in the earlier exhibit, and a couple of shortgowns, among other items.  We also examined some gentlemen's coats, waistcoats, and shirts.

The two jewels in the crown of the museum's eighteenth-century costume collection, however, are a rare CT loyalist military coat and a cloak owned by Deborah Champion.  The "Redcoat," worn by CT native Munson Hoyt when he served in a CT loyalist regiment during the Revolution, is one of only two examples of a "Redcoat" know to survive in this country (CHS acc. no. 1896.9.1).  Needless to say, we spent a good deal of time oogling it and taking note of all of its little details and secrets.

One of only two extant "Redcoats" (CHS acc. no. 1896.9.1).

Photo linked from the CT Historical Society's eMuseum.

The second undeniable treasure we had the privilege to study was Deborah Champion's cloak (CHS acc. no. 1981.37.1), its vivid cardinal red color still a vibrant reminder of the courageous woman who once wore it.  The cloak was gifted to the museum with family tradition suggesting it is the cloak worn on her famous ride across British lines to deliver dispatches to Washington in Boston in 1775.  This post reproduces a letter in which the 22-year-old young woman recounts her experience (complete with a description of her clothes, huzzah!) to a friend.  Most thrilling to me was the realization that this cloak's piecing and construction are remarkably similar to those seen on the cloak in Costume Close-up.  It's always neat when sources coincide like that!

Deborah Champion's cloak (CHS acc. no. 1981.37.1).

Photo linked from the CT Historical Society's eMuseum.

I strongly encourage you to take the time to look through all of the items showcased in CHS's eMuseum.  Their costume and textiles collection is quite large and comprehensive, but somehow it tends to get overlooked in the world of costuming sources, I assume just because the museum is comparatively on the smaller side when it comes to the more famous museums in the immediate area.  This is most unfortunate because it's a great resource and more than repays a visit if ever you're in the area.

We'd like to personally thank the curator of costumes and textiles, as well as the rest of the staff at CHS, for so generously accommodating our group and for sharing their collection with us in such a special way.  Our unit hosts a number of local school and educational programs, and being able to use this experience to reproduce and then share some of the uniquely CT clothing items that we saw will be a tremendously special addition to our discussions and our unit's Rev War interpretations.

Upcoming Events of Interest in Historical Fashion

This is just a quick post to share a few upcoming events and opportunities that might be of interest to historical fashion enthusiasts.

- On the second Saturday of every month, the Connecticut Historical Society will be hosting a special "behind the scenes" tours of their storage and collections facilities to give visitors a rare glimpse of items and museum areas not often accessible to the public.  In March, the tour will emphasize items from CHS's comprehensive textiles and costume collection, with a focus on Women's History Month.  The tour, entitled "From Corsets to Spanx: Have We Come a Long Way, Baby?", will examine the ways in which fashion both influenced and was influenced by the changing social and political roles of women across the last two centuries.  Tickets for this and other special tours can be purchased online or by calling CHS directly.  Ticket prices include all-day admission to the museum's current public exhibits (their "Making Connecticut" exhibit is fantastic!) and one-day access to the research library.

- "'They Called Me Lizzy': From Slavery to the White House," a one-woman show performed by Stephanie Jackson, will be presented at three different locations throughout CT during the months of March and April.  The play recounts the true story of Elizabeth Keckly, dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, as she retrospectively shares in first-person her extraordinary life experiences, from her birth into slavery, to her purchase of her own freedom, to her rise as one of the most recognizable figures in Washington society.  A video clip of the performance can be found here.

- On the slightly-more-distant horizon are two academic events at Colonial Williamsburg.  The first is the much-publicized and highly-anticipated symposium, "Threads of Feeling Unraveled: The London Foundling Hospital's Textile Tokens," which coincides with CW's very special hosting of the Threads of Feeling exhibit that garnered such a tremendous response when it opened in London in 2010.  The three-day symposium, taking place 20-22 October 2013, will feature a keynote lecture by the exhibit's curator, John Styles, and promises to be a fascinating glimpse into 18th-century textile history and the very human lives around which it wove itself.

The second event, a conference focusing on "Millinery through Time," is scheduled to take place 16-19 March 2014, to mark the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Colonial Williamsburg's Margaret Hunter Shop and CW's resurrection of the millinery trade as integral parts of their telling of our nation's social history.  They are currently accepting paper proposals, so keep an eye out for the final list of presentations!

Let the Genealogy Research Begin!

Researching our family history has always been on our “we should really do that” list.  Now, thanks to a some recent interest from one of our cousins, we are elbow deep in index cards of possible ancestors and copies of census records.  We started with what we know and what our parents could tell us.  Unfortunately, our grandparents are no longer with us to share their memories and we have very little to begin with. 

One set of our grandparents, married in 1946.

A few weekends ago, we attended a genealogy workshop at the Connecticut Historical Society, where we gathered some tips on how to get started and how to begin to organize and coordinate what information we find.  The CHS Research Center is an excellent resource, especially for local history, so we spent the afternoon following the workshop in the Research Center gathering what we could find to help us get started.  We have since spent countless hours online digging for more.  Most of what we have found was through HeritageQuest Online, FamilySearch.org, and ancestry.com.  Luckily, our last name, and most of our other related surnames are fairly uncommon, so any information that is available has been pretty easy to spot (except when people decide to change the spelling of their names!).  We have several census records, a few military records (more are on order from the National Archives), town directory listings, and a sprinkling of immigration and naturalization records.  At this point, I think we have exhausted the online records and we have plans to visit the CT State Library this weekend to see what we can find there. 

Our other grandparents, married in 1950.

We have made a few connections between family lines, but still have a long way to go.  We have one line that we can trace to the Civil War (including a Medal of Honor recipient!) and we think they've been in the U.S. since at least the middle of the 18^th century.  The other lines of our family were immigrants to the U.S. in the generation of our great-grandparents.  We hope to share some fun stories with you all as we continue to unearth them.  Have any of you embarked on this journey of family discovery?  Any tips or recommendations, especially for foreign research, would be most appreciated!

Connecticut Needlework, 1740-1840 Exhibit at the CT Historical Society

The Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, CT.

On 5 March, the weekend before we headed down to Williamsburg for the symposium and conference, we made the short trip to the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford to visit their exhibit, "Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840."  The exhibit had been on our "to see" list ever since it opened last year, and we had to be sure to see it before it closed the weekend we'd be in VA.  We're very glad we did because it was fantastic and included a superb variety of rare New England-made objects, many unique and all quite beautiful.  I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but I promise it's worth reading!  All images taken in the exhibit were strictly for private research use according to the museum's policies, so we're unfortunately unable to share them here, but many of the items are available for viewing on the CHS eMuseum.  Here are a few of our favorites:

- Two panels of a crewel-embroidered linen petticoat dating between 1750 and 1755 (acquisition number 1950.518.0).  The documentation and family history provided with the fragments asserted that this was originally two-thirds of a petticoat created specifically to be worn for a wedding.  I suspect instead that this might have functioned as a underpetticoat, which would account for the very narrow circumference if the fragment does indeed represent two-thirds of the original garment, though that's just a personal speculation; on the other hand, though, the panels are fully embroidered from waist to hem, while many underpetticoats (like this one, which was also featured in the exhibit) were embellished mostly around the bottom third, so my speculation could easily be wrong.  Anyone else have any ideas about that?  At any rate, the embroidery is beautifully done in a stunning floral and vines patterns very representative of the period, and I wish they'd make a pattern off of it because I'd love to recreate it.

- An absolutely amazing linen bedcover, decorated with crewel embroidery, dating to 1760-1770 (acquisition number 1964.35.0).  Be sure to check out the close-up photos to get a better view of the incredible detail in this piece.  The center features an eighteenth-century-clad representation of Adam and Eve.  As I refer back to my photos as I write this, I'm amazed at how fully accessorized these figures are.  That may seem like a random and irrelevant comment, but returning to this bedcover after the accessories symposium, I'm struck by the detail here.  The woman wears an apron and a blue-beaded necklace tied with a yellow-gold ribbon; this same colored ribbon also appears at the peak of her cap (which you can't see) and is used as a breastknot pinned to the front of her gown.  She also holds a fan and sports a pair of buckled red shoes.  Her dashing be-wigged gentleman carries a walking stick and a felt hat.  This just goes to support one of the primary arguments made during the symposium: one simply cannot gain an accurate concept of 18th century dress without looking at it in the context in which it was worn.

- This red satin-weave worsted (calamanco) petticoat (acquisition number 1959.54.2) is a fascinating and unique example of regional needlework.  Its design, which integrates its year of execution - 1758 - is full of whimsy and an eye towards the fantastical.  It includes a mermaid (the symbol of vanity), a lion, a leopard, fish, stags, rabbits, birds, a butterfly, and various flowers and vines.  A sketch of the complete hem design, drawn by Linda Baumgarten and John Watson (of Costume Close-up fame), is included in the catalogue for the exhibit (see below for more on that).

- Faith Trumbull's silk-embroidered overmantel (acquisition number 1925.1.3), dated to approximately 1761.  It is one of a set of three intricately embroidered pastoral pieces, the size of which alone is jaw-dropping.  The scene measures 18.25" by 51.25" (yes, you read that correctly!).  The foundation fabric is a black silk, which means that every last inch of it has been embroidered - aside from the man's breeches, hat, and shoes.  Faith Trumbull, you may recall, is the eldest daughter of CT governor Johnathan Trumbull, whose hometown of Lebanon we recently visited.

- This charmingly adorable and stunning cotton muslin dress (acquisition number 1959.11.2) features white-on-white embroidery and was worn by a teenage Charlotte Perkins in Hartford between 1805 and 1810.  The exhibit's curators speculate that the embroidery was done by Charlotte herself, rather than by a professional, because of its relatively uneven qualities.  The muslin is extremely sheer, which means the gown would have been worn over an underdress (the display features one in pink).

The exhibit catalogue, available directly through the

CT Historical Society.

Although the needlework exhibit is now closed, all of these item are owned by the CT Historical Society and can be viewed by making an appointment with the collection's curator.  A gorgeous full-color 220-page catalogue is also available from CHS and is well worth the price.  The photography is beautifully done and it's chock full of fantastic details about the exhibit items and the history of needlework in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century New England.  I highly recommend it!

I have also traced a couple of video links of the exhibit on YouTube, which offer further glimpses at some of the treasures on display: video one and video two.  Please note that neither of the videos were produced by us.  More images can be seen with this review of the exhibit from Antiques and the Arts Online.

The CT Historical Society frequently offers lectures, book talks, workshops, youth programs, and special events, so if you're in the area, be sure to check out their events calendar.  Their newest permanent exhibit, "Making Connecticut," provides an interactive historical timeline view of the life in and the culture of the area, from native and colonial settlement up through the 21st century.  We were able to browse through much of the exhibit in its preview form and were struck by the museum's innovative initiatives to engage the "modern" museum-goer in history.  Our father's family arrived in the greater NYC area in the late seventeenth century and we can trace their settlement in southwestern CT back almost that far, so seeing this exhibit, arranged in its timeline form, was particularly relevant and interesting to our personal history as well.  The exhibit formally opens on 25 May and we're looking forward to returning to see it in its finished form.