Mary Lincoln's Fashions

[RJNorton]

(08-24-2014 03:42 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  RE: "Actually the first bathtub at the White House was the Potomac River." (on the linked site) - John Quincy Adams was said to swim nude in the Potomac early each morning.

Quoting from the History of Old website:

"One morning while skinny dipping, Adams was coerced into becoming the first President to grant an interview to a female reporter. Having been refused an interview in the past, a certain Ann Royall took matters into her own hands by acting on knowledge of the President's morning routine. One morning when Adams was skinny dipping, Royall sat on his clothes and refused to leave until granted an interview. History tells us that the President valued his physical decency above his scorn for Ms. Royall, as she became the first female reporter to interview a President of the United States (naked or otherwise)."

(08-24-2014 06:30 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Wasn't he the President with a pet alligator?

Apparently the alligator was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger, cool story! Very smart lady, Ann Royall!
Did the gift come with a muzzle?

[Eva Elisabeth]

(08-23-2014 06:25 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  I wonder how and how often these dresses were washed? Also I wonder what personal hygene and the respective facilities looked like in the White House, and if there Napoleon's custom of "Don't wash!" and using lots of Eau de Cologne instead was the fashion of those days, too?

Thought these links might be worth sharing:
http://www.hoover.archives.gov/LIW/pione...hores.html

http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/blue-mondays.html

[L Verge]

Years ago, Surratt House sponsored a month-long exhibit entitled Never Done about what a housewife's life was like in the 1800s. We were lucky to have a member who was an antique dealer, but also specialized in household items because she worked with our county extension service.

Just the display for washday Monday that we set up in the period kitchen was enough to give you a backache. When we researched what a typical washday consisted of - and the huge amount of weight involved with dirty laundry, wet laundry, filling at least two or three washtubs, boiling water, making starch, bluing the whites, hanging on lines to dry, etc. - we all went home and kissed our electric appliances!

One source that was quoted in our little booklet that accompanied the exhibit was a statement made by a young lady from Old Salem, NC: "As I watch Sister McAnully and Sister Hall do the laundry, I make some elementary calculations. If it takes seven buckets of water to fill the kettle in which four batches of scrubbed laundry are boiled, if each of the four batches must be rinsed four times, if each rinse takes two buckets of water, and if each bucket of water weighs twenty-five pounds, how much water must the sisters haul before the job is done? The answer: nine hundred seventy-five pounds. That is not to mention the wood they must carry into the washhouse for the fire under the kettle, or the wooden tubs full of wet laundry that they carry from the kettle to the bench in the yard when the rinsing is done, or the rinsed laundry that they take to the clothesline and hang up."

Washing the cotton lace (Nottingham lace) curtains that were in vogue in the mid-1800s also required special drying techniques. Once washed, blued, and starched, the curtains were taken to an inside, unoccupied room and placed on sheets, where they were pinned down at intervals of 2-3 inches -- kinda hard on the knees. Some women rigged up their quilting frames with pegs and hooks so that five or six panels could be laid to dry on top of each other. This led to the invention of the curtain stretcher, which some of you may remember your mothers using up until the mid-1900s. Those are killers on the fingers, and you may end up bleeding on your clean curtains!

When it came to ironing, there were various sizes and weights depending on the type of material being ironed. At least two to five irons were used at one session, with at least one heating while one is being used. The average weight of the irons was six pounds. An iron could be used for about five minutes before it needed to be replaced. So much for the good old days when it comes to labor...

[Eva Elisabeth]

Nice aside:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.de/2012/...y.html?m=1

AFAIK, Abraham Lincoln's suits had always been tailor made whereas in the Springfield years Mary sew her dresses and the children's clothes. Why not her husbands, too, at least in the early days of meager finances? Was it more difficult to sew suits, or was it simply a matter of that the clothing of the "head of the family" and breadwinner was not to be homemade?

[BettyO]

Most men's clothing, i.e. suits - vest, frock coat and trousers, were tayored; an entirely different form of sewing. Accessories such as shirts, socks, handkerchiefs, as well as some suspenders (usually needlepoint) were made by women at home although they could be also purchased.

[L Verge]

Speaking of suspenders (or galluses), we once displayed a pair of Victorian wedding suspenders that had been lovingly needlepointed by the bride for her husband-to-be to wear on his wedding day during the exhibits and mock ceremonies that we held annually each June for about a dozen years.

We also have on display a linen handkerchief embroidered with "Surratt" that once belonged to John, Jr. It came to us via a family whose daughter had young John as a teacher for a brief period following his nolle pross in the courts.

PS: I bet Mr. Lincoln's tailor hated every minute of trying to get a good fit on Mr. Lean and Lank...

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks for your replies! Betty, may I ask - what are needlepoint suspenders?

[Donna McCreary]

(10-21-2014 06:44 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks for your replies! Betty, may I ask - what are needlepoint suspenders?

Is it okay if I answer this one Eva?
Suspenders are sometimes called braces. They are worn over the shoulders and buttoned into the waist of the pants' waistline to hold up the trousers. Needlepoint is embroidery worked over canvas, typically in a diagonal stitch. It covers the entire surface of the fabric and is often used to create elaborate designs.

Can someone post a photo of a pair of needlepoint braces so Eva can see the beautiful design work?

[STS Lincolnite]

(02-10-2015 02:03 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  

(10-21-2014 06:44 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks for your replies! Betty, may I ask - what are needlepoint suspenders?

Is it okay if I answer this one Eva?
Suspenders are sometimes called braces. They are worn over the shoulders and buttoned into the waist of the pants' waistline to hold up the trousers. Needlepoint is embroidery worked over canvas, typically in a diagonal stitch. It covers the entire surface of the fabric and is often used to create elaborate designs.

Can someone post a photo of a pair of needlepoint braces so Eva can see the beautiful design work?

I found this image of men's needlepoint braces (or suspenders) online.

[Donna McCreary]

(02-10-2015 02:17 PM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  

(02-10-2015 02:03 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  

(10-21-2014 06:44 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks for your replies! Betty, may I ask - what are needlepoint suspenders?

Is it okay if I answer this one Eva?
Suspenders are sometimes called braces. They are worn over the shoulders and buttoned into the waist of the pants' waistline to hold up the trousers. Needlepoint is embroidery worked over canvas, typically in a diagonal stitch. It covers the entire surface of the fabric and is often used to create elaborate designs.

Can someone post a photo of a pair of needlepoint braces so Eva can see the beautiful design work?

I found this image of men's needlepoint braces (or suspenders) online.

What a beautiful example! Thanks so much.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Donna and Scott! I wasn't sure if needlepoint actually meant embroidery. Scott, these suspenders look much like traditional Bavarian ones:
   
...which, in Germany, are practically only worn in Bavaria (but there with uttermost patriotic passion). Were such colorful designs as the ones you posted worn in the USA in the 19th century? Are they still worn?

[Donna McCreary]

I have seen very elaborate designs on 19th century suspenders. There were also those that were stripped. My grandfather use to wear plain black ones all the time. They went out of fashion several years ago, but have made somewhat of a comeback. My son wears a pair of solid black or dark blue ones with a 3-piece suit.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Donna.

[Anita]

   

Go here to see some great photos of hand-painted 19th C suspenders along with an article on the the history of suspenders that begins in the 1820s. https://uritextilesandapparel.wikispaces...Suspenders