1893
Dress
Grey, two-piece gingham dress with snug fitting bodice, leg-of-mutton sleeves and high collar. Skirt is gored in front and gathered in back. The huge leg-of-mutton sleeves did not last long since it was a fashion that only tall women could wear well. Circumference: 116 inches. Diameter: 36.1 inches.
Edwina Whitney graduated from Oberlin College in 1894 at the age of 26 and moved home and became the first librarian at the Agricultural College in Storrs at the age of 32. She retired in 1934 at age 66. Starting at a salary of $500 a year, with which she supported herself, her aging mother, and a housekeeper, Whitney adopted the variety of means of acquiring clothing that reflect the position of many women at this stage of industrialization. She sewed at home, among many other domestic and farming chores. From local women she acquired a shirtwaist and a dress, made to order. But on occasional shopping trips to Willimantic she ordered hats and in one instance a silk shirtwaist, that she admitted to her diary was too expensive.
Provenance:
Whitney, Miss Edwina Storrs, CT
Construction Label:
Unknown
1960C 1893.9 a b
Grey, two-piece gingham dress with snug fitting bodice, leg-of-mutton sleeves and high collar. Skirt is gored in front and gathered in back. The huge leg-of-mutton sleeves did not last long since it was a fashion that only tall women could wear well. Circumference: 116 inches. Diameter: 36.1 inches.
Edwina Whitney graduated from Oberlin College in 1894 at the age of 26 and moved home and became the first librarian at the Agricultural College in Storrs at the age of 32. She retired in 1934 at age 66. Starting at a salary of $500 a year, with which she supported herself, her aging mother, and a housekeeper, Whitney adopted the variety of means of acquiring clothing that reflect the position of many women at this stage of industrialization. She sewed at home, among many other domestic and farming chores. From local women she acquired a shirtwaist and a dress, made to order. But on occasional shopping trips to Willimantic she ordered hats and in one instance a silk shirtwaist, that she admitted to her diary was too expensive.
Provenance:
Whitney, Miss Edwina Storrs, CT
Construction Label:
Unknown
1960C 1893.9 a b