Kent State University Museum: Centuries of Childhood

Exhibition

Centuries of Childhood
Alumni Gallery, September 27, 2000 to September 31, 2001
Anne Bissonnette, Curator

Children's garments from 1870 to 1889

Young lady's plaid ensemble
Origin unknown, c.1874-75
Cotton woven plaid ensemble. Fitted bodice with band collar and self-fabric ruffle on wrists and hem. Back princess panels have horizontal pleats that can accommodate a bustle-style silhouette.
Kent State University Museum, Silverman-Rodgers Collection, KSUM 1987.41.148ab

Girl's brown wool dress with magenta embroidery
United State of America, c.1876-79
Brown chiné wool flannel dress with magenta floral embroidered self-fabric bands. Dark mother-of-pearl buttons at closure and bustle-styled back. Made by Fanny Knepfly Schaeffer for her daughter Hattie Louise Schaeffer.
Kent State University Museum, Offered gift of Paula Mealy, KSUM T00.50.8

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURE OF GARMENT ABOVE
AND WEARER DURING THE 1870s

Girl's brown wool dress with yellow embroidery
United State of America, c.1876-79
Brown chiné wool flannel dress with varigated yellow floral embroidered self-fabric bands.
Dark mother-of-pearl buttons at closure and bustle-styled back. Made by Fanny Knepfly Schaeffer for her daughter Nellie Schaeffer (Jones).
Kent State University Museum, Offered gift of Paula Mealy, KSUM T00.50.7

As seen in the image printed behind the gowns, Hattie Louise and Nellie Schaeffer were at the height of fashion in their narrow princess-line dresses complete with bustled back skirts. The simplicity and ease adopted at the beginning of the century had completely vanished, and children were again dressed in copies of adult fashions, complete with the elaborate underpinnings. As Classicism gave way to Romanticism, the growing need to display social status expressed itself in women's and children's clothing. Although heavily trimmed and decorated, children's clothes were nonetheless usually simpler than those of adults, and girls' and young boys' dresses shorter than their mother's, in an age-defined system.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURE OF GARMENT ABOVE
AND WEARER DURING THE 1870s

Girl's ivory gauze ensemble
Possibly from the United States of America, c.1877-82
Green striped ivory silk gauze ensemble with below the knee skirt draped at the lower back to
accommodate a bustle.
Kent State University Museum, Silverman-Rodgers Collection, KSUM 1983.1.205ab

Black skin papier-mâché doll
United States of America, c.1870s-80s
Rag doll with papier-mâché head and china eyes wearing a brown silk dress and aprons and a yellow sash. Petticoat, bodice and drawers worn underneath. Belonged to Eugenia Shepley.
Collection of the Massillon Museum, gift of Mrs. Jerome F. Shepley, KSUM L00.14.11a-h

Girl's caramel-colored damask ensemble
United States of America, c.1870s
Floral damask and silk velvet ensemble with velvet mock vest front. The skirt has a draped back apron typical of the period, which accentuates the bustled silhouette.
Worn by Hattie Barton-Brown-Martin, née Sawyer, born in the 1860s.
Kent State University Museum, gift of April S. Huntington, KSUM 1987.79.1a-c

Boy's beige linen suit
United States of America, c.1880
Unlined beige linen jacket with asymmetrical buttoning worn with knee breeches open at the lower part of the front crotch.
Helen Clark Ward Costume Collection, Allen Memorial Art Museum,
Oberlin College, Gift of F. J. Stanton McLaughlin, 1953, L1995.17.169ab