Exhibition

Fashion on the Ohio Frontier: 1790-1840
Broadbent Gallery: July 26, 2003, to January 18, 2004
Anne Bissonnette, Curator

The cataloguing record labels this frock coat with curved fronts and a high turned-down collar and its accompanying brown velveteen knee breeches as an army uniform and places the date of origin at ca. 1775-1785. It also mentions that the ensemble was said to have been worn by Ralph Ellinwood in the War of 1812.

Its stylistic components and fashionable color coincide with its given date of origin, but the garment would have been in style into the 1780s and 1790s. By 1812, the cut of this coat would have been out of date in civilian wear. It is doubtful that the garment was created to be an army uniform as it lacks the regimental intricacies and colored facings of most uniforms. Nonetheless, uniforms tend not to change as quickly as civilian wear and, as a result, the cut of this coat could have been similar to those of career officers' uniforms in 1812 (see image below).(2)  Regardless of the blue coat's long life and changing uses, it is unlikely that it was worn in the Northwest Territory at its earliest date of origin (1775) since General Moses Cleaveland (1754-1806) and his party did not reach the borders of the Connecticut Western Reserve until July 4, 1796.(3)

The style of the coat and its good condition makes us wonder if the information on record is true. The coat does lack the trimmings, color facings and intricacies of a military uniform, but could have been used by a militiaman in the War of 1812 since uniforms were not automatically supplied to the militia at this time.(4)  The coat, like the two Spitalfields open robes on display in the exhibition (see image below), was no doubt extremely fashionable in its earliest life and, like the dresses, could have had a long life or even many owners. Unlike the open robes, this garment could not be altered into a newer style of coat such as the morning coat fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century (see image below). However, the fulled wool cloth is of excellent quality and the coat is very large, which would have made it a good candidate for alteration, either for a smaller-sized individual within the family or a customer on the resale market. Surprisingly, the coat is in good condition, does not display any signs of repeat wearing or alterations. It is in fact in better condition than Thomas Worthington's frock coat. That it was preserved unaltered and in such good condition does not suggest that it was a utilitarian piece worn in war but rather that it was an extremely fashionable piece worn to convey status and kept as a memento of its original owner, who, like Thomas Worthington, could have brought it west.

The coat was found at the Western Reserve Historical Society, an institution that focuses on an area in the northeastern part of the state that was far less populated than the southern part until after the War of 1812 and did not grow significantly until after the Ohio canal system was begun in 1825. However, there were prominent individuals who migrated to these parts before statehood in 1803. In 1801, the town of Cleveland (founded in 1796) was to welcome the family of Samuel Huntington (1765-1817), a Yale graduate who toured Europe in 1785 and was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1793.(5)  Huntington is on record as having been involved in pre-statehood issues and, in 1803, to have represented outlying parts of the state, with Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. of Marietta and William Sprigg of Steubenville, on the Ohio Supreme Court.(6)  Although no visual record was found that links the style of the coat to Cleveland men of the period, we can hypothesize that at least one of Cleveland's citizens, Samuel Huntington-who would eventually become the state's third governor (1808-1810)-would have sought appropriate dress similar to that of his colleagues on the Supreme Court bench.

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(1) The English nobleman and fashion monger Charles James Fox is said to have annoyed Parliament by adopting the blue coat and buff waistcoat, the colors of the American rebels, during the Revolutionary War. See Diana de Marly, Fashion for Men: An Illustrated History (New York: Holmes & Meir, 1985), 77. The popularity of blue cloth (wool) redingote with polished steel buttons in the 1780s and 1790s is also mentioned in Philippe Séguy, "Costume in the Age of Napoleon," in The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire 1789-1815, ed. Katell le Bourhis (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989), 51.
(2) See for example the Hottenstein family portraits from the Ohio Historical Society, one of a woman the other of a military man. The portraits are similar in style, execution and dimension and can be assumed to be that of spouses. The woman's gown is from the early nineteenth century (ca. 1800-1820) and the man's curved fronts and high turned-down collar uniform follows the late eighteenth-century style. The cataloguing record also indicates a "military officer (post 1812)." Portrait of a military man, oil on board, unknown maker, Pennsylvania, ca. 1815-1825, Ohio Historical Society, H26428. Portrait of a woman, oil on board, unknown maker, Pennsylvania, ca. 1815-1825, Ohio Historical Society, H26429.
(3) The party reaching the eastern border of the Connecticut Western Reserve had fifty-two individuals, which included two women and several children. By October 18, 1796, most went back to Connecticut with Moses Cleaveland except for Job Stiles, his wife Tabitha Cumi (age 17), Edward Paine, Elijah and Anna Gun as well as James and Eunice Kingsbury and their children. See Douglas Hurt, The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830 (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996), 197; Knepper, 83.
(4) Adrienne Elizabeth Saint-Pierre, "Clothing and Clothing Textiles in Ohio, Circa 1788 to 1835: A Study Based on Manuscript and Artifact Evidence" (Master's thesis, Wright State University, 1988), 93.
(5) S. Winifred Smith, "The Ohio Historical Society, Ohio Fundamental Documents, Searchable Database, Samuel Huntington," Ohio Historical Society, http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/
ohgovernment/governors/huntingt.html (accessed August 28, 2003).
(6) George Knepper, Ohio and Its People (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1989), 99.