Dress to Impress
Dress to Impress
You can’t deny that there’s something about a black-and-white photograph that feels… stuffy. With portraits showing people with their shirts buttoned right to the chin and everything in shades of gray and brown, our imaginations can incline to thinking of the past as a bit staid, if not downright dull. But look a little closer, and you’ll see signs that the fashion sensibilities of those who came before us were more vibrant than you might think.
In the daguerreotype of the Crittenden family, notice a bold plaid dress, a tight checkered shirt, AND a striped bonnet. Or that the woman who stood alone for her portrait chose a decidedly loud pattern for her outfit. And how the Ojibwa family dressed themselves in various floral fabrics and finely crafted bandolier bags made with bright fabrics and beads that carried cultural significance.
The early American past was, after all, lived in full color. From the fabrics people wore, to the games they played, or the books they read, the world was awash in bright hues. This exhibit invites you to reimagine history with a fuller color palette and picture the vibrancy and joy that just might be hidden behind the unsmiling photographs.
J. Borry, [Ojibwa Family], cabinet card. Thief River Falls, Minn., [between 1890 and 1900]. Richard Pohrt, Jr. Collection of Native American Photography. [Digital Collection]
Charles Wesley Howorth, [Studio portrait of a woman in a patterned dress], cabinet card. Edmore, Mich., [ca. 1880-1890]. David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography. The majority portion donated by David B. Walters in honor of Harold L. Walters, UM class of 1947 and Marilyn S. Walters, UM class of 1950. [Finding Aid]
[Clara Jones Crittenden, Churchill Crittenden, Laura Crittenden Sanchez, James Love Crittenden, and Ann Churchill Crittenden Van Wyck], tinted half-plate daguerreotype with gilt highlights, [ca. 1855]. Crittenden Family Papers. [Finding Aid]
The striking colors displayed in this nineteenth-century thread sample book and treatise on dying fabric would have appealed to consumers eager to sport fashionable clothing. Three examples drawn from the Book Division show how people used or saved bright fabrics, suggesting just how much these richly colored items were enjoyed by Americans. Whether a beautiful remnant was used to cover a book, or small clipped swatches were laid between pages, the library’s collections hold many signs that the clothing people wore and loved went far beyond the expected black, gray, and brown.
E.C. Haserick, The Secrets of the Art of Dyeing Wool, Cotton, and Linen, including Bleaching and Coloring Wool and Cotton Hosiery and Random-Yarns: A Treatise Based on Economy and Practice. Cambridge, [Mass.]: Welch, Bigelow, and Company, 1869. [Catalog Record]
John N. Leonard & Co., Northampton, Mass., Sample Card: Silk and Twist, New and Standard Shades, Season 1890. [Northampton, Mass.]: [John N. Leonard & Co.], [1890]. [Catalog Record]
The Southern Reader; or, Child’s Second Reading Book: Containing Simple Reading Lessons, Progressively Arranged. Richmond: Drinker & Morris, 1845. [Catalog Record]
Hunts’ Family Almanac for 1851. Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt & Son, [1850]. [Catalog Record]
The Complete Letter Writer; Containing a Great Variety of Letters on the Following Subjects: Relationship, Business, Love, Courtship and Marriage, Friendship, and Miscellaneous Letters, Law Forms, &c., &c. Selected from Judicious and Eminent Writers. New-York: Leavitt & Company, 1851. With selections of fabric swatches displayed. [Catalog Record]
