Collections record Beta

Dress

1966-01-129 A-D

Dark brown dress with separate skirt and bodice. Brown fabric is printed silk with a small floral decoration. Full skirt (C) that shows signs of being taken out at one time and readjusted. Skirt is accompanied by two bodices. One has long full sleeves trimmed with green silk tape (A). Oval neckline, cut straight down front and around waist. Front closes with hooks and eyes and nine buttons covered with green silk. Front of bodice is also trimmed in green silk tape. The second bodice (B) is made of the same brown silk with floral print. Sleeves have been removed along with the trimmings and buttons. Various scraps of silk (D) accompany the skirt and bodices.

This dress was owned by Jane Wadhams Stevens. Jane Wadhams Stevens of Goshen, Connecticut was born April 5, 1815. From 1830-1832 Jane's parents, David and Phoebe Collins Wadhams, sent Jane to Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. On October 21, 1845 she married Henry Ward Stevens of New Marlboro, Massachusetts. During their marriage Jane and Henry had one child. She passed away December 11, 1862.

At the time this garment dates from the natural waist placement of the popular fashions combined with sloping shoulders and a full skirt to create the look of a tiny waist. By the mid 1860s, sleeves had begun to narrow from the bell shaped designs of the previous decade, and skirts became less cylindrical and more oblong with the fabric of the skirt concentrated in the back. Although many of these elements came from Europe, the American Civil War contributed stylistic details as well. For example, the teal trim on this bodice shows the inspiration from military uniforms during war time.

c.1865

• silk