Greencastle, PA

History: The steam engine, cotton gin, trains, steamboats, the electric battery, the bicycle, and early experiments in photography were ushered in during the Industrial Revolution. There was no turning back.  New England became industrialized.  Homespun material was replaced by ready-made material produced in the many mills that sprang up.  Lewis and Clark led Americans westward. The “Romantic Era” began after the War of 1812 and the exile of Napoleon when people were looking for a simpler, calmer way of life.  The music of Beethoven and Mendelssohn filled the air and the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Keats, and Shelley were read.

Fashion: The Empire dress (1800 – mid 1820’s) with a high waistline and very low neckline was worn.  Long, narrow Kashmir shawls accessorized the minimal bodices.  Jackets also provided warmth in cold weather.  1815 – 1830 Heavier fabrics, ruffles, and many embellishments returned fashion to a more feminine style at the beginning of the “Romantic Era.”  About 1825, the waistline was at the normal position, skirts began widening, sleeves were larger, and the corset came back.

Hats: Hairstyles were worn with short curls in the front and a chignon in back, or the hair was cut short all over.  Wigs (perukes) with short hairstyles in red, blonde, and black were in demand.  Smaller hats remained in vogue as well as the long lasting, favorite poke bonnet that evolved into the prairie or sunbonnet. As hairstyles began to rise in the mid 1820’s, beginning first in France and then spreading to England, so did hats.  Hats had tall crowns and wide brims were elaborately decorated.

Ladies were expected to become proficient at needlework, including tatting.  Tatting is a series of knots worked according to different patterns.  The shuttle holds the thread and by maneuvering it in, out, and around the thread, knots are made.  Various pieces of tatting, thread, shuttle, and other accessories are shown on the first table.

ca. 1800–1820   A silk Quaker bonnet in the prevalent form of the period. 

The difference is in “the choice of color, materials, and decidedly plain aspect.  The flat pleating of the crown is very typical Quaker design.  A shawl and two caps accompanied the bonnet in its original box.

Ladies of this period, while wearing these hats, had no peripheral vision.  It would have been like wearing horse blinders.

This display head and the one next to it are reproductions of papier-mâché display heads from the 1840’s and 1850’s.

ca. 1820–1840    Fancy woven straw bonnet with original blue gauze ribbon trim and pale pink silk lining. 

The evidence of a “curtain”, that hung over the neck and used to be attached at the bonnet’s crown, indicates an earlier date of possibly the 1820’s.  I have been conservative in placing the date.