The short gown

[mary]

While we are familiar with the dress known as the 1830s "high gown," we continue to look into the everyday dress of everyday working women in the Lead Region. Frontier life would take a toll on clothing, and everyday working clothes may have been different from the 1830's "high gown." Many of these fontier ladies were not people of means or descendant from families of means. So what options were available to them?

Our readings of women pioneers reveals that they were similar to ladies of today in many ways-- conscious of colors, fabrics, accessories, and seasonal changes to one's attire. They were also conscious of fashion-- for example evidence indicates that ladies in the pre-1830s Green Bay area would approach new arrivals and ask to copy the newer dress styles for themselves...even to the point of making over older pattern dresses with newer features.

We also get clues from images and paitnings of the period. One of my favorites is an illustration of a lowly cabin scene entitled "An Interior" published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine:



Based on the bonnet style, this engraving appears to be of the post-Colonial American period. But more interesting is the presence of what many would consider to be a Colonial period garment on the girl/woman in the center of the picture with her back to the viewer: a short gown.

What is a "short gown?"

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has defined the short gowns as a-- "Loose T-shaped garments cut to the length of the hip or thigh. Made to wrap or Bed Gown over in front and held together by pinning or held closed with the apron. Made of utilitarian fabrics to be worn by the laboring sort and made of better fabric for the middling sort and worn as undress."

This definition seems to link the short gown with women in the lower rungs of the social order.

In an article for New England area Revolutionary War portrayers entitled "The Shortgown and Bedgown,"
Rhonda McConnon wrote:

'Short gown', is a modern term used to describe a jacket-like garment worn by women in the second half of the 18th, through the early 19th centuries. It is cut with the body, sleeves and skirts all of one piece although the sleeves are often pieced several inches down the shoulder much like the sleeve seam on a shift or man's shirt, therefore, not a set in sleeve. Other piecing is often done to allow for enough yardage. The 'bed jacket' or 'bed gown' is much like the short gown but longer in overall length and with fuller skirts. Garsault in Description des Arts et Metlers, Paris 1769 provides us with drawings for the bed jacket and an idea of how it differs from the extant garments we refer to as short gowns.

I've referred to the term short gown as a modern term, as there is no clear proof of what a short gown is. We have no 'picture' of a short gown with the term "short gown" written next to it. Inventories list them, although not as frequently as gowns, as do run-away ads in the newspapers. We have extant examples we refer to as short gowns with the majority of them being from the mid-Atlantic region.

Sharon Burnston in her book Fitting & Proper, gives us two examples from the Chester County Historical Society. The Society owns 11 such short gowns and is the largest known collection. One, dated 1750-1800, shown in her book, is relevant to our era. What is known about this garment is that it is an everyday, working garment. All such garments known to date are made of linen, cotton or a linen-cotton blend and include solids, stripes and prints. It is thought that because so many of those in existence are from the mid-Atlantic region with a Quaker or Mennonite provenance that they may be of a limited local tradition.

Ms. McConnon's findings appear to be verified in a reading of Rural Pennsylvania Clothing: Being a Study of the Wearing Apparel of the German and English Inhabitants by Ellen J. Gehret. In this book, Ms. Gehret identifies post Revolutionary War short gown garments worn by some ethnic Pennsylvanians.

Additional clues may be seen in a slection of paintings done by the English artist Mary Ellen Best. Ms. Best did her most prodigious work from the tme she left boarding school in 1828 until her marriage some twelve years later. In these paintings, feminine fashion in Europe during the time period of the Mineral District here in America shows "high gowns" being worn by ladies of means, while women identified as servants or other "low" stations wearing garments remarkable similar, if not identical, to the "short gown."

If high gowns are worn during approximately the same time periods in both American and in Europe, is it reasonable to presume that the short gown (known to be worn in pre- and early post Revolutionary War America) was likewise being worn in both Europe and America?

The Harper's engraving suggests that this indeed may be the case! (It appears that the Harper's engraving shows longer fitted sleeves--rolled up by the girl/woman in the engraving--than those sleeves seen in earlier Revolutionary War era examples.)

Because of the lack of hard evidence (for example--dating a specific garment to a specific year or time period) some historical clothing researchers have held back in formally declaring the short gown as a fashion option for women in 1820s-1830s America. However, as we dig deeper into the subject, we may find more clues.

I would appreciate hearing from other persons interested in this topic!

Mary.

[mary]

"OF GOWNS, JACKETS, “SHORTGOWNS”, AND BEDGOWNS: What Should I Really Be Wearing?" by Sue Felshin is an interesting article that includes some commentary on short gowns.

www.18cnewenglandlife.org/of_gowns.htm

Please observe that this article concerns itself with the American Revolution time period--more than 50 years before the "Lead Rush" of 1827.

Mary.

[mary]

In my initial posting, Ms. Rhonda McConnon stated that "short gown" was a "modern term." This may not necessarily be the case.

The following advertisement, for a black runaway named Kate, specifically mentions the garment... but as one word, or "shortgown."

"Thirty Dollars Reward. Ran away from the subscriber living in Whitedeer township Northumberland county, on the night of the 23rd inst. September a Negro Wench named Kate, about 29 years of age, had on and took with her a black wool hat, two calico, two stripped, and one white muslin shortgown, three stripped linsey, one white muslin and one green stuff petticoat, three shifts, one pair high heeled shoes, one pair calfskin and one pair calimanco slippers; and sundry other cloathes unknown. She is of a black complexion, middle size, and wants her foreteeth, and was raised by capt. Crouch deceased late of Paxton. She was seduced away by a negro man who calls himself EDWARD ROBERTS, of a swarthy complexion and has worked some time in the neighborhood and says he is free. Had on a deep blue cloth coat a pair of royal ribb'd overalls a pair of cotton stockings and good shoes talks good English and is very artful and cunning, has said he designed going towards the Gennessee. It is supposed they will pass for man and wife as she is with child to him. Whoever takes up said Wench and Negroe man and secures them in any jail in the State of Pennsylvania so that the subscriber may get the Wench and the Negroe man be convicted, shall recieve the above reward, or fifteen dollars for the Wench and all reasonable charges paid by ROAN McCLURE. September 26, 1801.

Source: The Farmer's Instructor, and Harrisburgh Courant, October 21, 1801. Vol. II, no. 42.

[mary]

An excellent artcle entitled "Historic Costuming"
by Jill Harrison of Historic Southern Indiana included the following segment:

Shortgowns
Shortgowns were loose, unfitted, T-shaped, and commonly unlined jackets that adjusted well to changes in size and shape. The sleeves were pieced on to the body; if made from a striped fabric, the stripes ran around the arm rather than down the length of the arm. This garment was commonly worn by the majority of women who could not afford fashionable gowns requiring yards of costly fabric; nor could these women carry on the strenuous routine of their daily lives when inhibited by the cut of the latest styles. The shortgown is also referred to as a bed-gown or bed jacket, which may sound like something worn to bed. However, that is not the case. It is an everyday working jacket and simple to make since it has no lining. It can be adjusted by size by adding fabric in the back and center front and made large enough to be worn during pregnancy.

Mary.

[Susan Gordy]

Hi Mary!
You should have known that this would eventually catch my eye! Good stuff!

Couple of things...
How cool is the quote referring to the gentlemen runaway in his "pair of royal ribb'd overalls" I am going to ask Saundra Altman about that one. We could start a whole new thread on overalls....

On Shortgowns...
Many people suggest their disappearance into the 19th century however, Tom Shaw wrote an excellent article in the MOMCC Magazine, Spring 1994, Vol. XV, No 1 about an article of clothing found in the Minnesota Historical Society's collection. The garment in question is most probably a shortgown but it is made in the style of an empire gown, with the high waist and long slender sleeves, and a very short skirt. There in no provenance with the garment. Shaw, Saundra Altman, Sarah LeCount, and Nancy Rexford all studied a replica of the garment and the article offers their studied opinions.

There is also an article cited in Shaw's work that would be most useful to have, Claudia Kidwell's "Short Gowns," in Dress: the Journal of the Costume Society of America 4, 1978.

This shortgown and one that I have personally studied at Belle Meade Plantation seem to bear out the theory that shortgowns loosely followed current styles. The shortgown at Belle Meade was made identical to a common shortgown save for the sleeves. The sleeves were long and narrow with a cuff at the wrist. The shortgown was made of a white osnaburg like material. It's waist was at the normal or even slightly below the natural waist. The curators there had dated it to the mid - late 1840s.

Another shortgown can be seen in a Currier and Ives print from the mid-1850s. And yes, the pattern is the same save for her pagoda sleeve as she loads the farm wagon with produce.

The general theme to shortgowns appears to be their usefullness for work.

I promise to continue to be on the lookout for shortgowns!

[mary]

Hello, Susan, and thank you so much for the additional references!

In my readings, I came across another possible clue, from our friend Mrs. Christiana Holmes Tillson:

The 'Squire' had I believe, been a schoolmaster in Barrens Kentucky, the place form which they came. His wife was naturally smart and industious, the latter qualification minus in "Squire Davy." She could read, and entered into all the ploitical interests that came to her knowledge; kept herself and family clean and comfortably clad. ...The whole family were clothed in the winter in linsey and cotton, all of their own manufacture. In summer, a skirt and a waist of copperas and blue plaid homespun, with a necessary undergarment, consituted the dress of the female portion of the family, with the exception of Mrs. Kilpatrick, who very wisely covered her neck with a kercheif of the same material as theri dresses. She was a short, broad, square-built woman, and the kerchief, a yard square, was none too ample to cover her well-developed proportions.

There is so much good information in this description!

Before I stray too far from our main topic, might I ask if you think that the skirt and a waist of copperas and blue plaid homespun combination indicates that the "waist" was indeed a "shortgown?"

[mary]

Our dear contributor "Laurel" writes:

Jane C. Nylander in her book, Our Own Snug Fireside, Images of the New England Home 1760 - 1860, addresses the short gown. "Expensive and inexpensive gowns differed primarily in the matter of the cost of the fabric from which they were made rather than the line or style, although some women preferred to wear hip-length short gowns over an exposed petticoat for daily work."

In the painting "Corn husking Frolic," by Alvin Fisher, 1828 - 1829, two women seem to be wearing short gowns. The women in the front looking over her shoulder and the women bending down with the apron. Notice that the sleeves are narrow and pushed up to the elbow.

It is interesting to note that the fitted sleeves are pushed up, in a manner similar to the Harper's New Monthly illustration seen in the first posting of this thread!



Mary.