File:Two centuries of costume in America, MDCXX-MDCCCXX (1903) (14763214945).jpg

Identifier: twocentsofcostu01earl (find matches)
Title: Two centuries of costume in America, MDCXX-MDCCCXX
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911
Subjects: Clothing and dress
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company London, Macmillan & co., ltd.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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lowered calicosamares were worth .£1 ioj. They were evidentlyof varying weights for summer and winter wear, andwere worn over the rich petticoat. The bill of the Salem tailor, William Sweatland(1679), shows that he charged gs. for making ascarlet petticoat with silver lace; for making ablack broadcloth gown iSs.; while new-makeinga plush somar for Mrs (which was making over)was 6s.; making a somar for your Maide wasioj., which was the same price he charged formaking a gown for the maid. The colors in the Dutch gowns were uniformlygay. Madam Cornelia de Vos in a green cloth pet-ticoat, a red and blue Haarlamer waistcoat, apair of red and yellow sleeves, a white cornet cap,green stockings with crimson clocks, and a purple Pooyse apron was a blooming flower-bed ofcolor. I fear we have unconsciously formed our mentalpictures of our Dutch forefathers through the vividdescriptions of Washington Irving. We certainlycannot improve upon his account of the Dutchhousewife of New Amsterdam : —
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Mrs. Magdalen Beekman. Attire of Virginia Dames 105 Their hair, untortured by the abominations of art,was scrupulously pomatumed back from their foreheadswith a candle, and covered with a little cap of quilted cal-ico, which fitted exactly to their heads. Their petticoatsof linsey-woolsey were striped with a variety of gorgeousdyes, though I must confess those gallant garments wererather short, scarce reaching below the knee; but thenthey made up in the number, which generally equalled thatof the gentlemens small-clothes ; and what is still morepraise-worthy, they were all of their own manufacture,—of which circumstance, as may well be supposed, theywere not a little vain. Those were the honest days, in which every womanstayed at home, read the Bible, and wore pockets, — ay,and that, too, of a goodly size, fashioned with patchworkinto many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on theoutside. These, in fact, were convenient receptacles whereall good housewives carefully stored a

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