Wear It: Reproduction Clothing to Try On
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Several articles of clothing from Historic Northampton's costume collection are showcased in the Making it on Main Street exhibit. These items were made or worn on Main Street. In the hands-on activities area, visitors can try on reproductions of some of these items.
Lynne Zacek Bassett, a costume historian and former curator at Historic Northampton. oversaw all the considerable textile and costume aspects of the exhibit, from creating reproductions to displaying originals to overseeing representations of historic dress in the artwork. Her work was funded in part by a $3000 grant from Northampton's Community Preservation Fund. On display are household textiles, a late 1700s shirt made from blue checked fabric, an 18th-century cloak, and an 1881 two-piece silk dress made by the firm of Mary Ferry and Mary Dickinson on Main Street. In the late 19th-century about 100 women made their living dressmaking in shops, mostly on Main Street. Costume historian Lynne Zacek Bassett worked closely with costume maker Quinn M. Burgess and handweaver Justin Squizzero to develop reproductions for the hands-on activity area of the exhibit. Justin Squizzero makes handspun, naturally dyed, and handwoven textiles using real equipment from the 18th and 19th centuries, on a farm in Vermont where cloth has been made since 1810. Quinn Burgess recreates clothing using the actual methods that were used at different times in history.
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A Cardinal Cloak
Known as a cardinal cloak, the 18-century cloak was popular in the mid to late 1700s, though older men still wore them into the 1830s. The broadcloth that forms the body of this cloak would have been woven on a wide loom then washed and beaten until it was weatherproofed and couldn’t fray on the edges. The museum’s original red cloak is displayed in the Making it on Main Street exhibit.
Quinn M. Burgess’ reproductions - one child size, one adult size - are available to try on in the hands-on area. Burgess saw the cloak while it was being conserved at Museum Textile Services in Andover. She examined the original cloak and took measurements to create the pattern. "It was really neat to see what seams were used, and to figure out what order certain steps in its construction were taken..... I could actually see what steps were taken and follow them to reproduce it exactly," said Burgess. |
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A Woman's Pocket
In the late 1700s, fabric with a blue checked pattern was so common it was used to make everything from aprons to work shirts to curtains. This pattern was so ubiquitous in the Connecticut Valley, and on Main Street, that it was the default cloth for men’s shirts. One newcomer to town in 1768 noted that in the meetinghouse only five or six men were not wearing homemade blue and white checked shirts.
This fabric was also used to make pockets, which at that time were tied around a woman’s waist and accessed through an opening in the outer dress. Men’s pockets were sewn into their clothing. Visitors can try on a pocket, made of handwoven blue checked linen, in the hands-on area. The fabric for the pocket was dyed and then woven, as it was in the 18th-century, by Justin Squizzero of the Burroughs Garret in Vermont. It was sewn by historic costume maker Quinn M. Burgess. |
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A Waistcoat
The waistcoat is modeled after that worn in the 1790s portrait of Main Street by tavern keeper Asahel Pomeroy. His tavern was located on Main Street where Faces and TD Bank are. Visitors can try on Quinn Burgess’s reproduction of this item, which was the flashiest part of any 19th century man’s wardrobe. It helped him to establish his “look” with a splash of color or a sumptuous fabric. It was essential to a man’s ensemble to the point that he would have been considered undressed without it. If the man who wore this waistcoat got too hot under all his layers, he would take off his outer jacket, but never his waistcoat. This makes sense since the shirt he wore under his waistcoat would double as his nightshirt.
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