LACE

During the early nineteenth century lace production became mechanized, first in Europe, then in America. Although the quality could never surpass that of hand-made lace, the amount of time required to make even a single hand-made garment was extensive and the price so high that the market for hand-made lace soon dwindled. Lace-making by hand, using such tools as needles and bobbins, had become a novel pastime and prestigious activity for daughters of wealthy families. These changes forced many lace-makers into factories, and those who remained working in the cottage industries turned to piecework activities, such as mending and hemming factory laces. Crochet emerged from lace making as an alternative that was more profitable as a business, and more enjoyable and less tedious as a leisure activity.

The beauty of lace masked the grim realities of how it was produced. Families who made lace in their homes as piecework, would often enlist the labor of children as young as three. Families survived on the meager wages provided by their employers through collaboration, but the individual pieceworker could barely make a living. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, in her 1844 exposé The Lace-runners, questioned a manufacturer's wage policies only to be told that he expected women to supplement heir income by engaging in prostitution.

The Sewing Machine

The most arduous and time-consuming task of the early American housewife was outfitting her family. During the nineteenth century mechanical innovations gradually emancipated women from their needles. Elias Howe patented the first practical home sewing machine in 1846. It was not until Isaac M. Singer, of New York City, completed his machine and patented it under I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 that they entered the consumer market. Wheeler & Wilson, and Grover & Baker, soon followed in competition. Eighty Year's Progress of the United States, published in 1869, estimates that by 1860 Wheeler & Wilson had made 55,000 machines, Singer & Co. 40,000, and Grover & Baker 35,000. Sewing machine companies successfully traded on ideas of freedom, family, comfort, and social happiness, which explains why by 1870 there were over 200 sewing machine businesses in America alone.

When Singer first introduced his machine at $125, the novelty of owning one was a privilege of the wealthy. In an effort to open the market to families of lesser means, the Singer company introduced the installment plan. Only five dollars down was required to take a machine home, with monthly payments due thereafter. Competitors soon followed suit and by the turn of the century the machines were found in nearly every American home. Sewing machines, by increasing both production and efficiency, afforded many women leisure time, a previously unknown commodity. Middle and upper-class women, in particular, used this new found freedom for activities such as crochet and knitting. This led to the enormous popularity of pattern books, instructional literature, and periodicals relating to needlework.

COLD WEATHER APPAREL

Hand-knit sweaters, scarves, hats, and other cold weather apparel were often preferred in the nineteenth century over manufactured items, which remained inferior in strength and character.

GLOVES

A fashionable accessory in the nineteenth century gloves came in a variety of materials and styles. Middle-aged and older women often wore black lace gloves, while young ladies wore white lace, silk, or kid gloves.

Abigail D. Dreer wearing black fingerless gloves. Half-plate daguerreotype by William and Frederick Langenheim.Quaker

Black Fingerless Gloves. Knit. Mid-19th Century. Lent by the Atwater Kent Museum.

HANDKERCHIEFS

Young girls in the nineteenth century often learned to sew by hemming squares of cloth for handkerchiefs. By adding crochet, knit, or tatted edgings they served as appropriate gifts for family and close friends. Decorative handkerchiefs, made completely of crochet or knitting, became popular around 1840.

COLLARS

CAPS

While most women agreed that a child's bodily warmth was best maintained through wool shirts beneath flannel gowns, they debated the use of caps. A conflict arose between health and fashion as women laboriously stitched beautiful infants' caps while medical doctors protested their use as instruments of sickness trapping feverish heat in a child's scalp. The 1848 Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy by T. Webster and Mrs. Parkes supported the health concerns related to caps: "while the mother is admiring the face and curly hair beneath the heavy hat or bonnet, she is not conscious that the heat and the weight are acting forcibly and prejudiciously on the delicate vessels of the head, often causing headache, if not tendencies to severe diseases." Advisors also associated the use of caps with such ailments as dropsy, eczema, and loss of hair. Crocheted and knitted lace cap patterns, emerging in the 1840s, developed in response to and reconciled practical and aesthetic concerns. Such caps were made of cotton thread with lacy loops, picots, and ruffles that allowed the free flow of air upon the child's head.

INFANTS CAPS

Infant's Cap. Modern crochet reproduction, made with DMC Pearl Cotton, by Nicole H. Scalessa. Pattern from The Ladies' Crochet Manual, 1849.

Infant Bonnet. Knitted cotton or linen, with silk ribbons. Mid 1860-70s. Lent by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

ADULT CAPS

Day Cap, Quaker. White cotton with crocheted lace. Ca. 1840. Lent by the Atwater Kent Museum.

Night Cap, Quaker. Knit cotton. Ca. 1840. Lent by the Atwater Kent Museum.

PURSES

Before the nineteenth century, men carried purses more often than women. The mid-nineteenth century fashion of extravagant purses for women epitomizes their increasing participation in the consumer market. Vivid color combinations, intricate designs, and metallic embellishments of gold and silver commonly adorned this accessory.

HOUSEHOLD DÉCOR

Needlework helped make homes more comfortable, refined, and fashionable, while providing a creative outlet for leisure hours. The Ladies' Work-table Book, published in 1845, professed that "Tender and affectionate, it is her highest bliss to minister to the wants, the convenience, or the pleasure of those she loves; and hence, her inventive powers have been, in all ages, called into early and active exercise, in the fabrication of those articles calculated to accomplish those desirable ends. Amongst these useful and ornamental needlework, knitting, and netting, occupy a distinguished place."

SHAWLS

Women of all classes in the mid-to-late nineteenth century wore shawls. Since women's jackets could not accommodate the fashionably large circumference of their skirts, shawls provided warmth in the cold months of winter. Wealthy women favored imported luxurious cashmere shawls, particularly those from France made with the softest wool and most vibrant colors and those from India featuring finely woven, intricate patterns. These imported shawls inspired a domestic market in cheaper imitations.

Crochet and hand-knit shawl patterns also appeared in periodicals and instructional literature. Despite varying costs and styles, specific guidelines developed to govern the wearing of shawls. In May of 1860 Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine suggested that black and white shawls suited all dress colors, whereas scarlet "should be worn with black, brown, or any undecided color." Blue was to be worn with dark brown or black. Although it was acceptable for women living in colder climates to wrap the shawl tightly across the chest, the literature advised those in warmer climates to drape it over the shoulders -- a look considered far more elegant.

INFANT APPAREL

Authors championed wool in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as an invaluable asset to the health of adults and children alike. In 1794 William Butchman wrote, "the most decided superiority of the Fleecy Hosiery, consists in the powers which wool possess, over all other articles of clothing, in absorbing and conducting moisture." Because cold drafts combined with wet diapers threatened the health of infants, wool seemed a perfect safeguard providing both warmth and the breathable quality needed to keep them dry. Writers also recommended wool clothing for its qualities as a fire retardant. Particularly, for infants kept warm by stoves and fireplaces who were at risk of sparks landing on their clothing. Wool shirts, spensers, slippers, and socks were considered necessities in the middle- and upper-class infant's trousseau, along with flannel gowns and blankets.