Description:
Woman's back-fastening corset with shoulder straps dating to the early 19th century. This example was probably made for a young girl, identified in ink on the garment as “Susannah Chittendno.” This may be Susannah Chittenden (1810-after 1880), the daughter of David and Lucy Chittenden of Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, who never married. With the sea change in fashion that occurred in the early 19th century, undergarments quickly evolved to meet new requirements. Rigid 18th century stays that molded the torso into an inverted triangle gave way to softer corsets that guided the body into an hour glass shape. Corsets shaped the wearer primarily through cording, anchored between narrow rows of backstitching for durability. Lest the wearer get too comfortable, a shaped wooden busk inserted down a center-front channel provided a firm shape in front. Lacing at the back through grommets or French holes made of ivory or bone allowed for adjustments in fit. There are no gussets for accommodating the breasts, a common feature on adult women’s corsets by this time. Made of cotton embroidered with matching silk floss at the center top and along the elevated waistline decoration. The corset is reinforced with channels of cotton cording to provide some rigidity. Additional support is achieved with the insertion of a wooden busk into a central channel in the garment. Fifteen bone grommets facilitate the lacing of the garment through a center back fastening system, though the original lacing itself does not survive. The corset is lined with a coarser plain weave cotton. While still providing shape when worn by the wearer, under-shaping devices like corsets were comparatively less restrictive than their eighteenth-century counterparts, foregoing stiff baleen channels in favor of more foregiving cotton cording reinforcement.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.310 |
