Description:
Pair of woman's leather pumps (low shoe with no adjustable fastening) made of green leather uppers and brown soles, and rounded toes, side seams on each side plus a center back seam, square-shaped throat, and lined in an unbleached, plain-weave linen. There is no heel, but a heel seat is present on both; and there are three single ring-like marks or holes on the soles, indicating tack marks during the manufacturing process. A typed index card that came with the slippers notes: "These were the wedding slippers of Mary Dustin, the bride of Col. Moses Dustin. They were married many years before the Revolutionary War." However, these slippers were made between 1810-1815. Moses Dustin (1744-1795), a blacksmith, married Mary Buck (1750-1827) in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1767, and moved first to Chester, New Hampshire, and then Candia, New Hampshire. After the Battle of Lexington in 1775, Moses Dustin was the first person in Candia to sign up. He served first as Lieutenant, then Captain to the end of the war, and was afterwards made Captain of the Alarm List, which gave him a brevet title of Colonel. Their son Moses Dustin (1774-1821/29) married Hannah Dustin (b.1783) in 1801. In the early 19th century, women’s shoes became increasingly delicate and smaller in size. The green-dyed leather on this example proved a sturdier choice than silk or cotton (June Swann noted that the shoes were cheap, but that the green color was very nice). Although this pair is completely flat, incising on the leather sole hints at a raised heel, a feature that would not noticeably return to women’s shoes until the middle of the 1850s. These pumps are a great example of a more modest shoe style for the early 19th century.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2000.37 |
