Description:
Woman's wedding dress with a matching pellerine and waist sash, worn by Jane Fidelia Stowell (1841-1904) of South Deerfield who married George Washington Bardwell (b. 1836) of Whately on either September 26 or November 26, 1869. Stowell was the daughter of Cyrus A. and Juliette Stowell. Bardwell was the son of Samantha Perry and John Moore Bardwell. Stowell was Bardwell's second wife; he married his first wife Anna Hussey (1839-1868) on May 18, 1859. Before the 20th century, a woman's wedding dress was expected to also serve as her best or most formal dress during the early years of marriage. The lightweight weave of the barege fabric (a mixture of silk warp and wool weft) was not necessarily the warmest fabric for this November wedding, although silk and wool can insulate the body. The dress represents an important transitional time in 19th-century women's fashion, when the fashionable elliptical skirt shape begins to reduce in size, just before the appearance of the bustle c. 1870. In this example, the bow at he center back of the waist sash hints at the emergence of the bustle. It is likely that Stowell, who would have been 28 years old at the time of her marriage, had her dress made up especially for the wedding, probably by a local dressmaker.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2003.28 |
