Description:
Man's two piece suit (coat and breeches) made from a silk velvet featuring a woven geometric design of narrow yellow vertical stripes and light blue staggererd pairs of small rectangles; both design elements are set against a cut pile ground of brown. The suit was worn by Dr. Benjamin Shattuck (1742-1794), Templeton, Massachusetts' first physician, towards the end of his life as a formal garment. The suit is an important example of the ownership of imported fabrics for formal dress by men in more rural areas of the Early Republic. The colonies, and later the United States, had no silk weaving industry until well into the 19th century, and therefore depended on imported fabric (in this case, either English or French) for better clothing.

Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Linen; Silk

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2017.38

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.