Category: Love

Infant’s Cap and Shirt

Baby “layettes” were among the first garments available for purchase. Still, many– perhaps most– expectant mothers made their own baby linens in anticipation of childbirth, probably swith mixed feelings. Although we in modern times may have an exaggerated sense of the risk of maternal mortality of those days, it is true that the risks of childbirth were greater than today.  Each prospective mother would know at least someone who had died in or soon after childbirth. A pregnant woman’s thoughts while sewing for her baby probably combined love and apprehension lest she not survive to dress her and her husband’s baby herself. Persis Sibley Black wrote shortly before her “confinement” in 1847 that “my last stitch is taken & I am now ready for the event for w’h I am looking daily. . . . As the time draws near I fear & tremble. . . . [and] find myself indulging in forbodings [sic] of evil.” 

Linen shirt, 1740s, gift of Mrs. Amelia Ridgeway Gilbert Benedict, 2382

Infant cap, 1700-1750, linen, DAR Museum, 75.176

Pocketbook, 1776

Names stitched inside colorful pocketbooks show that they were used by both women and men. Men’s pocketbooks were certainly gifts from women in their lives, and many women’s may also have been exchanged as gifts of love or friendship. 

Wool embroidery on canvas ground, gift of Rousena V. Zane 60.5

Suspenders, 1840-60

Patterns for suspenders, slippers, and smoking caps among other accessories for men filled ladies’ magazines as suggested gifts for fathers, husbands, and brothers, being intimate, but not improperly so. The use of romantic roses here suggests a gift for a fiancé or husband. 

Silk embroidery on linen; silk backing; leather with metal springs; DAR Museum  92.173.AB