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