Dress (3213)

Woman's day dress in silk woven with a changeable effect but with both blue and pink silk in both warp and weft (changeable silk would have one color each direction), creating tiny geometric woven design.

High jewel piped neckline, long-waisted fan-front bodice gathered in six rows of stitches near the pointed, piped waistline. Dropped shoulder, piped armseyes, and flared "pagoda" sleeves extend above wrist, with applied dark blue lace above the hem. The sleeves have a 3.75" self facing at their opening and are lined with glazed cotton twill. The bodice is piped at neck, waistline, and armseyes.

Center back hook and eye closure with twenty hooks and eyes. Bodice is fully lined in brown cotton twill; two long bones at center front and a long bone on each dart, and padding above darts.

Skirt is cartridge-pleated to the bodice, made of eight approximately 18.5" wide panels adding to a c.148" circumference; it is fully lined in tan glazed cotton, with a 1" hem.

Provenance Narrative
Believed to be the wedding gown of Sarah Ann Gault, daughter of Andrew and Mary Dudley Gault. She was born in Pembroke, NH, July 31, 1811; married Matthias Nutter, Feb. 3, 1853, at the late age of 42, and died April 3, 1854. Matthias remarried in 1857 and died in 1862, and shares a tombstone with Sarah.

The donor related that the dress was made by Rebecca Chase Cram. Rebecca and her husband Ruel, a carpenter, are listed in the 1850 census of Pembroke, New Hampshire, in the household next to the Gault family; Rebecca was 32 at the time and Sarah, 38.

Irregularities in the dress's bodice, revealed when put on a manikin, suggest that Sarah may have had scoliosis or something similar. Upon examination it can be seen that measurements on right side of the bodice are longer in several places than on the corresponding left seams. The dress is cleverly constructed to minimize the appearance of this irregularity, suggesting that Rebecca Cram was a very skilled dressmaker.

Place Made
United States NEW HAMPSHIRE Pembroke