National Museum of American History
Suiting Everyone
September 21, 1974 – August 31, 1978
This exhibition explores 200 years of the change in the design and manufacture of American clothing. The exhibition contrasts 18th-century attire of the wealthy with that of the vast majority, then looks at the changes that occurred when mass production made inexpensive clothes available to everyone.
Machines for cutting, sewing, and pressing are on view, along with a period setting of the Philadelphia U.S. Army Clothing Establishment, the earliest large-scale attempt to manufacture clothing in bulk (in 4 standard sizes), as it would have appeared in the 1840s.
Book: Suiting Everyone
