Woman's Dress, 1799

According to family tradition, this dress was worn in 1799 when Sarah Pond, the daughter of Bartholew Pond, wed Hezekiah Cummings in New York State, probably in the Oneida area. The information about these people is sketchy, but the family believes that the dress was later given to Sarah's niece, through whose family it descended until it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.

Although this dress with its bold colors would have been very striking when first worn, printed wool dresses like this one rarely survived due to their nature. Their loose weave did not contribute to long wear as evidenced by the many holes and snags in this dress, some of which were patched with additional fabric and others which were simply mended. Wherever the seams were not finished, the wool has unraveled over the years, especially at the waist.

The woman who made this dress was trying to do so in a period of great transition for women's clothing. While she understood some of the new techniques for construction, such as the skirt having both the front and back cut on the grain, she was less certain about how to cut the bodice and the sleeves. Many dresses from this period have long straight sleeves but, unlike this dress, are often cut on the bias for ease. Although she was also attempting to follow newer techniques for putting in the sleeves, she did not understand how to do it perfectly.

This empire style one-piece dress is constructed from an orange loose-weave twill wool. The fabric is printed allover with a small sprig pattern in black. The front neck edge is a modified U-shape with a higher neckline in the back. The neckline edge is bound with dark gray wool that ends at the back shoulder seams. There are no darts in the bodice front. The top and sides of the bodice front continue to the back, where they are applied with top stitching. A center back opening in the bodice extends into the skirt section with a drawstring closure at the back neck edge and the waist. The long, very narrow sleeves are cut in one piece with a slight fullness at the top of the sleeves. The armholes are shaped with gussets at the underarms for ease. The skirt front is cut on the straight of the grain, widening near the hemline. The skirt back is also cut straight with side insets to create fullness. A fold over hem has a tuck just above the lower edge. The bodice back, shoulders, and front sides are lined with natural colored linen. The waist measures 36 inches.

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