Quilted petticoat
date: label: Date
content: 1830s-1840s; repurposed 1890s
name: label: Created by
content: Unidentified
notes: label: Description
content: This quilted petticoat may have been made from a repurposed wholecloth bedcover or refashioned from a once larger skirt. The front of the textile is faced with a small-scale printed floral vine design in white, yellow, purple, and red blossoms with green leaves on a light brown ground. The back of the textile is faced with an orange striped cotton. A layer of cotton batting was quilted between the front and back facing fabrics. It was hand quilted with off-white cotton thread in an offset grid pattern with a leafy vine border design. The floral printed fabric was turned and hand stitched to the back fabric as binding. The fabrics and quilted motifs indicate it was probably made in the 1830s or 1840s. The fabric may have been imported from France.
label: Description
content: The cut textile is turned under and the edges left raw at the interior waistline of the petticoat and the cotton batting can be seen along these raw edges. A small piece of printed cotton with a small-scale repeating design of purple flowers on a yellow ground is stitched at the interior proper left front waist. A long length of off-white cotton twill tape is attached around the back waist to hold gathers in the petticoat. The twill tape remains loose on the front so that the front of the petticoat has a flat silhouette. The petticoat is closed by tying these loose lengths of twill tape at the front waist.The hem of the petticoat is the original binding of the bedcover and the quilted vine border of the bedcover is turned horizontal around the bottom of the petticoat. The textile was probably repurposed into its current form as a petticoat between the 1870s and 1890s due to the flat front and gathered back waist.
place: label: Place used
content: United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Clothing and dress
label: Topic
content: Reconstruction, U.S. History, 1865-1877
label: Topic
content: Slavery
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, 1865-1921
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, Civil War, 1861-1865
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: Robinson Family Collection of African American History
label: Classification
content: Slavery and Freedom Objects
label: Classification
content: Clothing - Fashion and Historical
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Aaron and Maureen Robinson and Family
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2014.180.1
objectType: label: Type
content: quilts
label: Type
content: petticoats
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No Known Copyright Restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: cotton fabric and cotton batting
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (On form): 37 × 24 × 20 in. (94 × 61 × 50.8 cm)