breeches
date: label: date made
content: 1865-1875
label: associated date
content: 1869-1877
name: label: referenced
content: Grant, Ulysses S.
label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: Breeches. Breeches belonging to a two piece brown boy's suit. Brown velvet with inner linning made of cotton (soiled). There are three vegetable ivory buttons located on each side of the lower left and right side of the breeches. On the front of the breeches is light staining from being treated for mildue in July of 2010. The top of the pants has four button holes on the front and the back that could connect to the matching brown velvet jacket (1900.0388.204a). Inner linning of the top of the breeches is brown with tan horizontal stripes and dark brown vertical stripes.
label: Description
content: Breeches (belonging to two piece brown boy's suit) is part of a collection assembled by Rosley Angel Fieldston, the mother of Heidi Fiedston who donated the collection. The collector started amassing books, references, sells catalogs, garments, accessories, dolls, lace scraps, fabric, ribbon, etc. in the late 1950s and continued until her death in 1987. She was working toward assembling a series of "authentically" dressed dolls the size of a three year old child. The primary series was to represent childhood in each of the Presidential terms. Davey Grant (1869-1877) a doll from the Rosely Angel Fieldston's collection of Presidental Figures was dresssed in this brown velvet two piece suit. Accessories that Fieldston displayed with the suit were a brown velvet cap trimmed with a cord and fringe and a pair of red stripped socks (possibly 1990.0388.208). Catalog card indicated Fieldston used doll she refered to as "Presidential doll, 13" to display this two piece suit. Ideal Toy Co. manufactured the dolls Fieldston used which was commercially called "Patty Playpal". In the early 60's Fieldston discorvered the dolls were 36 inches and have preportions of a three year old. Over the few years, with the assistance of an Ideal Toy Co. Vice President who saw a possible public relations exhibit (never consummated), she had assembled more than 30 dolls and outfitted each of them fully in the clothing of a Presidential period. She went through great pains to build completely accurate historical and sociological portraits based on extensive research in her own library and correspondence on questions with museum costume departments, historical societies, libraries. Some of the clothing she cut down and a few pieces were painstakingly researched reproductions. There was an extensive note file for each child, triumphantly identifying any item for which she had found a pictorial source (and there were many). Her files also cross referenced the children’s clothing identified in her library and museum visits and built her own history of various types of garments (petticoats, boys’ dresses, stockings, hats) based again on historical pictorial references.
label: Description
content: Fieldston viewed the finished work as “sculpture” and an expressive teaching. Each doll child (as she referred to them) had a name and a story. For each she kept and ever-growing file of notes on the period; sociopolitical events; daily life; laundry; trivia; understanding of gender. These were woven into text of talk/lectures she gave when showing the collection to school groups, women’s clubs, etc.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: Massachusetts, Scituate
topic: label: associated subject
content: Presidency
label: associated subject
content: Childhood
label: associated subject
content: Boys
label: associated subject
content: Daily Life
label: associated subject
content: Dolls
label: associated subject
content: Gender
label: associated subject
content: Collectors
label: associated subject
content: Adolescence
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Heidi Fieldston
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0388.204b
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0388.204
label: accession number
content: 1990.0388
objectType: label: Object Name
content: breeches
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: velvet (outside material)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton (linning material)
label: Physical Description
content: vegetable ivory (buttons material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, breeches laid flat (unmounted): 17 1/2 in x 18 1/8 in x 1 7/16 in; 44.45 cm x 46.0375 cm x 3.65252 cm