dress, 2-piece
date: label: Date made
content: 1885-1888
notes: label: Description
content: This dress was worn by Grace Greenwood Ziegler Fahnestock. In 1873, when she was 22, she married Louis Fahnestock of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who was 24. He had been educated at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and was an engineer. In 1870, he was one of the members of the engineering party sent West to build the North Pacific Railroad. Soon he was working for the railroad in St. Paul, Minnesota, and later he was associated with the German-American Bank there. After their marriage, they moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1889, they moved again, this time to Washington, D. C. where he was involved with the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Together they had five children including four sons and a daughter She died in 1915, but Mr. Fahnestock lived to be 100 years old, dying in Washington in 1949.
label: Description
content: The family always believed that this dress was part of Grace's trousseau that she took with her to "the frontier." However, the style of the dress indicates that it was made in the 1880s when Grace and her husband were already living in Minnesota. The basque or bodice is very short which is a fashionable detail of the1880s rather than the 1870s. There is no evidence of the dress having been remade, except that one seam has been let out, presumably because she gained weight. It is a very plain example of a bustle dress with very little trimming. It would have been appropriate daytime attire for a middle-class woman living in a relatively small town.
label: Description
content: This two-piece bustle style dress is constructed of pink silk taffeta. The bodice has a round neck edged with self-piping. The center front opening fastens with ten self-fabric buttons decorated with thread. The bodice has a waist seam with the sides and back longer in length than the center front and two boned darts on either side of the center front. The lower edge of the bodice center front is edged with wadded self-fabric, and the front bodice extends over the shoulders and into the sides. There are two pieces on either side of the bodice center back seam, and the pleated peplum at the back is trimmed at the center back waist with two self-covered buttons decorated with thread. The three-quarter length sleeves on the bodice are trimmed with self-ruffles ending in points that are edged with wadded piping. The bodice is lined with white cotton. The skirt is trained with an inverted pleat on either side of center front and gauging at the center back for fullness. There is an opening at the right side of the skirt for the pocket. The skirt is lined with glazed white cotton, and the lower edge is faced with a light pink glazed cotton. The waist measures 23 inches.
label: Description
content: This dress was exhibited in the Hall of American Costume at the Smithsonian Institution from 1964 to1973.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: used in
content: United States: Minnesota, St. Paul
topic: label: used for
content: Weddings, Trousseau
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 Mrs. Louis Fahnestock
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.225209.001
label: catalog number
content: 225209.001
label: accession number
content: 225209
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dress, 2-Piece
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Woman
label: Object Type
content: Dress
label: Object Type
content: Entire Body
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: waist: 23 in; x 58.42 cm