Woman's Corset, 1810-1820
date: label: Date made
content: 1825 - 1849
label: Date made
content: 1810-1820
notes: label: Description
content: When this corset was made in the decade between 1810 and 1820 for an unidentified Indiana woman, it represented the latest evolution of a garment that had been essential women’s wear for centuries. Today, the word corset conjures an image of painful tight-lacing that was endured to produce an unnaturally small waist. However, the woman who wore this garment used it simply to support her chest (the brassiere would not be invented for another century) and to confine her shift, a voluminous knee-length undergarment, so that her high-waisted dress would sit smoothly over her torso and hips. If laced correctly, the wearer would have left a gap of several inches between the back edges of the corset, preventing it from being “tight-laced.”
label: Description
content: Even so, this early 19th-century corset was distinctly different from the variations that came before and after it. During the 1700s, women had worn heavily boned, cone-shaped corsets called stays that had flattened their chests and made their torsos triangular. By the middle of the 1800s, the corset was once again heavily reinforced with narrow bones or steels to produce a curvy, hour-glass shape that was round and full both above and below the waist. By contrast, the corset shown here was intended to produce a natural-shaped figure. Hence, it relied mainly on cotton cording rather than bone or steel to coax the wearer’s body into the desired form. The only inflexible part of this corset was a long wooden or bone insert called a busk that slipped into a pocket at the center front and could be removed for washing.
label: Description
content: Because of its lack of boning, this type of corset could be sewn at home without great difficulty. However, making a garment that fit was more complicated. The English author of <i>The Workwoman’s Guide, Containing Instructions to the Inexperienced in Cutting Out and Completing those Articles of Wearing Apparel, &c., Which are Usually Made at Home</i> (1840) suggested that “with respect to the cutting out, it is recommended to those who make their own stays, to purchase a pair from an experienced stay-maker that fit perfectly well, and also a pair cut out, but not made up, so as to be a good pattern for the home-made stays.” Sturdy cotton jean or satin were the most commonly used fabrics for corsets in the early 19th century. White was the preferred color, but gray and brown were both thought to be practical for “inferior” corsets.
label: Description
content: This tan cotton sateen corset is made to be laced up the back through nine pairs of irregularly placed bone eyelets. The shoulder straps are meant to tie in place at the front of the corset through one bone eyelet at the end of each strap and a corresponding one over each shoulder blade. The original lacing and ties are missing. Two triangular inserts of fabric called gussets provide shape and support for each side of the bust. A decorative three-leafed motif is backstitched at the lower end of each bust gusset. Another matching, inverted trefoil is centered below the bust gussets, rising from the midriff. The upper and lower edges, and the edges of the shoulder straps, are bound with dark tan twill tape.
label: Description
content: The only rigid part of this corset would have been a separate smooth strip of wood or bone, just over a foot long and 1.5" wide, called a busk. This would have been inserted through a slotted pocket that is sewn through all layers of fabric onto the white twilled cotton lining, down almost the full length of the center front. The lowest 1.125" of the busk pocket is closed with thirteen closely spaced, vertical rows of quilting. All other shaping is achieved through rows of cording that are run through channels quilted in brown thread through all layers of fabric. Double or triple parallel lines of cording define the high waist, stomach, and hips of the corset. The center front length of the corset body is 14.75"; the center back length of the corset body is 13.875"; the strap length is 7.875"; the edge-to-edge measure at the waist is 20.75".
label: Description
content: To see a cartoon showing a lady slipping a busk into her corset, link to <a href=" http://lwlimages.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneITEM.asp?pid=lwlpr12221&iid=lwlpr12221"><I>Progress of the Toilet.—THE STAYS.—Plate 1.</I></a>, 1810, by J. Gillray at The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. To find out how to make a corset, link to <a href=" http://books.google.com/books?id=JCsBAAAAQAAJ "><i>The workwoman's guide, containing instructions in cutting out and completing articles of wearing apparel, by a lady</i></a> (Second edition: 1840), pages 80 to 83 and Plate 11.
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Textiles
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Hugo Friedrichs
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.256746.006
label: catalog number
content: 256746.006
label: accession number
content: 256746
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Corset
label: Other Terms
content: Corset; Upper Body; Underwear; Female
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: flattened: 18 in x 19 in; 45.72 cm x 48.26 cm