Woman's Dress, 1750-1780
date: label: Date made
content: 1750 - 1780
name: label: owned by
content: Pinckney, Eliza Lucas
label: maker
content: Pinckney, Eliza Lucas
notes: label: Description
content: Three individual pieces comprise this sacque or sack dress – an opened-front dress with the trademark box-pleats dropping from the back with a matching petticoat and a stomacher. The stomacher is a removable, decorative panel that fills in the v-shaped void that extends from the chest to the waist in the front of a gown. Mrs. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, the original owner, was the wife of Col. Chief Justice Charles Pinckney and the mother of two Revolutionary War veterans who became important early American politicians. According to historical records, the silk for this gown, and two others, was made from silkworms raised on the Pinckney plantation near Charleston, SC.
label: Description
content: The practice of sericulture, or the rearing of silkworms, gained renewed interest in the American colonies during the early to mid 18th century. Plantation owners first in Georgia and later South Carolina planted mulberry trees to accommodate the Asian imported silkworms. Sericulture was never profitable enough to overtake cotton as a viable textile crop in the American south. However, Mrs. Pinckney was a trailblazer in colonial agriculture actively supporting the cultivation of both indigo and silk in her region.
label: Description
content: The silk thread, produced in Charleston under the supervision of Mrs. Pinckney, was then exported to England to be woven into damask dress fabric in Spitalfields, an area of London renowned for its weaving industry. One dress was said to have been gifted to Princess Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales (mother of the future George III) and the other to Lord Chesterfield, a friend of the Colonies.
label: Description
content: In the late 1920s, this dress was altered considerably so that it could to be worn as a wedding dress by a member of the Pinckney family.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: South Carolina, Charleston
label: used in
content: United States: South Carolina
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: Elizabeth R. Pinckney and Sarah P. Ambler
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2008.0002.001
label: catalog number
content: 2008.0002.001
label: accession number
content: 2008.0002
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dress, 3-Piece
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Woman
label: Object Type
content: Dress
label: Object Type
content: Entire Body
label: Other Terms
content: Dress, 3-Piece; Entire Body; Main Dress; Female
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: linen (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: stomacher: 12 3/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 32.385 cm x 24.13 cm