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Inside Old

Sturbridge Village’s

New Publication:

NEEDLE & THREAD

By Rebecca Beall and Derek Heidemann

oday, we live in a world where obtaining clothing is often as Styles and technology were ever-changing. The American Industrial
simple as the click of a mouse or the tap of a screen. Clothing is Revolution in the early 19th century led to the growth of numerous
Tseemingly sold everywhere and we do not often think of the textile mills throughout New England. Men, women, and children who
complex manufacturing systems that produce what we and our families were enslaved on Southern plantations toiled against their will to
wear every day. Clothing a nineteenth-century family had its own produce the cotton that Northern mills craved for the steadily expanding
complexities, and it was a process that we often have misconceptions American textile industry as demand for inexpensive, domestically
about. One of these is that it was solely the responsibility of women in produced printed cottons increased exponentially. While these textile
the family to produce clothing. In fact, as Lucy Larcom recalled in her mills offered job prospects, particularly for young women and children,
1889 reminiscence, A New England Girlhood, she was under the same the work was often long, strenuous, and hazardous in the era before
impression as a child: labor laws and worker protections. There were a great many people
I somehow or somewhere got the reflected in every piece of clothing worn by early nineteenth-
idea, while I was a small child, that century New Englanders, just like there are so many unknown
the chief end of woman was to make people that contributed to the making of our clothing today.
clothing for mankind. This thought
came over me with a sudden dread A 19th Century Family as Guide
one Sabbath morning when I was a Old Sturbridge Village’s new publication, Needle & Thread:
toddling thing, led along by my sister, The Art and Skill of Clothing an Early 19th Century Family, uses
behind my father and mother. As they the museum’s collection of several thousand textiles to bring the
walked arm in arm before me, I lifted story of the daily clothing of everyday people to life. Framed
my eyes from my father’s heels to his
head and mused; “How tall he is! and around the discussion of a family portrait of the Tuttles [Figure
2], a farm family from Strafford, New Hampshire, each layer of
how long his coat looks! and how clothing for women, men, and children is examined alongside
many thousand, thousand stitches images of garments from the OSV textile collection. The book
there must be in his coat and was a collaborative work between Collections Manager and
pantaloons! and I suppose I have got Curator of Textiles, Rebecca Beall, and Director of Collections
to grow up and have a husband and and Research, Derek Heidemann. Both have worked at OSV for
put all those little stitches into his coat
and pantaloons. Oh, I never, never
can do it!” A shiver of utter discour- Figure 1: The Workwoman’s Guide
agement went through me. With that (1838) was just one of many advice
task before me it hardly seemed as if books offering guidance for various
life were worth living. household and sewing responsibilities.

A Glimpse into the Early Textile Industry
In reality, the work of clothing a family fell to many people, within
the home, in the community, and the larger economy. While most
women were capable of sewing at least a portion of the family’s
garments, many had the ability to seek out additional help when they
found their skills or time lacking. Tailors and tailoresses, among others
with skills and training in various needle trades, were hired to do
everything from finishing garments to cutting out clothing that could
be sewn within a home. Some of those in the sewing trades even wrote
tailoring manuals to pass their skills on to others. In fact, advice
literature and prescriptive manuals such as The Workwoman’s Guide
[Figure 1], published in 1838 in London, exploded in availability starting
the in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Entrepreneurs in
New England cities began sourcing completed garments domestically
and abroad and contributed to the birth of the ready-made clothing Figure 2: Watercolor portrait of the Tuttle family of Strafford, New Hampshire
industry in this country. by Joseph Davis, 1836. Old Sturbridge Village Museum Collections 20.5.125.

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