The Lincoln County Historical Museum's newest exhibit displays a unique journey through time; a generational, textile history. Donated by Mary Hartman, three generations of dresses show the evolution of dress making between the 1820s and early 1900s — from hand stitching to machine stitching. The dresses belonged to Hartman's grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother, museum director and curator James Griffin said.
"You can see the differences in the material as they go and what was fashionable at the time," he said. The dresses show the utilitarian style of the early 1800s, the more "southern belle" look of the mid1800s and finally a new century Victorian style, complete with lace, of the early 1900s. Griffin's assistant Jeanne Daily helped prepare the dresses for their time on display, even lending a skirt hoop for the mid-1800s dress.
Taking a closer look at each dress, one can see the detail that went into stitching the fabric, and even the ingenuity that was used to make the dresses durable. With the longer, floor length dresses, a common problem was the hems dragging on the ground. Griffin explained that in two of the dresses, extra fabric was sewed in to help strengthen the end of the dress.
On the oldest dress, worn by Elizabeth N. Gardner Daggett between 1820 and 1840, Griffin said "she did such a good job" sewing the dress that even though rips and tears had been patched "they're really hard to see. They're such good patches that I'm trying to fin.
