American Women’s Victorian Dresses – 1859

Four women, a young girl, and a black servant boy stand in a well-appointed, neoclassical styled room. The boy brings a valentine to the woman on a silver tray. He wears a dark blue suit with a white collar. One woman, the girl, and the boy are in full view, while two women are in partial view. The focus of the print is the girl and her mother (presumably), who hands the girl valentines.

The girl stands in the center of the group. She wears a white knee length dress with multicolor plaid bands on the skirt, and across the bodice. Plaid binding outlines the bodice at the hem and neckline, and the hem of the short sleeves. Fancy white lace trims the sleeves and the hem of the underskirt or knickers just visible beneath her dress. A white blouse or under layer fills the bodice decolletage, with a high ruffled neckline. She wears white stockings and low blue ankle boots.

Her matching plaid cap is trimmed with white ruffles and is tied with a yellow ribbon. She wears a bracelet and holds a very large valentine with two pink hearts pierced by an arrow. The mother wears a gray gown with pink details. The bodice is high to the neck, with a white lace collar and a pink bow, and has a line of small buttons down the center front. The waistline has a point at the front, with two tabs reaching over the skirt. The sleeves are full and ruched on the upper and lower portions, with pink caps at the shoulders ending in zigzags.

Snug pink undersleeves or long cuffs reach above the wrist, and a narrow white lace ruffle finishs the wrist. The skirt is in two layers and is very wide; it is the height of the fashion for crinolines. The under layer of the skirt is plain gray and the upper layers have two bands of vertical detail, one on each side. The bands are of two sections of pink inward facing zigzags, and a center section of slightly ruched gray. She wears a white bonnet trimmed with pink ribbons, edging, and flowers, with a wide white ribbon hanging at the back. She stands in front of a red velvet upholstered chair.

The woman to her right in the center wears a brown dress with colorful plaid fringed details on the bodice front, hem, and shoulders, with wide white lace cuffs. Her lace bonnet is fastened underneath her chin with a wide blue ribbon, and trimmed with blue flowers. Next to her is a woman in a violet striped dress with bands of ribbon and lace trimming the sleeves. Her bonnet has white and pink daisies and white lace, and a wide white ribbon tied under her chin.

The woman at the far left stands with her back to the viewer, wearing a bright blue gown with a black velvet mantelet over it. Two bands of black on black chevrons decorate the center back, encircle the hem, and the yoke is also trimmed with these bands, and has wide black fringe at the yoke hem.

One full white or pale yellow sleeve is visible where she rests her hand on a table. Her bonnet is white or pale yellow, trimmed with bands of multicolor bias plaid.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges