Regency Dress in Monmouth County

On Saturday a small group of us met at the Monmouth County Historical Association to see their exhibit Properly Dressed: Art and Reality in 18th and Early 19th Century Dress in Monmouth. You can read about it and their bigger exhibit Farm in their Fall newsletter.

Before we got into the clothes we started by learning about a key piece of the collection.

This is an edited version, go see the real one!

This is was painted by Emanuel Leutze, the painter of the iconic Washington Crossing the Delaware. This depicts the Battle of Monmouth.  For those of who might not be aware (I was unaware until this trip) this battle was fought on a day that was over 100º F; more men fell that day due to heat than anything else.  This is also the battle that produced the legend of "Molly Pitcher."

We then headed upstairs to view the Properly Dressed exhibit.  On exhibit are a number of interesting and rare pieces.  There is a pencil drawing of Elizabeth "Betty" Dorn and her short gown. If I took my notes down correctly this is one of the rarest pieces in the collection.  One of the oldest is the single wedding shoe.

The highlight of the tour was getting to pick three items from the exhibit and further exam them in the Discovery Room.  We chose:

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of this outfit with the jacket on.

Calash hat. 

A lady's dress and warp

We had a great time examining the pieces!  To see all the pictures, including those of close up details and our members in costume see our Facebook Page.