Martha’s Mob Cap? A Milliner’s Hand-Sewn Inquiry into Eighteenth-Century Caps ca.1770 to 1800 by Sarah Elizabeth Woodyard A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Material Culture Department of Human Ecology University of Alberta ©Sarah Elizabeth Woodyard, 2017 ii ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to answer the question: “how can the act of hand sewing enable us to contextualize the cap Martha Washington wears in The Washington Family Portrait?” The project reconsiders a style of cap Mrs. Washington wears in the Edward Savage portrait The Washington Family in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Oversimplification of this cap, often thought of as a “mob cap,” highly discredits the quality of materials, workmanship, and cultural meanings that surrounds it. To reassess visual representations of eighteenth-century women in the southern American colonies/states in the last quarter of the eighteenth-century, portraits of Mrs. Washington are investigated and cap styles produced based on primary sources. Using a reflexive auto-ethnographic methodology to mine the making process of eighteenth-century caps, this paper puts forth a new method entitled, “hand-sewn inquiry.” Through a hand-sewn inquiry three facsimile caps were made inserting the researcher’s embodied experience into the study to more holistically understand the cap Mrs. Washington wears. This method brought forth bodily connections to eighteenth- century makers, construction techniques of eighteenth-century caps intended for the maintenance of clothing, and a “sewing literacy” perspective to read the skills of an enslaved seamstress working for Mrs. Washington, as attested in historical documents. The study contextualizes caps observed in portraits of Mrs. Washington, from a historical and material culture perspective reconsidering the significance of these caps through the eyes and hands of a maker. iii PREFACE Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. iv This thesis is dedicated to the late Jay Gaynor. Jay was a champion of the preservation of trades and this thesis was made possible through his encouragement. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who supported this thesis. I’d like to thank Janea Whitacre, Mistress at the Margaret Hunter Millinery shop for teaching me the trades of millinery and mantua-making. To my advisor Dr. Anne Bissonnette for her outstanding mentorship. To my thesis committee: Dr. Beverly Lemire, Dr. Megan Strickfaden, and Aidan Rowe. Thank you to Amanda Isaac at Mount Vernon, and Linda Baumgarten at Colonial Williamsburg for allowing me to study in their collections. To friends who are colleagues: Nicole Beolan, Angela Burnley, Colleen Callahan, Heidi Campbell-Shoaf, Abby Cox, Mary Doering, Marsha Hamilton, Stephanie Huolt, Mark Hutter, Neal Hurst, Aislinn Lewis, Jenny Lynn, Michael McCarty, Alden O’Brien, Tyler Putnam, Newbold Richardson, Adolfo Ruiz, Al Saguto, Sherri Babcock Saines, Ann Salmonson, Rebecca Starkins, Teresa Teixeira, Meaghan Walker, Doris Warren, Brooke Welborn. To my family: Chris Woodyard, John Woodyard, Sandy Ramsey, Sam Ramsey, and Matthew Ramsey. And to my partner, Michael Ramsey, thank you for your unwavering love and support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………… vii-xiii Chapter 1: Introduction:………………………………………………… ……………… 1–4 Chapter 2: Literature Review ……………………………………………………………. 5–23 Eighteenth-Century Caps……………………………………………………….. 5–10 Hands-on Research in Dress Studies…………………………………………. 10–23 Chapter 3: Methodology………………………………………..………………………... 24–32 Auto-Ethnography and Reflexivity……………………………………………… 27–32 Chapter 4: Presentation of Findings……………………………………………………. 33–62 Cap Fashions ……………………………………………………………………. 33–43 Extant Caps in Clothing Collections …………………………………………… 43–46 Cap-Making Traditions ………………………………………………………….. 46–51 Cap Producers …………………………………………………………………… 52–58 Textiles …………………………………………………………………………… 59–62 Chapter 5: Interpretation of Findings…………………………………………………… 63–96 Mrs. Izard’s Fashionable 1775 Cap …………………………………………… 65–76 Mrs. Washington’s 1790 and 1789-1796 Cap ……………………………….. 76–89 The Mob Cap and Mrs. Washington ………………………………………….. 89–97 Chapter 6: Conclusions………………………………………………………………….. 98–102 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….. 103–107 APPENDIX A: FIGURES……………………………………………………………….... 108–151 APPENDIX B: HAND-SEWN INQUIRY METHODOLOGY.………………………..... 152–160 APPENDIX C: CAP MAKING……………………………………………………….…… 161–176 vii LIST OF APPENDIX A FIGURES Figure 1: Edward Savage (American, 1761-1817), The Washington Family, 1789-1796, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, Open Access Image National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1940.1.2)…………………………………………………………………………108 Figure 2: Edward Savage (American, 1761-1817), The Washington Family (Cap detail), 1789-1796, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, Open Access Image National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1940.1.2)…………………………………………………………………………109 Figure 3: John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815), Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice Delancey), 1775, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts (03.1033)…………………….110 Figure 4: Cap, Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (W-608), Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©.…………………………………………………………………………………….111 Figure 5: Anonymous (American), Woman’s Quaker Cap, 1790-1810, Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia (2009-43,8), Photograph by Linda Baumgarten©………….…………....112 Figure 6: Anonymous (British), Twelve fashionable Head Dresses of 1773, 1773, Museum of London (004775)………………………….……..…………………………………………………….113 Figure 7: Anonymous (British), Fourteen fashionable Head Dresses of 1780, 1780, Museum of London (2002.139/661)…………………………………………………….............……114 Figure 8: Anonymous (British), Two Ladies at Breakfast in Their Dressing-Room, Gallery of Fashion, November 1794, Bunka Gakuen Library, Tokyo, Japan (SB00002307)……………………………………………………………………………….…………115 Figure 9: Edward Savage (American, 1761-1796), Martha Washington, 1790, The Old House, Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, Massachusetts…………...…………………………….116 Figure 10: Anonymous (British) Lady Nightcap At Breakfast, 1772, The British Museum, London (2010,7081.1223)…….………………………………….…………………………..……....117 Figure 11: Anonymous (British), The Country Vicar Fire Side, 1788, The British Museum, London (1868,0822.7119)……………….……………………………………………….…………..118 Figure 12: Robert Mitchell Meadows (British 1763-1812), My Grandmother Knitting, c. 1780- 1812, The British Museum, London (1992,U.22)…………..……………………………….……...119 Figure 13: Anonymous (American), Mrs. Washington, 1782, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (66-210)……..…….………………………………………..120 Figure 14: Robert Field (American, 1769-1819), A miniature of Martha Washington, 1801, Mount Vernon Collections, Mount Vernon, Virginia (W-2137/A-B)…….………….……………..121 viii Figure 15: Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827), Rachel Leeds Kerr, 1790, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (1989.23)…………..…….………………………………………….122 Figure 16: Ralph Earl (American, 1751-1801), Mrs. Richard Alsop, 1792, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (1975.49.1)…………………………………………...123 Figure 17: Charles Frederick von Breda (Swedish 1759-1818), Mrs. Joseph Priestley, 1793, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham (1906P31)…………………...…………….124 Figure 18: Flat hem. Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©.……….……………...………………...125 Figure 19: Rolled hem. Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©.….………………………………..…126 Figure 20: Red arrow illustrates direction of bias. Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©.………..126 Figure 21: Headpiece hem detail, Cap, Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (W- 608).Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©………………………………………..…………………..127 Figure 22: Whip-gathering: thread stitched around the hem. Photograph by Stephanie Huolt©………..………………………………………………………......128 Figure 23: Whip-gathering: thread is pulled to create gather. Photograph by Stephanie Huolt©……………………………………..………….………….………128 Figure 24: Illustration of where whip-gathering begins on caul. Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©…………………………………………………………………..129 Figure 25: Illustration of where whip-gathering caul is attached to headpiece. Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©.………………………………………………………………….130 Figure 26: Caul attachment to headpiece detail. Cap, Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (W-608). Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©……….………..……………………….131 Figure 27: Caul drawstring detail. Cap, Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (W- 608). Photograph by Sarah Woodyard©…………………………………………………………….132 Figure 28: Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741-1827), Margaret “Peggy” Custis Wilson (Mrs. John Custis Wilson), 1791, Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia (2014-46, A&B) …...133 Figure 29: Anonymous (American), Woman’s Quaker Cap, 1790-1810, Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia (2009-43,8). Photograph by Linda