Object Record
Images
Additional Images [3]
Metadata
Object Name |
Dress |
Catalog Number |
1965.003.11 |
Description |
Navy blue silk velvet, voided velvet, and taffeta one-piece gown. Velvet bodice and back skirt attached at back waist extends to train. Front skirt panel is a two-toned brown voided velvet on a dusty blue silk taffeta. Bodice buttons at center front with 19 crocheted black ball buttons. Bodice ends below the waist with a slight flare. Gigot (leg of mutton) sleeves to elbow and narrow lower sleeves with sewn on black lace flounce at cuff. Sleeve hem is faced with the dusty blue taffeta. Standing collar of ruched velvet closes with hooks and eyes at the back neck. A narrow black lace edges the collar. Bodice is underlined in a brown cotton twill. Hem is faced with the dusty blue taffeta. 8 boned seams and darts. An unlabeled black petersham cinches the waist. The skirt front and sides are a double panel of two-toned black voided silk velvet on dusty blue taffeta. Center front has multiple pleats secured at the waist and released at hem. Applied waistband of the same blue taffeta. The front skirt includes an inner brown cotton skirt with a box pleated hem of lined taffeta. The front skirt is lined in a loosely woven black cotton. There is an inset pocket at the right side skirt. The back of the skirt is an extension of the back bodice with fullness incorporated into a double inverted box pleat at center back and two additional pleats at either side of center back waist, extending into the train. The back waist is trimmed with a swag of black velvet tassels and braids. Attached to the back waist on the inside is a stiffened buckram panel with a deep knife pleated hem that supports the train. The back skirt is lined in a dark grey cotton. Two interior tapes just above the hip control the back fullness. Black wool hemsaver tape is used on the train of the blue velvet. It is likely that the voided velvet fabric dates to the 1860s and was reused to make the front panel of this 1890s gown. Under the waistband is an uncut length of the floral velvet, a technique used to level the hemline. |
Year Range from |
1890 |
Year Range to |
1899 |
Provenance |
This dress was worn by Nannie Colwell Dorset and Nannie Colwell. The style of the dress and the material indicate that this dress was made during the 1890s. The voided velvet skirt fabric is the only original item from the 1860s dress worn by Nannie Colwell Dorset. This dress was made about 30 years later re-using fabric from the original dress worn in Washington D.C. Nannie Colwell Dorset's daughter Nannie Colwell wore this dress throughout her life as a remembrance of her mother and at Daughters of the American Revolution events. |
Owned By |
Nannie Colwell Dorset & Nannie Colwell |
Material |
Silk |
People |
Colwell, Nannie Dorset, Nannie Colwell |
Subjects |
Clothing & Accessories "Things that Matter" |
Search Terms |
"Things that Matter" |
Notes |
Featured in Things that Matter: Treasured articles of clothing are sometimes saved and repurposed so that they can be worn again. Wedding dresses can be made into christening gowns, T-shirts and baby clothes can be made into patchwork quilts. Special articles of clothing have meaning, and sometimes we want to keep those memories alive. This black and blue velvet dress worn by Nannie Colwell Dorset and later her daughter Nannie Colwell is an example. In April 1861, La Crosse Mayor Wilson Colwell left his position to lead the La Crosse Light Guards into service for the Civil War. Wilson’s young family, his wife, Nannie, and his daughter, also named Nannie, followed as Company B went to Madison and then Washington, D.C. During their time at the Capitol, Capt. Colwell and his wife were invited to a presidential reception at the White House where the couple met President Lincoln and his wife, Mary. Nannie wore a fashionable blue and black silk velvet gown. According to the family, the dress was made in Pittsburgh, and the floral velvet cutwork fabric came from France. Later in life, Mrs. Colwell would recall the president as "tall, gaunt, loveable and big-hearted and kindly to all in his conversation as he moved about the crowd." After a bout of illness, Nannie and her young daughter returned to La Crosse to be with family and friends. While in La Crosse, she learned that her husband was killed at the Battle of South Mountain in September 1862. Capt. Colwell was never returned to La Crosse, but his sword was sent to his young widow. Five years later, Nannie married Rev. Charles Dorset and they had three children, Marian, Helen and Bernard. The family moved around over the years but eventually returned to La Crosse. In the 1890s, Nannie Colwell Dorset still had the dress that she wore to the White House 30 years earlier. It was during this time that she repurposed the skirt from her dress and had it remade into a more fashionable dress for the time, with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a bustle. After her mother’s death, the younger Nannie and her half-sisters wore their mother’s refashioned dress at various La Crosse functions of the Daughters of the American Revolution and other organizations. A 1948 La Crosse Tribune feature about the Colwell Dorset family described this dress as a prized possession of Nannie and her half-sisters. Upon the death of Helen Dorset in 1965, this dress and Wilson’s Civil War sword and other items from the Colwell-Dorset family were bequeathed to the La Crosse County Historical Society. This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune. Title: Nannie Colwell's Dress Author: Amy Vach Publish Date: May 18, 2019 |