Browse Items (13 total)

Baby shoes, late 1850s, early 1860s These shoes are constructed of brown kid and held in place at the ankle with thin black elastic bands. They have decorative brown-and-white rosettes with buckle-shaped ornaments in the center of the vamp. Machine…

Baby shoes, 1895-1901 Bar shoes, also called strap shoes, were worn by both boys and girls. Leather in a reddish-brown tone known as “russet” became popular at the end of the nineteenth century. This pair of russet shoes fastened at the side with…

Girl’s Berlin-work Slippers, ca. 1860 Many patterns for making slippers at home appeared in ladies’ magazines in the 1850s and 1860s. Women used them to make uppers which were then taken to a local cobbler for assembly into the slippers (Rexford…

Child’s shoes, 1860s/1870s Flat shoes like these were worn by both boys and girls. This pair is very small at only 4 ¾ inches long. The shoes are decorated with small bows and wooden buttons, two of which are missing. The remaining buttons have lost…

Baby boots, 1860s Made of brown leather with a cloth lining, these boots have a flexible sole designed to be worn by an infant who has yet to walk. They lace up the center front and have four eyelets on each side. A sewing machine was used in their…

Embroidered baby shoes, 1840s – 1870s These baby shoes are hand sewn, which widens the possible date range. They could have been made before the widespread use of the sewing machine, or even afterwards because women continued to use their hand sewing…

These hand sewn, white satin baby booties feature ornate embroidery in polychromatic silk satin stitching. Their small size with limited evidence of wear suggests that these were worn by an infant who had not yet learned to walk. The embroidery is of…

These suede booties lace up the front and are lined with cotton twill. They are machine sewn, but they sport hand embroidery in a herringbone stitch around the opening. The brown-red color, known as “russet,” was popular in the late 1800s. Rounded…

These shoes once belonged to May Rynes (1868-1934), who wore them as a young girl. The flats are made of dark brown leather with small slits on the vamp which are tied with blue silk ribbons. These shoes were made as “straights”, which means there is…

These shoes were worn by the donor, Nathalie E. Briggs (1912-2004), who headed the URI Library’s Catalog Department for thirteen years. She graduated from URI, then known as Rhode Island State College, in 1933 after starring in basketball, softball,…