Browse Items (19 total)

This royal blue bonnet accompanied a matching skirt and jacket and a pair of gold boots when donated to the collection by the Mystic Seaport Museum. The ensemble was worn during the height of the bustle era, and would have made quite a splash. The…

A yellow straw hat dated to the 1890s is festooned with three ostrich feathers and a wide moiré ribbon. It has a small crown and a wide brim. On the inside of the brim are three concentric rows of velvet ribbon.A remarkable feature of late…

This mourning bonnet was worn by Robyn Bowen Gardner Brown, who was born in 1817. Black crape covers the exterior of the bonnet while the interior is lined with cambric. The crape is folded and pinned into the base, possibly signifying a work still…

This is a mourning bonnet covered in black silk crape. Crape is a dull, matte silk gauze which was crimped with hot rollers, dyed black, and stiffened with gum or starch. Crape was used not only for bonnets, but for other mourning attire including…

This green felt hat belonged to Mrs. Zebulon Herbert Gardner, née Martha Adams Crandall (1858–1936). Mrs. Z. Herbert Gardner was married in 1879. The hat is a green felt trimmed with green velvet and tan velvet. The crown of the hat is a conical…

This rust-colored velvet bonnet is trimmed with black jet beads, small ostrich plumes, and fabric flowers. It was part of a going away outfit of rust brown silk worn by Arabella Rodman who married John Robinson Nichols on June 16, 1870. The mid-19th…

This is a spoonbill bonnet dating between 1850 and 1860. The brim of a spoon bill bonnet flares out to frame the face, maintaining the bavolet popular in the 1840s. This bonnet is covered with blue taffeta over cording made of cane, achieving a…

This black, small hat imitates the style of a man’s Victorian top hat, but it is an 1860s women’s riding hat.  Its crown is approximately 3 7/8 inches high, which is notably shorter than a man’s hat of the time. Riding hats were made of buckram and…

Everyone has one item that they cannot leave home without.  It could be a winter coat, a purse, or sunglasses, but for women in the late 1800s it was their head accessory. More specifically, it was a bonnet. Women wore bonnets to enhance their…