Woman's Bonnet

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 veils, dresses, armbands, and hat bands. Plant dyes were used to color the fabric black until the discovery of aniline dyes. In the late nineteenth century, dyed silks replaced black crape for mourning.

This bonnet, though undated, is similar to bonnets from the early 1860s that sat further back on the head allowing the ribbons to be tied into a large bow under the chin.