Daguerreotype of Seated Woman

This image depicts a seated woman wearing a simple, solid colored dress. The dress has full length, set in sleeves with epaulets and a white collar. Tied around the collar is a neck ribbon.

An everyday dress for an elderly woman was a simple one-piece dress in a solid color fabric. This woman’s dress has the narrow sleeves popular at the end of the 1840s. Plain collars protected the dress from soil and could be removed for laundering. She is also wearing a ruffled day cap. Day caps were fading from fashion in the 1840s, however, elderly women and “invalids” wore them for at home. 

References

Lisson, Lisa -. 2015. “How to Identify 5 Types of Old Photographs.” LisaLisson. https://lisalisson.com/5-types-of-old-photographs/.

Severa, Joan. Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans & Fashion, 1840-1900. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1995.