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Woman's dress

Worn by: Mehetable Stoddard (Hyslop) (American, 1719–1792)
American
1840s
Place of Use: Boston, Massachusetts, United States; Place of Manufacture: probably France (fabric)

Medium/Technique Silk plain weave patterned with weft floats and discontinuous supplementary patterning weft; cotton plain weave lining (bodice); metal hooks and eyes (bodice)
Dimensions Other (center front of bodice): 34.9 cm (13 3/4 in.)
Other (skirt): 104.1 cm (41 in.)
Other (fragment): 15.6 x 34.4 cm (6 1/8 x 13 9/16 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Emily Welles Robbins (Mrs. Harry Pelham Robbins) and the Hon. Sumner Welles, in memory of Georgiana Welles Sargent
Accession Number49.872a-c
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsCostumes

DescriptionWoman's dress in green silk brocade with pink, red, yellow, and purple floral pattern; bodice has a low round neck line, bust seams ending in long point at front, short sleeves, boned opening along center back with hooks and eyes, and four empty casings for boning inside lining; skirt is made of seven lengths of cloth gathered at waist (original waistline unknown due to later alterations, and a hemline which was raised at later date; small fragment
Marks Written in ink on fabric labels inside bodice: "Brocade probably worn by Mehetable Stoddard (Mrs. William Hyslop) period 1750-1770" and "There are seven breadths to this green brocade 1928, with the waist"

Written on paper label: "The green brocade had been ripped apart in the skirt waist except sleeves original make. It was put together in 1931 and worn at a family dinner by Georgiana W. Sargent fit perfect. Exhibited in the New York City Museum 1931-2 in Boston March 1933."
ProvenanceMay have been worn by Mehetable Stoddard Hyslop (1719-1792) of Boston; Inherited by her great-granddaughter Miss Georgiana Welles Sargent (born 1858) of New York City, who wore it in to a family dinner in 1931; Gift of Emily Welles Robbins (Mrs. Harry Pelham Robbins) and the Hon. Sumner Welles, in memory of Georgiana Welles Sargent, to MFA 1949