Fashions of the Victorian Era: A Women's History Month Display

The Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust is the proud owner and caretaker of two historic properties in Wallingford – the Nehemiah Royce House (1672) and The Franklin Johnson Mansion and American Silver Museum (1866). Their mission is to preserve, interpret, and educate the public about historic structures and material culture in early Wallingford. In honor of Women’s History Month, the Trust is sharing a number of authentic objects and clothing that would have been found or worn by female members of a typical Victorian household. These items are on exhibit in the library's glass display cases throughout the month of March. 

Throughout the Victorian period, ladies of fashion wore a variety of hats and bonnets. From the collection of the Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust and the private collection of one of its Trustees, there are women’s beaded bonnets and purses, silver, onyx, and crystal decorative hat pins, and a number of period dresses. Fashion accessories such as the chatelaine were a household item. A decorative belt hook worn at the waist with a series of chains suspended from it, the chatelaine was at first a practical household tool that included scissors, watches, keys, and thimbles. It soon, however, became a status symbol of the power and responsibility a woman had in her household. 

Please join us on Tuesday, March 19^th at 7:00 pm to learn more about this topic in our program Women & Fashion in the Gilded Age, a talk by fashion historian Ren Antonowicz co-sponsored by the Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust and the Wallingford Public Library.