women's impression questions?

[cw_girl83]

Could anyone give me some advice on what would be appropriate attire for a northern, middle class woman as far as a proper dress, hat or bonnet, etc? I am giving a presentation at a museum in April and need to get my impression together for this. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give!

[Trish Hasenmueller]

I'll tell you what numerous people on this forum would tell you: Go over to Elizabeth Stewart Clark's web site. Read her articles on appropriate dress. Read the Sewing Academy at Home Forum, use the search feature and then read some more.
http://www.thesewingacademy.com/
http://thesewingacademy.org/

and look at lots of photos of ladies of the era. Here's a good collection: http://www.thegracefullady.com/civilwargowns/originals_CartedeVisites.htm

After all that you might get an idea of what you need. There is just no easy, quick answer. Sorry.

Trish Hasenmueller

[Sherry Key]

I would add two books with CDVs, 1-Who Wore What by Juanita Leisch @ $30 and 2-How they dressed by Donna Abraham @ $15 you might find it on her web site, www.abrahamslady.com

Both have an abundance of images and good information.

Sherry Key.

[ElizabethClark]

Sorry to be late to the discussion:

Middle class, go with a good bonnet, tastefully fashionable dress (wool or silk work well, possibly a sheer cotton for summer), and good accessories. I like both books Sherry mentions above quite a lot (Donna autographed mine, which is very cool!). One thing you might do is hit your local historic society archives, and take a peek at the citizens from the area in the time window you want. That, plus newspaper ads, store records, letters, diaries, etc can give you a great picture of not only what was appropriate in general, but what was favored in particular in your area.