Victorian Society at Falls Church, Virginia

01/16/2023

01/16/2023

A new Dressing up video is up!
1897 ball gown and we are having some close look at some very racy lace drawers....

https://youtu.be/XIV2JeDiNZk

01/15/2023

History Fact: Changes for Women During the Civil War

An article published in April 1861, in the New York Independent, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, called American women to a collective patriotism in which they would be the image of stoic strength. She wrote, “We thank God for mothers that cheer on their sons, for young wives that have said ‘go’ to their husbands, for widows who have given their only sons.” Male and female writers during the first two years of the war reinforced these complementary roles, but as the war dragged on women sought more dynamic occupations.

One woman who left home to become a nurse in 1863 explained to her father, “’I am tired of this life; of this slow, inactive, wearing life, with its leaden hours…I want to do some work, to render some service for my country.” Women across the country became nurses in order to contribute to the war effort more directly. It is estimated that 5,000 - 10,000 women volunteered during the war. At the time, most medical positions were filled by men. Because of the shortage of available physicians, however, women were more readily accepted as volunteers. Led by figures like Clara Barton, they would educate themselves on medical care, some like Georgeanna Woolsey (in picture) even becoming licensed doctors.

The upheaval brought by the civil war gave women a mobility that was more socially accepted. By the end of the war nursing was almost cemented as a woman’s profession. This set a social precedent that demonstrated the strength and bravery women had which would be incorporated in future movements for equal rights. It publicly displayed, in the face of both praise and criticism, that women were capable of doing men’s work.
-National Park Service

01/07/2023

In the 1860s, ladies often wore their hair rolled back at the sides and at the nape of their neck. These rolls were usually created using false hair or “rats.

01/03/2023

Two dresses, one by a couturière in Paris and the other by a local dressmaker in downstate Illinois, both about 1875-76, demonstrate that while we can recognize which gown is from Paris, the rural American girl could keep up with fashion just fine, thank you (with the help of paper patterns from Demorest’s or Butterick, most likely).
The recently elongated bodice and curvy torso, the dropped bustle, and the shirring and knife pleated flounces, plus the fancy silk cording all show that Mary Abbott of Logan, Illinois was perfectly au courant with the latest shift in styles. She wore this at her wedding in 1875.
The Paris dress bears the label of Mme. La Ferrièrre, Rue Taibout, Paris (in the chic shopping neighborhood, near other more famous names like Worth and Doucet).

https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=96.50.1.a&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=97.18.1.a&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined

01/03/2023

With flair and fire, he turned mixology into a performance.

12/28/2022

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Thorn!

Elizabeth Thorn was born on this date in 1832. Thorn, a German immigrant, lived with her three young sons in the Evergreen Cemetery Gatehouse during the Battle of Gettysburg. Pregnant at the time of the battle and with her husband off fighting in the war, Thorn and her elderly father and sons buried over 90 Union soldiers within weeks of the battle. Thorn died in 1907 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, where a statue is dedicated in her honor.

12/25/2022

Merry Christmas!

Read more about the history of this card here: https://bit.ly/3vesWJw

12/24/2022

Though the practice is now more associated with Halloween, spooking out your family is well within the Christmas spirit

12/24/2022

Christmas as we know it wasn't really Christmas (thanks to the Puritans) until Charles Dickens brought A Christmas Carol to Boston in 1867.

12/24/2022

Merry Christmas

12/05/2022

Making Christmas Crackers (1910) | BFI National Archive. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/subscribetotheBFI.After a businesslike introduction to the manufacture of...