Winterthur was the du Pont family's Delaware estate until it was converted to a museum in 1951. The museum's library holds a wide variety of research materials on everyday American life in the 19th and 20th centuries. One of their best known resources is the wide variety of catalogs that they hold, and recently they have started putting up selected works on Archive.org.
This month, I've chosen a selection of the underwear and corsetry catalogs from the Winterthur museum library covering the years 1886-1920, a 34 year period of intense change in underwear.
If you're looking to date a particular corset, find out if a patent corset was ever offered for sale, track changes in corset and underwear fashion down to a few years or just looking for inspiration to make something a bit different, there's plenty here to keep you busy.
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1886 Illustrated catalogue and shopping guide. (1886) Bullene, Moores, Emery & Co. (Kansas City, Mo.) This catalog has corset masterpieces with 600 and 750 bones(!), a lovely selection of bustles made from down, wire, horsehair, or the Mikado, made of braided rattan. Most of the corsets are store label, with some C.P. Sirene, I.C., and Warner's.
1889 J. Wanamaker, Philadelphia Catalogue no. 25 : Fall and Winter, 1888-9. Wanamaker's was a famous department store in Philadelphia and New York. Their 1889 catalog has three pages of corsets from R&G, Roth. Loomis, Warners, Madam Foy, I.C., Ferris, P.D., Thompson's, C.P., and private label. |
1886 Illustrated Catalog, p52 750 bone corset
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1891 Catalog: Sweetser, Pembrook & Co. (New York, N.Y.) Sweester and Pembrook's notion catalog was for the trade, for retail shops to order goods from for re-sale. Their selection of corset brands is certainly the best for the early 1890's. Tricora, CB, Warner's, P.C., Ball's, Kabo, Featherbone and their own private label corsets cover 7 pages. I especially love the names of their private label. They also have a selection of corset busks and corset laces.
1893 The Jordan, Marsh and Company, Boston : The Fall and Winter 1893-94 Catalog Illustrated catalogue of staple and fancy notions. (1893?) Carson Pirie Scott
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Sweester & Pembrook, 1891, Pearl Corset, p72
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1895 Jordan, Marsh and Company latest styles Fall and winter 1895-6 In 1895 the lines start to lengthen into the long waist and extra long waist so iconic of the mid-1890's. 8 pages of corsets from "Fleur de Lis", "Her Majesty's Corsets", I.C., Prima Donna, S.C., Warner's, R&G, Nemo and Double V waists. 1897 Jordan, Marsh and Company Boston Price list. Spring and Summer 1897 1898 Spencer, Turner and Boldero, Ltd. London, England, Price list and diary for 1898. There are very few pictures of corsets in this catalog, however the names and descriptions of the colors and fanning (flossing) are inspiring! "Nina", Black, Italian Cloth, Fanned Yellow and White "Vane", Two shades of Fawn, Fanned Fawn and Blue "Zenda", Black, Finished Mauve, Trimmed Silk Edging |
Jordan, Marsh & Co, 1895, p72 Nemo Corset
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1899-1903
1899 to 1900 saw the introduction of the "straight front" corset, a radical change from the previous decades of corset styles where the front busk was curved inwards at the waist. The new straight front corsets were designed not to place pressure on the internal organs in the front, while still shaping and supporting the figure. (Winterthur's online collection is sadly lacking in this transition period.)
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1898 Warner's 602, with a curved front busk. |
A widely popular straight front corset in the US |
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1904 General price list. Jeremiah Rotherman & Co. London, England 1904 I have to confess, this is my favorite corset catalog in Winterthur's collection because of the vast amount of fun stuff in the pages. First, there's the foldout corset pages for P&S Corsets, Madam Jean and Madam Lieder corsets. Then there's the pages upon pages of different corset options, from black, to colored and white with the flossing colors and boning detailed, the branded corsets, Y&N, Izod, Prima Donna, and the Maid's corsets and pliable bodices in the back. Its enough to make one dizzy with ideas about what color and style to make next!
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1906-1911
While not from the Winterthur collection, I would feel remiss if I didn't point you to three catalogs which help fill in the gap between 1904 and 1911, when corset styles changed dramatically again. The length over the hips deepened, but the bust stayed supported until about 1911, when the top of the corset dipped below the breasts.
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Eaton's Spring and Summer Catalogue 1906 Some of the Corsets are Eaton's store label of "Acme", but there's also Warner's, R&G, Nemo, La Vida, and Kabo. Don't forget the frillies! |
1907-08
Fall and Winter Catalogue 1907-08 Kabo, Nemo, W.B and P.N Corsets are just some of the brands offered along with Acme. |
1909-10
Eaton's Fall and Winter Catalogue 1909-10 The Corsets have definitely transitioned into the longline Teens corsets at this point. Brands include Acme, Nemo, W.B., R&G, La Adria, Kabo, B&C. |
1911
This advertisement from April and May 1911 shows the top edge has dropped below the bust, officially marking the start of the Post-Edwardian longline era. |
Now back to the Winterthur collection's holdings....
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| 1912
The corset styles have settled into a long slim look, with the corset coming just under the bust, to give women the look of the "corset-less figure". The corsets are all Sears' private brand. |
1914
Corset waists and brassieres. 1914 ca. H & "W" Co. (Newark, N.J.) With the corsets coming under the bust, there was a need for brassieres to help "provide the perfect figure lines called for by the latest fashions". |
1915
Perry, Dame & Co. Latest New York styles for women, misses The corsets continue in the long, slim style, with the addition of elastic gores and lacing in various places. Brassieres, frilly combinations and slips. |
1919
Perry Dame & Co New York styles : fall and winter 1919-1920 The Corsets have changed from things of sleek beauty to utilitarian items. Brassieres are not yet of the style we know today. |
Addendum
When I think of changes in historical fashion, sometimes it helps to put things in perspective and calculate how many years are between the changes and apply that to current history. For instance, 34 years ago from now (2010), was 1976. If you look up old advertisements on Google, not much has changed in underwear fashion since then, certainly nothing like this change between 1886 and 1920.
| 1886 | 1904 | 1919-1920 |
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I've always had problems finding corset-related stuff on this site. Do you look for clothing and dry goods catalogues and then search inside? Or?...
I have just found this which people might like:
http://www.archive.org/stream/illustratedcatal00cars#page/190/mode/2up/search/corset
A corset named 'Flirt'!
A wonderful source of inspiration and information. Thanks very much for doing this article.
So to find books, I hunt by subject and then search for corset inside the book, until they get the full text up and working again.
For the Winterthur collection, it was a case of stumbling into a vein of info on accident, I was looking for something else completely and found these.
Not just me then!
:)