Document 22-4: Dressing the Respectable Woman (ca. 1890)

The clothes worn by late-nineteenth-century middle-class and elite women concerned with respectability were form-fitting, multilayered, cumbersome, and uncomfortable. In order to achieve what was seen as the ideal female silhouette, women began by putting on a set of rigid undergarments, including whale-bone corsets, an operation that required the assistance of a servant. Once dressed, the fashionable woman remained dependent on her servants, since her attire restricted her movement and made physical labor all but impossible.

image

Cregmile, Kate R. (1891–1923) / Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library.

READING QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    eZHpSan53rAx9/irXdrczmawMPi6/BXpjU0NDpik40DuugLb1ffmyvjoa8RXq6GvseNOQHb3NX89A+AJkyZvNtVShfpToY98

  2. Question

    NtaviSg3oyR1xlOWXnVWXljhYJ107l+DEuYL38z94TWgw74CGhYj7FCwu87w/HXsH3iBHxgOyiu3EC4WE8eihEOJsCkWzC0a8bRBKG76ztH/ABtMFUijsbQaHlON/wAK/FWqSz6OpJTGQXoVFNmVZz3oMwiYtwJiym/zIkaGDiWFLgkNnKrDy/aWvnlUbZDknFUNI0jCV6APL54EF7OB1CZfR7Q1PMc8hRxmkh5pueOaNi72sn6I8MCmh84=

  3. Question

    kv7cyVs46gpntRHl7aK6ldcCvVgICoNTPZ8ESoAviKdPLEd2wMz5Pv53wlCnObYjXFOyqZGnx89k16KxdY0gbTh6dJOCX7XISrXXkyXnFiXNMxO/kS76gyXkYmTPxvLm3OHND8HCuliaFh5o8rfNqzsL/Y95jDAm

  4. Question

    /CWYcOObDkgL3xCkMCv+5E8x19Oi+4ni1+XDm7y6hGdCPnuZMrzuw4VSmV3f+Ylw0CNbiI/ikVduJ7EAFKUY0+vQn5nW7N+qinzGflXoSWMLl/sI0Z3G3wo9OeBu5HrQg+TGGc0EX1maumaPCoeman51XJZc1sjMMVHpZH7tMtsRB2rVrYZwqwu+GBA8KWC/ULE59wlW1LrNaOyfz45s+A3o5vk=