Work, play, fashion, economic class, religious faith, even politics—all these aspects of American life and more are woven into clothing. The Museum cares for one of the nation's foremost collections of men's, women's, and children's garments and accessories—from wedding gowns and military uniforms to Halloween costumes and bathing suits.
The collections include work uniforms, academic gowns, clothing of presidents and first ladies, T-shirts bearing protest slogans, and a clean-room "bunny suit" from a manufacturer of computer microchips. Beyond garments, the collections encompass jewelry, handbags, hair dryers, dress forms, hatboxes, suitcases, salesmen's samples, and thousands of fashion prints, photographs, and original illustrations. The more than 30,000 artifacts here represent the changing appearance of Americans from the 1700s to the present day. |
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Selected Objects |
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Buffalo Soldier Uniform Coat
African American soldiers were allowed to enlist in the regular peacetime army of the United States for the first time at the end of the Civil War. Many of the ...
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Cast Iron Shoes
Dating from the 18th century, these metal shoes were made for and worn by a chemist. The donor is purported to have purchased these from a direct descendant of the ...
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Factory Gates
This pair of iron gates from the 1870s hung in the Dobson textile mill in Philadelphia, Penn., until 1991.
In the late 18th century most workers were farmers ...
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Falsified Passport
This Thai passport was seized in the well-publicized 1995 El Monte, Calif., sweatshop raid. The passport is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing ...
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Hattie Carnegie Original Two-Piece Dress
This evening dress, made of yellow-green silk satin, with princess-style seams, has a very full skirt, measuring 409-1/2 inches around the hem edge. The gown's pleated portrait collar and short ...
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Knitted Mittens
These mittens were knitted of blue and white homespun wools in the early 19th century. The shag knit used at the wrists is recorded in an American diary of 1803 ...
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Leg Silque Liquid Stockings
While leg makeup has been commercially available since the 1920s, it wasn't until rationing was introduced during the World War II that the product became an essential commodity for many ...
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Man's Two-Piece Suit
The donor purchased this navy-blue wool double-breasted two-piece suit on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in early 1945. He wore it for his 1945 high school class picture and graduation ...
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Sewing Machine Patent Model
This is a patent model of a sewing machine invented by John Bachelder of Boston, Mass., who was issued Patent No. 6439 on May 8, 1849. In his patent specification ...
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U.S. Civil War Zouave Uniform Jacket
The colorful and exotic Algerian apparel that French soldiers saw when they invaded Algeria in 1830 captured their imagination. First adopted by French colonial soldiers in North Africa in the ...
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