Images(2)

Quilted Hood

PeriodCirca 1840 - 1860

MediumSilk, silk ribbon, wool batting

Dimensions21 × 10.5 in. (53.3 × 26.7 cm)

InscribedPinned to the inside of the hood is a paper label "Middletown Antique Exhibit / Farthingale / Loaned By / Miss M. H. Taylor / Orchard Home / Middletown." A second handwritten pasteboard tag "Opera Hood / Mrs. Joseph D. Taylor / Gift of Mrs. Chas. Bennett & Miss Louise Hartshorne."

ClassificationsCostume, Women's

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Charles Bennett and Miss Louise Hartshorne, 1935

Object number835

DescriptionA woman's quilted hood, with a lightweight pale blue silk in a tiny spotted weave pattern. The hood is loose fitting, with a long bavolet. The hood is lined with plain woven oyster white silk, with a portion of the lining folded back to the outside of the hood, framing the wearer's face. The hood fastens with two silk thread loops and woven death's head buttons (one is now missing) as well as wide pale blue silk ribbon chin ties. The entire hood is hand sewn, and includes a thin batting, possibly wool or coton.
Curatorial RemarksQuilted silk hoods were a popular and long-lasting fashion accessory. In America, quilted hoods were most popular during the 1850s and 1860s, falling out of style with the changes in hairstyles. Mary Holmes Taylor's silk hood is typical of this type of headwear. Thin batting sandwiched between two layers of lightweight silk kept her warm, while the folded back lining attractively framed the wearer's face. The Taylor family preserved a number of family clothing items. The printed and handwritten tag indicates that the hood was displayed at the Middletown Antique Exhibit in July of 1922, held at the home of Miss Louise Hartshorne, one of the hood's donors.NotesThis hood was worn, and quite possibly made, by Mary Holmes Taylor II. Mary was born in 1814 in New York City. Her father, Edward Taylor (1779 - 1845) was a successful merchant, active in local politics and elected to the position of New York City Alderman in 1834. Mary's mother and namesake, Mary Grover Holmes died 18 days after her daughter's birth, most likely due to childbirth complications. Edward Taylor sent infant Mary to Middletown, Monmouth County, to be cared for by his unmarried siblings - sisters Mary and Huldah and brother Samuel. A year after her father Edward's death in 1845, Mary married her first cousin Joseph Dorset Taylor (1803 - 1864). The couple built an elegant Italianate mansion near the Taylor family homestead on Kings Highway in Middletown. The couple had two children, Edward (1848 - 1911) and Mary Holmes Taylor III (1851 - 1930). Mary Holmes Taylor II died in 1897 at the age of 83.