jacket: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Jacket. Jacket belonging to a two piece brown boy's suit. Brown cotton velvet, lined with a variety of plain and printed cottons. Inside linning has two alternating vertical patterns. One consisting of white dots and the other in a brown and beige "branch" pattern. Linning on the right and left interior has a reddish hue while the back center pannel is more beige. Diagonal closure starts on left shoulder of bodice with 8 wood or vegtable ivory buttons, one button missing on the shoulder. The top button on the top of the shoulder may be missing a part (top of the button) .Sleeve cuffs have one button each. Catalog card indicates that 4 buttons have been replaced. Bottom buttons attach jacket to breeches. The back of the jacket has four buttons with an additional center button missing. Where the center button should be the hole has been sewn shut with brown thread.

Jacket (belonging to two piece brown boy's suit) is part of a collection assembled by Rosley Angel Fieldston, the mother of Heidi Fiedston who donated the collection. The collector started amassing books, references, sells catalogs, garments, accessories, dolls, lace scraps, fabric, ribbon, etc. in the late 1950s and continued until her death in 1987. She was working toward assembling a series of "authentically" dressed dolls the size of a three year old child. The primary series was to represent childhood in each of the Presidential terms. Davey Grant (1869-1877) a doll from the Rosely Angel Fieldston's collection of Presidental Figures was dresssed in this brown velvet two piece suit. Accessories that Fieldston displayed with the suit are a brown velvet cap trimmed with a cord and fringe and a pair of red stripped socks (possibly 1990.0388.208). Catalog card indicated Fieldston used doll she refered to as "Presidential doll, 13". Ideal Toy Co. manufactured the dolls Fieldston used which was commercially called "Patty Playpal". In the early 60's Fieldston discorvered the dolls were 36 inches and have preportions of a three year old. Over the few years, with the assistance of an Ideal Toy Co. Vice President who saw a possible public relations exhibit (never consummated), she had assembled more than 30 dolls and outfitted each of them fully in the clothing of a Presidential period. She went through great pains to build completely accurate historical and sociological portraits based on extensive research in her own library and correspondence on questions with museum costume departments, historical societies, libraries. Some of the clothing she cut down and a few pieces were painstakingly researched reproductions. There was an extensive note file for each child, triumphantly identifying any item for which she had found a pictorial source (and there were many). Her files also cross referenced the children’s clothing identified in her library and museum visits and built her own history of various types of garments (petticoats, boys’ dresses, stockings, hats) based again on historical pictorial references.

She viewed the finished work as “sculpture” and an expressive teaching. Each doll child (as she referred to them) had a name and a story. For each she kept and ever-growing file of notes on the period; sociopolitical events; daily life; laundry; trivia; understanding of gender. These were woven into text of talk/lectures she gave when showing the collection to school groups, women’s clubs, etc.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1865-1875
• associated date: 1869-1877
• referenced: Grant, Ulysses S.
• maker: unknown
• Object Name: jacket
• Physical Description: velvet (outside material)
• Physical Description: cotton (linning material)
• Physical Description: vegtable ivory (buttons material)
• Measurements: overall, jacket laid flat (unmounted): 11 3/4 in x 30 1/16 in x 7/8 in; 29.845 cm x 76.35875 cm x 2.2225 cm
• associated place: United States: Massachusetts, Scituate
• associated subject: Childhood
• associated subject: Presidency
• associated subject: Boys
• associated subject: Gender
• associated subject: Daily Life
• associated subject: Dolls
• associated subject: Collectors
• associated subject: Adolescence
• ID Number: 1990.0388.204a
• accession number: 1990.0388
• catalog number: 1990.0388.204a
• Credit Line: Gift of Heidi Fieldston
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.