Small Spring Bustle Cage
Dublin Core
Identifier
VC1992160
Title
Small Spring Bustle Cage
Description
Small wire bustle cage with 3 springs, with cotton chintz covering, cotton tape, and metal buckle closure.; bustle cage-3 metal coils and light brown cotton chintz covering: wiastband at cotton tape with 1 metal buckle closure; 3 vertical metal coils suspended from waistband at center bacl; tube covering of light brown chintz.
Date
1885 (circa)
Subject
Clothing and dress
Extent
22.5 inches (waist),
Medium
chintz
cotton
metal
wire
Type
Physical Object
Spatial Coverage
United States
Temporal Coverage
1870s
1880s
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Rights Holder
© Vassar College Costume Collection. Images in this collection may be used for teaching, classroom presentation, and research purposes only. For other reuse, reproduction and publication of these images, contact costumeshop@vassar.edu.
Costume Item Type Metadata
Source Identifier
VC1992160
Cataloguer with Date
Arden Kirkland 12/09/1992
Closure Type
buckle
Dimensions Waist
22.5
Dimensions All
22.5 inches (waist),
References
p.27 Museum of Costume. Bath: Bath City Council, 1980
Date Earliest
1880
Date Latest
1890
Culture
American
Gender
womenswear
Classification
costume
clothing
Category
Underwear
Function
underwear
Exhibitions
Vassar Girls and Other Women
Public Information
By the 1880's, the ideal feminine form had changed to a more slender, vertical shape, with the fullness of the skirt moved to the back and further elaborated by the hidden structures of bustle pads and cages such as 1992.158, 1992.159, and 1992.160. Legs were still completely hidden by a full length skirt wrapped and draped around the legs (unable to swing as the crinoline did). The following account of an early Vassar student reflects the extent to which modesty concerning one's legs was still an issue
: 'The chairs on the platform were awfully high, my skirts were starched exceedingly stiff, and I had a terrible consciousness that I was displaying more than the tips of my slippers. I couldn't make any change of position then so I didn't stir while the President made his opening prayer. Then came my show... …I got back to my seat safely, my train behaving like an angel and never turning ovcr or under once during the whole evening, but when I sat down my dress would not stay down, so I finally grew hardened and concluded to appear as if that were the way I 'always came down stairs.' To relieve your shocked feelings I will comfort you as the girls afterwards comforted me with assurances that there was nothing objectionable in view from even the nearest part of the audience.' (letter from Mary S. Morris to Mithery on May 20,1880).
: 'The chairs on the platform were awfully high, my skirts were starched exceedingly stiff, and I had a terrible consciousness that I was displaying more than the tips of my slippers. I couldn't make any change of position then so I didn't stir while the President made his opening prayer. Then came my show... …I got back to my seat safely, my train behaving like an angel and never turning ovcr or under once during the whole evening, but when I sat down my dress would not stay down, so I finally grew hardened and concluded to appear as if that were the way I 'always came down stairs.' To relieve your shocked feelings I will comfort you as the girls afterwards comforted me with assurances that there was nothing objectionable in view from even the nearest part of the audience.' (letter from Mary S. Morris to Mithery on May 20,1880).
Condition Term
very good
Condition
some fraying at ends of tapes (and of waistband knotted to prevent fraying); 3 small holes at upper center back; slight staining of waistand.
Storage Location
A1
Repository
Vassar College Costume Collection, Drama Department, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
Exhibition Notes
1880's, the ideal feminine form had changed to a more slender, vertical shape, with the fullness of the skirt moved to the back and further elaborated by the hidden structures of bustle pads and cages such as 1992.158, 1992.159, and 1992.160. Legs were still completely hidden by a full length skirt wrapped and draped around the legs (unable to swing as the crinoline did). The following account of an early Vassar student reflects the extent to which modesty concerning one's legs was still an issue:
'The chairs on the platform were awfully high, my skirts were starched exceedingly stiff, and I had a terrible consciousness that I was displaying more than the tips of my slippers. I couldn't make any change of position then so I didn't stir while the President made his opening prayer. Then came my show... …I got back to my seat safely, my train behaving like an angel and never turning ovcr or under once during the whole evening, but when I sat down my dress would not stay down, so I finally grew hardened and concluded to appear as if that were the way I 'always came down stairs.' To relieve your shocked feelings I will comfort you as the girls afterwards comforted me with assurances that there was nothing objectionable in view from even the nearest part of the audience.' (letter from Mary S. Morris to Mithery on May 20,1880).
'The chairs on the platform were awfully high, my skirts were starched exceedingly stiff, and I had a terrible consciousness that I was displaying more than the tips of my slippers. I couldn't make any change of position then so I didn't stir while the President made his opening prayer. Then came my show... …I got back to my seat safely, my train behaving like an angel and never turning ovcr or under once during the whole evening, but when I sat down my dress would not stay down, so I finally grew hardened and concluded to appear as if that were the way I 'always came down stairs.' To relieve your shocked feelings I will comfort you as the girls afterwards comforted me with assurances that there was nothing objectionable in view from even the nearest part of the audience.' (letter from Mary S. Morris to Mithery on May 20,1880).
Work Type
underwear
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