Tuesday Treasures

Tom hosts Tuesday's Treasures.


April 2015 - Fort Worth TX

We made a visit to the Texas Civil War Museum last year as we were driving home from LA, taking our time.


Location
     760 Jim Wright Freeway North
     Fort Worth, TX 76108

The Texas Civil War Museum opened in January of 2006. With over 15,000 square feet of exhibits, it is the largest Civil War museum west of the Mississippi River. The museum is a 501c3, non profit. The museum gallery is shared with exhibits on loan from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Texas Division. The museum consists of three separate galleries that display a civil war collection, Victorian dress collection and United Daughters of the Confederacy Texas Confederate collection.

My hero!

What little girl didn't love cutout dolls?

Texas responded to the election of Abraham Lincoln by joining the Confederacy in early 1861, a few weeks before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. Although only about one in four Texas families owned slaves, support for secession was strong, with about three quarters of voters supporting secession. Many Texas men immediately joined the war effort, traveling east to fight with other Confederate soldiers. Many others joined but stayed in Texas, with some defending the coastline, some guarding against possible Union attack, and others pushing into New Mexico Territory. A small number joined the Union army.

I will save the fashion exhibit for another post!

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy. 

April 2015 - Fort Worth TX

While we were in Fort Worth we paid a visit to the Civil War Museum.

There was a collection of Judy Richey gowns on display. This private collection is an expansive look at original women's and children's clothing from the Victorian Era.  With over 300 Victorian dresses and hundreds of accessories, the museum exhibits rotate to include 1860 - 1900 attire.

Getting photos of the clothes within their glass displays was a challenge.

A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it. Thus, a woman's petticoated or crinolined skirt would lose its shape during everyday wear (from merely sitting down or moving about). 

Certainly glad we don't have to wear these contraptions!

I was very excited to see this hat from Gone With The Wind.

Women’s hats were decorated with wings, breasts and whole birds. According to Harper’s Bazaar, in 1875 the merle, or blackbird, was a favorite, and especially the merle bronzé, a Brazilian blackbird, which was not black, but had blue and bronze shades on its wings and back.

The entire bird was used, and was mounted on wires and springs that permitted the head and wings to be moved about in a bird-like manner. The homely gray swallow was also stuffed and used for ornament; in addition heads of spotted pigeons with their staring eyes; and long mounted pieces from the breasts of pigeons, pheasants, and peacocks were found atop a lady’s hat. One would also see cocks’ plumes of the deepest green shades mounted in thick ruches, long clustered plumes, and in bandeaux that passed around the crown and hung on each side behind. Arrangements of ostrich feathers projected outward from the hat and upward on the crown; left to curl without being tacked in the middle.
Not a fan of wearing dead birds on my head!

Loved this!

Ditto on wearing a corset!! I always remember the scene from Gone With The Wind when Scarlett is getting dressed and the maid tightening the corset.