The resulting dress had a narrower silhouette and closed in the front with buttons. The next wearer removed the bertha collar and recut the bodice from fabric in the skirt (Figs. This most likely occurred after March of 1867 when Mary Lincoln attempted to divest herself of her collection of dresses (Keckley). In the late 1860s, the dress was altered significantly. While the Library of Congress dates the photograph as being from the years 1855-1865, the presence of these jewelry pieces further cements the year in which the dress was worn as The Library of Congress also holds a receipt for their purchase by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. Lincoln also pairs the dress with a set of jewelry made with seed pearls (Fig. It is unlikely that the dress was created solely by hand, as an early sewing machine that belonged to Keckley is in the collection at the Chicago History Museum (Benson and Sanders).Īs seen in the photograph below, Mary Todd Lincoln complemented the dress with bunches of flowers: as a corsage, as a headpiece, and carried as a small bouquet. Later in life, she built a thriving dressmaking business in Washington D.C. The dress was created by Elizabeth Keckley, a talented seamstress who was born into slavery in 1818 Virginia. The dress is made from a moiré silk taffeta with brocaded sprigs of magenta flowers set between narrow black stripes (Figs. It has a wide pleated skirt, worn over a crinoline to achieve an early 1860s bell silhouette. A lace bertha collar elegantly wraps around her shoulders, leaving her décolletage exposed for an evening occasion. Its waistline sits at Lincoln’s natural waist and comes to a gentle point at the center front. 1863 is an excellent example of fashionable dress from the early 1860s.

Elizabeth keckley thirty years a slave