Clermont State Historic Site

As a consumate shopper myself (and fashion historian), I can\’t help but be fascinated by the Livingston\’s shopping habits–especially clothes. There isn\’t much in the way of eighteenth century clothing left in Clermont\’s collections so for the most past, I am left eagerly pawing through the documentary references I can find.

So when, in the course of doing other research, I bumped into records from both Alida Schuyler Livingston (1656-1729, pictured at right) and her grandaughter-in-law Margaret Beekman Livingston (1724-1800), I was all excited when I started finding references to clothing items. Here are two women that we have minimal imagery of (only three portraits between the two of them) so knowing about day-to-day clothing for them and their families is difficult. What on earth were they wearing!?

The two sets of records are of very different kinds so the information they provide is a little different too. From Alida, I have a collection of transcribed letters in \”Livingston Then and Now.\” They date from between February 1697 and June 1724. Because this is not a complete list of her correspondance, just a dozen or so missives between she and her husband, there are gaping holes about other sources from which she may have done purchasing. From Margaret, I have a few pages from an account book ranging between November 1776 and April 1779. For whatever reason, this book doesn\’t appear to give a very complete accounting, even in the narrow range of dates it provides. Nevertheless, in spite of their flaws, both sources reference items of clothing that give us hints about the past.

I\’ll take what I can get.

So what do they have to say?

Alida wrote letters to her husband Robert, who was often in New York while she was in Albany or minding the manor at the Roeliff Jansen Kill. The two missed each other, and often expressed concern or endearments in their missives. But the letters were also practical exchanges of information. Located, as he was, in a major shipping capital, she often wrote requesting that he purchase certain supplies for her–clothing items among them. Other times he wrote requesting things from their stores at home. A few times, clothes simply became part of the discussion of daily life.

When Alida gave birth to their last child in 1698, she was feverish and sick (most likely from an infection), but still gave her stays (corset) to her sister \”to enlarge them on each side.\” Aparently she had no hope of losing enough weight to get back to her old size.

So that was Alida. What about our old friend Margaret Beekman Livingston. Margaret was born in 1724, the same year that Alida was having her \”black garment\” made. Her account book pages (which appear to have been written out by her eldest son Robert the Chancellor, since they once note that \”mama is to pay.\”) are written some fifty years after Alida\’s later letters.

Gloves were also an important accessory in the 18th century, and Margaret lists several glove purchases: one pair in 1778 for 9 shillings and another that might have been for Peggy\’s wedding for 6 pounds, 2 shillings. Both of these purchases were made from \”Mrs. Provost.\”

A few other fabric and notions purchases can be found in the record. \”two pieces of tape\” were bought for 3 shillings in March of 1778. Tapes were a woven linen or cotton ribbon of sorts, commonly used for apron strings amongst many other things. (At right is the small loom on which these were woven.) Later came 2 yards \”crape\” (crepe) for 6 pounds. And finally for Alida\’s big purchase in 1779 (including the white shoes), there was a \”half a piece of linnen\” at L6.13.4 and \”shalloon\” (the same as the \”chalon\” from above) at L20. Whatever else was purchased that day didn\’t get recorded, but the total was over 72 pounds.

Like I said at the beginning, there is not that much information surviving on this topic for the Livingstons so I\’ll take what I can get.