Through the centuries, Americans invested a tremendous amount of labor, materials, and money into making and maintaining their wardrobes.
At 6:45 p.m. Thursday, April 27, the Little White School Museum will be host to a free program on “The Life Cycle of Clothing,” recounting how our 19th Century ancestors viewed and used clothes, a program that should be of interest to everyone interested in the historic use and production of textiles.
The museum is at 72 Polk Street (Polk at Jackson), just two blocks from Oswego’s historic downtown business district.
During the settlement era here in the Fox Valley, much of the settlers’ clothing was made by hand using cloth they produced themselves, either wool from sheep grown on their own farms or linen, created from flax, another pioneer crop.
James Sheldon Barber, a young man who arrived in Oswego from Smyrna, New York in 1843 noted in a letter to his parents that clothing was available to be made locally, but prices were higher on the Illinois frontier than back in New York: “I have not bought any clothes yet, but the prices of making is a trifle higher here than there…as to mending I have done that myself what I have had done.”
While pre-registration is not required—walk-ins are welcome the evening of the program—doing so will be helpful. To pre-register, visit bit.ly/lwsmwinter or calling the park district at 630-554-1010.
—Little White School Museum