Name/Title
Vintage Black Silk BlouseEntry/Object ID
2024.3.4Description
Vintage black silk woman's blouse/bodice with a detachable bib/stomacher held by pins. (Museum staff removed the pins when the garment was being processed.) Puffy shoulders. Fasteners are hooks instead of buttons. (Hooks reached a height of popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s.) The bib is resembles a triangular black crepe stomacher, except that the triangle is inverted (the point is at the bottom) and it rises all the way up to the collar. Decorative, non-functional black (jet?) buttons on the bib/stomacher. Black buttons on cuffs. Long sleeves. Decorative lacework, beadwork, and buttons. Corset stays were sewn into the inside of the waist. There are two tails in the back, decorated with non-functional buttons. Fair condition. Possibly handmade -- there is no label. Found with other garments in cellar of 151-F Pond Road in Franklin, CT. Some garments are marked RR. Donor believes the garments had belonged to Marjorie Burnham Ayer Robbins, born 1897, in whose home the garments were found, and/or the Robbins family into which she she married. RR could have been Marjorie's second husband, Roger Robbins. The black clothing fits with the fact that Marjorie was a widow for many years before she remarried -- these may be mourning clothes.
Marjorie was born in Hampden, CT, in 1897, the daughter of Frederic Augustus Burnham and Mary Eleanor [Copeland] Burnham. She attended local schools and one year at the Bay Path Institute, from which she graduated in 1917. She taught school and worked as a secretary. In 1920 she married Joseph Eugene Ayer of Franklin, CT, a farmer. Joseph was born in 1893. He and Marjorie had two children, Eugene and John. Joseph died in 1926. Marjorie operated their farm for many years, and was still an unmarried widow in 1940. Sometime after that, she married Roger Robbins. She died in Franklin in 2003 and is buried next to Joseph on the Ayer family plot in Franklin.Collection
Burnham-Ayer-Rogers CollectionLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
BlouseNomenclature Primary Object Term
ShirtNomenclature Sub-Class
Main GarmentsNomenclature Class
ClothingNomenclature Category
Category 03: Personal ObjectsLocation
Location
Room
Archives* Untyped Location
Main Museum BuildingCategory
StorageDate
March 23, 2024Provenance
Provenance Detail
Found in the cellar of 151-F Pond Road, Franklin, CT, the former home of Marjorie Burnham Ayer Robbins, when the house was being cleaned out by family members prior to sale.Created By
historian@millmuseum.orgCreate Date
March 23, 2024Updated By
historian@millmuseum.orgUpdate Date
March 28, 2024
