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Cap
Cap
Cap

Cap

Period1750 - 1800
Place MadeFreehold area, New Jersey, U.S.A.
MediumLinen, cotton
Dimensions12.5 × 8.5 in. (31.8 × 21.6 cm)
ClassificationsCostume, Women's
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Van Nest Dubois, 1934
Object number611
DescriptionA woman's finely woven linen and cotton day cap, with a wide brim constructed with elongated lappets, edged with a narrow band of sheer cotton sewn into narrow pleats along the rounded lappet ends. The cap itself has a drawstring casing along the bottom edge of the neck, with narrow braided cording.
Curatorial RemarksDay caps were extremely common throughout the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth centuries. Worn on both sides of the Atlantic, day caps provided several fashionable as well as practical benefits. Usually made of lightweight cotton or linen, caps could be as simple or as elaborate as the wearer wished. This particular cap, sometimes called a "Dutch" cap, features elongated side panels known as lappets. The lappets could be left hanging, framing the wearer's face, or tied under the chin with narrow ribbon or strings. The cap in the Association's collection has indications of the original narrow ribbons sewn to the lappet ends.NotesThe original wearer of this rare mid-eighteenth century day cap is unknown. The cap was given to the Association by Mary Ella Thompson Dubois in 1934. Mary Thompson was born in 1858 on her father's West Freehold farm and married J. VanNest Dubois in 1877. The couple had no children. It is impossible to say within which family line the simple day cap descended, as both Mary Ella Thompson and her husband J. VanNest Dubois had deep family roots within Monmouth County, including Hendrickson, Dubois, and Probasco family members. What is almost certain is that this cap was made and worn in Monmouth County, New Jersey between 1750 and 1800.
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