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Dress
Dress
Dress

Dress

PeriodCirca 1810 - 1814
Place MadePossibly Shrewsbury, New Jersey, U.S.A.
MediumCotton mull, linen
Dimensions51 in. (129.5 cm)
ClassificationsCostume, Women's
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Margaret Allen, 1972
Object number1972.5.42
DescriptionA woman's gown, made of lightweight cotton mull, with a rounded neckline with drawstring fitting, short bell sleeves, high waistline with narrow drawstring casing, and slightly flared skirt with cartridge pleating along the back of the waistband. The gown includes a front closure in a "bib" style, with two inner linen bodice panel flaps closing with pins in center front, and the apron/bib front buttoned at the shoulder fronts with small thread buttons. The gown is embroidered in whitework, with widely spaced floral springs on the skirt and larger floral/foliate groupings on the bodice and down the front of the skirt to the hem.
Curatorial RemarksBy 1800, fashion was undergoing a profoundly dramatic change. In less than a decade, the long-fashionable silhouette acheived by stays had been discarded for the high-waisted gowns first made popular in France during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. The silhouette recalled the classical garments of ancient Greece and Rome and was embraced on both sides of the Atlantic. Monmouth County residents had relatively easy access to both fabrics and fashions from London and Paris through the large city centers of New York and Philadelphia.NotesThis delicate, ethereal gown was owned and worn by lifelong Shrewsbury resident Sarah Throckmorton Allen. Sarah was born on March 31, 1790, the daughter of Joseph Forman Throckmorton and Margaret Williams Throckmorton. On June 16, 1814, Sarah married fellow Shrewsbury resident Edmund T. Allen (1788-1867). The couple were distantly related through the Throckmorton line. Edmund had trained as a physician in Philadelphia. Dr. Allen purchased the rundown tavern across the street from the Shrewsbury Quaker Meeting house and Christ Church. The Allens renovated the building to serve as home, doctor's office, and pharmacy. The Allens had seven children: Joseph (1815-1889), Elizabeth (1817-1886), Edmund (1819-1819), Edmund (1821-1883), Sarah (1824-1825), Sarah (1825-1891), and Harriet Jane (1828-1910). It was not uncommon for parents to reuse the name of a deceased child for a later birth, and the Allens did this twice. Allen ran his successful medical practice until his death in 1867. Sarah T. Allen continued to live in the house with three of her adult daughters. At her death, the house passed to her son, Edmund T. Allen. At Edmund's death in 1883, the house became the property of his daughters. Dr. Edmund Allen, Sarah Throckmorton Allen, and most of their children were buried in the Christ Episcopal Church graveyard directly across the street from the Allen House. The Allen House eventually became the property of the last direct Allen descendant, Margaret "Maggie" Allen. Allen sold the house in 1947 and moved to Red Bank where she died in 1959 at the age of 99. The gown was among numerous Allen family objects and archival materials donated to the Association in 1972 by Lena Brinley. Her husband, Henry Brinley, was Maggie Allen's attorney for many years. Mrs. Brinley donated the items on behalf of Maggie Allen. It is possible that the gown served as Sarah Throckmorton's wedding gown at her marriage to Dr. Edmund Allen in 1814.
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