Textiles, Clothing and Domestic Items

Top - small boy's shirt.
c. 1850

Bottom - samples of textiles from the Lowell mills, used for Longfellow children's clothing.
1845-1850

Clothing

This collection consists of over 400 Longfellow, Dana, and Thorp family clothing items from the eighteenth to early twentieth century. Included are waistcoats, jackets, trousers, hats, caps, bonnets, shoes, gowns, parasols, children's clothing, and stockings.

Of particular interest are:

• Charles Longfellow's Civil War uniform
• Nineteenth century Japanese items including nineteen kimono
• Regional costumes from nineteenth century Greece and the Philippines
• Henry Longfellow's smoking jacket
• Moccasins
• 1840s textile samples from the Lowell mills
• Two mid-nineteenth century ball gowns associated with Fanny Longfellow

Other flat and rolled textiles consist of panels or fragments of curtains, drapes, upholstery, towels, blankets, slipcovers, rugs, runners, and carpets, all of which were used in the house.

Fanny Longfellow's father, Nathan Appleton, was one of the founders of the Lowell textile mills, and was a pioneer in American textile manufacturing.

 

Harlequin jumping-jack.
c. 1850

Domestic and Utilitarian Items

Domestic items used by the Longfellow family include both recreational and personal objects, such as:

• Children's toys, dolls, and games (.pdf file, 405 KB)
• A child's sled
• Jewelry
• Canes and walking sticks
• Fans
• Picnic basket with accessories
• Hat and hair ornaments
• Desk and writing sets

 

A pruner from the Longfellow garden tool collection.
late 19th or early 20th century

Utilitarian items dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth century include:

• Fireplace utensils
• Cooking implements
• A metal sitting bath
• Traveling trunks
• Garden tools