Livy Scott

In my thesis, I employed an objectcentric approach to three embroidered garments that were created and worn in 18th-century Connecticut, shedding light on the unexplored sartorial history of this region and on the garments’ original makers and owners and their self-fashioned identities. In Chapter One, I focus on an embroidered apron in the Connecticut Historical Society’s collection, attributed to three women: Mary Hooker Pierpont, Mary Pierpont Russell, and Mary Russell Talcott. In Chapter Two, I outline the contours of Hannah Edwards Wetmore’s life through an examination of her embroidered shoes, housed at the Connecticut Historical Society, and her surviving writings, now held in the archives of Yale University. In Chapter Three, I explore a unique embroidered gown, worn by Abigail Wadsworth, in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum. Focusing on the details of materiality, I discuss the ways in which identity and gentility were fostered through creating, wearing, and preserving these embroidered garments. The resulting object biographies and microhistories offer rich insights into the lives of women in 18th-century New England.