Beauty & Fashion

Ladies, do you long for that soft, fair complexion? Then poison yourself. A number of companies, toward the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, manufactured Arsenic Complexion Wafers. “Doctors” promoted arsenic to help women achieve the pale look that was fashionable at the time. The arsenic helped in this process by killing red blood cells. It was said the arsenic in each wafer was such a small amount that it wouldn’t harm anyone, yet women did die from consuming these poisoned wafers, though how many is unknown. Needless to say, Arsenic Complexion Wafers were eventually taken off the market.

Arsenic was also used in some mourning gowns to obtain a certain shade of black. Following the passing of a husband, a widow may wear a mourning gown for months or years. The arsenic would seep through their skin and into their bloodstream, causing them to wither away, and at times killing them. Onlookers would see a woman in her mourning gown and think she was wasting away from a broken heart, not understanding the full effects of arsenic at that time.

                 

 

An excerpt from a mid-1890s bathing manual (yes, there were rules for bathing at the time, or at least what was considered appropriate bathing habits), it was suggested to use rainwater. The manual also states “not more than a quart of water is necessary”.

 

Ladies…think hair extensions are a recent beauty industry product? Turns out they’ve been around for quite a while, as seen in this 1872 advertisement.

 

There were some unusual practices during the 19th century in regard to women’s beauty standards of the time. One of the most dangerous was trying to achieve the doe-eyed look (large pupils). In order for women to achieve this look, they could buy over-the-counter belladonna juice, which they would drop into their eyes. Belladonna is an extremely poisonous plant, producing dark purple berries known as the Devil’s Berry. Consuming just a small amount of this plant’s berries can be fatal. It is basically straight-up poison. Women would drop this poison into their eyes, which would dilate their pupils, achieving the look they wanted. It was not uncommon for this practice, over time, to cause blindness.

The photo below shows an eye comparison, one eye having had belladonna juice applied to it. Very small doses of belladonna are still used today by doctors and eye specialists when getting pupils dilated.

As an interesting side note, a less common practice was the dropping of lemon juice or orange juice into eyes. The sting from the citric acid was believed to keep eyes youthful in appearance and vision sharp. According to modern eye specialists, these citric eye drops could cause corneal abrasions and blindness over time.

Was it worth the price of beauty when the women who used these “treatments” could no longer see themselves?

 

In the Summer of 1907, professional swimmer and vaudeville actress, Annette Kellermann, was arrested on Revere Beach in Boston for indecent exposure due to wearing the form-fitting swimsuit she is seen modeling below.

Having started her own swimwear company prior to her arrest, she had designed this form-fitting one-piece swimsuit during a time when womens’ swimwear resembled those in the second photo below.

Claiming the swimsuit was actually exercise-wear, in which form-fitting outfits were acceptable, charges were dropped against Kellermann as long as she agreed to follow a judge’s order to not remove her skirt until she was completely in the water and putting it back on before getting back out onto the beach.

     

 

People sometimes become celebrities for something other than their talent. Such was the case of the Sutherland sisters from the 1880s through early 1900s.

The seven sisters from New York were known for their extremely long hair, measuring a total of 37 feet between all of them. Their father, who acted as their manager and had always wanted to obtain fame and fortune for himself, realized he could obtain it by exploiting his daughters in theaters across the country. They performed musicals, though none of them were musically gifted. However, there was always full attendance as people waited for the show’s finale when the girls, having worn their hair up the entire show, would all let their hair down together after the final number. That’s all people really came to see.

The sisters, or rather their father, would eventually go on to market hair growing ointments and other products containing his daughters’ name and image. Any hair product with their name on it was a success. The family amassed quite a fortune and were able to live lavishly, perhaps a little too lavishly. By the late 1910s, shorter hair had become popular and Sutherland Sisters products stopped selling. Having spent all their fortune, the last of the Sutherland sisters passed away penniless in 1946.

     

 

It is estimated that the average woman will spend $1,780 on lipstick in a lifetime. “Lip painting” fell out of fashion in the United States during most of the 1800s due to the influence of Queen Victoria, who did not wear lipstick (English culture had a large influence on American culture at the time). However, lipstick started becoming popular again in the 1880s. A commercially successful brand at the time was made from grapefruit mixed with butter and wax.

Applying lipstick in the 19th century was seen as something that should only be done in privacy. In the 1880s, famous stage actress Sarah Bernhardt caused a large scandal by applying her lipstick freely in public.

 

Early self-defense for women. If attacked, take out your hatpin and stab!
Hatpins were a popular accessory in late 19th and early 20th century women’s fashion in both the United States and England. They were also very sharp.
In 1908, an English judge, fearing that hatpins could be used as weapons in his court, ordered a group of suffragettes on trial to remove their hats.
In 1909, a bill was introduced in Illinois and Arkansas, limiting the length of hatpins to 9″. Any hatpin longer than 9″ would require the wearer to carry a permit, as hatpins were considered deadly weapons, at least in those two states. If a woman did not have a permit, she would have to cut her hatpin to make it no longer than 9″.

 

  

 

Who knew a beard could be so troublesome in one’s life. For one man, it landed him in jail.

Born in 1791, Joseph Palmer, a farmer and resident of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was a veteran of the War of 1812. In the 1820s, he let his beard grow long, about 100 years after beards were no longer popular (beards had grown out of fashion after about 1720).

Palmer was ridiculed daily for his beard. Even a prominent Fitchburg minister once said to him, “Palmer, why don’t you shave and not go around looking like the devil?” Palmer replied, “Mr. Trask, are you not mistaken in your comparison of personages? I have never seen a picture of the ruler of the sulfurous regions with much of a beard, but if I remember correctly, Jesus wore a beard not unlike mine.”

In May 1830, four men carrying scissors and razors attacked Palmer, forcibly trying to remove his beard. Palmer successfully fought them off, cutting the leg of two of his attackers with a knife in the process. Palmer was then arrested, charged with “unprovoked assault“. He was charged a $10 fine, $40 in court fees and a $700 bail. He refused to pay anything, stating he was only defending himself during the attack. As a result, Palmer was locked up in Worcester County Jail, where he remained for 15 months.

During his time in jail, Palmer kept a detailed journal of his time behind bars. He was beaten by guards, starved for days at a time and was kept in solitary confinement for several months. He was also attacked by other inmates who attempted to cut off his beard.
Palmer was told around one year of imprisonment that he could be released if he just paid his fines, but he held his ground, saying that paying even just the smallest of those fines, $10, would be a sign that he was guilty of cutting the two men unprovoked.
Eventually, county authorities realized Palmer’s punishment was exceeding the charges he obtained. They offered to waive the $700 bail if he would only pay the $10 fine and $40 court fees. Palmer again refused to pay anything, angrily and sarcastically stating, “If I ain’t a safe person to have my liberty, I ought not to go out. And I am willing to stay in confinement til I am.”

Eventually, the judge who fined Palmer visited him. He had a letter from Palmer’s mother, begging for her son to be released. On August 31, 1831, Palmer paid the fine and court fees and was released after 15 months in jail. Upon his release, he found nothing had changed. People continued mocking him for his beard.

While imprisoned, Palmer had developed a strong interest in politics, in which he later became involved in prison reform as well as abolitionism.
Palmer passed away in 1873 at the age of 82. By this time beards had become fashionable again. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in North Leominster, Massachusetts. His resting place is marked by a large tombstone, featuring a likeness of himself along with the engraving “Persecuted for wearing the beard.”

       

 

Hand fans were a popular womens’ accessory during the 19th century, but legend has it they were also used to communicate with men. Below is a list of fan actions and their meanings. Men needed to understand what these actions meant so as not to misinterpret a message.

 

Emma Snodgrass, at ages 17 and 18, was arrested numerous times throughout 1852 and 1853 for wearing pants in public, which went against the social norm for women at the time.

Snodgrass, the daughter of a respected New York City police captain, caused such a sensation wearing pants in public that she was mocked, arrested and sent home to her father each time. She kept returning to major cities over and over wearing pants, most notably Boston, where most of her arrests occurred. She was also arrested in Albany, Buffalo, Louisville and Cleveland to name a few other locations. Her arrests made national news, in which some of the articles can be read here.
Snodgrass was described by those who knew her as pretty and petite, standing 4’10”. Newspapers, however, described her as “the wanderer in man’s apparel”, “the foolish girl who goes around in virile toggery”, “an eccentric female who roams about town”, “the femine freak” and one who pursues “a wretched life of idleness and immorality”.

The Fort Wayne Times and Peoples Press reported, “She wears a frock coat, glazed cap, striped pantaloons, &c., and has the appearance of quite a good looking young man.”

The New York Daily Times reported, “What her motive may be for thus obstinately rejecting the habiliments of her own sex, is not known.”
When wearing men’s apparel, she went by the name George Green. She was sometimes seen spotted with a friend named Harriet French, who also wore men’s apparel and went by the name Charley (last name unknown).

The final time Snodgrass was mentioned in papers appeared in the July 13, 1853 publication of the Grant County Herald, out of Lancaster, Wisconsin. The publication reported, “Emma Snodgrass has repented, gone home, taken off her breeches, and sworn eternal attachment to petticoats and propriety. This is to her credit.”

It is unknown what became of Emma Snodgrass after this, whether her dressing as a man became so much better that she wasn’t recognized, or if she really did swear eternal attachment to women’s clothing as the article suggested.

 

Many images of young boys from the 19th and early 20th century (as well as painted portraits in centuries prior to photography) appear feminine by today’s standards. Some images show young boys in dresses almost identical to those of girls.
What was the reason for this?

The main reason is it was believed that children did not develop personalities until two or three years of age, and therefore boys did not need to resemble boys (which included leaving some boys’ hair to grow long). This may have been partially due to the high rates of infant mortality. It is believed this lack of individuality may have been a form of psychological protection for parents facing the likelihood of losing a child.

Many boys continued to wear dresses up until age 7, as that was the age in which it was believed a boy could start being identified as such, and thus start dressing like one. This was known as “breeching”, when a boy would first start wearing breeches or trousers. A celebration would sometimes occur for this occasion.

Below are images of boys prior to the age of breeching, with a girl thrown into the mix to show similarities in attire. The last photo is Franklin D. Roosevelt at age 2 in 1884.

 

The most popular exhibit in the Anthropology Building at the 1893 Chicago World‘s Fair was Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent’s “The Typical Americans” composite sculptures. These sculptures represented the average body of both genders in their youth.

In 1892, Dr. Sargent, a Harvard professor and physical education instructor, took measurements of 20,000 healthy and fit Harvard and Radcliffe University students, 10,000 female and 10,000 male. A total of 65 measurements were taken for each student.
The average for each measurement taken by Dr. Sargent was then handed over to a male and female sculptor, each sculpting the “typical“ body for their own gender. The sculptures were to be displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair to express the importance of exercise in order to attain a body matching those of the composite sculptures.

Dr. Sargent stated, “The statues will best serve the object of science in being considered the base line for future observations and comparisons. If individuals of other nations and races can be induced to make similar contributions, and if the experiment is repeated every 25 years – we should, soon have visible evidence of our physical progress or degeneracy.”

At this time, Dr. Sargent started a contest, to be partaken in at the fair, in which he was looking for a woman for his studies which he could deem “perfect”, one as close as possible to Venus de Milo. None of the 10,000 female college students he measured had fit his standard of the perfect female form. Dr. Sargent told the New York Times, “Among the many thousands who have been measured at the gymnasium, not one has fulfilled every requirement.”

Women who viewed the sculptures at the fair were able to compare their own bodies to that of the female sculpture, and if measurements were close enough to what Dr. Sargent considered “perfect”, could then submit their own measurements to him for his records, and personally be judged by him as to whether they themselves fit the image of the “perfect woman”.

Dr. Sargent’s search for the perfect female form continued until the early 1900s, when he deemed professional swimmer-turned vaudeville actress Annette Kellerman the “perfect woman”. Kellerman stood 5′4” with a 35.2” bust, 26.2” waist, and 37.8” hips.
The original “The Typical Americans” sculptures have survived and are on display at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

   

 

Fads come and go. Many are seen as strange in hindsight, and this fad is no exception.

For a brief time in 1883, what became known as “hairpin pilfering” was popular among teenage boys and young men. In October of that year, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania man was interviewed by a reporter of The Telegraph regarding this fad. The man told the reporter, “There is a new craze now. The boys are all collecting hairpins but now the idea is to get them without the girls knowing what you are about.”

Hairpin pilfering began innocently with boys asking girls they liked for one of their hairpins as a keepsake. However, politely asking for a hairpin soon turned into a challenge of stealing them without girls knowing, or picking them up and keeping them if they fell out of a girl’s or young lady’s hair. The Harrisburg man continued with the reporter, “I know fellows who have followed a girl for squares just because a hairpin was sticking out and looked as if it meant to drop soon.”

The object of hairpin pilfering was to acquire as many hairpins as possible. But it doesn’t end there.
Upon acquiring hairpins, boys and young men would put them in scrapbooks. The Harrisburg man continued in his interview, “They get scrapbooks and push the pins through the leaves like needles. Then a label giving the girl’s name if known, style of beauty, descriptions of her person and estimated age, with the date of securing the trophy, is written below.”

One young man was reported to have collected 400 hairpins.

Though I couldn’t locate an image of a hairpin scrapbook from the time of this fad, I instead found one containing late 1880s hairpins, as these would have been similar to what boys and young men were trying to collect.

 

Some of the many ways women flirted in the 19th century. Men would have had to been aware of what each action meant so as not to mistake a message.

 

This fiberglass dress was featured at the Libby Glass Co. exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The dress was made for Princess Infanta Eulalia of Spain, who was to visit the fair. She was supposedly a direct descendent of Christopher Columbus. The theme of that year’s World’s Fair was Columbus’s discovery of the New World in 1492.

This dress was fragile but not too fragile to the point that it would shatter at the slightest touch or quick movement while wearing it.
Many fiberglass souvenirs, such as the tie below, could be purchased by visitors at the Libby Glass Co. building on the Midway Plaisance, a one-mile strip of assorted entertainment jutting off of the fairgrounds. Most of these wearable glass souvenirs no longer exist.

Though fiberglass clothing had existed prior to 1893, it was that year’s World’s Fair which brought it to national attention. Catalog orders were coming in by the thousands for fiberglass bonnets and other accessories. Some newspapers reported that cleaners and laundresses would no longer be needed, as the cleaning of fiberglass clothing only required a quick scrub with soap and water.

By the early 20th century, rayon and nylon fabrics had been created, and fiberglass clothing became a thing of the past. Fiberglass clothing continued being displayed in traveling exhibits across the country but only as a novelty. The desire to wear fiberglass clothing and accessories had faded away.

 

Women’s high hairstyles were strived for as the “Gibson Girl” look rose to popularity in the early 1900s. A way to achieve these hairstyles, such as the ones seen in the photo below from 1905, was to use what was referred to as a “hair rat”, or according to some sources, a “rat’s nest”.

As women brushed their hair daily, strands of hair would get caught in the brush. They would remove the strands of hair from their brush and save it. After continuously doing this day after day, she would have a large ball of her own hair. When the ball of hair was to a desired amount, she would secure it in a hairnet and mold it into an oval shape, resembling a rodent, hence the name “hair rat”. She would then place the hair rat on her head and brush her hair over it, providing instant lift to achieve the desired “Gibson Girl” look. The more hair collected from her hairbrush, the higher she was able to style her hair. Artificial means of obtaining this look could be purchased in stores and catalogs, but using one’s own hair was an obviously less expensive way to achieve this hairstyle.