The Web They Wove: Women and Their Wardrobes During New England’s Revolution

Underpinning the sensationalism of battle reports and broadsides is the often silent steadiness of women’s work with textiles. The choices they made every day about fashion and fabric consumption and creation drove the course of Revolution just as determinedly as any congress. As southern New England commemorates the 250th anniversary of the War for Independence, it is these local lives dressed in fulled wool or spun silk that continue to inspire creativity, resilience, and empathy in us today. From the mythology of homespun to legends of midnight rides in red cloaks and calashes, the Dirty Blue Shirts share stories of women who waged war on multiple fronts as well as a look at what they wore as their worlds turn’d upside down. This program is presented by costumed historians and includes reproduction clothing pieces and fabric samples, as well as a PowerPoint presentation with images of extant originals.