Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

[Vuhginyuh]

Can anybody please provide feedback on her clothing?
I love this image and would like to know something about her other than her name.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Well, she's young and trying to be fairly stylish (has a hat, rather than a bonnet); the sacque and skirt or dress is quite plainly made, with buttons as the only embellishment.

She's scooched up against the chair pretty hard--notice the distortion in her hoops--and she's lacking adequate underskirts to soften the line. A white collar and brooch are just visible at the neckline.

Her hair looks cropped--but she's in full length skirts, and appears to have the facial and figure development of a woman who's reached her early 20s. Could be she followed the short-lived fad of grown women cropping off their hair--or, what my eyes are seeing as cropped curls is actually the ornamentation of some hair embellishment at the back of her head--and judging from the smoothly parted front, that's just as likely.

Something about her says "working classes" to me--perhaps its the simplicity of each element, taken altogether, or the lack of needed underskirts, etc--and the sacque is a tad too short for aesthetics, the sleeves a tad too long, the skirt hemmed a bit too long or just lacking adequate support... to me, these signal possibly second-hand clothing, made over to be somewhat stylish for a woman of limited means.

Of course, it's all pure speculation. She's absolutely lovely of face!

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Where does the image fit? 1850's, 60's, 70's?
What fabric is her sacque and skirt?

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Firmly in the 60s... the coat sleeve in that shape is fairly narrow in it's time window to the mid-60s.

It does look like a brooch and collar.

[VMurphy]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

I'm in need of a lesson in opening the photo attachment I guess....can't seem to find it :cry_smile

I'd like to see the image. I've been doing some research on Hair Styles and Grooming for an upcoming Conference Lecture...and am finding that it wasn't all that uncommon for a lady to have short hair; for many different reasons.

Hope you can help me out :confused_

Regards
Vivian Murphy

Can anybody please provide feedback on her clothing?
I love this image and would like to know something about her other than her name.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Vivian, an e-mail w/image is on the way.

[VMurphy]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Thanks for the photo...it is wonderful..how fortunate foryou to have these wonderful family artifacts.

I'm not sure her hair is short/cropped. Perhaps not exceedingly long, but it is pulled to the back and not very visable to tell exactly what the lenght is.

I love her sac/petticoat. And the fact that she has this typeof clothing on/with collar,broach and hat in hand; might inticate that our present take on the use of this garment may be a bit too strengent. WE sometimes have a tendency to want to pigeon hole everything into neat little pkgs. but human nature isn't always that easily confined.
Although out current thinking on the sac/petticoat is that it was a "house dress" for at home wear and/or maternity wear. But there is also documentation such as this that the sac/petticoat could be worn for casual wear. There are many suggestions in period sources suggesting a sac to match a dress or skirt for a light wrap/jacket.
It appears that this is very probably what Cary has on :wink_smil

Great Photo, Thanks for sharing

Regards
Vivian Murphy

[VMurphy]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

OK...if your family records indicate she might possibly be with child, that answers the question of her dress.
and that being the case...it very well could be a "loaner" from someone else? We will probably never know :cry_smile

So what date was the GGgrandfather in question born?
That would give us a good guideline for dating the dress/photo.
I would place it at 1863-64??

Regards
Vivian Murphy

Can anybody please provide feedback on her clothing?
I love this image and would like to know something about her other than her name.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

...G-grandfather in question born?

SPRING 1864

[VMurphy]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

OH, Gee, I see now you stated that on your last message. Sorry...
Well it all fits...a wonderful family photo!!
I don't recall, do you know how old she was?
REgards,
Vivian Murphy

[

QUOTE=Vuhginyuh]SPRING 1864[/QUOTE]

[KarinTimour]

Speculation....

Folks:

It looks to me as though she might be wearing an elliptical hoop with a skirt cut for a round hoop. The sillouette looks more elliptical than round. Of course the picture is sort of taken at an angle as well.

Here's a total speculation based on what we do know:

1. She had this picture taken to send to someone == husband? in the army who probably didn't have an iimage of her from earlier.

2. Keep in mind that confinements weren't unhazardous undertakings -- not only did children frequently die, mothers did too. She wanted someone to have a recent picture of her in case she didn't make it, especially if there was no way that he could get home for the confinement, or God forbid, her death.

3. But she realizes she's in a pretty advanced state of pregnancy, and her good dress doesn't fit. Her friends/the photographer/whoever, rally around and find a hoop she can wear, and an outfit that kinda-sorta fits, in the right light at the right angle.

4. I'm wondering from the rather noticable creases in the outfit if she didn't bring it to the studio in a box, and get dressed there, rather than wearing the outfit in?

5. I'm also wondering if part of the reason she's scootched up against the chair is for added help in balancing? it also looks as though there is something being her on the other side -- see that corner of something poking out on her left (the viewer's right) side? I've heard that some mothers-to-be get quickly larger in the last few months of the pregnancy, throwing off their center of gravity, and making them more than usually careful of their balance. Given that there is going to be a 7?8? second exposure, she doesn't have the money to have a second picture done, and she's worried about blurring it, perhaps she had them brace her pretty securely? I"m also assuming that she's got one of those "clamps" on the back of her head to help keep her head steady.

Again, just some speculation,

Karin Timour
"The Stories in the Socks" Women in the Civil War Conference, Richmond, VA, June 2004
Period Knitting -- Socks, Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Solider's Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Several private messages have requested more information on her.

Anne Randolph Cary
Born Williamsburg, Va. Feb 19, 1841

Married Thomas Carter Beall of Montgomery Co. MD, 1859, in Williamsburg.
She moved to Frederick MD in the summer of 1862 to ''escape the war'' (good job...) while he took a walk around the East Coast with Kemper and the boys.

Surviving sons; Thomas Magruder in 1864 my Great-grandfather, Emory Reade in 1866, Montgomery Cary in 1869, Horace Holland in 1872, Byron Peyton in 1872 and Boyd Danforth 1876.

Beall is pronunced Bell here...

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

I believe that the sacks could be purchased as ready made. I think it was in a post in reference to Past Patterns sack pattern, that the sack she used was a ready made.
This may have been a newly purchased outfit so that she could have her image taken and sent to her husband. She might have been uncomfortable in having her image taken while she is "in the family way" and this was a more modest way to have her image taken. This could explain the ill fit and folded creases of a new outfit.
She is "in the family way" it might have been the reason to send a picture to her husband so he can also share in the experience. I too sent a picture to my husband when I was "in the family way" and he was deployed for six months. Today we would think nothing of sending pictures of pregnant women wearing next to nothing but then it was a big deal! Nice picture.
Susan Armstrong

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

With the hat and such, I'd second a possibility of it being a very casual "fashion" outfit... and it may well be a pregnancy picture, though the skirt has been made excessivly long all the way round (not just floor length, but dragging), and the lack of underskirts to soften the line points me toward "make do" and some lack of fashion sense--enough to wear something in the "casual fashion" range, but not enough to do it fully as recommended by the magazines.

There's no way to definitively state fabric content or color from a photograph. It wrinkles in the bodice in the way a silk might, and doesn't appear to have any of the soft drape of a good wool. I can definitely state that it is Not Polyester. :) And that's about as far as fabric ID goes, aside from good guesses.

From a practical standpoint, having gone through two pregnancies while wearing period clothing to this point, normal dresses are pretty easy to wear until about the middle of month 8. With fashions being just *slightly* above the natural waist, additional pushing up of the waist isn't a big issue for many months; the wide skirts below tend to hide a belly very well, especially if the woman balances the bulging front with added petticoat fullness and padding at the back hip. After 7-8 months, it's different, but regularly cut dresses can still be easily worn, with some alteration for a larger, shorter waist. A sacque/skirt or wrapper for the last weeks is a godsend.... but most women won't want to do more than the basics during those weeks, anyhow.

(And, I'm not one who can "hide" a pregnancy--I give birth to huge babies, and carry straight out front, from my knees to my neck.... and still, I didn't need specialized clothing until the very end of pregnancy, either time. Modern clothes was an entirely different matter...)

[rbrewer]

Re: Anne Randolph Beall, Montgomery Co MD.

Can anybody please provide feedback on her clothing?
I love this image and would like to know something about her other than her name.

Try contacting the Montgomery County (MD) historical society( thier hdqt's is next to the Beall -Dawson House in Rockville MD)

https://www.montgomeryhistory.org/301-340-2825

Hope this helps
Sincerely
Bob Brewer