Tags
18th century clothing, 19th century clothing, authenticity, Clothing, common dress, common people, John Brown House Museum, Julia Bowen, Julia Bowen Martin, living history, Providence, Research, Rhode Island, What Cheer Day
What Cheer Day preparations must begin in earnest now, no matter how distracting I might find orderly books or silk shoes (not in my size, alas: no last can be found). I already have clothes enough for a housekeeper, though I still crave a broadcloth Spencer and am working on a petticoat. I’ll hardly go outside that day, so why am I thinking bonnets– especially when I have a known bonnet problem?
One of my favorite resources for Federal era Providence is Julia Bowen’s diary. Born December 1, 1779, Julia’s diary records her life in Providence in 1799, when she was 19. She records the daily activities of the second set of Providence women– daughters not of the most elite merchants, like John Brown and John Innes Clark, but the Bowens, Powers, Howells, and Whipples. Distinguished, but not super-elite. Many of the entries are as prosaic and superficial as you’d expect from a young woman in late adolescence, and thank goodness they are, or we’d never be able to imagine life in such fine detail.
Julia got me thinking about bonnets with her entry of April 12:
found the Major & Citizen Sarah & C. Angell altering their cold scoops into Rosina hats, so busily were they employed that the Major could not go a visiting, which deprived me at once of the greatest pleasure I anticipated in my visit.
(She used code names for her friends; some we can decode, and some we cannot.)
I haven’t been able to decipher what “Rosina hats” were, but cold scoops I could handle: coal scoops.
That colloquialism fits not just fashion plates but extant coal scoops and buckets.
You just have to imagine them turned over.
The Gallery of Fashion, 1797, Bathing Place, Morning Dresses.
I went for cold scoop, with a pasteboard brim and olive green taffeta brim and caul. The mannequin is a 3-D sketch, if you will, of what the housekeeper plans to wear this autumn. At least until she can figure out what a Rosina hat is.
Kitty Calash 
Why, why, why did you have to mention (and link) those shoes!!! None of them are my size. But, oh, I want! Yesterday, straw shoes. Today pretty stripes!
Now, back to reading the rest of the post…..
I’ve been wanting those shoes for weeks! But he cannot find a size 11 last. There was a black silk pair, and oh, those Manchester boots! They are pretty amazing.
I have pesky wide feet in size 7.5-8. The wool boots he made me are fabulous. I’d love something like the striped Regency shoes.
Now, I too, need to find out what a Rosina hat is. I’ve procrastinated trying to get the brim of a coal scoops just right with straw.
Rosina is the heroine of The Barber of Seville. The opera was written much later than this reference, but the play, by Beaumarchais was originally in French and produced in 1775. Possible that a bonnet was named after the lovely young bride to be?
Oohh, Nancy! That is so helpful. If it’s not Rosina from the play, I wonder if there is another story. There were some theatre productions in Providence in the early 19th century– I will have to look into those.
Best,
Kitty
Just discovered through this link that Beaumarchais was a diplomat/spy for the French court http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/french.htm
During the Revolution he was here conferring about possible arms shipments and other supports. Something I for sure didn’t know until I tried to connect his play with the colonies…
N
Interesting! I had no idea, of course.
I went looking for theatres in early Providence, and there was the Providence Theatre, imaginatively named. No performances of the Barber of Seville, and no “Rosina” turns up in the paper. I wonder what Julia meant…it’ll be hard to figure out, and perhaps I never will, but the hunt is always interesting.
Kitty
I love sources like these–partially because their writers had no idea that they were creating something that would eventually be of such value!
Coal scoop hat–ha! And if you’re in a bind, you can always use your bonnet to shovel coat….