Accession #: 1900.0069
By the time of the Randolphs and the founding of Wilton in the 18th century, the trades of tailor, shoemaker, and makers of other such personal accessories were well established in the colonies. However, some upper-class American families still enjoyed ordering these items from Europe. Due to Europe’s vast trade routes, colonists, while purchasing their clothes from England, could be wearing textiles from all over the world – such as linen from Holland or silk from China.
As early as 1616 the shoemaking trade was popular in the colonies. Not only did the colonies have skilled shoemakers and bootmakers, they also imported ready-made shoes from Europe. Yet, as mentioned, some colonists preferred to order their footwear from England to keep abreast of the current European fashion trends. In order for a shoemaker in England to create footwear to fit the feet of a colonist in America a few different ways to describe shoe size were developed. One way was to measure the feet in inches and then send those measurements to the shoemaker. Another way was for the customer to send a shoe they owned to the shoemaker, thus, allowing the shoemaker to assemble the new shoe to the same measurements as the old shoe. A third way was to ask for a shoe fit for a person of a specific age: “Shoes and Pumps for a Boy of eight years old.” Interestingly, a common way to order shoes for women was by a “standard” shoe size; however, these sizes were in no way universal.
Upper-class colonial women’s shoes were very elegant but somewhat fragile. They were often made from silk or worsted1 and had narrow soles with a heel a few inches high. Heels on shoes for both genders were a very popular trend during the 17th and 18th centuries and were an indicator of the wearer’s wealth and status.
Wilton’s collection contains a pair of white satin and kid2 women’s pumps made between the late 18th and early 19th century. Although they did not have ties or shoelaces, the latchets3 of these shoes identify them as “laced” shoes and would have been fastened with shoe buckles4. Buckles were separate, removable items which could be transferred from shoe to shoe. A label inside one of these shoes identifies the shoemaker as “Chamberlain and Sons Shoemaker in Cheapside, London.” An inscription on the bottom of the shoe reads “S.C. Madison.” According to their provenance, the shoes were once owned by Sally Catlett Madison Macon (1764-1843) and worn on her wedding day in 1803 when she married Thomas Macon. Sally Madison was the sister of the fourth president of the United States, James Madison.
2 Kid is a type of leather made from goatskin.
3 Latches are overlapping flaps on the top of the shoe.
4 An example of buckles can be found on this blog under the entry “Finery for the Occasion.”
Bibliography:
Baumgarten, Linda. Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation , 1986. eBook.
Baumgarten, Linda. What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Print.
O'Keeffee, Linda. Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers, and More. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1996. eBook.
"Search the Collections." Victoria and Albert Museum. N.p., 4 2012. Web. 10 Dec 2012. <http://collections.vam.ac.uk/>.
Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Living. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. eBook.
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