WOMEN & THEIR WARDROBES DURING NEW ENGLAND’S REVOLUTION
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2026: 2-3:30 PM
Underpinning the sensationalism of battle reports & broadsides is the often silent steadiness of women’s work with textiles. The choices they made every day about fashion and fabric consumption & creation drove the course of Revolution just as determinedly as any congress. As southern New England commemorates the 250 the anniversary (semiquincentennial) 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 & 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 & fabric samples as well as a PowerPoint presentation with images of extant originals.
Herreshoff Community Room, Rogers Free Library, 525 Hope Street, Bristol
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2 – 3:30 PM
sponsored by the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, and the Rogers Free Library.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: PLEASE REGISTER HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT