Children’s Overdress

Children’s Overdress

Pages of the women's magazine are dedicated to illustrated depictions of child garments, titled, “Juvenile Fashion.” These illustrations are hardly representative of the children’s clothing in the Wylie House Collection. The elaborate dresses and suits represent the fictional, idyllic childhood existing only in these publications. Meanwhile, the stained and patched, simple garments of the Wylie’s convey the truths of mothering – constant sewing, mending, cleaning messes, and caring for children, all at once.

Wylie House Museum

Late Nineteenth-Century