Women’s Day at the Museum: “Crinolines and Separating Busks” presentation by Melissa Grice

On Saturday, October 9, the Cherokee Strip Museum and Rose Hill School will host a “women’s day” demonstration focused on fashion developments of the 1850s and 1860s. Resident schoolmarm and historical seamstress Melissa Grice will be exploring the topic of crinolines and separating busks, innovations in women’s fashion in the early Victorian era that made wearing voluminous elegant dresses more tolerable for women. Her presentation will focus on a time when ladies wore cage crinolines and crinoline petticoats to create a fashionable silhouette. She will also be discussing corsets and the innovation of separating busks that were important advances, making dresses more comfortable, healthier, and more elegant than in previous decades. The demonstration will also include instructions about sewing a sunbonnet.

This event is free to the public, but preregistration is appreciated. Call 580-336-2405 to RSVP in advance.

Melissa Grice is one of the Rose Hill schoolmarms and a historical seamstress. She travels from state to state participating in Civil War reenactments.