Through the lens for textile show exploring 1890s wear

Last year the volunteers were asked if we would be interested in helping with a textile display in preparation for the new season at Bridport Museum.

Our textile volunteers began by selecting suitable outfits for potential display.

We used the selected items to develop the idea of using outfits where we had photographs or portraits of the original owner – in some cases wearing the very clothing we had chosen from Bridport Museum’s collection.

Using our ideas and Bridport Museum’s textile collection we created the ‘Through the Lens’ exhibition which is currently on display in Bridport Museum.

We did a lot of research in to the outfits, including one worn by a lady called Mary Caroline and one by a little girl called Alice.

These are their stories:

ALICE

THE first outfit, worn by Alice Beeton, fitted our criteria very well as Bridport Museum had a copy of a portrait of her wearing her dress.

There was also a letter from the donor giving basic information such as the girl’s full name, her date of birth and the names of her family. In our exhibition we gave this outfit the title, “Girl in the Tartan Dress.”

Our research showed us that Alice had four siblings: Edmund, Stanley, Julia and Dorothy who lived with their parents, Edmund and Julia, in London. The census records show that they had servants, Edmund Snr was declared a ‘Gentleman’.

Edmund senior had died by the 1891 census and his widow was able to live as an independent person which was just as well because there was no welfare state at this time.

Alice never married and, having been on the Electoral Roll of 1939 in Bexhill in Surrey along with Edmund Jnr, it was surprising to find that in 1941 when they died a few months apart they had been resident in Beaminster.

They both left substantial amounts in their wills, according to the Index of Wills and Administration.

We can only speculate why the two siblings, Alice and Edmund, were living in Beaminster in 1941. Had they moved away from the bombing in London to be near relations?

Bridport Museum has a letter which mentions a family connection with Mrs Beeton of cookery fame. When we researched this we found out that that Edmund Snr was in fact cousin to Samuel Orchard Beeton, husband of Mrs Isabella Beeton – the famous cookery author.

MARY CAROLINE – LADY IN PINK

THE second outfit, worn by Mary Caroline, had been donated by a local resident.

Although we had no portrait of Mary Caroline in Bridport Museum’s collection when we started our display, we knew that Mary Caroline had spent time in India and so we thought her dress might have an interesting history we could research.

Mary Caroline’s dress is pink, so we refer to her as our “Lady in Pink.” in our display.

When we searched Ancestry for Mary Caroline we discovered that she and her six siblings had all been born in various districts of India to their parents, Benjamin and Elizabeth Taylor.

We do not know the occupation of Benjamin as this information is not given on baptismal records in India.

When Mary Caroline got married in 1861 at Harrow, her place of residence is given as Harrow, Midddlesex.

Her groom was Dacres William Wise, who was a Lieutenant of the 3rd Regiment of The Bengal Light Cavalry. Their first child was born in Surrey in 1862 while the others were all born and baptised in India where we know they moved to as there is no record of the family in early census data in the UK.

However, after the birth of her youngest child in India in 1870, the majority of the family can be found on the 1881 census living in Kingsbridge, Devon.

By 1891 Mary Caroline had died as Dacres is described as a widower. We discovered that Mary died in 1883 in Kingsbridge. In subsequent census Dacres is described as Retired Colonel with The Bengal Lancers and JP for Devon.

Their eldest daughter, Mary Helen, remained a spinster until her death in Plymouth – having lived with her father until his death.

The youngest daughter, Adine, married a managing director of P&O shipping based in Bombay. Unfortunately, according to family folklore, their eldest son is reported to have shot himself on the eve of his wedding.

If we wanted to verify this tale we would need to obtain a copy of his death certificate.

THROUGH THE LENS: PHOTOGRAPHS AND CLOTHES CAPTURED THROUGH TIME

ONE of our volunteer team has skills in window dressing so it was her job to advise us on how the display might look in the exhibition space.

Another member of the team is very experienced in researching family history using Ancestry and so she was able to find out the details about the lives of both Alice and Mary Caroline and their families, as well as the other outfits we chose to display. By making use of the names and dates of birth along with the internet based Ancestry website we constructed family trees for the outfits we put on display.

Members of the public can access this website at Bridport Local History Centre. The advantage of using an internet-based commercial site is that all the work can be undertaken without the need to travel to the County Record Office or overseas to search through original records.

This is very convenient when searching for those who were born or were living abroad.

The more unusual the name the easier it is to find. If you are thinking about researching your own family history you should gather as much information as possible – such as full names, dates of birth, marriage and death as well as an area where they lived. This makes the process of researching easier and, hopefully, more likely to be successful.

All of our research was undertaken using the resources of Bridport Local History Centre on Gundry Lane, bridportmuseum.co.uk.

So much of our work is done by our volunteers – aged from 16 to 82 – who are passionate about sharing their knowledge and supporting their community. Bridport Museum Trust is always keen to hear from potential volunteers interested in new opportunities as volunteers, friends or supporters.