|
| The Charleston Museum |
Press Release |
|
Exhibit to Explore 19th and 20th Century Riding & Hunt Attire  Charleston, SC - December 18, 2012 - The Charleston Museum presents an original exhibition, Hunt & Habit, on display January 12 through April 21, 2013 in the museum's Historic Textiles Gallery. Hunt & Habit will include women's and men's riding habits, hats and accessories from the 19th and early 20th century. Setting the background for the garments is an early 19th century hunt board which could be carried to the porch for breakfast service, laden with Lowcountry favorites. Guns, typical of those used in local hunts, a side-saddle and period equestrian fashion plates round out the display. For more information, visit www.charlestonmuseum.org or call (843) 722-2996. Riding and the hunt have been popular pastimes for elite society throughout Charleston's history. Men and women donned special attire to emulate the English fashion setters. Most women, at least in conservative circles, rode side-saddle, necessitating a rather unique and voluminous skirt or overskirt. Women in the rugged American West dared to ride astride the horse, while Easterners continued side saddle until the 1920s.
|
|
 Hunt & Habit Highlights
The exhibit features several women's habits, including an olive green wool riding habit (pictured top), from the 1910s, worn in tidewater Virginia but made by Charles William Davis, London tailor and habit maker. It belonged to Josephine Dulles Eppes whose father owned Appomattox Manor in Hopewell. Riding accessories, such as a woman's black straw riding hat (pictured bottom), 1890s, made by Knox and retailed by J. L. David & Bro., Charleston, S.C., will be included as well.
Representing men's riding attire is a man's riding suit (pictured left) from the early 20th century. It was probably worn by William Turner Logan (1874-1941), a Charleston lawyer and United States Congressman from 1921-1925. The outfit came from the well-known sportswear firm of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., New York. And, finally, a hunt board (pictured below), c. 1800, made of yellow pine in South Carolina. These pieces, essentially simplified sideboards, were used to serve food and drink before and after the hunt.
|
|
|
|
|
The Charleston Museum
Rachel Giesy Chesser
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
