Help my wife! Womens Ranch Clothing circa 1885

[Bob R.]

Hi All,

My wife and I are slowly putting our toe into this hobby, and the 'portrayal' we are looking at doing is that of being small ranch owners, circa 1885, in either Montana or Wyoming. I have found tons of good information and sources for my portrayal - I already have "I can see by your Outfit", "Cowboys & the trappings of the Old West", the Time Life Old West series book on Women, "The West" (The Ken Burns series accompanying book), plus numerous common books. We are lkooking for 'working clothes' for her - not the Sunday Best, nor a performers costume.

The trouble I am running into is that the earliest images of women doing ranch work in modified clothing are circa 1890's, other than the images that keep cropping up of Belle Starr. The images relavent to the 1880's typically show women in standard ladies clothing (or partial clothing). The earliest documentable reference I have to a woman actually at a round-up, acting as a waddie is either Montana (or Wyoming - I don't have the book in front of me), 1885, and I doubt she was riding 'aside', as the documentation indicates she was pioneering being a 'cowgirl'. I have yet to have found an image of her. Riding factors into the equation, as we have horses, and intend to do mounted shooting as well.

Clearly, the 1890's-1910 images of 'cowgirls' seem to be depicting costumes. I've found an 1890's reference in "Cowboys & trappings" to a woman riding astride, with a discreet split-skirt, consisting of an underskirt of individualk legging (akin to later split skirts and 'gaucho's'), which are covered with a normal cloth skirt, save it is split up the center, but closed with buttons. Various art of the 1890's depicts this solution as well, but it is advertising art, during the beginning of the 'cowgirl' craze.

The wife does not want to dress up as a Wild-West show preformer of 10-20 years post the date we are trying to depict with gear, and so I am at a bit of an impasse. I have suggessted that she go for the split skirt solution, with the buttoning over skirt, a normal womans shirt, and some sort of jacket, with a normal stetson of the day, but I don't want to base her clothing on mere speculation.

Anyone have any ideas or helpful input?

Thanks in adance.

[GunClick Rick]

See Barbera Stanwyck in "The Big Valley" the book i have"Five centuries of American costuming" seems to hint at what your finanacial staus is or was.Anything from Little house to the victorian style.The men seem to have the easier type of costuming but a lady was a lady and dressed as such in public,but on the ranch i would imagine levis of the time and pretty straw hat with adornment.Or like the movie The Searchers with John Wayne,see Lori or mama..

[Bob R.]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the response! I am hoping for better evidence, in the form of existing photographs of the era, as ones occassionally surface showing women doing ranch work - unfortunately, the earliest I have so far found are 1890-ish, and fashion changed rapidly for women between 1870-1890.

I hate to rely on TV series and John Ford, and your and my gut instincts alone! Hopefully someone can point me towards some images. We have 'Cowgirls' on order, hopefully it will have some earlier images than I have sofar seen.

My wife can ride sidesaddle, even took lessons to do so. Unfortunately, her horse's body type does not work with side-saddle designs, or she would use the Belle Starr images as resources. As her horse will only fit an astride-saddle, (and with effort in fitting at that), it is an ongoing problem, no matter what equestrian activities we undertake.

[Silver Creek Slim]

This might help.
http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=women+riding+1880&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Slim

[Delmonico]

So now one of the new guys is asking a question that could start a drama thread.  Sorry just kidding, but what you have is a question that often starts it.  

The problem is, I doubt you will find your real answer in photographs, simpley because very few women would have ever gotten a picture taken if they did wear pants around the ranch or homestead. Just wasn't done in a public setting.  Diaries and first hand accounts will be much better to look for it.  I can tell you that many women on the overland trail before the Civil War, either borrowed an extra pair of pants or bought some from a trading post early in the trip because they found out long dresses were not suitable for camp cooking.  

This site would be a good place to look for your picture though, a lot of pictures taken on the ranch and homestead rather than in a studio in town:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

Also the Mattie Oblinger letters are there, I've only scanned them some.

What you do need to remember, if they wore pants, they would have been men's pants, not the Sharon Stone "show my butt pants" like from The Quick and the Dead, several companies make them, but they are not period.

As or should I say if you find something let us know and please post sources.

[Bob R.]

Hi Delmonico,

Will do. I don't mean to begin a commotion. Got "Cowgirls" yesterday, and, as you predicted, written reminices bring forth more evidence than photographs. Here is what Agnes Morly Cleaveland wrote of her clothing adaption going from sidesaddle to astride riding, from the mid 1880's to the mid 1890's, as written by her in "No Life for a Lady".

"First, I discarded, or rather refused to adopt, the sun-bonnet, conventional headgear of my female neighbors. When I went unashamedly about under a five-gallon (not ten-gallon) Stetson, many an eyebrow was raised; then followed a double-breasted blue flannel shirt, with white pearl buttons, frankly unfeminine. In time came blue denim knickers worn under a blue denim skirt. Slow evolution (or was it decadence?) toward a costume suited for immediate needs. Decadence having set in, the descent from the existing standards of female modesty to purely human comfort was swift. A mans saddle and a divided skirt (awful monstrosity that it was) were inevitable. This was the middle nineties."

Acceptance was neither swift nor immediate.

"I won't ride in the same canyon with you," protested Cleaveland's brother Ray, when she first appeared astride and wearing a split skirt.

A similar lack of acceptance was encountered by Evelyn Cameron, about the same time. From the book we just got -

"On the advice of the ranch manager, Evelyn Cameron sent away to a well-known Chicago firm for what was called a California riding costume, which cost about one hundred dollars. The skirt was long but split like pants to allow her to ride astride like a man. When she took the forty-eight mile ride from her ranch into Miles City, Montana in her California riding habit, folks were shocked "It created a small sensation," Cameron said. "So great at first was the predjudice against any divided garment in Montana that a warning was given to me to abstain from riding on the streets of Miles City lest I might be arrested!"."

From the same source, the first saddle specifically designed as a womans saddle for astride riding was sold in the Sears Catalog in 1897, and that year, the number of ladies sidesaddles offered was reduced by one half the models.

Interestingly, the book has an extant "Prarie Skirt", with more fabric in the rear than front, with a known California provinence circa 1880, and on the same page, an image of a northern plains woman wearing one, riding astride in the 1880's. The extant example is home made, and from calfskin. There is also an extant 1890's divided riding skirt, with unbuttoning front panel, made of twill, comercially, from the 1890's. This must be the sort of skirt Evelyn Cameron described as mail-ordering from Chicago.


What I am getting out of the research I have done so far, is that the majority of women in the 1870's-1880's rode aside, in traditional riding habit. In the same book, a late 1870's incident is desribed of a Ranchers wife accompanying a cattle drive, sometimes in buggy, but mostly on horseback, actively herding in a green velvet riding habit, and the trail boss commenting that you could track their herd by following the fragments of green dress, which gradually disintegrated through the rough use.

The evidence so far points to a significant number, although a minority of women, making articles of clothing adapted for ranch work - like prarie dresses, and odd pant skirt combinations, and somewhere along the way, divided riding skirts, in the 1880's, with them being offered commercially first in the 1890's, on a limited basis. By the late 1890's, cowboy-girls riding astride, in special costumes seem to have become commonplace, and images and photographs of them abound.

There is hinted in what I have read so far, a distinctly differing attitude between women on the ranch, and townswomen.

The majority of women rode sidesaddle up to the turn of the century, at which point riding astride became generally acceptable. This is reenforced by the research the American Side-saddle association publishes on a bi-monthly basis. At present, side-saddle riding is grimly hanging on, having almost entirely dissapeared from the scene by the 1930's, with a few hundred dedicated female equestrians trying to keep the art from dying entirely. (Ask me how I know, and why my wife has three mid to late 19th century side-saddles carefully preserved in a trunk). You can't even buy a properly made modern side-saddle of any description - a few INdian firms manufacture some junk ones, but to get one that functions nowadays, you need to either buy a vintage saddle in good condition, or have one of very few specialist saddlers re-cover an old properly made tree.

[Delmonico]

Good information. 

[Trailrider]

Unfortunately I can't put my hands on it at the moment (my fairly extensive library being somewhat disorganized), but I distinctly recall seeing a photo of several women ranchers who were wearing men's pants, and were dismounted, branding calves. IIRC, they were the owners of the ranch, and this was up Montana way, late in the 19th Century (possibly the very early 20th???).  Maybe they wouldn't ride into town in such an outfit, but they most certainly gave way to practicality.  One possibility would be for your lady to wear a pair of bib overalls, which might not be flattering fashion-wise, but might be an expedient that a woman rancher might have adopted.

[Bob R.]

There is one I can remember, of one of three sisters who ran a ranch after her fathers death, digging an irrigation ditch - wearing overalls or jeans, a mans shirt, and a mans hat. There is another printed in at least three of the books that we have recently gotten, circa 1890's, showing three women branding cattle, in standard female dress of the day.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Good info, Bob R.

Slim

[Gypsy Bob]

for womens clothes of 1885 look in sears or wards catalogues of 1884

[Hangtown Frye]

This is definitely much later than what you're looking for, but it's a great look, and certainly beats the absolute heck out of most of what passes for "Women's Clothing" on most shooting ranges these days (and at CMS events, too! EEK!)

From the Erwin Smith Collection of photographs at the Ammon Carter museum.  

Here's  a photo from 1905, showing a young lady ("Gussie" Sanders, cousin of the photographer) riding astride with what looks like a full skirt, on the Three Circles Ranch in Texas:



She MAY be wearing "Bloomers" under the skirt, or it may be split, it's hard to tell, but it's obvious that the trail of the skirt comes far down and covers her ankles quite thoroughly.  This would, in fact, probably be the best style to go with if your wife is really interested in being authentic.


Here's another photo, this from from the Spur Ranch in Texas, ca. 1905-1912:



As you can see she's wearing a split skirt, with a white long-sleeved shirt, tie and a nice big hat to shield her from the sun. Pretty nifty looking outfit, and actually rather remenicent of the 1890's.  It's still not 1885, but we're getting there, at least.

Here's the link to the collection in it's entirety:

http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/collection.php?mcat=1

Again, somewhat late, but you can tell by much of the equipment and clothing that things hadn't changed a lot on the ranches in the past 25-35 years.

Cheers,

Gordon

Edited to add another photo.

[Delmonico]

The first one is also a split skirt, just a fuller cut.

[Hangtown Frye]

The first one is also a split skirt, just a fuller cut.

Probably... but hard to tell.  I wouldn't put money on it either way.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Roscoe Coles]

Another place to see women's split skirts is photos from the wild west shows.  Obviously they will not be strictly typical of clothing worn on the frontier, not only were they much fancier, they were also intended to be somewhat racy.  Annie Oakley famously developed a short skirt for show work.  It was combined with high leggings to cover her legs (I mean "limbs"), but it was a sensation when it came out. 

[Delmonico]

Probably... but hard to tell.  I wouldn't put money on it either way.

Cheers,

Gordon

When I get a chance at home with better programs I'll enhance what I'm seeing.  You have a better copy of it with more resaloution by chance?

[Hangtown Frye]

When I get a chance at home with better programs I'll enhance what I'm seeing.  You have a better copy of it with more resaloution by chance?

Unfortunately no, I don't.  It's off the Amon Carter Museum's Erwin Smith Collecton, and this is the best that I  could get on-line. I know that a better-quality photo can be ordered through them, but I guess I'm not interested enough to delve that deep into it.    You never know though, they might be able to just email a higher-resolution copy for the asking, I've never looked into it.  http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/collection.php?mcat=51

(BTW, the collection is an absolute treasure-trove of photo's from the Turn-of-the-20th-Century, showing the every-day life of a cowhand.  It's pretty obvious that much of the modern "historical" cinematic view of the West is taken from these, and  photo's like them from this period. Even Even at that, not much looks to have changed in their clothing and gear from the 1880's.)

I really look forward to you blowing this one up for a closer look. I'm very interested to see what you find!

Cheers!

Gordon

[Delmonico]

I won't be able to blow it up more, but should be able to enhance what I'm seeing, hard to see because most of it is behind the rope.

One neat thing about the age we're living in is us "home historians" can do stuff to find detail in pictures that 20 years ago only places with expensive computors could do.

An interesting one is this picture, seen anong other places in Wilson's book The Peacemakers."



Wilson says it was taken in the late 1860's.  Whitch would give proof that fairly pointed toed boots were around longer than most think. 

Enhancing a bit on a part of the picture though shows this:



The beer bottles had been sealed with a crown cap.  Proves nothing about the boots, but does prove the picture is dated wrong.

[Hangtown Frye]

Good call. I learned long ago not to put implicit faith in Wilson's dating, unfortunately.  He has some excellent photo's, and much of what he says is great if you can find other verification, but he had a tendency to plagiarize, which is rather criminal of someone so high in the food chain. But I guess he got his just deserts eventually.   Anyway, thanks for pointing that one out. I had serious doubts about his dating of that photo for other reasons, this is just a good proof that he was in error.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Delmonico]

This one has always amused me more, from the book on the series The West by Ken Burns, picture though is labeled and from the Kansas State Historical Society:  Exact wording I don't remember, but it is said to be a picture of feed blacks waiting on a levee for a steamboat to take them to Kansas to homestead. 




I don't think so.