Mitts

Art Historical Context

Step into the elegant world of mid-19th-century American with *Mitts*, a delicate pair crafted by an unknown artist between 1860 and 1879. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume, these mitts exemplify everyday accessories from a transformative era in U.S. history, spanning the Civil War and Reconstruction. As fingerless gloves, mitts both practical and stylish, allowing women freedom of movement for tasks like sewing or playing piano while shielding delicate hands from the elements or labor. In Victorian America, such items carried cultural weight as markers of refinement and soci...