Shawl
Unknown Artist
1805–15
Medium
Cotton
Classification
Shawl
Culture
American
Department
Costume Institute
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Florence Inniss, 1970
Accession Number
2009.300.5769
Art Historical Context
This elegant cotton shawl, crafted by an unknown American artist between 1805 1815, offers a glimpse into early th-century fashion and textile innovation. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, it exemplifies everyday luxury of the Federal period, when shawls served as versatile accessories for women—draped over shoulders for warmth, modesty, or style during the neoclassical craze inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. Cotton, the shawl's medium, was revolutionary at the time, thanks to advancements in spinning and weaving spurred by the Industrial Revolution and America'...