Did Lizzie ever wear pants?

[snokkums]

Seems that every picture that I have seen of LIzzie, she has always been in a dress. I know in that era, the ladies always wore dresses, but as times change so do the clothing. Dresses become shorter, woman start wearing pants. I wonder if she ever wore pants, even if it was around the house. Does anyone know? Or have a picture of her in pants.

[twinsrwe]

In the United States, women typically wore long skirts, with the exception of some women who wore pants like garments to perform work or engage in sports. While there were some women who championed pants in the 19th century, pants as an acceptable everyday clothing option for women didn’t truly catch on until the mid-20th century.

There were short-lived revivals of pants-wearing in public by women, such as during World War I (1914–18), when civilian women who took over jobs traditionally held by men sometimes wore pants. During World War II (1939–45), pants were more widely worn by civilian and military women, both at work and socially. Although women continued to enjoy wearing pants after the war, particularly for sports or leisure, style trends for women remained fixated largely on skirts or dresses until the 1960s and ’70s. Then, buoyed by the women’s rights movement, pants became firmly established as popular and appropriate clothing options for women at home, in public, and in many workplaces.

For further information, please check out the following link: http://tinyurl.com/y24oadrp



From Edwin D. McHenry’s statement, page 45 of the witness statements (Highlighting and underling are mine):

Fall River, 28, 1892. The following is the result of my interview last Saturday night with Mrs.Whitehead. … I then pressed the old lady very hard as to what was said as coming from Mrs. Churchill. She demurred, and finally admitted she got her information from Mrs. Potter and her sister Miss Dimon, the milliners on Fourth street. I then looked up the above mentioned ladies and found them very hard people to handle. I was with them both two hours, and elicited the following; Lizzie Borden has been practicing in a gymnasium for a long time, and she has boasted of the strength she possessed, not to these people, but to others. The place where she practiced was supposed top be in the Troy Block. I also elicited the fact that one George Wiley, a clerk in the Troy Mill is the one who is authority for the statement that Mrs. Churchill made that she (Mrs. Churchill) said, that there was one thing she saw in the house the day of the murder, that she would never repeat, even if they tore her tongue out.

https://lizzieandrewborden.com/wp-conte ... sState.pdf

If the underlined part of the above statement is true, then I have to say there is a possibility that Lizzie may have worn pants to the gym. However, given the fact that the above statement came from the infamous McHenry of the Trickey-McHenry news article, I have to say that it is more than likely NOT true. Therefore, since Lizzie did not engage in sports, and did very little ‘work’ around the house, she would have had no reason to wear pants.

[twinsrwe]

Hello Evajack, welcome to the forum.

I am surprised that you saw pictures of Lizzie wearing pants, since according to the above information that I posted, there were short-lived revivals of pants-wearing in public by women, such as during World War I (1914–18), when civilian women who took over jobs traditionally held by men sometimes wore pants.

During that time period, Lizzie would have been 54-58 years old, and I highly doubt she would have taken a job of any kind, since she was rich and lived in her dream house on 'the hill'.