What’s a Sleeve Got to Do with It?

In 1851 a group of woman’s rightsadvocates participated in a dress reform movement. They wore short dresses and trousers, popularly known as the bloomer costume. Seeing the denial of women a choice in clothing as a symptom of their second-class citizenship, dress reformers evoked the language of the American Revolution, specifically the Declaration of Independence, to argue that fashion signified subjugation while dress reform represented independence. The extant sleeve of Lucy Stone’s bloomer costume is a tangible link to this history, functioning as a secular relic of the nineteenth-century reform movement. Its color and preservation are a reminder of how dress reformers politicized their clothing and used familiar slogans from the American Revolution to connect to their audiences.