Catherine Allsop Griswold
Catherine Allsop Griswold was a corsetmaker whose 31 apparel-related patents played a role in the Dress Reform Movement of 1876. Griswold had the most patents held by any woman in the United States of America at the time.[1] Among Griswold’s apparel-related patents, was the skirt-supporting corset.[2][3][4]
Griswold created more than 30 corset designs[5] to better serve wearers from as early as 1866.[6] 19 of the patents were related to improving the comfortability of corsets for women by adjusting the mechanical design.
One of her most notable innovations was a corset that had skirt-supporting ribbons, which helped distribute the weight of heavier skirts over the entirety of a woman’s body and allowed for women to be less fatigued and have a greater range of movement.[7]
When Griswold was resident in New York, the Worcester Corset Company manufactured her designs.[8]
In 1893, Griswold's skirt-supporting corset won an award[9] when it was featured at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where it appeared along with other dress-reform items including a bust supporter by Olivia Flynt and another reform corset by Emmeline Philbrook.[10][11]
A Madam Griswold's corset from 1876 is held by Metropolitan Museum of Art.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ Stanley, Autumn (1992). "The Champion Of Women Inventors". Invention & Technology. Vol. 8, no. 1. American Heritage. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
- ^ "Earliest liberated women called Connecticut home". The Day. 1974-11-18. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
- ^ Suffrage Timeline (americanbar.org)
- ^ Greathouse, John. "7 Female Innovators Who Created 218 Inventions—Decades Before Women Could Vote". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
- ^ Love, Suzi (2021-06-17). Corsets Overview History Notes Book 14. Suzi Love.
- ^ Stanley, Autumn (1995). Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2197-8.
- ^ "The Inventive Minds of Connecticut Women: Patents in the 19th Century". Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project. 2021-05-22. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
- ^ Khan, B. Zorina (October 2000). ""Not for Ornament": Patenting Activity by Nineteenth-Century Women Inventors". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 31 (2): 159–195. doi:10.1162/002219500551514. ISSN 0022-1953.
- ^ Ping, Laura J. (September 2018). Throwing off the "Draggling Dresses": Women and Dress Reform, 1820-1900 (PDF) (PhD thesis). City University of New York.
- ^ Knight, Kate Brannon (1898). History of the Work of Connecticut Women at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Hartford Press.
- ^ Cunningham, Patricia A. (2003). Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920: Politics, Health, and Art. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-742-2.
- ^ "Madam Griswold's | Corset | American". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-06-25.