Skip menu to read main page content

Dress

Description

Evening dress constructed from red silk brocade with gold floral motif. Left shoulder decorated with a three-dimensional silk brocade rose. Dress has a matching belt and the skirt is tailored and cut to create the skirt's unique shape.

Creator

Date

circa 1940s

Materials

Silk brocade

Object ID

1969.78.1

Resource ID

299

Notes

Worn by Jeannette Eareckson Straus (1898-1969). Representative of not only early 1940s fashion trends, Jeanette Straus’s luxurious brocade dress reflects the wealth she and her husband, Henry L. Straus, enjoyed after he invented the “totalisator,” a machine that quickly calculated the odds on a horse race as spectators placed their bets. An equestrian herself, Jeannette successfully trained her favorite horse, Pilaster, who was placed in the Hall of Fame for Maryland-bred horses in 1967.

Credit Line

Bequest of Mrs. Henry L. Straus through her sister Mrs. C. Herbert Baxley (Leila Eareckson)

Digital Publisher

Digital resource provided by the Maryland Center for History and Culture

Rights

This digital image is made available here for private study, scholarship, and research. Commercial and other uses are prohibited without the permission of the Maryland Center for History and Culture. For more information, visit the MCHC’s Reproductions and Permissions web page.