Costume Work
Elizabeth Keckley Drape
Historical Choice 1890’s dress of Elizabeth Keckley
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (February 1818 – May 1907)[1] was an American seamstress, activist, and writer who lived in Washington, D.C. She was the personal dressmaker and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln.[2] She wrote an autobiography.
Born into slavery, she was owned by her father. When she became a seamstress, the Garland family found that it was financially advantageous to have her make clothes for others. The money that she made helped to support the Garland family of seventeen family members.
In November 1855, she purchased her and her son's freedom in St. Louis, Missouri. Keckley moved to Washington, D.C. in 1860. She established a dressmaking business that grew to include a staff of 20 seamstresses. Her clients were the wives of elite politicians,
After the American Civil War, Keckley wrote and published an autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, in 1868. It was both a slave narrative and a portrait of the first family, especially Mary Todd Lincoln, and it was controversial because of information it disclosed about the Lincolns' private lives.
