In our research, we have records of at least 19 women who lived in the Van Riper-Hopper House over its 150-year history as a private residence. We rarely have their own words describing their experiences as residents, laborers, mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives. Often, we turn to broader sources to trace their lives- wills, census records, church accounts, and more. Objects from the decades in which they lived, however, can give us a more personal look and a sense of their material lives. Clothing is, perhaps, one of the most personal types of objects- a universal experience, but closely tied to an individual.

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Here, we connect the ever-shifting fashions of the 19th and 20th centuries with some of the women who lived and worked in the Van Riper-Hopper House. While the clothing items highlighted in this exhibit were not actually owned by Van Riper or Hopper family members, they give a sense of the silhouettes, the fabric patterns, the accessories, and more worn by the countless women who lived in this home. We invite you to imagine with us- think of Mary Ann, walking through the narrow hallways in a crinoline, and how her life was different from Bertha, who wore a less cumbersome drop-waist gown when she visited her in-laws home 60 years later. We may never be able to answer exactly what the personal experience of these women was like, but by understanding how they dressed across the decades, we can get one step closer to their lived experience at the Van Riper-Hopper House.