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Archiver > QUAKER-ROOTS > 2003-01 > 1041666656


From: "edna306" <>
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Quaker women & bonnets
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 23:50:56 -0800
References: <4e.15f04753.2b47715a@cs.com>


When our family visited Abram's Delight in Winchester, VA we were told that
the ladies always had their hair covered because the white cap was a prayer
bonnet and that they should always be ready to pray. This museum was the
home of my husband's ancestor Abraham Hollingsworth and built for him by his
son Isaac. We were there on the 300th anniversary in the late 1980s. Keeping
the black bonnet clean seems as plausible (and practical), but perhaps
always being aready to pray sounds more spiritual.

Edna Rasmussen Hollingsworth

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Quaker women & bonnets


> I enjoyed F/friend Seth's answer about Quaker bonnets, but thought I might
> add a little. I recently donated my gr-grandmother's Quaker bonnet to the
> Indiana State Museum. Lydia Elliott Thomas Moorman died in Phlox, IN
(about
> an hour north of Indianapolis) in 1903. One of her Quaker dresses & her
> bonnet (both black) had passed thru my Grandmother to my Mother. Mother
> apparently disposed of the dress, though I remember trying it on as a
> teen-ager. The bonnet came on down to me, in a hat box--sitting on a cone
> shape base--and with a white "undercap" that was white, with a narrow pink
> ruffle. My understanding was that they wore the white cap as a "liner" to
> protect the bonnet from getting dirty or oily from their hair. The
undercap
> could be washed as needed.
>
> I didn't measure the brim of the bonnet (though I did take pictures of it)
> but would think it was wider that the more recent narrow ones that Seth
> describes.
>
> I have pictures of other ancestors of that era (the turn of the 20th
> century)--some with bonnets on and some without. My Mother (b. 1893) said
> that the older ladies of that time did wear plain dress, but not all did.
> This was in a small, strongly Quaker community.
>
> Joyce Overman Bowman
>
>
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> Visit The Quaker Corner - http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers
>


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