Jane Radcliffe and Ron Kley of Museum Research Associates (MRA), recently discovered
this elegant pair of wedding shoes while conducting ongoing research at the Vaughan
Homestead in Hallowell, ME. According to MRA, they are part of the 7 May 1849 wedding outfit of a mid 19th century proper Bostonian young woman -- Mary Eliot Dwight (who
married Dr. Samuel Parkman and became the mother of Ellen Twisleton Parkman, who
married William Warren Vaughan).
These Parisian white satin slippers are of particular interest as key elements of a well
documented set of apparel. As MRA astutely observe, the charming and diminutive
proportions of the (apparently original) pasteboard box in which the shoes were found
(and on which their history is inscribed) is as interesting as the shoes themselves.
With wedding season upon us, sharing this graceful footwear from the past seems
appropriate.
The author thanks Museum Research Associates, of Hallowell and the Vaughan Homestead Foundation for generously sharing this new information on New England footwear.
What a treasure!
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