1926 Gymsuit Ensemble

VC1993002

1926 Gymsuit Ensemble

1926 Gymsuit of Dorothy Reid Kittell VC 26, includes 2 white middy blouses with red trim and 1 pair of black bloomers with a red stripe down the side of each leg

1926

Clothing and dress

Physical Object

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Dorothy Kittell Hesselman

1926

1926

costume

clothing

Vassar Girls and Other Women

This gymsuit was worn by Dorothy Reid in 1926 for a variety of sports activities, and specifically for a variety of victories, as evidenced by the headlines 'Vassar on the ''Running Track: Dot Reid Wins the 100- yard Hurdle Race' and 'Vassar Hockeyists Easy Victors Over New Amsterdam 8-0' among clippings from the New York Herald Tribune rotogravure section which were saved by her family. If you recognize this middy, it may be because the donor, who is the daughter of the original wearer, has been known to wear it to her Vassar reunions. In this gymsuit, the legs, arms, and neck are all exposed as they were not in previous periods. According to a theory of the art historian Anne Hollander, as presented in her book Seeing Through Clothes, the development first of still photography and then of the motion picture turned the viewer's focus to the body in motion and away from the body as a static form. The statuesque nineteenth century woman in a full length trained skirt was replaced by a woman with legs that were seen to move. 

good

size 8 with legs

F7

5/31/1993

from 'Vassar Girls and Other Women: 1854-1925'exhibition, June 1993:81926 gymsuit of Dorothy Reid Kittell '261993.2abcGift of Dorothy Kittell Hesselman '51, 1993This gymsuit was worn by Dorothy Reid in 1926 for a variety of sports activities, and specifically for a variety of victories, as evidenced by the headlines 'Vassar on the ''Running Track: Dot Reid Wins the 100- yard Hurdle Race' and 'Vassar Hockeyists Easy Victors Over New Amsterdam 8-0' among clippings from the New York Herald Tribune rotogravure section which were saved by her family. If you recognize this middy, it may be because the donor, who is the daughter of the original wearer, has been known to wear it to her Vassar reunions!