The business of dressmaking.

Thomas 1897-1901

Printed silk day dress.

An exquisitely tailored dress of about 1897 with its sprigged silk might have been made by any number of dressmakers named Thomas working in Minneapolis. The most likely is dressmaker, Miss Lynn A. Thomas, who was centrally located in the Syndicate Arcade from 1897 to 1901. She had been in business in Minneapolis for the previous nine years at other locations on Nicollet Avenue, suggesting that by 1897 she was well experienced to tailor such a well-fitting dress.

Her client was Cordelia Rebecca Pond Dean of Minneapolis who graduated from Minneapolis High School in 1897 and married W. Browne Barr in 1904. This dress was created for her use sometime between those events.

Pond family papers. http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00717.xml