Stockings

Dateca. 1782

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumLinen, knitted; silk marking stitches

DimensionsOL each 20"; Foot length 10 ¼"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2009-43,4A&B

DescriptionStockings (A & B) hand knitted of natural-color linen with clocks at ankles created by knitted triangular shaping. Faint cross-stitch marking on stocking #A reads SW, possibly for Sarah (Sally) Wister. Paper tag reads "Pair of stockings knit by Catherine (Jansen) Wister in 1782 Great, great, great grandmother of Caroline and Casper Wister Miller".
Label TextAccording to a paper document that came with the stockings, they were hand knitted by Catherine Jansen Wistar (1703–1786), probably for her daughter Sarah Wistar, whose initials SW are cross-stitched on the stockings. The Wistars were Quakers from Philadelphia. Women continued hand-knitting stockings, even though professionally frame-knitted stockings were also being produced. If the family tradition is correct, these stockings were knitted about the time the Revolutionary War was ending when imported goods were still scarce.
ProvenanceMade by Catherine Jansen Wistar (1703-1786), probably for her daughter Sarah Wistar

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