Credits:
Pictured: Elizabeth Keckley
circa late 1860s- 1870s
Do you know who one of the very first well-known black designers was? Well, think now further allow us to introduce you to Elizabeth Keckley. Perhaps you have heard of the famous in-house dressmaker who lived in the white house during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, who created whimsical fashion for the first lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, her #1 muse at the time. Elizabeth Keckley was born in 1812 to a slave and a slave master, In 1855, she purchased her and her son’s freedom for $1200 that’s ($37,689 today). By 1860, she established a dressmaking business that employed 20 or so seamstresses and dressed the likes of many well-known socialites such as Varina Davis (the wife of Jefferson Davis), and Mary Ana Curtis Lee (the wife of Robert E. Lee). and her #1 muse Mary Todd Lincoln. Amongst her famous clientele, In 1868 Elizabeth Keckley wrote the book 80 Years a Slave and 4 Years in the White House detailing her close-knit relationship with the Lincolns. Elizabeth Keckley lived a long and fruitful life, in 1907 she died of natural causes in Washington, D.C.
Pictured: Elizabeth Keckley 1861,
Pictured: Mary Todd Lincoln
Photographer: Brady-Handy
Pictured: Dress Elizabeth designed for Mary Todd in 1861
Photo Credits
First image (top)
pictured: Elizabeth Keckley
Via: https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownhal/qbrown146c
Second image (left)
Pictured: Elizabeth Keckley 1861,
Via: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University
Third image (second to right)
Pictured: Mary Todd Lincoln
Photographer: Brady-Handy
Via: Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
Fourth image (right)
Pictured: Dress Elizabeth designed for Mary Todd in 1861
Via: National Museum of American History