Olive Gray's childhood dress, North Yarmouth, ca. 1785
Item 105471 info
Maine Historical Society
Likely cut from an adult garment, this young child’s dress is associated with Olive Gray (1779–1860). The modest dress includes a square neck, pin-tucked bodice, and short frilled sleeves. The pattern on this coarse cotton fabric was block printed with natural plant dyes, red from madder and blue indigo.
A label affixed to the dress reads “1779. Worn by Miss Olive Gray, born in North Yarmouth, Maine.” Olive Gray was the youngest of thirteen children born to Captain John and Sarah (Mitchell) Gary of North Yarmouth, modern-day Yarmouth. Belonging to the youngest child perhaps spared this cotton dress from being passed down or remade.
Olive Gray worked as schoolteacher in later life. A noted local personality, Dr. N.F. True prominently featured Gray in a July 1881 article in "Old Times in North Yarmouth, Maine," which reads “Probably a more exacting teacher never lived in the town.”
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