Hello, readers! It’s been a while since I posted my last blog in 2025. Things have been quite busy at HA since then with celebrations of America’s Semiquincentennial! In this blog series, I would like to share with you some new displays at the William Paca House & Garden that were undertaken by me and the Education team. The first blog post features a new gown and mannequin depicting none other than Mary Chew Paca.
In recent years, the HA team noticed some wear and tear on the previous Mary Paca dress, which had been on display since about 2009 (Fig. 1).[1] Fading due to exposure to sunlight was discovered on various areas of the dress, while embroidered silk strands started coming loose along the bodice and outer skirt. Docents addressed their concerns and requested that we create a new gown that could be shown in the parlour chamber of the William Paca House. This led me to work closely with my colleagues Kim Walters of the Annapolis Living Historians and Beth Webb, production manager in the sewing department at Samson Historical, a company that specializes in recreating 18th-century textiles.
When creating Mary’s new gown, we believed it was important for it to become a statement piece amongst the blue chintz fabric in the parlour chamber, reflecting how Mary Paca showed off her wealth and social hierarchy through luxury fabrics during Annapolis’ Age of Elegance. The team began its construction in October and completed it on December 10, 2025. This gown comes with a 100% linen shift, linen hoop pockets (or panniers), front-facing linen stays (or a corset), underpetticoat, and a new mannequin manufactured by Dorfman Museum Figures, Inc., in Baltimore. The gown itself is embellished with understated gold metallic embroidery on the stomacher. Layers of self-rouching were added to the gown and stomacher, along with a tiered ruffled petticoat to finish off the ensemble. The gown was primarily constructed by Beth Webb and her team of seamstresses at Samson Historical, all of whom donated their time to create our stunning gown. The pink silk taffeta fabric was purchased by Kim Walters and the Annapolis Living Historians. The necklace on the mannequin was provided by Kim Walters from her Etsy shop called Sign of the Gray Horse. Matching silk shoes made by Andy Burke Historical Shoes and Boots added a final touch to the beautiful gown (Figure 10).
Mary Paca’s reproduction sack-back (aka “sacque-back,” or robe à la française) gown reflects the quintessential style of 18th-century women’s evening dress. Originating in France, the sack-back gown evolved from informal “undress” into elite, highly structured court wear by the mid-1700s. It was typically loose at the back and gathered into floor-length pleats that hung in elegant folds from the shoulders (similar to what’s called a watteau train) and remained free from the bodice. As seen with Mary’s dress, the sack-back gown was always worn over stays usually made of whalebone to promote better posture, followed by hoop pockets that extended and supported the wide skirts while offering a place to keep keys or other items. The gown was worn open down the front to reveal a petticoat and stomacher, a triangular panel that was heavily decorated and pinned into place, thereby providing an elongated torso. Tight sleeves covered the arm from the shoulders to the elbows, where many layers of lace and ruffles, called engageantes, circled the lower arm.[2] The sack-back gown was typically made of silk or cotton with elaborate trimmings that often cost more than the fabric itself. While blue was a ubiquitous color in the 18th century, rose or pale pink was also popular in fashionable evening gowns, which often consisted of lighter colors (light or silvery blue, pink, gold) that would have reflected the candlelight of a dinner or dance.
Sack-back gowns were primarily worn by elite women in the early American colonies, as evidenced by surviving letters, inventories, and visual records. On September 1760, George Washington wrote to Robert Cary & Company that “Mrs. Washington sends home a Green Sack to get cleaned, or fresh dyed of the same color—made up into a handsome Sack again would be her choice, but if the Cloth wont afford that, then to be thrown into a genteel Night Gown.”[3] Martha Jefferson’s account book reveals that she owned “2 sacks and coats,” gowns with petticoats in this style.[4] In Annapolis, Margaret Triggs Peale, Charles Willson Peale’s mother, was a dressmaker who left behind bills detailing her work mending and creating these evening gowns and “by her Industry maintained herself and her children.”[5] Portraits of wealthy women from the 1760s also offer us a glimpse of the typical elaborate evening gowns Mary Chew Paca would have worn.
Although no portrait of Mary has been found, two portraits of Mary’s sisters survive and are shown wearing similar elegant silk taffeta gowns with lace trim and sleeves.
The only surviving description of Mary comes from her obituary in The Maryland Gazette dated January 1774, about a month after her third child was born: “Mrs. Paca…a lady of a most amiable character: the most affectionate wife, tender parent, sincere friend, and indulgent mistress…one of the best of women” (Fig. 7).
While we don’t know Mary’s physical attributes, the new gown provides a striking visualization of how Mary might have appeared and dressed in the latest fashions, especially with the assistance of an enslaved woman such as Poll. On behalf of Historic Annapolis, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to helping construct this stunning elegant gown from start to finish, one seam at a time!
Elizabeth Fox
Curator at Historic Annapolis
[1] The original gown was made by Sarah Haynes Cowan of The Silly Sisters in Fredericksburg. This was according to my colleagues, Kim Walters of the Annapolis Living Historians and Paca House docent Barbara Meager.
[2] Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages (2004).
[3] The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, Colonial Series, Vol. 6 (4 September 1758-26 December 1760). See also https://www.mountvernon.org/plan-your-visit/calendar/events/18th-century-sewing-demo-refashioned-gowns
[4]More information can be found here: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/events/milliner-and-mantua-maker/shopping-for-a-new-gown/
[5] “Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale,” The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, Volume 5 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1983), pp. 4,5.
