When I was out in LA, our friends took us to an amazing museum – The Autry Museum of the West.
It included artifacts of the real west of America’s past, as well as the movie and TV versions of that same history. In fact, the museum is named after the famous “Singing Cowboy” of the early television days, Gene Autry, also the former owner of the Los Angeles/California/ Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.
Outside of the beautiful structure that houses the museum
Sculpture outside the museum of Gene Autry with his guitar and his horse, Champion.
I took so many photos, I’m going to divide them up into three separate posts. This one will be devoted to clothing – a fascinating aspect of history.
Woman’s two-piece outfit from around 1885
Indian woman’s outfit
What real cowboys wore.
Bodice and skirt from 1865-1885 worn by Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer of Custer’s last stand fame
Stagecoach driver’s gloves
Annie Oakley movie costume based on a painting of Annie Oakley
Beautiful dress in a soda ad
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Categories: American history, Antiques and Antiquities, Arts, Baseball, Ellin Curley, Photography, western movies
Serendipity Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth 
Just think that those dresses were all made by hand. The stitching, detailing and the style in the dresses is amazing and very feminine. How on earth would they keep the dresses clean with the muddy roads etc.?
Leslie
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I don’t think they kept their clothes clean. They just had to wash and dry them continually. Or they went around with dirt and mud all over their clothes! I’m not sure how often people in those days even bathed. It couldn’t have been easy. And I don’t think they had private bathrooms, or even indoor ones. It must have been really hard for the few women in the West to take care of personal hygiene.
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I hate to think about it….
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Where did they get the waistline?
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I remember my grandmother use to boast about her waistline. I had a pretty good waistline at 16 but I think they used stays to get there in those days.
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Interesting focus on the clothing! I wonder if those types of gloves were common.
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I’m still amazed that women survived that clothing! I have seen many versions of those gloves, still made today, so I’m betting there were many versions of them. Manly, yet attractive.
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Ellin, great pics – waiting for more. I so envy you guys – visiting the Autry museum. Did they play “I’m Back In The Saddle Again” in the museum?
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They had a few TV’s on a continual loop playing old Autry shows, mostly with him singing. Some were just of him but some were the extravaganzas he did with lots of horses and costumes and flags doing formations and marching around happily.
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Yes!
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They said the gloves were of coach drivers, so these people probably had a general style of glove they wore. They had to be functional for holding the reins of horses and I guess lifting bags on and off the coach.
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These look functional and kind of fancy at the same time.
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Those TINY waistlines! Just imagine the pain of those corsets they wore!
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I know it was torture for women to get those waistlines, but they were so attractive! I think that’s why Barbie was configured the way she was originally. They gave her that tiny waistline and big bust, like the old days.
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