Teaching Art History with Treefrog Treasures (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

Part 6A The Red Garibaldi Jacket: The Italian Job, The French Connection, & The Lady of Spain

“The latest fashion is absolutely necessary for a painting. It’s what matters most” --Edouard Manet

I will now consider the background to the red jacket worn by the woman on the bridge in Homer's The Old Mill. I will suggest sources both human and historical that were part of the jacket's creation in the 19th Century. In terms of individuals there are two: Giuseppe Garibaldi and Empress Eugenie of France.

Garibaldi was the revolutionary, soldier and politician who was responsible for the unification of Italy in 1860 and Rome being made the capital in 1870. As I will show in a future post, Garibaldi was a major celebrity of the 19th Century and was known all over the world for his deeds and accomplishments during the era of European Nationalism in the years after the Revolutions of 1848. One of the things he was especially known for was the red shirt that he wore and the uniforms of his soldiers who were nicknamed the Carmicie rosse or redshirts. The redshirts that he and his men wore are believed to have made their first appearance during the 1840s while he was in exile in Latin America and fighting a war in Uruguay. Legend has it that the shirts came from a manufacturer in Montevideo that made red shirts that were worn by Argentinian butchers. Garibaldi and his men were able to get a supply of these. It was in Europe, however, during the Wars for Italian Independence that they became most famous and were recognized around the world. One of the interesting things I learned while researching Garibaldi was that he was actually born in what is now Nice France. At the time of his birth, however, it was still part of Italy.

The second influential individual credited with introducing the red Garibaldi Jacket was the wife of Emperor Napoleon III: Empress Eugenie de Montijo. Born in Spain she had married the Emperor in 1853. The Paris of Napoleon III was the city that had been designed and rebuilt by Baron Haussmann who added majestic boulevards and parks. These were new public spaces where people would gather and men and women could show off the latest styles of clothing. With the rise of the House of Worth, Paris became the fashion capital of the world. With improved railroad and steamship service visitors came to the City of Light from not only other European countries but also North America. This age also witnessed a rise in the importance of mass media. Empress Eugenie realized that in such an environment she could enhance her husband's administration through the world of fashion. She subsequently attached herself to the House of Worth with their rising reputation for creating and producing the latest styles in clothing for women. Eugenie ordered numerous outfits from Charles Worth and enhanced his already thriving business. This was also the age of the fashion magazine such as the American publication Godey's Lady's Book which reproduced the latest Parisian look, including illustrations (fashion plates)of the clothing worn by the Empress. She should be seen,therefore, as a forerunner to Princess Diana or the always stunning Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton in the promotion of the latest examples of fashion.

As a result of her involvement with fashion, Eugenie was responsible for introducing new styles and garments. Her popularity helped spread these styles around the globe. Among the styles she introduced was the Bolero Jacket based upon the jackets worn by Matadors in her native Spain. In the 1864 portrait of Mlle. L.L. by James Tissot, the young woman is wearing a red version decorated on the two front panels and the shoulders with ball fringe. The jacket was named for the bolero the Spanish dance done in imitation of the bullfight. Eugenie's high profile in Paris led to a fascination with Spain. Thus Manet did a number of paintings with Spanish themes including bullfighting. His 1862 Mlle. Victorine in the costume of a Matador is a good example. Manet's favorite model and mistress dressed in this manner parallels the popularity of the bolero jacket among women at the same time.

The bolero jacket shared similarities with the Zouave jacket a French military jacket influenced by styles from the Berbers of North Africa where France had established their military presence. The Zouave jacket differed from the Bolero in that the latter was not usually closed at the top. The other examples included in the illustrations below include a fashion plate from a an 1865 issue of Peterson's Magazine in red which shows the popularity of the Zouave jacket among women. The last image in that collage shows a red woman's jacket from 1865-66 that is described as a Zouave jacket but is open at the neck like a Bolero Jacket.

Finally, in this post, I have included a collage of illustrations related to the Zouave jacket's use by the military and by civilian women. The first image shows a French Zouave unit wearing the archetypal uniform in North Africa. The second is Winslow Homer's 1864 painting The Brierwood Pipe showing New York Zouaves in camp during the Civil War when regiments in both the North and South adopted this North African style for their uniforms. The last illustration in the group is an American made Day Dress in White Cotton with black Soutache decoration done in imitation of the North African decoration on both the jacket and skirt dating between 1862-1864 .



Part 6A

Illustrations:

1. Red Jacket detail from Homer’s Old Mill 1871

2. Giuseppe Garibaldi
Empress Eugenie
Charles F. Worth

3. Manet: Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of a Matador 1862
Tissot: Portrait of Mlle. L.L. 1864
Peterson’s Magazine 1865: Woman with Red Zouave Jacket
Zouave Jacket 1865-1866

4. French Zouaves North Africa
Homer: 1864 The Brierwood Pipe
Day Dress (American) 1862-1864

Next Time: Evolution of The Garibaldi: From Shirt to Jacket

 

[PolarBear]

Part 6A Addendum Garibaldi Redshirts Source

In the previous post I mentioned that one of the sources for Garibaldi and his Redshirts Army Uniforms were shirts that had been made in Uruguay for the butchers of a slaughterhouse in Argentina. Yesterday I came across another fashion historian who suggests a different source: The New York City Fireman.

During the 1850s Garibaldi left Italy and traveled in North America and the Pacific. He actually lived and worked for a while on Staten Island where he worked as a candle maker. While in New York he would have seen the bright red flannel shirts of the city’s volunteer fire companies.

During the 1850s the lithographers Currier and Ives based in New York City published two series of prints on firemen, using the local volunteer companies as their source: The Life of the Fireman (1854) and The American Fireman (1858). Garibaldi had left New York in 1853 so he did not see the prints while there but would have seen some of the actual firemen in the city.

During the Civil War, the NYC volunteer fire companies served in the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry nicknamed Ellsworth’s Fire Zouaves. I have include two toy soldier examples and an Osprey plate of the regiment. It is noteworthy that the 11th had a number of Italian firemen as well as Irish members and the Italians would have been familiar with Garibaldi and his military exploits.


Illustrations:

American Fireman: Rushing to the Conflict by Currier & Ives 1858
American Fireman: Always Ready by Currier & Ives 1858

Ellsworth’s Fire Zouaves W.Hocker set 376

Carl Reid's 1st Regt., 11th N.Y. Fire Zouaves 75mm
By Jason Whitman

11th NY Volunteer Infantry 1st Fire Zouaves 2nd Uniform
(Osprey Men at Arms)

 

[Julie]

When I was at Syracuse University as Art Librarian and part time faculty member in Art History, I audited a class on the History of Fashion so I could better help art students in that program with their projects. My previous training as an undergrad and grad student had focused on paintings and sculpture.

I've always wanted to go to the Historic Fashion Show the Olmsted Country History Center puts on but something always gets in the way! Historic Costume Designer Joy Melcher is the feature of the event. She is based in Iowa so it is a closer event for her.
Always looks interesting but putting on all that gear seems daunting!

 

[PolarBear]

I've always wanted to go to the Historic Fashion Show the Olmsted Country History Center puts on but something always gets in the way! Historic Costume Designer Joy Melcher is the feature of the event. She is based in Iowa so it is a closer event for her.
Always looks interesting but putting on all that gear seems daunting!

Ken & Ericka Osen as you know are very heavily into that.
What period would you enjoy representing if you had a choice?
Randy

 

[PolarBear]

Part 6B Evolution of The Garibaldi: From Shirt to Jacket

Introduction:

The first two illustrations are two figures made by Del Prado made for their Italian Wars of Independence series. It includes Italian, French, Austrian and Prussian soldiers covering three wars from 1848 to 1866 and a figure from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. These figures are carried by Treefrog Treasures. It was after discovering that these were available at Treefrog and purchasing several, that I decided it would be fun to post my research on Winslow Homer and Giuseppe Garabaldi on the forum. The two figures below represent:

Giuseppe Garibaldi at Marsala, 1860

A Garibaldino at Calatafimi, 1860

I was thrilled to find them in the midst of my project. For me they are one of the Treasures that defines the Treefrog experience for collectors.

The Shirt or Blouse

The Garibaldi shirt or blouse represents another instance of the popularization of a garment named after a famous military personality. For example, we have Wellington boots, the Cardigan sweater, and the Eisenhower jacket. These were individuals who achieved worldwide fame and recognition. Garibaldi lived during a time of revolutionary nationalism that coincided with the rise of Romanticism in the arts. The Romantic movement loved swashbuckling heroes and Garibaldi easily fit the bill.

In Garibaldi's case we have a revolutionary hero who carried that patina into the world of fashion. He was loved especially by women so it was fitting that they were the major exemplars of his style. The height of his influence occurred in the 1860s during the time when the world watched the United States break apart in Civil War. This may partially account for his popularity with Americans who admired his battle to unify Italy from its fractious components.

The Garibaldi women's shirt was loose fitting, short and buttoned down the front like a man's shirt.It had full sleeves and turned down cuffs. It was meant to be tucked into the waistband of a skirt, hence its designation as a shirtwaist garment. It was made in red, black, white or striped versions. Some had pleats down the front. Both wool and cotton were common fabrics. It could be worn with or without a jacket. The Zouave or Bolero jackets were the most popular

The popularity of the red Garibaldi shirt among women was a response to
its role as a symbol of freedom and liberation, two goals at the center of this revolutionary's agenda. According to an 1862 of Godey's Lady's Book, an important arbiter of women's fashion, the Garibaldi shirt was

"A change amounting to a revolution in lady's costume"

A revolutionary garment inspired by a world famous revolutionary in a time of rapid change and unrest. As mentioned previously, ironically it was an Empress, Eugenie of France who introduced the women's version of the garment. From the number of photographs showing American women wearing the shirt/blouse it played a significant role in 19th Century women's fashion. It was also popular for children and boys as well as girls adopted the garment. It was worn by women and girls with a full skirt. The advantage of the shirtwaist is that new outfits could be created using the same skirt with a variety of blouses: an economical boost for the increasing number of females now in the work environment. Previously dresses came in two separate matching parts and were more expensive to buy.

The shirtwaist was the perfect garment to symbolize the independent working woman with their own jobs and wages and no longer tied solely to the domestic world and a husband's income. It would become an iconic symbol for the women's rights movement of the 19th Century.

The Jacket

In a world of Romantic heroes and consumers of fashion it was inevitable that the Garibaldi shirt would eventually morph into a jacket. It would join the already popular Zouave and Bolero styles and like the former take on a military appearance with such features as epaulettes on the shoulders, cuffs and embroidery or braid on the front. It also usually closed down the front like traditional military jackets No wonder it became popular during the American Civil War. These three jacket types were most popular from the 1860s to 1900. However, the illustrations below include an example from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) made as late as 1960. That decade would see the rise of the Beatles ( and Carnaby Street in London) who sometimes performed in a mix of Victorian military style garments (Think Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).

Illustrations:

1. Del Prado:

Giuseppe Garibaldi at Marsala, 1860

Garibaldino at Calatafimi, 1860

2.Garibaldi Redshirts

Garibaldi embarks for the Expedition of the Thousand

Examples of actual Garibaldi’ Redshirts

Garibaldi and his officers in the Strait of Messina, which crossed into Calabria and Naples later in 1860.

3. Detail of a portrait of Garibaldi showing loose-fitting Redshirt with wide sleeves that was copied for the Garibaldi blouses

Re-enactor modeling Garibaldi Blouse

1860s American photograph of woman wearing Garibaldi blouse

4. Garibaldi Jacket
Garibaldi Jacket and Croquet Skirt 1865-70

Red Zouave Jacket with epaulettes and cuff decortation similar to decoration on jacket in The Old Mill

Woman in Red Jacket from The Old Mill by Homer

Garibaldi Jacket 1960 from Collection of Victoria and Albert Museum, London

5. Advertisement for women’s Garibaldi jackets for Canadian sale in British Colonialist December 17,1861 pg 3

 

[Julie]

Ken & Ericka Osen as you know are very heavily into that.
What period would you enjoy representing if you had a choice?
Randy

That's a great question! I'm kind of a comfort first, jeans and tank tops kind of person (but no words on my clothes, I'm not into that!).
Female attire pre-1900 is all sorts of fussy but looks stunning when it can pulled off by the right person.
So if I had the option of all time periods I'd either have fun in something Medieval-Renaissance-Italian or else 1920s Flapper.

Julie

 

[PolarBear]

Part 6C

Garibaldi Blouses in the Mills

There are a number of photographs that were taken of female mill workers in the late 1850s and1860s during the height of Garibaldi's popularity in the United States. Below is an ambrotype, a successor to the daguerreotype. The image was made on a piece of glass that had been coated with silver that captured the image in the camera and was then put in a metal frame similar to those used for the earlier daguerreotype process. The ambrotype was in use between 1855-1865.

This photograph was taken on September 26, 1859 by a Massachusetts photographer named Alfred Hall. It was taken in Lawrence, Massachusetts at one of the many mills located there. Homer's brother Charles was still working as a dye chemist at the Pacific Mill in Lawrence. The photograph shows two sisters Lucretia Electa and Louisa Ellen Crossett who were employed by one of the Lawrence mills. They were were 22 and 18 years old when they were photographed.Parts of the image have been hand colored.

The two sisters are dressed in identical skirts, aprons and blouses. The blouses are perfect examples of the Garibaldi blouse. The 1859 date is of interest since it was one year prior to Garibaldi's successful unification of Italy. This is a good indication of his popularity in America prior to his most famous achievement. The print publications had already brought him to public attention around the world.

This photograph is a good example of the popularity of the occupational portrait. Both sisters are holding weaving shuttles indicating the nature of the work in the Lawrence mills. Lucretia on the right has a pair of scissors at her waist. A similar photograph from the same time of a Gold Rush prospector, for example, would have included a pick and shovel or metal pan all identifiers of his occupation. In the coming decade photographs of Civil War soldiers might show them holding a sword or pistol. Homer in his 1871 wood engraving, The Clanking Shuttle, suggests the nature of their work.

It is possible and perhaps likely that the sisters made the blouses themselves. The Garibaldi blouse was often featured along with basic patterns in American women's magazines such as Godey's and Peterson's. Below is an example from an 1862 issue of Peterson's printed in Garibaldi red. Versions for both a woman and young boy are shown.

I shall return to the photograph of the Crossetts later on in this presentation when I look at what I see as the significance and meaning of the red jacket in Homer's The Old Mill.

Illustrations:

Lucretia Electa and Louisa Ellen Crossett, Lawrence, Mass. 1859 Ambrotype by Alfred Hall, Lawrence, Mass.

The Clanking Shuttle Winslow Homer 1871

Fashion Plate from Peterson’s March 1862 Garibaldi Blouses

 

[REVWARBUFF]

Randy,

This is very interesting and your presentation is well done.

We often don't think of the fashions/uniforms of our toy soldiers but this thread of yours has opened up a whole new perspective on our hobby.

The historical information and the details you provide show a great depth of knowledge of the subject on your part. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Mark

 

[PolarBear]

Havelocks & Garibaldis: Wartime Women Sewing Patriotism

As a Civil War illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, Winslow Homer was interested in the uniforms worn by the participants. His art included soldiers and some sailors and Confederates as well as Union soldiers. Homer even showed his audience a new addition to American military clothing during the war: the Havelock named for its creator Sir Henry Havelock who introduced it to British troops in India during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Like the Garibaldi shirt and jacket this is another example of an article of clothing named for a heroic military personality. The havelock was a cloth cover for a cap or kepi that included a piece of cloth to protect the neck from the sun. For the cover of the June 29, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly, Homer created a wood engraving entitled: The War--Making Havelock's for the Volunteers showing a group of women (a sewing bee) making these. A pile of finished ones is on the floor in the lower right hand corner. Some of women also appear to be working on uniforms. The image served as a form of propaganda to inspire other women in the North to also make articles of clothing to support the fighting men. A large American flag is on the right side of the composition supporting the patriotic message of the engraving. A portrait of a Union soldier on the left upper wall of the room looks down upon the women as another reminder of the purpose of their efforts. Making Havelocks was a domestic scene from the Home Front emphasizing women's contribution to the war effort. It preceded Homer's military illustrations beginning in the Fall of 1861 when Homer became a Special Artist in northern Virginia during the Peninsula Campaign.

Odoardo Borrani, an Italian artist living and working in Florence and a contemporary of Homer's produced a similar work in oil paint entitled
Cucitrici di camicie rosse ("Sewing Red Shirts for the Volunteers") in 1863.
This too represents a domestic scene of patriotic well dressed young women sewing for the war effort. This would have been Garibaldi's Red Shirt Campaign for the Unification of Italy. Borrani had served as a volunteer in the Second Italian War of Independence. Garibaldi was a hero for him and therefore on the right side wall of Sewing Redshirts is a profile portrait of Garibaldi. This is meant to act as a direct link to the red shirts that they are working on in the battle for Italian Unification which was at the center of Garibaldi's military and political agenda. As in Homer's Making Havelocks, the women's contribution to national goals is emphasized.


Since Homer's engraving precedes Borrani's painting by two years, it is possible that the Italian artist was familiar with the illustration. Issues of Harper's Weekly likely made their way overseas. The subjects are the same (women sewing for their nation) and there are obvious national and patriotic symbols (the American flag, red shirts, and portraits of a Union soldier and the heroic Giuseppe Garibaldi, and the men for whom the items are being made are all volunteers).

Illustrations:

The War--Making Havelocks for the Volunteers Harper's Weekly June 29, 1861 by Winslow Homer

W. Britain Soldiers originally available from Treefrog Treasures

Indian Mutiny (Victoria Cross Series) 53rd Foot wearing Havelocks

American Civil War Confederate Infantryman Advancing wearing Havelock

Sewing Redshirts for the Volunteers 1863 by Odoardo Borrani

Detail of Garibaldi Portrait from Borrani's Sewing Redshirts

 

[jazzeum]

Randy, you may want to contact Louis Badolato. Louis belongs to a club called Tiro A Segno in Greenwich Village in NY, which is connected to Garibaldi. See http://www.tiroasegno.net/About-Us/History.aspx

 

[PolarBear]

Randy, you may want to contact Louis Badolato. Louis belongs to a club called Tiro A Segno in Greenwich Village in NY, which is connected to Garibaldi. See http://www.tiroasegno.net/About-Us/History.aspx

Brad

Something odd here in part of the text describing the club you sent me the link to:

"Because Garibaldi played such an active role in Tiro A Segno in Italy, he was instrumental in forming the original Tiro A Segno Nazionale Italiano during his stay in New York, in 1888".

Garibaldi died on June 2nd 1882 on the island of Caprera

It may have been Garibaldi's son Ricciotti Garibaldi who also visited NYC in the 1880s

Randy

Photo of Ricciotti Garibaldi

 

[PolarBear]

Part 8

Garibaldi in the Adirondacks: Winslow Homer’s Two Guides 1877

In 1877 Homer created one of his early paintings of the Adirondacks. Entitled Two Guides, it depicts two actual Adirondack guides: Monroe Holt on the left and Orson Phelps on the right. The portrait of Holt shows him wearing a New York City style fireman's red shirt with a buttoned bib front. It is virtually identical (minus the collar) to one of Garibaldi's actual red shirts shown next to the detail of the Holt portrait. This further supports the suggestion mentioned previously that the Garibaldi shirt of the garibaldini soldiers was modeled on the shirts worn by members of the volunteer fire companies that Garibaldi would have seen while in New York City in the early 1850s.

Garibaldi’s inspiration from the NYC fireman’s shirts has been corroborated by Thomas Nast the New York based illustrator and political cartoonist and contemporary of Winslow Homer. Like Homer, Nast did some of his work for Harper’s Weekly. In June of 1860, Nast was in Europe and decided to join Garibaldi’s second Sicilian expedition. Nast was embedded with the garibaldini as a reporter and illustrator. He sketched Garibaldi’s portrait while there (see illustration below) and collected ideas for publication in the pictorial press. Risorgimento art historian Albert Boime has stated that:

“At Palermo, Nast secured a red shirt, and it was he who reported Garibaldi’s claim that the ‘red shirt’ had been inspired by the dress of the New York City firemen.”

Thus between the woman in the red Garibaldi jacket in the painting of The Old Mill and Monroe Holt’s portrait in The Two guides, Homer has left us examples of both the Garibaldi style jacket and shirt.

Illustrations:

The Two Guides 1877 Winslow Homer

Detail of Monroe Holt From Two Guides

Holt’s and Garibaldi’s Shirt Comparison

Thomas Nast, Political Cartoonist

Sketch of Garibaldi on Campaign 1860 by Thomas Nast


Note: I will return to Homer's Two Guides in a later post that will offer my interpretation (historical, political, social & cultural) of the woman in the red jacket in Homer's The Old Mill.

 

[PolarBear]

Part 9

From Factory To Fashion: Homer and the Industrial and Consumer Revolutions

Winslow Homer's use of the Garibaldi Jacket in his 1871 The Old Mill and his reference to the Garibaldi style fireman's shirt in the The Two Guides reflect his awareness of popular and changing styles in clothing. His work for Harper's Weekly with its numerous illustrations provided him with a framework for this aspect of his art. Both men's and women's clothing were undergoing an evolution. Such transformation should not come as a surprise in an era under the influence of the writings of Charles Darwin. His Descent of Man published in 1871 extended his influence and theory of human evolution. So why shouldn't human clothing evolve as well?

Homer was responding in his art to the connection that now existed between the Industrial Revolution and the Consumer Revolution. This occurred originally in 18th Century England. This was the location where the Industrial Revolution began through a series of technological innovations that occurred in the textile industry that would become a major factor in the expansion of Western capitalism. It was in North America where this would next develop through the rise of a strong textile industry in New England supported by expanding cotton resources in the American South. These two aspects when combined made the United States a significant player in the Empire of Cotton.

A pair of Homer wood engravings from 1868 illustrate the important connection between the Industrial and Consumer Revolutions. The first, New England Factory Life--Bell Time published in Harper's Weekly, has been examined previously in this thread. The second is entitled Opening Day in New York and appeared in a new publication: Harper's Bazar in 1867. The Harper Brothers who had founded the Weekly which began in 1857 at the beginning of Homer's career now decided to enter the growing fashion market with their own publication. Issued weekly, the magazine was larger in size and had more fashion illustrations than competitors such as Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's. The Bazar began circulation in 1867.

Opening Day in New York was published on March 21st, the first day of the Spring Season, the time when new fashions were released in major cities like New York. In the lower half of the composition, we see groups of young women trying out the latest cloaks, bonnets and parasols. The upper half shows Homer adding a touch of humor by presenting a "bouquet" of flowers of women shoppers. The elegant young women looking at the new Spring fashions provide a sharp contrast to the millworkers leaving the factory in the earlier print.

The 1870s was the most prolific decade for Homer's images of fashionable women done in three mediums: wood engravings, watercolors or oil paintings. Examples from that time are shown below. I have also included examples from W. Britain's Petticoat series that was done by Ken and Erika Osen and sold by Treefrog Treasures.

Illustrations:

New England Factory Life--"Bell Time" Harper's Weekly July 25, 1868
By Winslow Homer

Opening Day in New York Harper's Bazar March 21, 1868 by Winslow Homer

On the Beach at Long Branch Harper's Bazar September 3, 1870 by Winslow Homer

Three works by Homer from the 1870s

The Trysting Place (Watercolor) 1875
Butterfly Girl (Oil) 1878
The Yellow Jacket (Oil)1879

W. Britain Petticoat Series: 3 19th C Examples from Homer's Era: Civil War to Gilded Age

1860s
1880s
1890s

 

[PolarBear]

Part 10 Garibaldi's Blue Jean Army

"I had my first interview with the disinterested and brave liberator of Italy in his red shirt, a dirty pair of jean trousers and worn-out boots. Combing his long, thin hair at the glass stood the greatest patriot since Washington."
Times correspondent September 13, 1860.

We have already looked at Garibaldi's influence on women's fashion: the Garibaldi shirt/blouse and jacket. He also set a precedent for men's pants: blue jeans. We know this not only from pictures of Garibaldi and stories in the popular press of the time but the actual pair of blue jeans that still exists in the Museo del Risorgimento in Rome.

There are two reasons why Garibaldi wore blue jeans. First he had begun his career as a mariner. The rugged fabric that was used to make jeans first appeared in Genoa, Italy in the 16th Century where it was used as a covering for goods being transported by ship and to clothe sailors.The fabric spread throughout Europe. In France it was called "blu de Gene" or simply "Genes", the French word for Genoa. Giuseppe Mazzini the most radical of the Italian Risorgimento (Resurgence, Rebirth) politicians and Garibaldi's mentor was from Genoa. The French began producing their own version of the fabric at Nimes which led to the expression de Nimes (from Nimes) that yielded the term denims.

Jeans are made from white cotton duck a heavy tightly woven canvas that is known for its durability. It gets its blue color from one of two dye sources: the indigo plant or woad, a flowering plant. Garibaldi's jeans in the museum in Rome appear to have been dyed with woad. These are the actual blue jeans he wore in 1860 when he led the Mille (1,000 volunteers) that conquered the Kingdom of the Two,Sicilies, an important step toward the creation of the Kingdom of Italy and the unification of the nation. All the volunteers were dressed in red shirts and blue jeans.

When we think of blue jeans it is the name Levi Strauss who made the first American blue jeans in 1873 that comes to mind. However, we need to give credit to Giuseppe Garibaldi who helped popularize them in the process of creating modern Italy in 1860

Illustrations:

Garibaldi in Blue Jeans 1860

Garibaldi's Blue Jeans in the Risorgimento Museum, Rome

Garabaldini 1860: Uniform Plate showing blue jeans

Del Prado Garabaldini in blue jeans 1860

 

[PolarBear]

Part 10 Addendum

Here is a better view of Garibaldi's Jeans from the catalog of the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento in Rome

 

[Poppo]

Very interesting thread. Even if Garibaldi is not much loved in Italy today in spite of the thousands of statues of him in each town...

 

[jazzeum]

Very interesting thread. Even if Garibaldi is not much loved in Italy today in spite of the thousands of statues of him in each town...

Why is that?

 

[PolarBear]

This article by Adam Goodheart provides a good idea of Garibaldi's popularity at home and abroad. In a forthcoming post I will show how Winslow Homer connected Lincoln, Garibaldi, Frederick Douglass and John Brown through his art. I will also be doing a section on Garibaldi-Mania that started in the 19th C and is still around today. Stay Tuned


Hero of Two Worlds
By Adam Goodheart New York Times December 4, 2010


Caprera, Italy, Dec. 5, 1860

He was a soldier home from civil war, a victorious commander turned ordinary farmer again. This quiet, middle-aged man – who, just weeks earlier, had performed feats of battle that redrew the map of Europe and dazzled the world – now rose before dawn each morning to tend and water his bean patches and young olive trees. A kingmaker who had toppled old thrones and raised new ones, he slept on a plain iron bedstead beneath mosquito netting. A pair of swords hung on the wall opposite the fireplace; from a clothes line dangled several red flannel shirts, threadbare and patched. These plain garments themselves had become international symbols of liberty.

While, thousands of miles away, the votes to elect Abraham Lincoln as president were being counted, Giuseppe Garibaldi had returned to his farm on this small, rocky islet off the Sardinian coast. He had turned down a full general’s commission, a dukedom, landed estates and the heavy golden neck chain of the Order of the Annunziata – bringing home with him instead a few small bags of coffee and sugar, some seeds for the garden and a crate of macaroni. Suitably enough, the steamship that had brought him from Naples to Caprera on Nov. 9 was called the Washington.

Most books and documentaries about the American Civil War frame it as a saga that unfolded alongside a few legendary streams in Virginia and Tennessee, and across some hilltops in Georgia and Pennsylvania. But in fact, the war’s full story spans oceans and continents. The 19th-century United States was neither as isolated from world politics nor as impervious to overseas events as it is often described. For instance, Garibaldi, the hero of Italian liberation and unification, played a significant role – as an inspiration, though eventually almost as a direct participant – in our own country’s simultaneous struggle.

On this particular day, Dec. 5, a young woman in New York named Jane Stuart Woolsey sat by the window, composing a letter to a friend. Outside, newsboys were hawking extras with the full text of President James Buchanan’s freshly released message to Congress about the secession crisis, a masterpiece of executive dithering and equivocation. But despite their shrill cries, Woolsey’s mind was four thousand miles away. “Garibaldi! The word is a monument and a triumphal song,” she wrote. “I should like to have one of the turnips from that island farm of Caprera. Now, when the ‘deeds are so few and the men so many’ it is surely a great thing to find a noble deed to do, and to do it!”

Millions of Woolsey’s countrymen shared her enthusiasm for the man who, starting out with a volunteer army of just a thousand men or so – Garibaldi’s famous Thousand, also known as the Red Shirts – had landed in Sicily and swept up the Italian peninsula. Within a few months, they had destroyed the corrupt old Bourbon despotism, uniting most of Italy as a single nation for the first time in modern history, ruled by the constitutional monarch King Victor Emmanuel. Americans loved that Garibaldi, like the Roman Cincinnatus and like their own George Washington, had nobly stepped aside once the great work was complete, returning to his humble farm. They could take special pride in knowing that this Italian founding father had spent more than three years as a resident of their own country, in exile after the failed uprising of 1848; Garibaldi had lived on Staten Island and worked in a candle factory.

Yet Garibaldi’s thrilling deeds – unfolding day-by-day through 1860 on the front page of almost every newspaper, alongside stories detailing America’s own dissolution – stood as both an inspiration and a rebuke. “What a sight we must be to other peoples,” Woosley’s letter continued. “Just as morning breaks over Italy with sunshine and singing, this evil cloud comes up in our heaven.”

Many Northerners, in particular, hailed the “Union of the Italian People” – as The Times called it – for managing to combine the ideals of liberation and national unity under the same banner, a task at which they themselves seemed to be spectacularly failing. From San Francisco to Philadelphia, they held meetings and concerts to raise money for Garibaldi’s campaign; New Yorkers formed a “Million Rifles Fund” and contributed an estimated $100,000. In a letter to The Times, the Red Shirts’ commander expressed his thanks for the support of Italians’ “sacred task – our union.” It did not pass unnoticed, either, that Garibaldi was a northern Italian who had led his army across the peninsula’s benighted south; in a telling analogy, the Times referred to Genoa’s inhabitants as “the Yankees of Italy.”

Abolitionists saw in Garibaldi a kind of Mediterranean John Brown. When William Cullen Bryant, America’s most revered literary figure, published a new poem hailing the newly liberated inhabitants of Italy’s medieval fiefdoms – “Slaves but yestereve were they,/Freemen with the dawning day” – it did not require much exegesis to realize that he was also thinking about bondsmen closer to home. Frederick Douglass, in his Dec. 3 speech in Boston, predicted that if the South seceded, “I believe a Garibaldi would arise who would march into those States with a thousand men, and summon to his standard sixty thousand, if necessary, to accomplish the freedom of the slave.”

Nor was it only extreme radicals like Douglass who had begun yearning for a Garibaldian cause to which they could pledge their lives. In October 1860, at a pro- Lincoln rally in San Francisco, a Republican senator – and old friend of the soon- to-be president – stood before a large crowd and declared:

"Everywhere abroad, the great ideas of personal liberty spread, increase, fructify. Here – ours is the exception! In this home of the exile, in this land of constitutional liberty, it is left for us to teach the world that slavery marches in solemn procession! that under the American stars slavery has protection, and the name of freedom must be faintly breathed – the songs of freedom be faintly sung! Garibaldi, Victor Emanuel, hosts of good men are praying, fighting, dying on scaffolds, in dungeons, oftener yet on battle fields for freedom: and yet while this great procession marches under the arches of liberty, we alone shrink back trembling and afraid when freedom is but mentioned!"

Less than a year later, the man who spoke those words, E.D. Baker, would lie dead on a bluff above the Potomac, fallen at the head of his regiment in a battle for the Union.

Sources: Christopher Hibbert, “Garibaldi and His Enemies”; Denis Mack Smith, “Garibaldi”; Georgeanna Woolsey Bacon and Eliza Woolsey Howland, eds., “Letters of a Family During the War for the Union, 1861-1865,” Vol. 1; New York Times, Nov. 24 and Dec. 14, 1860; Lucy Riall, “Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero”; Boston Transcript, Oct. 8, 1860; John W. Blassingame, ed., “The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews,” Vol. 3, 1855- 63; San Francisco Bulletin, Oct. 27, 1860.

Adam Goodheart is the author of the forthcoming book “1861: The Civil War Awakening.” He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he is the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Illustration

Garibaldi Enters Naples in September 1860

 

[jazzeum]

If I'm not mistaken this comes from the New York Times Disunion series, which was a fantastic series until it stopped in 2015. The first two or three years of articles were published in book form by the Times.

 

[PolarBear]

If I'm not mistaken this comes from the New York Times Disunion series, which was a fantastic series until it stopped in 2015. The first two or three years of articles were published in book form by the Times.

Yes Brad, that was a great series. Four of the NYT Disunion essays dealt with Italy, Garibaldi and the Civil War.
Goodheart talks about Garibaldi in his book 1861: The Civil War Awakening. The other Garibaldi related essays were by Don Doyle who then expanded them in his excellent book: The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War It is very interesting to see classic subjects now being explored in the context of transnational history.

Randy