Corset
ca. 1880
Medium
cotton, metal, bone
Classification
Corset
Culture
American
Department
Costume Institute
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of E. A. Meister, 1950
Accession Number
2009.300.3111a–c
Art Historical Context
Step into the laced world of 1880s American fashion with corset from Langdon, Batcheller Company, a prominent New York-based manufacturer known for producing high-quality undergarments. Crafted 1880 from cotton fabric reinforced with metal and bone—likely steel busks and baleen or whalebone stays—this garment exemplifies the era's obsession with the hourglass silhouette. During the Gilded Age, corsets like this one cinched the waist to as little as 18-20 inches, supporting voluminous bustles and skirts while enforcing rigid posture. Artistically and culturally, the corset represents both inge...