Marking on 18th Century Garments and Bedlinens

Last updated: Jan 17, 2023

Certain garments and linens were marked – often embroidered with cross-stitched initials, numbers, and/or symbols, generally in silk. There were a few different styles of alphabets in use; a charted alphabet appears in The Instructor: or, The Young Man's Beſt Companion.

While this would have simplified large-scale household management and organization considerably, helping ensure that the right linens went to the right person, marking was also useful in a military context. According to Cuthbertson's System for the Complete Interior Management and Oeconomy of a Battalion of Infantry:

To prevent as much as poſſible, the leaſt embezzlement of the neceſſaries, with which a Soldier is provided, and to give a greater chance for the diſcovery of thefts, all their linen articles should have the name of the owner, with the number of the Regiment and Company he belongs to, marked with a mixture of vermilion and nut-oil, which when perfectly dried can never be waſhed out: under the ſlit of the boſom of the shirt, will be found the moſt convenient place, as at the weekly inſpection of neceſſaries, an Officer can eaſily examine, if the ſhirts at that time worn by the Soldiers are their own: ſome mark ſhould alſo be fixed upon the woolen Stockings and the Shoes, otherwiſe an officer will find himſelf expoſed to numberlſs impoſitions, from the irregularity of particular Soldiers, and their unconquerable deſire for drink, which tempts them frequently to exchange and pledge their neceſſaries, if not prevented, by every precaution in the power of an Officer to invent.

Men’s Shirts

• Rhode Island Historical Society 1971.11.3, American. c. 1700-1750
• Museum Rotterdam 70591, c. 1750-1800
• Museum Rotterdam 70587, 1759
• Met 2006.132, American, 1775-1790
• Met 2006.133, American, 1775-1790
• V&A T.360-1984, British, c. 1775-1800
• Connecticut Historical Society 1844.48.0, c. 1781
• Museum Rotterdam 20955, 1788
• Historic Deerfield 2017.30.3, c. 1790-1815; “Man’s square cut, white linen shirt featuring a standing collar, mother-of-pearl buttons, and the initials 'EP' [Elisha Porter] embroidered in cross stitch in light brown silk floss at proper left side near gusset.”
• Met C.I.46.82.10, American or European, c. 1795-1800
• Winterthur 2013.0031.179, early 19th century

Men’s Stocks

• Colonial Williamsburg 1993-166,A, English, c. 1740-1760
• Mark Wallis collection stock
• DAR 77.19, Thomas Jefferson’s stock

Handkerchiefs

• National Museum of Scotland A.1978.422, a printed handkerchief, c. 1730-1770
• Colonial Williamsburg 1988-476, America, c. 1790-1825

Stockings

• MFA 53.253a-b, France, 18th century
• Newport Historical Society 97.16.2 AB, 18th century
• Mount Vernon W-2471/A-B, c. 1760-1802
• Colonial Williamsburg 2009-43,4A&B, Philadelphia, c. 1782
• Augusta Auction 8.4835.110.318, America, late 18th-early 19th century
• Stockings repurposed into a waistcoat lining

Women’s Shifts

• Manchester 1948.74, 1680-1690
• V&A T.26-1969, 1730-1760
• V&A T.25-1969, English, 1740-1780
• Manchester 1969.237, 1740-1780
• Colonial Williamsburg 1984-79, English, 1700-1750; altered 1790-1820
• Met 2005.369, American, c. 1780
• Colonial Williamsburg 1990-7, American, c. 1780
• Karen Augusta, c. 1780-1800
• Colonial Williamsburg 1983-234, c. 1780-1810
• Colonial Williamsburg 2009-102, American, c. 1810-1820

Women’s Aprons

• Colonial Williamsburg 1999-225, American, 1776
• Colonial Williamsburg 1964-385, New York, c. 1790

Women’s Handkerchiefs

• ModeMuseum OBJ34912, a white cotton handkerchief, 1770-1800
• ModeMuseum OBJ35137, a white cotton handkerchief, 1770-1800

Women’s Pockets

• Newport Historical Society 2012.34.7

Bed sheets

• Colonial Williamsburg 1960-909, American, 1745
• Colonial Williamsburg 1952-665,1, Irish or English, c. 1770

Bed quilts

• V&A T.616-1996, English, 1709
• Colonial Williamsburg 1986-259 (a quilt), American, c. 1780-1810

Napkins

• Colonial Williamsburg 1964-379,3, three linen damask napkins woven c. 1711-1740
• Colonial Williamsburg 1952-666,1, 1952-666,2, 1952-666,3, 1952-666,4, 1952-666,5, 1952-666,6, 1952-666,7, and 1952-666,8, a set of linen damask napkins c. 1727 owned by Caroline, Baroness King
• Colonial Williamsburg 1941-265,1, a linen damask napkin used in Pennsylvania c. 1780-1810

Towels

• MFA 56.858, American, probably 18th century
• MFA 56.862, American, 18th-19th century
• MFA 34.123, American, late 18th or early 19th century
• MFA 34.125, American, late 18th or early 19th century

Other stuff

• MFA 45.642, a large drawstring bag, American, late 18th century to early 19th century