Bangor directory full of sewing help in 1907

In 1907 dressmakers, seamstresses, milliners, tailoresses, stitchers and tailors had Bangor all sewed up. A browse through the Bangor City Directory of that year yielded the names of nearly 200 men and women who named sewing of one kind or another as their profession. And that was only through the letter M.

Many of the dressmakers and seamstresses had Irish names, and Jewish family names appear among the tailoring and clothing manufacturing businesses – a small reflection of Bangor’s ethnic diversity.

Dressmakers were skilled and experienced in cutting and fitting all types of garments.

Seamstresses may have done less-skilled sewing or worked according to the instructions of a dressmaker.

A stitcher may have worked in a factory for the Bangor Pants Co. at 13 Essex St., the Bangor Knee Pants Co., or Bangor Clothing Manufacturing, all on Exchange Street, or for clothing manufacturers Max Ginsberg on Pine Street and Nathan Ginsberg on Exchange Street.

Tailoresses made to order women’s suits and outerwear, which had simple lines similar to men’s wear.

Tailors made and repaired men’s clothing.

City Directory listings also include an art embroidery and stamping business conducted by Edith Hanson at 130 Main St., the Standard Millinery College run by Mrs. Aimee L. Coy at 148 Main St., knitter Alice M. Butler at 147 Essex St. and designer Mabel Harlow at 110 Essex St.

Although many dressmakers worked in shops on Main Street, others had places of business scattered throughout the city, where they apparently worked out of their homes.

Those seeking the dressmaking services of Grace and Nellie Gibson called at 20 Thirteenth St. Dressmaker Celia Gallagher and seamstress Annie Gallagher were at 198 York St.; Edith and Stella Lynott were at 52 Fern St.; Jennie and Nellie McNeil were at 60 Sidney St.; and tailoress Fannie Henry and dressmaker Annie Henry were at 113 Buck St. Perhaps these duos were sisters, or mother and daughter.

The Misses Cannon – Kate and Mary – had a dressmaking establishment at 82 Main St., cheek to cheek with Freese’s, which occupied 74, 78, 80, 84 and 86 Main St.

An advertisement in the April 16, 1906, edition of the Bangor Daily News had this to say about the Standard Millinery College: “Mrs. Coy is a thorough business woman and has from the start worked upon business principles. Pupils who attend the college to learn millinery are taught the most up-to-date methods with real materials. They are given ideas that would not be possible in the usual apprentice or ‘picked-up’ method. A graduate from this college is completely equipped for work in any establishment in the country.”

The college attracted students, single and married, from across the state. Graduates in 1906 were from Belfast, Stockton Springs, Van Buren, Ellsworth Falls, Addison, Montague, Frankfort, Patten, Bar Harbor, Brewer, Bradford, Winterport, Island Falls, Mount Desert and Bangor. Several of them had accepted positions with established milliners in Bar Harbor, Guilford and Ashland. “Many of them will go into business for themselves,” the ad stated.

Freese’s was a commercial hat-making epicenter in 1907, where milliners June Burrill, Mrs. E. Davis Leavitt, Emily Dyer, Eva Elber, Alice C. Greeley, Martha Jordan and Ellen Mooney worked artfully to bedeck the brims of ladies’ hats. This was the era of hats laden with feathers, a practice that nearly decimated many species of birds and gave rise to legislation that banned the feather trade and caused members of the Audubon Society to rally against the practice and the fashion. Miss Mooney was still practicing her craft at Freese’s in 1957.

Millinery was heralded as a new department at Freese’s in an advertisement in the May 21, 1907, edition of the BDN. “Hundreds of the latest New York styles,” the ad stated. And, “Take the elevator. We ask a special favor of ladies who dislike to ride in an elevator to try ours. The smoothest running elevator we have ever seen; no jerks, no dropping sensation coming down.”

In Freese’s millinery department, women who wanted to trim their own hats found everything they needed, including ostrich plumes, wings, and quills; silk roses, violets, apple blossoms, daisies, forget-me-nots, cowslips, lilacs, wisteria, lily of the valley and cherries.

For those who wanted something a bit more continental, C.W. Coffin at 45 Main St. sold French millinery goods and was the special agent for Butterick dress patterns and publications.

Quinn’s at 132 Main St., opposite the opera house, also specialized in millinery, where milliners Alice Crowley, Mabel Gallagher and Sadie Knaide practiced the craft.

Women who preferred to do their own dressmaking at home had in 1907 a new asset to aid them – for 10 cents they could order clothing patterns through the BDN, including the “Afternoon House Gown” billed as a “Paris Pattern.”

With so much sewing and hat-making coming from the hands of men and women of Irish and Jewish heritage in 1907, Bangor women must have been elegantly attired, indeed.

Ardeana Hamlin may be reached at ahamlin@bangor

dailynews.net or at 990-8153.