In the late 19th century, some women made the boldest, most bizarre fashion choice imaginable—they started wearing pants.
These new costumes, whether pantaloons, bloomers, or knickerbockers, subverted long-held expectations and set the stage for the “New Woman” to emerge.
As these fashions grew in popularity, the responses of naysayers became louder and louder. To some, including William H. Walker (1871-1938), women who wore pants became a symbolic representation of the end of the world as they knew it.
Walker contributed frequently to Life from 1894 to 1922, quickly becoming its leading editorial cartoonist. His art also appeared in Harper’s, the New York Post, and the New York Herald. The majority of the cartoons showcased in this exhibit are from 1896, when Walker created dozens of illustrations commenting on the “women in pants” phenomenon, many of which display the idea as ridiculous, confusing, shocking, or unnatural. Despite Walker's background as a political cartoonist, these unflattering depictions often obscured the perspectives of women’s rights activists by divorcing what they wore from its political context, suggesting women's decision to wear pants was nothing but a frivolous trend which could warrant only mockery.
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library will be showing “Fashion, Feminism, and Fear: Clothing and Power in the 19th Century” in the exhibit space in the lobby of the building. Curated by April C. Armstrong *14 and Emma Paradies, the exhibition opens in June 2025 and will run until April 2026.