This beautiful corset dates to around 1820. It is made of a heavy tan cotton (possibly tea-dyed) and embroidered with dark blue thread. Unlike later corsets which are stiffened by the use of a whalebone busk which fits in a channel down the front of the corset, or later still by the use of steel boning, this corset is stiffened by thin heavy cords which were inserted into stitched channels. It is 19 inches long and laces up the back. This corset would have probably been made by one of the women in the household, or a paid dressmaker. Young women of means did not have active outside lives, outside of making calls on their friends during the daytime, or the occasional ball, and had maids to do the housework. Outside of reading, about the only activity they had was needlework and most were adept at it.