Brogans

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the last quarter of the 18th century, shoe manufacture was a major cottage industry in New England, and from about 1850, a rapid flood of newly-invented specialized machinery served to concentrate production in factories. The military demand for large quantities of cheap and rapidly produced goods during the American Civil War catalyzed the expansion of industrial production. This early example of a factory made mass-produced pair of brogans incorporates several new industrial processes: machine-sewn chain stitch, riveted straps, and mechanically pegged sole. These shoes have the additional distinction of a direct association with the Civil War: family history relates that the shoes were "worn by Daniel Webster Easton, uncle to [the] donor... on a very long march after being released from a Southern prison".

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art