...the wind would blow back their skirts like sails and the crinolines would wrap around their feet. ..
of course. Culottes hadn't been invented, and modesty prevented the wearing of shorts or short skirts.
In summer, spring, fall and early winter, callico and checked gigham were the favorite materials. The dresses were "of pretty fine material and costing a good deal."
Of course, just as today, there were some young women who were pacesetters. "One especially stylish girl wore a white dotted-swiss with short, puffed sleeves," a fashion story noted. "Another wore dark grey studded
were small turquoise or topaz rings worn on the index finger, or cameo and polished coral pins accenting big lace collars.
Ever girl owned a fur piece, usually a cape of mink or gray squirrel, with a matching muff. Furs were not considered an expensive luxury.
the fashions of the past
By Karen Lambert
The "little black dress" has been a fashion basic among KU men for 100 years.
In hair styles as in clothing, there was little deviation from a basic theme. All young women had long hair, worn either in a long, simple style or piled atop the head. Sometimes "hair was brushed smoothly over the temples or fluffed in curls about the face." Curls were made laboriously with hot slate pencils, instead of pincurs held in place with a whiff of hair spray.
A black dress was the proudst possession of the 29 women enrolled at KU in September 1866. According to an article appearing in the Kansas ity, Star near the turn of the century, "Sometimes a girl was or unate enough to own a black all dress. That was the height of purity."
But a black dress was probably more basic in 1866 than it is today. Young women a century ago had never heard of the slinky crepe sheath perfect for the googo girl, or a charcoal chiffon stunner for grand entrances at fraternity parties. Their black
All of the dresses were long,
Although a century separates the first Hill fashions from those of today, there are some parallels between fashions of the atomic age and Kansas wardrobes 100 years ago.
dresses were worn on more sedate occasions, perhaps at convocations or at tea with the chancellor.
Apparently the wind has not calmed in Lawrence since 1866. Today the wind works diligently at unfurling wrap around skirts and tugging at short hemlines. Winds were mischievous a century ago, too. A newspaper article of the time described the women's plight. "They had many difficulties. The climb up to Mount Oread was very difficult to make, especially in crinoline lines, because the wind would
blow back their skirts like sails and the crinolines would wrap around their feet. Their skirts were long and very full and would sometimes be stained with mud."
College women today might think their centennial sisters had meager wardrobes, with one dress for school and one for "occasions." Kansas in 1866 didn't provide many opportunities for fashion designers, but the women of the time were as concerned with having the right dress for the right occasion as women of today.
Feminine wardrobes, according to newspaper articles and history books, included seasonal clothes, party and Sunday fashions, as well as dresses for class.
with nailheads. That was stun- ning!"
In winter, KU women wore gray flannel or blue serge dresses. Today, serge is an unfashionable material, and men, not women, wear gray flannel suits.
No matter what the season, women wore full crinoline peticoats under their skirts and topped their dresses with ruffled white aprons.
Partly dresses were made from merino (knitted fabrics made of wool or wool and cotton) in blue, green or maroon. For adornment, young women depended on flowers of their natural good looks, because they owned few jewels and costume jewelry was unheard of. Their accessories, when they wore them,
Often, flowers were worn in the hair, usually double lady-slippers fastened by a hair pin.
One fad seems particularly in appropriate today. Unconditioned by long sprints from Dyche to Summerfield, KU women in 1866 had slim, lissome legs. They purchased and wore "false calves" to turn a pretty leg. They were stuffed with sawdust or hair and "were so natural and fitted with such exact nicety that many a lady has been able to make a display, equal to the most favored by nature."
But one Kansas editor apparently peered into the future, and predicted today's legend of "KU calves." Commenting on the devices he wrote, "False calves could be made of no possible use. Nature has boundfully supplied the fair ones in this locality."
Trolley once tracked its way to Mt. Oread
By Fred Frailey
They slid silently up Mt. Oread alongside Mississippi Street, rolled behind Bailey, turned south across Jayhawk Blvd. between Bailey and Strong halls, clattered along the ledge directly behind Flint Hall and then made their exit to the south beside Sunflower Road.
The students usually called them "Toonerville Trolleys." And for 27 years, these electric street cars made the downtown to campus trips much as buses do now.
They'd look quite out of place these days. But in 1910, when the line to Mt. Oread was completed, he streetcars represented the latest thing in public transportation.
Before Dennie Dwyer, builder of the line, made the first trip up Mississippi to the campus with a rolley-load of friends, KU students usually went down town via a horse-drawn cab or shoe leather.
For several decades, whenever an important event was scheduled on campus, one could see a string of trolley cars parked beside Robinson, waiting to take the students and visitors home.
The trolley hadn't been in operation long before a more ambitious scheme was hatched. The backers of this idea wanted to run a trolley line from downtown past the present area of Memorial Stadium, tunnel under Mt. Oread where Marvin Hall now stands, emerge at the southeast end of campus and then head toward downtown again.
Since the area where this line would run was practically a wilderness the financiers planned to construct houses in this area. Realizing this development would cut the University off from future expansion, KU administrators quickly purchased this and the electric railway idea subsided.
In fact, an interurban electric railway connecting Kansas City and Lawrence secured trackage rights over the Mt. Oread trolley line and hauled train roads of football fans to see the Jayhawks play.
The golden years for electric railways in the U. S. were from 1900 to 1930. When the Depression stuck, he vast network of street and interurban electric allways began to dissolve.
By 1937, the operation of trolley cars to the campus became too expensive, and they were swapped for buses. The Dally Kansan of that time said everyone agreed the buses were a definite improvement. Besides, the rails laid in the middle of streets were becoming nuisances to be growing number of automobile drivers.
Most of the old trolley car trackage is till intact, although covered by asphalt pavement or earth. But occasionally, when streets along the old right-of-way become in need of repair, the iron rails reappear, patiently waiting for the trolley cars which will never again emit sparks from the overhead wires as they glide up Mt. Oread.