Chicago Historical Society Northwestern University

Mary Lincoln probably purchased her machine-stitched cloak as a ready-made garment. Outer wraps were the first ready-made garments for women. Cloaks were commercially available as early as the 1840s, although large-scale production of other women's garments lagged behind the manufacture of men's clothing. Commercial sewing machines were readily available by the 1850s and the styles of American manufactured cloaks or mantles soon rivaled those from Paris.