While Isabella’s paintings and photographs often show her in black and white outfits, a pair of her purple slippers reveals her sense of style was broader than it appears. Learn more about these slippers and their connection to the Perkins School for the Blind.
Isabella Stewart Gardner was a woman who carefully cultivated her public persona, sometimes through her fashion choices. She controlled the surviving images of herself—paintings and photographs—and it seems much of her wardrobe was black and white.
Only a few articles of clothing belonging to Isabella are known to still exist. Upon her death, her apparel, along with other personal effects, was left to her niece Olga Eliza Gardner Monks. However, through a remarkable journey, the Museum has a pair of bright purple shoes—evidence that Isabella wore vibrant colors!
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Gift of Miss Claudia Potter, Perkins Institute for the Blind, 1954 (SP1954.01.a-b)
Chapelle, Cordonnier (established Paris, 1815), Pair of Purple Slippers, about 1900. Satin, silk, grosgrain silk, and leather; lined with white kid and linen, each: 10 x 2 1/2 x 4 in. (25.4 x 6.4 x 10.2 cm)
Like other wealthy women of her time, Isabella purchased much of her wardrobe in France from couture designers like the House of Worth. She purchased the purple slippers from the Parisian shoemaker Chapelle, who made footwear to coordinate with Worth outfits. A 1900 shipping receipt from Fernand Robert, Isabella’s regular agent in Paris, notes an invoice from Chapelle for two pairs of kidskin shoes in the style of Louis XV purchased for 42 francs each (about $208 today). One of these pairs may have been the purple shoes.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (DF197.005b)
With their delicate silk fabric and thin leather soles, shoes like these were not made to stand up to much wear. They would usually only be worn indoors with an evening dress or for special occasions. This style of shoe, without left or right foot shaping, is called a 'straight.' To assist the wearer, there are two small paper labels inside reading 'Gauche' (French for left) and 'Droite' (French for right).¹
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Gift of Miss Claudia Potter, Perkins Institute for the Blind, 1954 (SP1954.01.a-b)
Chapelle, Cordonnier (established Paris, 1815), Pair of Purple Slippers, about 1900. Satin, silk, grosgrain silk, and leather; lined with white kid and linen, each: 10 x 2 1/2 x 4 in. (25.4 x 6.4 x 10.2 cm)
After Olga Monks took possession of her aunt’s belongings she distributed some of them to her close friends, including giving these the slippers to Katharine Foote Raffy, Isabella’s goddaughter and daughter of famous Boston composer, Arthur Foote.
Katharine was a volunteer nurse in France and England during World War I and published her correspondence in the volume Letters from Two Hospitals, which Isabella kept in the Vatichino. In 1917, she wrote about making eye dressings at a hospital for blinded soldiers. This experience likely contributed to her interest in supporting Perkins School for the Blind (now located in Watertown, Massachusetts). Before the war, she also raised money at the annual Rescue League Fair at Copley Hall by selling goods made by people who were blind.² She donated the purple slippers—which were too small for her —to the school’s drama department via her friend and teacher at the school, Ethel D. Evans (teacher 1912–1951). They were given to serve as costume accessories for theater productions.
The Perkins School was founded in 1829 by Samuel Gridley Howe, husband of social reformer, author, and friend of Isabella’s, Julia Ward Howe. Samuel established the school to provide access to education and foster independence for children with blindness. The Arts, including theatricals, were critical components of the school’s curriculum.
The second director of the Perkins School, Michael Anagnos (served 1876–1906) advocated for the educational value of pupils acting in plays. He argued that it was difficult for students with blindness to appreciate theater as audience members, so they could better experience the art as actors. Isabella’s purple shoes may have made an appearance in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, As You Like It, or Alice in Wonderland.³
Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind Archives
Scene from Shakespeare's As You Like It, performed by Perkins pupils in the Howe Memorial Club of the Boys' Department, March 1915
Today theater continues to thrive at the Perkins School, but Isabella’s shoes are not a part of the costume closet. In 1954, Claudia Potter who led dramatics at the School, donated them to the Museum, slightly worn and certainly loved. They touched many people’s lives and now live on as an example of Isabella’s colorful taste in fashion.
*The author would like to thank Jen Hale, Lead Archivist and Susanna Coit, Archivist and Research Library Assistant at Perkins School for the Blind.
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¹“Pair of Wedding Shoes,” Victoria and Albert Museum online collection, T.4:1, 2-2008, accessed September 18, 2023, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O146940/pair-of-wedding-chapelle/
²Boston Massachusetts American, 20 November 1909, from Perkins School for the Blind Bound Clippings: Massachusetts Adult Blind, Volume II, 1907-1909, p. 293. https://archive.org/details/perkinsschoolfo070902perk/page/n293/mode/2up Boston Morning Journal, 29 November 1909, from Perkins School for the Blind Bound Clippings: Massachusetts Adult Blind, Volume II, 1907-1909, p. 297. https://archive.org/details/perkinsschoolfo070902perk/page/n297/mode/2up
³“Taking the Stage,” Perkins School for the Blind, accessed September 18, 2023, https://www.perkins.org/taking-the-stage/