Shoes from the 19th century

The 19th Century is characterised by the predominance of boots both for men and women. Popular styles were the Blucher boot with an open tab front and lacing, cloth boots with side lacing, the elastic sided boot, the button boot, and the Balmoral boot, which was front laced with a closed tab.

Apart from boots, women wore court shoe style shoes in a variety of different materials, from satin and silk to reptile and drawn leathers. Men had a choice between the Oxford shoe, with front lacing and a closed tab and the Derby shoe, with front lacing and an open toe.

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19th century shoes

The English writer Frances Trollope (mother of novelist Anthony), who lived and traveled in the United States from 1827 to 1831, remarked of American women, “They never wear muffs or boots, and appear extremely shocked at the sight of walking shoes and cotton stockings, even when they have to step to their sleighs over ice and snow. They walk in the middle of winter with their poor little toes pinched into a miniature slipper, incapable of excluding as much moisture as bedew a primrose.” -By Nancy E. Rexford

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