Catherine Allsop Griswold

{{Short description|North American inventor and corsetmaker}}

Catherine Allsop Griswold was a corsetmaker whose 31 apparel-related patents played a role in the Dress Reform Movement of 1876.

Griswold had the most patents held by any woman in the United States of America at the time.{{cite magazine |last1=Stanley |first1=Autumn |date=1992 |title=The Champion Of Women Inventors|url=https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/champion-women-inventors-1 |url-access= |url-status= |magazine=Invention & Technology |type= |series= |language= |edition= |location= |publisher=American Heritage |publication-date= |volume=8 |issue=1 |page= |pages= |at= |no-pp= |arxiv= |asin= |bibcode= |doi= |isbn= |issn= |jfm= |jstor= |lccn= |mr= |oclc= |ol= |osti= |pmc= |pmid= |rfc= |ssrn= |zbl= |id= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=25 June 2024 }} Among Griswold’s apparel-related patents, was the skirt-supporting corset.{{Cite news |date=1974-11-18 |title=Earliest liberated women called Connecticut home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-earliest-liberated-women-called/145092323/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |work=The Day |pages=21}}[https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/programs/19th-amendment-centennial/toolkit/suffrage-timeline/ Suffrage Timeline] (americanbar.org){{Cite web |last=Greathouse |first=John |title=7 Female Innovators Who Created 218 Inventions—Decades Before Women Could Vote |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johngreathouse/2021/03/24/7-female-innovators-who-created-218-inventionsdecades-before-women-could-vote/ |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

Griswold created more than 30 corset designs{{Cite book |last=Love |first=Suzi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IgzEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Catherine+Allsop+Griswold%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT115 |title=Corsets Overview History Notes Book 14 |date=2021-06-17 |publisher=Suzi Love |language=en}} to better serve wearers from as early as 1866.{{Cite book |last=Stanley |first=Autumn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uRJt7QqA7GEC&dq=%22Catherine+Allsop+Griswold%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA170 |title=Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology |date=1995 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2197-8 |language=en}} 19 of the patents were related to improving the comfortability of corsets for women by adjusting the mechanical design.

One of her most notable innovations was a corset that had skirt-supporting ribbons, which helped distribute the weight of heavier skirts over the entirety of a woman’s body and allowed for women to be less fatigued and have a greater range of movement.{{Cite web |date=2021-05-22 |title=The Inventive Minds of Connecticut Women: Patents in the 19th Century |url=https://connecticuthistory.org/the-inventive-mind-of-connecticut-women-patents-in-the-19th-century/ |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Connecticut History {{!}} a CTHumanities Project |language=en}}

When Griswold was resident in New York, the Worcester Corset Company manufactured her designs.{{Cite journal |last=Khan |first=B. Zorina |date=October 2000 |title="Not for Ornament": Patenting Activity by Nineteenth-Century Women Inventors |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002219500551514 |journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=159–195 |doi=10.1162/002219500551514 |issn=0022-1953}}

In 1893, Griswold's skirt-supporting corset won an award{{cite thesis |last=Ping |first=Laura J. |date=September 2018 |title=Throwing off the "Draggling Dresses": Women and Dress Reform, 1820-1900 |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/gc_etds/article/3864/&path_info=THROWING_OFF_THE__DRAGGLING_DRESSES_.pdf |degree=PhD |chapter= |publisher=City University of New York |docket= |oclc= |access-date=}} when it was featured at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where it appeared along with other dress-reform items including a bust supporter by Olivia Flynt and another reform corset by Emmeline Philbrook.{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Kate Brannon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Slx4Q9Ys8cC&dq=catherine+griswold++corset&pg=PA127 |title=History of the Work of Connecticut Women at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 |date=1898 |publisher=Hartford Press |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Cunningham |first=Patricia A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqTToUwfElQC&dq=catherine+griswold+corset&pg=PA81 |title=Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920: Politics, Health, and Art |date=2003 |publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=978-0-87338-742-2 |language=en}}

A Madam Griswold's corset from 1876 is held by Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{Cite web |title=Madam Griswold's {{!}} Corset {{!}} American |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/158008 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}