GUEST: This dress belonged to my great-grandmother, who immigrated from Sweden back in the late 1880s, uh, to, uh, Minneapolis is where she lived.
She obviously was an activist.
It says, "Down with the trusts.
Free silver, free lunch."
And the William, uh, Jennings Bryan speeches when he was running for president... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...in 1896 were mostly on putting free silver into the markets.
APPRAISER: Okay.
So there are three things there.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: We've got trusts.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And the trusts are, they're against illegal, uh, mergers and business practices.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: "Give us free silver and free lunch."
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: Free silver was the Free Silver Movement.
GUEST: Right, okay.
APPRAISER: And what that means is, in 1873, there was an act of Congress that took silver out of being legal tender-- it was not going to be used anymore.
GUEST: Oh.
Okay.
APPRAISER: Gold was really seen by the silver people as people who were oppressing us--they were probably robbing us.
They were not for the people.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So the silver was seen as the people's currency.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The "free lunch" part is interesting.
There was a political cartoon that talked about the people who were Silverists being just sort of scoundrels who hung out at bars...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...waiting for a free lunch.
That they were just low-level people.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And here your ancestor is saying, "We're gonna take back... We are, we do want a free lunch."
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: (chuckles) They're kind of using the joke on the people who made it.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: "We are those scoundrels at the bar."
You know?
GUEST: Got it.
Yeah.
(chuckling) APPRAISER: But "We, we're more than that," you know, "But we're the people."
GUEST: Yeah.
Okay.
APPRAISER: One of the things that drew me to this dress...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...is the story of your ancestor.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: So here she is.
A young woman, made this dress, I'm sure, in a sort of country, "I'm from the people"... Maybe this is meant to be wheat.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
APPRAISER: And she's supporting her community.
She's supporting the movement that was helping all of her community.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: I love the fact that she's jumping in as a new immigrant.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And she has a political voice.
I have never seen something like this before.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: I, it's wonderful.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: This is such a small dress.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And this is our smallest mannequin.
But we had to pin it open because we, we just couldn't, uh, get the buttons closed.
(laughs) As a regular late-19th-century cotton dress...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...it has a value, without all this trimming, $225, $235, something like that.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: With all of this added aspect, this appliqu, the history of your family...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...and, and where it is in the world of political altercations...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...I would put a retail value of $3,000 to $4,000 on this.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: Yes, yeah.
GUEST: Wow.
(laughing): That is amazing.
So we better take care of it instead of... (laughs) APPRAISER: Yeah.
I would put, uh, $5,000 on this for insurance purposes.
GUEST: Okay, wow-- we'll get that done.
(both laugh)
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