A moravian immigrant’s vest

One hundred years ago today … Apolena Pribilova Joch immigrated to the US from Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, in 1920. She brought with her this vest, made of black flannel and embroidered with cotton cockades.

This photo is taken from Ellis Island: An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience, by Ivan Chermayeff, Fred Wasserman, and Mary J. Shapiro (New YTork: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991). They explain the garment: “Farm women commonly wore vests like these on important occasions. The decoration indicated the woman was married” (167).

WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, JUNE 24, 2020.

TAGS: immigration, clothes, Moravia