Pictured below is the interior of a millinery shop in Fort Branch, circa 1895. Behind the counter is local Bertha Genung (later the wife of Walter C. Polk). A millinery shop is a hat shop. Millinery became a profession around the 1700s, when the fashion industry really started growing, especially in Milan, Italy, which is where the term originates.
“While a hatter made hats for men, a milliner came to mean someone who made or trimmed women’s hats and millinery was a profession primarily occupied by women.” (Direct quote from “The Origins of Millinery” article by author Amy Fowler.)
Photo from the Fort Branch-Johnson Township Public Library’s local history collection.
