Mrs Titus Salt's Dress

Mrs Salt was married to Titus Salt Jr. The dress is typical of the lifestyle mill owners were able to afford with the proceeds of the textile industry based in Bradford. It illustrates court fashion of the 1880s, as it was worn during the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales. They had come to open the Bradford Technical College to which the Salts had contributed funding. Alumni of the College have gone far, such as Sir Edward Appleton (Nobel Prize Winner), who helped develop radar during World War II and the artist David Hockney. Titus Salt (Senior) built up the business that allowed his daughter-in-law to buy such finery and sponsor the College. It complemented the village, Saltaire (now a Unesco World Heritage site), he'd had built to provide better living and working conditions for the workers he employed. It illustrates fashion, wealth but also attitudes of philanthropy through funding education for the poor.