You can buy your very own Becky Thatcher dress on ebay. Many are listed.

I have a mass of Elder Manufacturing Co. advertising items relating to 
Mark Twain shirts and pants, especially their Tom Sawyer Apparel 
clothing line, but I've never found any for the Becky Thatcher dresses. 
Some of their 1940s-50s Hawaiian and "party" shirts are pretty wild, and 
I have examples of their shirts and even their pants, but I had to draw 
the line at a Becky Thatcher dress. Where would I wear it? And how 
embarrassing would it be if somebody else showed up at the party (or 
Twain Conference) wearing the same dress?

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB, BSA

You can browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


------ Original Message ------
From: "Clay Shannon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 7/30/2020 5:13:05 PM
Subject: Re: Becky Thatcher Dress

>Another Shannon on the forum! Where are you from, Edward? Northern California here (actually Central presently-Monterey). BTW, I have never heard of a Becky Thatcher dress.
>
>-- B. Clay Shannon
>[log in to unmask]
>
>>  On Jul 30, 2020, at 12:26 PM, Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>  I quickly searched OED and Google Trends but without a good result. I
>>  also look forward to someone with more skill to hunt it down! Tx
>>  Taylor
>>
>>>  On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 3:17 PM Philip Bauer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>  I don't have an answer but I will be looking for someone to have it.
>>>  Great question.
>>>
>>>
>>>>  On 7/30/2020 12:57 PM, Shannon, Edward wrote:
>>>>  Does anyone have an idea when the term "Becky Thatcher" was adopted to
>>>>  describe elementary school dresses for girls? Does anyone have
>>>>  documentation regarding this?
>>>>
>>>>  Thanks for any help.
>>>>
>>>>  --
>>>>
>>>>  Edward A. Shannon, PhD
>>>>  Professor of Literature
>>>>  Office B207
>>>>
>>>>https://www.ramapo.edu/major-literature/
>>>>  School of Humanities and Global Studies/Ramapo College of New Jersey
>>>>  505 Ramapo Valley Rd./Mahwah, NJ 07430
>>>>  (201) 684-7425 Phone/ (201) 684-7973 Fax
>>>>
>>>>  "It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom;
>>>>
>>>>  it is another sight finer to fight for another man's." Mark Twain
>