Woman's Dress: Bodice and Skirt, made by M. A. Connelly, New York, 1905 (silk velvet,...

Irish-born Mary A. Connelly became independently wealthy dressing New York's elite in the late nineteenth century. In 1869, she founded M.A. Connelly, one of the oldest and best known dressmaking firms in New York, on 16th Street along the Ladies' Mile on lower Broadway. In 1882, she advertised a "branch" at 21 rue Bergère in Paris as well as another in Washington, D.C. By 1889, she had moved to Fifth Avenue. Connelly was one of a number of prominent dressmakers implicated during this time for smuggling the latest Paris fashions through U.S. customs. She sold her business in 1898, a year before her death, and the firm continued under new ownership into the early twentieth century, when this gown was made.