Many of the commercial products that appropriated the image of naval hero John Paul Jones had nothing to do with the historical figure who looms large in Portsmouth, NH , history. A portrait of Jones appeared on countless bottles, magazine ads, posters, pencils, and signs advertising Paul Jones Whiskey. The real Jones, however, was likely a teetotaler. The company also employed early racist ads and later changed its mascot to a camel. Go figure.
Another portrait of Jones was popular on packages of Paul Jones Tipped Cigarettes. The connection there may be the legend claiming Jones briefly ran his brother’s tobacco plantation in Virginia. He didn’t, and was likely a non-smoker. And then there are the packages of Paul Jones Potatoes and Paul Jones Apples in my Jonesiana collection. Who knows what those companies were thinking.
But the bold sailor from Scotland was a fashion plate. Even when not employed in the navy of any nation, the vertically challenged Mr. Jones liked to wear military uniforms that he designed and had tailored to his specifications. He was a dandy at heart. During the American Revolution, commenting on the eccentric dress of the ambitious young seaman, future president John Adams once remarked “eccentricities and irregularities are to be expected from him.”
Naval hIstorian John W. Cheever notes that an inventory of Jones’ possessions after his death in 1792 included seven uniforms, 12 decorations, and four swords. Jones was buried naked wrapped in linen without possessions. Only the swords and two buttons have survived.
While in Portsmouth to fit out the warship America in 1782, John Paul Jones wrote to a friend, “You will oblige me, my dear Brown, if you can send me … a piece of good linen for shirts and a piece of cambric for stock. I have muslin for ruffles, but thread and buttons are wanting … I should not have given you this trouble but that I find no linen here except such as is both bad and very dear.” While living in the New Hampshire seaport, Jones also wrote to a friend asking for hair powder. All the powder available in Portsmouth shops, he noted, was infested with mites.
So it is totally appropriate that Morris & Company of Baltimore adapted at least three lines of “Paul Jones” branded clothing. The Paul Jones “Middy” line for girls and women was all the rage by 1910. These sailor-like straight-cut blouses were made of “white Jean” cotton duck. Ads usually showed women in outdoor, athletic, or maritime activities like this young lady holding an oar. The middy (or “middie”) look became high fashion during the Roaring Twenties and has disappeared and reappeared like the tides ever since.
The evolution of blouses worn by naval midshipmen to “middies” worn by fashionable young ladies probably began when the British royal family dressed young Prince Edward in a miniature sailor suit. It was inevitable that a key player in the clothing industry would adopt the name Paul Jones that also offered a line of similar clothing for boys.
By the early 1950s, the Paul Jones brand included uniforms for professional women. A 1952 catalog includes upward of 50 designs all shown on unimaginably slim-waisted models. The illustration shown here, at left, comes from a 1952 catalog and includes a lily white sample of cloth from a nurses’ uniform. The swatch bearing the Paul Jones trademark is described as Fashion Cotton with a “satin striped combed broadcloth sanforized moonbeam finish.” Capt. Jones would be proud.
Copyright 2021 by J. Dennis Robinson
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