Whenever visitors enter a Wells Fargo History Museum, they are inevitably drawn the Concord Stagecoach. Most are disbelieving when they hear that 18 passengers were packed in and on top of the coach, and their curiosity only grows when they hear about the dangers of the untamed West: no paved roads and the closest thing to a fast food restaurant being a pot of slumgullion  boiling over a smoky fire...

In today's society, travel is all about speed and comfort. Nine times out of ten, you will see travelers in an airport wearing ensembles more closely resembling pajamas than day wear. Although this seems like quite a leap from the attire donned by travelers 150 years ago , taking a look back reveals that there were a few brave souls who attempted to make the arduous journey westward a bit more comfortable.

There were many ways to travel across the western territories and all of them were uncomfortable. They were even more difficult for women, who were hampered by layers of petticoats and full-length dresses. Most travelers were poor enough that walking was their only option. Imagine arriving in California wearing the same clothes in which you left home a year before. Even if you were part of a wagon train and had room for clothes in your luggage, you would have spent most of your time walking alongside the wagons. Fording streams, hiking muddy trails, and climbing through mountain passes in a full skirt would be frustrating and slow.

In response, Elizabeth Smith Miller  invented the "Bloomer Costume"  in 1850, as an alternative to the unwieldy traditional dress of the day. The costume consisted of a short skirt that was paired with "Turkish Trousers" . It was named after Amelia Bloomer , a well known women's rights leader at the time. Bloomer also made the new costume famous in her paper, "The Lily."  Besides being advertised in Bloomer's paper, the costume was the subject of much attention, both positive and negative, in many newspapers, as well as journal, and diary entries of the period.

The Oregon Statesman  observed the stir caused by this new fashion in their September 2, 1852 edition:

The "Bloomers" in Oregon
A couple of our down town ladies appeared in the Bloomer costume (short dress and trousers) one day last week. We was not "there to see," but we understand the demonstration created an intense excitement in that quarter.

Francis Sawyer, on her overland journey to California in 1852, observed a family in which "The daughter is dressed in a bloomer-costume—pants, short skirt and red-top boots. I think it is a very appropriate dress for a trip like this. So many ladies wear it, that I almost wish that I was so attired myself."

Although they were sometimes greeted with scoffs and unmannerly comments, the women  who chose to wear the bloomers touted their practicality. Mariett Foster Cummings wrote in her diary, "In passing one house the women came out and laughed at me and my dress, I did not ask which, but find it much more convenient for traveling than a long one."

Although the practicality of the suit made it popular among a few women, pants of any kind were not really acceptable socially (excepting athletics like bicycling) until the 1930s. In fact, the term "Bloomer" not only described the costume, but also came to be used to describe the daring women who wore it.