This Dresden mesh purse hails from the early twentieth century, when the invention of mesh-making machines dramatically increased daily link production. Enamel coats the purse’s fine ring metal mesh, giving an impressionistic watercolor appearance in hues of yellow, pink, green, and blue. The color scheme continues on metal fringes that hang below the German-made bag. The bag’s gold-tone metal hand chain hangs from a metal frame with floral scrolling painted green and blue. The dual acorn-shaped clasps each have a blue glass bead set in metal. The evening bag is one of two Dresden mesh purses (1997.0020.0001) in the Anacostia Community Museum’s collection. Both belonged to renowned scholar-librarian Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905-1995), who organized and developed an unparalleled collection rooted in African American history that would become the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University in Washington, DC.
