Daily AncestorMilliner
A milliner made, trimmed and sold women's hats, and in earlier times also sold ribbons, gloves and other fancy goods.
The word goes back to traders who sold goods from Milan, Italy. Over time a milliner came to mean someone, nearly always a woman, who designed, trimmed and sold women's hats and bonnets.
Millinery was one of the few skilled trades open to women in the 1800s, and many ran their own shops. Do not confuse it with a hatter, who usually made men's felt hats.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1920 census
Lucy Waite, 26, Milliner, Vt.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Milliner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/milliner. Last checked 2026-10-01.