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| 150 years dressed in style |
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 Question: On a recent museum tour with her class, my daughter was very impressed with a "long black" dress she saw displayed. Can you feature this dress in your Friday column?
Answer: The dress that probably caught your daughter's eye is a lovely, long, sheer black frock displayed on a mannequin, with both items donated by Sandra and Bob Reynolds. If worn to a party today, a lady would certainly catch everyone's eye.
A glass showcase on the second floor features the 1929 graduation dress once worn by the late Dorothy Jo Campbell.
It's slightly dropped waist and handkerchief skirt is shown on many styles of today's teen party dresses. One can only imagine how beautiful Dorothy Jo would have been in 1929 wearing this sheer dress. With that dress and her golden-red hair, she must have taken the eye of every young man at the graduation dance.
Also featured in the same showcase is an 1853 print dress made of homegrown cotton that once belonged to Mrs. M. J. Rosson. It was donated by her great-grand-niece, Ruth Harris. |
| Pebble Watkins' 1929 wedding dress is almost "flapper" style with a long sleeve jacket over the sleeveless dress. Lace inserts and fluttery pleats give this outfit a very different look. |
| Helen Ruth Christy donated her mother's dress to the museum. A gold taffeta "waist," complete with seven bone staves in the bodice, also graces this showcase. It once belonged to Annie E. Campbell, mother of John Roy Campbell. "Waists" were very popular in 1898 according to "The Delineator - Fashions for October, 1898." |
| If you were a seamstress in that time period, patters for a "waist" could be ordered for 20 cents. The pattern included several different styles, from long sleeve to short; high neck to V-neck; ruffled to plain. So for a quarter, you received a lot of patterns. |
| Although the museum does not have a large collection of clothing, we do display the following: |
| 1907 wedding dress of Goldie Worthington, worn when she married Frank Kirby; |
| Military uniforms from World War I through Desert Storm; |
| Riverboat gamblers suit; |
| Bathing suit with matching bloomers of Mrs. Troy Coffman; |
| Two-piece Linsey wool dress made by Laura Ledford; |
| Dr. Henry Kirby's quail hunting outfit; |
| 1946 graduate nurse's uniform of Jane Gardner Jones; |
| A hat collection from three generations of local women - Vinditta Beller Ingram, Sally Ingram Parker and Dorothy Parker Anderson Kendall. |
| The Boone County Heritage Museum is full of wonderful collections of all kinds, from a large clock collection to antique medical tools, saddles to toys, dolls to tools, postcards to rocks and minerals. If you haven't visited the museum, we invite you to come spend a few hours and enjoy Boone County's past. |
| The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Located on South Cherry Street and Central Avenue, the museum strives to preserve the history of Boone County and its people. Please remember that your family history must be turned in by Saturday, November 18, 2006 for publication in Volume II of the Boone County, Arkansas Family History Book. If you have not received a brochure in the mail about this future publication, please stop by the museum to pick one up, or download a brochure from our website at www.bchrs.org. |
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| This column appears Fridays in the Harrison Daily Times. Mail questions to Boone County Heritage Museum, P. O. Box 1094, Harrison, AR 72601. Marilyn Breece can be contacted at bchm@alltel.net |
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