Her Name was Marjorie - Guest Post by Dana Hanson

Today I offer a guest post by vintage shop owner Dana Hanson. I had heard many great things "Concetta's Closet" in Newmarket, NH and made my first trip over with my closest friend about a year and a half ago. While my friend oohed and ahhhed over colors and fabrics, I had a wonderful conversation about the histories behind the clothes Dana brings into her shop. She boosted my appreciation for the stories behind the objects that we wear. I now follow Concetta's Closet on Facebook and wait to learn about Dana's adventures and the people she meets. If you love local history, and if you want to feel a connection to the past through an object, visit a really good vintage shop like Dana's. (I must say, I have even picked up pieces for my own wardrobe that make me feel smart and chic! I have a new found passion for vintage that now relates to a new found passion for steampunk...but I'll save the steam punk for another day...)

Thanks Dana for bringing your wonderful little mystery to me and for letting me share your words and images here. 

Visit Concetta's Closet on Etsy
Visit the Concetta's Closet blog where this post originally appeared

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A few weeks ago, I went up to Kennebunkport for brunch with my husband and son.  We rarely get to go up into Maine because of our busy schedules – but this Sunday was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.  When we had finished brunch, we went for a drive out on Ocean Avenue – which rides along the coast.  I saw an estate sale sign, about 3 houses down from the Bush Compound.  I quickly remembered that my friend Kathy, who has an estate sale company – had called me a few days before and told me about a sale she was having, where there were some vintage  clothes for sale.  I was excited and told my husband and son that we were making a quick stop.  We parked and the boy stood at the car, while I walked up to the house.

I was greeted by Kathy and she told me that most of the clothes had sold – but that there was a wedding dress in the house.  I walked into this adorable little Cape Code house, that has a huge barn with horse stables and an apartment upstairs.  From the front of the house, there is a perfect view of the Bush Compound.  I walked up the front steps and into the foyer.  There was barely anyone there, but then again, it was also 1pm.  In the foyer, the walls were covered with gorgeous wallpaper from the 50s and there stood a dress form with a lovely satin wedding gown with a veil and train.  The price on it was quite a bit out of my price range, and the dress was also very damaged but I looked down on the floor and saw a brown box.  I opened the box and saw a silk satin and Brussels lace 1920s wedding dress.  As I was taking it out, Kathy told me, “Oh!  That was the mother of the bride dress” – I looked at her confused and said, “I can guarantee you, that this brides mother did not wear this to her wedding.” – And then after closely inspecting the train and veil that were on the 1950s wedding dress, I realized that they belonged with the 1920s wedding dress!  The lace matches up perfectly and the silk satin is the exact color of that on the dress.

 I asked Kathy what the price would be, with the veil and train and she told me.  I was a bit taken back – it was a heavy duty price.  So I ask her if I could make an offer and that if the dress didnt sell – she would consider my offer.  She said yes.  So I put a very reasonable but still high offer in on a piece of paper and gave it to Kathy.  I took a quick look around the rest of the house (which IS GLORIOUS I might add!) and went back to the car to meet the boys.

Here is a photo of the home – a bit in disarray, but oodles of charm.

The following week, I got a call from Kathy.  The dress was MINE!  This past Monday, I drove up to Maine and picked up the dress at the house – Kathy told me that there was a photo of the bride and groom, but it had been purchased the week prior at the sale.  I gathered up the veil and train, and put them into the box with the dress.  I wrote Kathy a check and went back home.  When I finally was able to sit down and look at the box – there was a pretty neat label on it, along with some penciled writing.  Helen (who we will talk about later) took the veil out in 1953, I assume to wear it at her own wedding) Here is a photo of the label that is on the box:

So this is where it gets tricky.  At first, I thought the name of the bride was Mrs. Nathan Taylor.  I did an insane amount of research and came up with nothing.  But then I remembered that Kathy had told me the brides last name, Purves.  And if you look at the top of the label, you can see written, “MTP wedding dress and veil” – That was my cue.  So, after about 6hrs of research and some serious brain draining, I came up with history and timeline of Marjorie and her family – and the best part:  The amazing amount of American history that this family has.  I think the best way to give this information is in outline form, so here we go!

1904:  Robert Curtis Ogden purchased the home at the corner of of Ocean and Summit Avenues.  There was a main home, “The Billows” along with two other cottages and barns.  (The green home above, where the dress was found, was one of the cottages)

(Robert Curtis Ogden was a crusader for the education of emancipated slaves after the Civil War. He was the first of three generations to summer there who tirelessly championed the work of the Hampton Institute in Virginia.- More on Robert Curtis Ogden, as written by a Southern Maine Newspaper – with a photo of RCO and Booker T. Washington)

1926:  Robert Ogden Purves (Robert Curtis Ogden’s grandson) marries Marjorie Taylor, of Philadelphia.  Robert O. Purves was the treasurer at the Hampton Institute, the school that his grandfather worked at.

1953:  Robert O. Purves and Marjorie Purves daughter, Helen ” Hoppy” Purves marries John Barnard.  (John Barnard passed away last year, and his wife Hoppy is still alive – the house where the dress was found was being sold by the son of Robert and Hoppy.)

1973:  Robert O. Purves sells the cottage (not the one where the dress was purchased, its the one in front of it) to the Future President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush.  Robert O. Purves passed away in 1976.  I believe that Marjorie passed away in the early 1980s.

So, now – there are a 100 other little details in between and Im sure they would bore you, but this dress comes from such an amazing philanthropic family that is rich with well documented history.  I had to share it with you.

Here are some more links to the Purves family:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VRYP-VHY

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11816-145519-60?cc=1861144

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5199747

Newspaper Article from Hampton Institute with a photo of RCO’s daughter

Now, onto the dress – which is in remarkable condition, I might add!

Archives and Community

The activities of communities are represented in our archives. Our written documents help us understand our own communities, how our communities intersect with others, the similarities among people and their differences. Examining communities helps us define ourselves and the world around us. It helps us recognize a path into the future. I have recently been delving further into the idea of archives built on communities, expanding on the idea of "Community Documentation" as an efficient means of archives collection development. I addressed this issue in an earlier blog post but would like to continue to explore the ideas I presented earlier.

A community is a formal or informal group with a common history or culture. The community can be based around a geographic area, trait, or topic of interest. Communities come in the form of:

• Families
• ethnic groups
• civic organizations
• governments
• informal and formal social groups
• educational institutions
• colleagues
• causes
• geographical locations / neighborhoods

Every individual participates in communities either intentionally or unintentionally through ethnicity, living space, workplaces, beliefs, and behaviors. Our communities are reflected in the documents we create to run our formal groups. Our less formal communities are reflected in the things we addresses in our papers, providing clues about who we are and what we believe.

I keep coming back to the idea of a wedding. My brother was married this past summer and looking around the event I realized what a microcosm of humanity I had before me. The wedding ceremony itself -- its wording and the traditions we included -- tell a lot about my brother, his wife, and their communities. The wedding party's style of dress, the table centerpieces, and the food all provide clues about the communities of the people we were celebrating. Wedding attendees were all members of at least one community of the bride and groom. They were family members, or they went to school with them, or they sat and drank beers with them on Friday nights. Some at the wedding were colleagues or neighbors. Some were involved in formal social groups in which the couple took part. Some lived far away. Others could scooter to the ceremony. We had people with different political beliefs and different religions. Most were attached by a number of community connections. Interestingly, this wedding was very different than any that could have taken place a century ago for a number of social (community based) reasons.

I believe that one of the primary roles of cultural heritage institutions is to reflect the human connections and changes similar to those that were so apparent during my brother's nuptials. Personal papers reveal a lot about an individual, the time and place in which one lives. They also reveal a lot about human nature, what we have in common, and how we change our perspectives (and thus our communities) over time. As society evolves, theoretically it should change for the better and become more equipped to meet our needs and desires.

I've begun thinking about historical communities. I am a member of an historical community of women, Americans, and archivists among other groups. Each of my communities has changed over time. I would be a very different person if I lived at a different time because the expectations my communities had of me would differ. We can see in our archives how ideas have altered. We see signs of discontent and then moves to change situations. Movements against serfdom or for women's rights are part of the same historical alterations - communities rallying for a better future.

Our archives must successfully document these movements through time. As we work to document our communities, we must keep in mind how they are changing and growing. A particular collection is a slice of life at a particular time, but it is also a piece of a puzzle or a link in a chain. It is the archivist's challenge to make sure all the links are in place so that we understand where we've been and where life might lead us into the future. Thinking about communities allows us to consider individual humans as members of diverse groups that reflect aspects of our being. The concept of communities also helps us make sense of our historical environment and societal expectations. The idea of communities is thus vital to an archivist's understanding of her role in society and vital toward a better understanding of history.

Thinking about documenting weddings...

Share some wedding memories from your own wedding or that of a loved one. I'm thinking about weddings today and have an upcoming blogpost about preserving memories from them. In the meantime, What meaningful moments are in your head, but may not be documented? I remember being unable to get my husband's ring onto his finger. It is now a joke in our family that I had the ring resized before the ceremony so that once he got it on he wouldn't be able to get it off again! We have a series of unlabeled photos of the moment, but I don't think anyone would know what they were about unless I explained. How about you? What funny, touching, noteworthy moments are on your mind?

Preserving Wedding Memories

This past weekend, I attended and officiated at my brother's wedding. One of my gifts to the united couple will be a memory box to document their special event. I am considering the elements of the wedding that need to be preserved. I think it provides a good opportunity to explore how to document a wedding and other events.

The wedding memory box can contain the following (off the top of my head and in no particular order):
photos of attendees, building, cake, food
professional photos can be placed in an album
copies of photos taken by attendees should also be preserved
copies of web sites where info about the wedding was posted (ex. photos and comments on social media sites. The couple's mailed invitation also included a link to a web site for more information. This too should be preserved.)
copy of my ceremony reading
copy of the invitation
copy of thank you card
cards from family and friends
video recordings
text copy of parents' toasts
menu
guest book
brochure from place that hosted event
reminiscences of bride, groom and attendees
song list (CD with all the songs?)
pressed flower petals such as those carried by flower girls
bridesmaid "bouquets"
copy of marriage certificate
I can even include documentation of my brother's proposal, wedding planning information, honeymoon information...

Of course, all of these will be properly stored with preservation safe supplies. The bride will separately store her dress and shoes.

This wedding was a non-traditional one and my first inclination is to help preserve that unique feel that so wonderfully represented my brother and his wife. Easiest to remember is the bride's gorgeous dress that made her look like a Renaissance princess. But I also want to remember that each centerpiece was unique, representing one of the people seated at the table. For example, one centerpiece included a horse trophy for the horse owner, another had a plane for a pilot, another had an alien (not sure what that one was all about. I'll need to ask.) I want to remember the feather bridesmaid bouquets, the gluten free fare, the music played from a laptop computer when we walked down the aisle, the playing of "The Portal Song" when they cut the cake. I can remember these things through the photos, written reminiscences or video, but I want to be sure that everything is documented in some form.

Another aspect of this wedding that I want to highlight is the coming together of diverse communities, as is common at many weddings. In this case, the bride's family is from the south and the groom's from the north. The wedding was heavily weighted toward the sciences with a strong showing of MIT grads. There were a few children. There were multiple religions (and non-religions) represented among guests and within various elements of the ceremony and celebration. There were multiple hair colors (purple, blue, and my heavily boosted red among them.) There were those who would get "The Portal Song" and those who didn't get it at all. This all struck me as very significant and wonderful.

I want to remember the location and how events were created around it and how the setting influenced others. The ceremony was outside surrounded by a grape arbor. Hors d'oevres were served inside the Civil War era mansion, an air conditioned space where I could recover from my speech and explore grand rooms upstairs with my cocktail hour bored daughter and niece. They swirled and twirled in their flower girl dresses across wooden floors flooded in sunlight. The dinner was outside under a tent, alongside a grassy airy where I could play tag with the kids while others played frisbee alongside of us. Table were set to one side of the tent to create a dance floor on the other where the couple danced their first dance together, accompanied their parents, and then eventually held hands and whirled flower girls across the floor.

And I have to remember that my perspective is unique. There are things about this wedding that I didn't get to see and stories that I have not yet been told. I want to hear others' perspectives. Perhaps I can ask people to write one thing that they found memorable or I can conduct some oral history interviews. I can create a web site where people can contribute their reminiscences.

A wedding is a microcosm of life with people, events, and places coming together to form a story and history. We can choose to retain special memories by considering all of the elements that make up the day and ensuring that the most important and most representative are recorded for posterity. We keep these memories for ourselves and to reflect to a larger society that which is important to us. Our story also plays a role in a larger cultural story as a piece of evidence about what is important to mankind. Thoughtful documentation efforts can help better retain diverse information for multiple purposes. A wedding is just one piece of the puzzle.