Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) was married in a black
dress about 1886, as I recall--in South Dakota.  Actually, it was Eugenie
(Napoleon III's wife) who first set the trend for white dresses in 1853, I
believe, but it didn't become ironclad for a very long time.

Carolyn Breedlove

----- Original Message -----
From: "Candace Perry" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 11:20 AM
Subject: brown wedding gowns


> I am curator of a small history museum that interprets the heritage of a
> small PA German Protestant group, and I have noticed an interesting (at
> least to me!) phenomenon regarding the wedding gowns of the group members
in
> the late 19th century.  We have at least 4 rather similar BROWN dresses
from
> the 1880s-90s.  They are typical in style for that time period, they are
> silk with various trims.  I am aware that the white wedding is a 20th
> century thing, more or less, but I've never run into so many similar
dresses
> from different brides from this time period. Makes for a pretty dull
wedding
> exhibit!!!
> I am trying to determine if this was another peculiarity of this group, or
> actually might have been fashionable for brides to wear brown in that time
> period.  Can't say I've run into it in other collections.  A bit of
> background -- the group (the Schwenkfelders) were conservative and modest
> but not "plain"  and they were members of rural communities, for the most
> part.
> Looking forward to any input,
> Candace Perry
> Schwenfelder Library & Heritage Center
>
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