Candace,

Years ago while I was at the NC Museum of History, we did an exhibit of wedding
gowns.  Most were not white, and we did indeed have a brown one.  As several
have already pointed out, wedding gowns (as well as "second day dresses")
were reused for other events, such as funerals.  One of the text panels noted
that certain colors denoted certain traits, such as green might have meant
"everlasting".  Unfortunately, I do not remember where we found that information,
but I believe it was from a late 19th century reference.

You might want to contact Bill McCrea at the NC Museum of History to see
if by chance some files still exist for that exhibit.  His email probably
is [log in to unmask] (or possibly [log in to unmask]).  His number
is 919/715-0200.

Good luck!

Martha Battle Jackson
NC State Historic Sites
919/733-3456


>-- Original Message --
>Date:         Tue, 5 Aug 2003 12:20:02 -0400
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Candace Perry <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: brown wedding gowns
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>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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