DRESSING UP CANADA: A glimpse into the dazzling world of 19th-century fancy dress balls
Hull, October 23, 1997 — The Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) is about to offer its visitors a rare look at three glittering and glamorous moments in Canada's history. Opening on Friday, October 24, Dressing Up Canada: Late Victorian Fancy Dress Balls shows off a collection of magnificent ballgowns and costumes worn to three fancy dress balls hosted by Lord and Lady Aberdeen in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto at the end of the nineteenth century.
Stunning original costumes, archival photographs, artifacts and memorabilia tell the story of these historic galas, evoking both the elegance of the Victorian era and the awkwardness of a country in its infancy. The Aberdeens' fancy dress balls celebrated themes from Canadian history, in an attempt to foster national consciousness and pride. Each costume or artifact offers insight into the lifestyles, morality and attitudes of Canada's late-Victorian elite. Contemporary viewers are likely to be surprised at how many conceptions have changed, and how others have not.
Dressing up was a favourite form of entertainment in late 19th-century Europe and North America. It was a chance to escape the strict social rules of the time, as well as an opportunity to enhance one's social status. Each costume and artifact in Dressing Up Canada has its own fascinating story. The balls were highly publicized events, reported on by newspapers across the country. For many who were invited, the balls were the social event of a lifetime, long remembered and recalled.
Guest curator Cynthia Cooper has brought together a colourful and historically important collection of these exceptional gowns and costumes. Through painstaking research and historical detective work, she has brought a part of history to life that is both visually pleasing and of interest to a wide variety of people. Cooper is also the author of a new book, Magnificent Entertainments: Fancy Dress Balls of Canada's Governors General, 1876-1898, co-published by the CMC, which will be released at the Museum on Sunday, October 26. Cooper is currently Costume Curator at the Marsil Museum in Saint Lambert, Quebec.
Host curator of Dressing Up Canada, the CMC's Ontario historian Christina Bates, has a special interest in costume collections like this one because they give viewers on the eve of the millenium a candid view of an earlier fin de siècle. "The exhibition explores enduring themes in Canadian history," says Bates, "including French- and English-Canadian relations and stereotypes of Native peoples. A political agenda was played out on the ballroom floor."
The National Arts Centre has generously loaned late-Victorian furniture to the CMC for use in the exhibition Dressing Up Canada.
Information (media):
Media Relations Officer: (819) 776-7169
Senior Media Relations Officer: (819) 776-7167
Fax: (819) 776-7187
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