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07/25/2018 08:30 AMFrom silk dresses with impossibly tiny, mid-19th century waistlines to glamorous gowns of the 1930s and ‘40s done in that new wonder fabric, nylon, 100 Years of Wedding Gowns celebrates the finest hour of 16 Guilford brides at the Thomas Griswold House Museum, thanks in large part to the creative and careful work of Louise Odermatt.
The former Calvin Leete Elementary School teacher of 35 years is a lover of Guilford history. After she retired in 2005, Louise found more time to volunteer with non-profit Guilford Keeping Society (GKS), which owns and operates both the Griswold House and Medad Stone Tavern museums. Louise began serving as docent for GKS about 10 years ago and that’s how she first came across some of the gowns and costumes in storage at the 1764 Griswold House.
For this exhibit, Louise, working with GKS Museum Director/Curator Pat Lovelace and GKS summer intern Lyla Murphy, built an exhibit that also includes some dresses on loan—including one shared by Louise’s neighbor. Most others on loan come from the Dudley Farm Museum, including late Victorian era (1870-1900s) two-piece silk brocade dress complete with the bride’s original, fur-topped painted fan (possibly held instead of a bouquet) and silk stockings.
“This whole exhibit pays homage to the generosity of Guilford families who have donated beautiful dresses, gowns, linens, hats, and shoes that make our collection what it is,” says Louise. “We greatly appreciate their generosity and we wouldn’t have collections like this if it weren’t for the families in town.”
Some notable family names come up as Louise takes visitors around the exhibit.
“The oldest wedding gown dates to about 1848 and was worn by Clarissa Elvira Bishop, and donated to us by Clarence Potter,” she says, pointing out details in the hand-sewn, brown-and-cream striped dress with the tiny waist of about 21 inches.
“This represents the time period,” she adds. “It’s silk and a pattern, and hand-done. With this period, they put metal stays in [the bodice], which would have been uncomfortable. But it was the style at the time.”
With its fashionable dropped shoulders, pagoda (bell-shaped) sleeves, diagonal pleats, and yards of ornamental trim (also known as gimp), it’s a good example of the “best dress” a Guilford bride of the period would wear, instead of dressing in design created solely as a wedding gown, which comes later, Louise notes.
“It’s an evolution,” she says.
Moving into the mid-Victorian era, the dresses display some true Yankee ingenuity: They’re made in two pieces.
“A possible reason for that is very practical,” says Louise. “After the wedding, you could make a different top you could wear with the skirt, or several tops, actually.”
As she walks among the gowns hanging from the walls, adorning mannequins, and spilling out of display boxes, the dress lover in Louise comes out.
“Look at this one!” she says of another mid-Victorian dress. “It’s ivory and monochromatic, but it’s just the way they used fabric. It’s all silk, with the ruffling and the tucking here, and the pleating, and they often did a lot down at the bottom. And look at the back! It’s exquisite. This would have had a bustle.”
Another stand-out dress is a two-piece tailored beauty done in dark brown, donated to GKS by the Dudley family.
“Dark brown was very popular,” says Louise of the 1870s-era dress. “This one is silk with velvet and the skirt has an apron over it with tiered layers. And look at the tails on the back of the bustle! It’s very chic.”
Another familiar family name in the collection comes up twice in the exhibit’s 100 years of wedding gowns, and belongs to brides of the Balestracci family. The earliest, worn in 1880, is a two-piece dress of very pink silk, on loan from the Dudley Foundation.
“It belonged to Carl Balestracci’s great-grandmother, and what’s interesting about this dress to me is not so much the pink, but the blue buttons,” says Louise. “It’s an unusual choice of color. People come in and they love it, but it’s not the standard combination that you’d think.”
Fast forward 58 years to Balestracci’s mother’s bridal gown. The much more modern dress bedecking this beautiful bride in 1938 was made of nylon. It features a floral tone on tone pattern.
Of course, working with so many beautiful dresses, Louise was bound to find a favorite, a silk and lace wedding dress donated by the French family, circa 1910.
“It’s asymmetric, and it may have been made in France,” or was European-inspired, says Louise of the seemingly simple, short-sleeved white gown decorated with lace on one side.
“It has hand-done French knots all throughout the dress, and even the back is asymmetric—this side has lace, but this side doesn’t,” says Louise. “It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
Louise says she thoroughly enjoyed the hours of volunteer time that went mounting this exhibit, the first she’s ever curated.
“All the research, the writing, the staging, the pictures, the going to thrift shops and getting flowers and vases and tulle, I did it because I loved it,” she says.
Louise also volunteers with Guilford’s Hole in the Wall Shop.
“People come in and they relax and they’re happy,” she says. “And of the profits from Hole in the Wall go to A Better Chance, which is an excellent organization.”
Putting on her GKS and educator hat, Louise also puts in a plug for Early Guilford Days Family Festival, Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at all five historic Guilford Museums. For a $10 one-day admission to all five museums (free to kids 12 and under) families will encounter traditional activities, craft demonstrations, sales, and experiences unique to each museum.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity for children and families,” says Louise. “I’ve always maintained that you don’t have to go to Mystic to learn about early America and you don’t have to go up to Sturbridge; its living history, right here.”
Always the teacher, Louise wrote up summaries that dot 100 Years of Wedding Gowns and put them on prominent display around the room “for people that want to learn more,” she explains.
The summaries, together with photos of the collection, are also part of an exhibit booklet that she created with the assistance of her husband, Rick.
The couple has lived in Guilford for more than 37 years and are members of both GKS and non-profit Hyland House Museum (where Louise once also served as a docent).
Louise thanks her husband for assisting her with the exhibit by transforming more than a dozen vintage photos of brides and grooms she found into a true photo gallery of related gowns hanging in the room.
“All of the dress styles look so fresh and crisp in the photos,” she says.
Louise also thanks Sally Howe and Karen Wu for their assistance in helping to decorate the exhibit with beautiful silk floral displays.
The docent in Louise comes out when asked about the origins of the upstairs display space being used for the exhibit.
“Early on, it was bedroom, and very early on, when the house was built, there were two families that lived here,” she explains.
As it turns out, the classic New England saltbox house at 171 Boston Street was built because of weddings.
“Thomas Griswold III built the house for his two grown sons who were about to get married,” says Louise. “So in the late 1700s, [sons] John and Ezra and their brides and all their children lived in the house.”
With early 19th century life captured for visitors visiting the museum’s outbuildings and the home’s first floor, one of the upstairs rooms is dedicated to temporary exhibits. The museum opened the door to 100 Years of Wedding Gowns on June 2 and the exhibit runs through Sunday, Sept. 30, with museum hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday to Saturday, and Sunday from noon 4 p.m.
“Every year, GKS puts a different exhibit on here, so that’s reason enough to come here often,” says Louise. “Because every time you come, there’s something different here to appreciate.”
For more information, visit www.guilfordkeepingsociety.com or find Guilford Keeping Society on Facebook.