5 minute read
Here comes the bride
Renville County Historical Society Executive Director Nicole Elzenga is surrounded by wedding dresses at the museum in Morton on Aug. 3. Shelby Lindrud / West Central Tribune
140 years of wedding fashion on display at Renville County Historical Society
BY SHELBY LINDRUD | WEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE
MORTON — One might be forgiven for thinking the museum at the Renville County Historical Society in Morton had entered the wedding dress business in 2022. For several months, the museum had been overrun with satin, lace and tulle as RCHS director Nicole Elzenga put together a special exhibit on bridal fashion through the years.
“It has been an interesting project, to say the least,” Elzenga said.
It started with a single dress brought in by a woman who had saved the garment from being thrown away after an auction. The dress also came with the wedding veil, a boutonniere from the groom and a wedding invitation with the names of the couple. Elzenga was able to make contact with the descendants of the couple and, from that, an idea was formed.
“It would be nice to have a wedding dress from every decade,” of the 20th century, Elzenga said. “So you can see the different styles through the years.”
RCHS already had a handful of dresses in its collection, so Elzenga put out a request for other dresses in the society’s newsletter and published an article in the local newspaper. The response was more than Elzenga had anticipated.
“That is when the craziness started,” Elzenga said. The museum ended up with approximately 45 dresses, both from its own collection and donations from the public.
In addition to the dresses, Elzenga also wanted as much information about the dress, the wedding and the people involved. This included wedding invitations, newspaper write-ups and photos.
“If we don’t have the information, how do we tell the story?” Elzenga said.
Through the project, RCHS collected around 140 years of bridal fashion — ranging from the late 1800s to 2020. The oldest dress actually isn’t white, but black. That isn’t unheard of and, famously, Laura Ingalls Wilder wore a black dress for her wedding back in 1885.
The youngest dresses are from 2020 and are an illustration of how the coronavirus pandemic impacted wedding celebrations. The couple, Shanda Lindahl and Jared Krause, were supposed to have gotten married in late March 2020 but then the pandemic shut everything down. Instead, the couple held a smaller ceremony with 10 people in May and the bride wore a blush dress. Then, in September, they held their bigger fall wedding and Lindahl wore a more elaborate gown.
There are some similarities in wedding dresses that have stayed the same through the years, including the white color and the use of embroidered flowers, as seen in this trio of dresses photographed Aug. 3.
Shelby Lindrud / West Central Tribune
“They all tell a story,” Elzenga said of the dresses.
Despite a few dresses of different colors — including pink, gray and a Victorian number with a red and gold top — shades of white remained the color of choice for most of the wedding dresses in the RCHS exhibit. Though some of the dresses have yellowed with age, the exhibit was full of gowns of different variations of white, cream and ivory.
Lace has remained a popular trim for wedding dresses through the decades, though how much was used has changed. Other types of trim used included bows, flowers, beads and ribbon.
“You can tell the decade by the front,” Elzenga said, as the style of the neckline has changed a lot over the years.
The wedding dress exhibit from the Renville County Historical Society was displayed at the Renville County Fair from Aug. 10 to Aug. 12. Dresses were displayed on dress forms and hangers, and also hung from the ceiling.
Shelby Lindrud / West Central Tribune
What has also changed includes the dress silhouette, the length and how much trim was used. Some of the dresses are very simple, while others practically shout Disney princess — or the 1980s.
Probably the biggest change is the amount of skin that brides show. For decades, even when skin could be seen, it was still covered in see through material. Today, it is common for brides to wear sleeveless and strapless dresses.
“It has been pretty exciting,” to see all the different types of dresses, Elzenga said.
During the Renville County Fair, most of the wedding dresses were exhibited at the RCHS building on the fairgrounds. Several were hung from the ceiling, while many more were placed on dress forms or hangers to give viewers a good idea of what the dresses would have looked like while worn by their respective brides.
Following the fair, Elzenga’s plan is to box up all the dresses — most of them were donated to the museum — and store them. The museum doesn’t have the space for a permanent display, though there is the chance they’ll be used in other exhibits. While the dresses won’t be on display, they will be protected, stored away in acid-free archive boxes. And the backgrounds of the dresses will be protected as well, so the happiest day of those brides’ lives won’t be forgotten.
“It is gathering all those stories, writing them down,” Elzenga said.
This exhibit shows Victorian-era wedding dresses on display at the Renville County Fair on Aug. 11.
Shelby Lindrud / West Central Tribune
