Antique York County wedding dresses in exhibition at Landis Valley
I went to Lancaster County this week to see some York County items on exhibit. Jennifer Hall Royer, former Director of Exhibits and Collections at York County Heritage Trust is now Museum Curator at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum. She has included three York County wedding dresses and a groom’s outfit (all listed below) from the YCHT collection in the new exhibit I Thee Wed: Rural Pennsylvania Wedding Attire 1830-1930.
Magdalena Greider/Crider wed Eli Emig wore a beautiful brown silk wedding dress for her 1843 wedding to 1843. The Emigs lived in the Hellam area.
The white satin and lace gown dates from 1885 when Ida Susan Young wed John Carroll Tanger. They lived in the Hanover area.
The royal blue silk velvet wedding suit was worn by Mary Salome Billmeyer of York on the occasion of her November 1887 wedding to John E. Baker. It has a matching hat and jacket, so it might have been her “going away suit.”
To round out the York County clothing, Granville Hartman married Margaret Rupp of York in a three-piece wool cutaway suit in 1842. The Hartmans lived in or near the town of York, as did the Bakers.
The York County items are very nicely displayed, as are all the clothing and accessories from Lancaster County, which make up the rest of the exhibit. The presentation includes suitable undergarments from the period and even a real piece of wedding cake from 1888.
Because of the fairly low light, proper for antique fabric, the photos above do not do the dresses justice. You can see them, as well as Magdalena Emig’s dress and Granville Hartman’s suit, in person at Landis Valley until February 2014.
