After 5: Marital Bliss

Most people understand the implications of that remark and the insinuations about the bride.

Unfortunately, the gossipmongers have the historical facts wrong.

White wedding dresses, which became popular in the Western world around the time of Queen Victoria, did not originally imply purity, chastity or virtue. A white wedding dress simply meant the bride’s parents were wealthy enough to afford an impractical dress.

In the East, white would be inappropriate for a wedding gown. The color signifies mourning. The most common color for wedding dresses in the Orient is red.

Today, tradition dictates the elaborate, expensive wedding gown be worn once and then packed away until death doth part the happy couple. This wasn’t always so. The wedding dress was purchased for the special day and then simply went into the bride’s wardrobe.

These and many more wedding traditions are featured in “Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue – Weddings Throughout the Years,” an exhibit that runs through April 7 at The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County.

It’s a fascinating showing.

The archway at the exhibit’s entrance emulates a wedding trellis. Inside, the first thing one sees is a wall of old Springfield newspaper clippings. There are wedding announcements, pictures of brides and grooms and a few wedding anniversary notices. Longtime Springfieldians will probably see someone they know.

The display cases are filled with wedding dresses and a few items of groom apparel going back as far as the 1840s. A lot of the items have been donated, and the original owners are identified. Many names are familiar:

• A dress worn by Hortense Bass when she married John O. Hammons in 1914.

• A pink satin gown accompanied by a blown-up newspaper article describing the wedding of Katherine Cox and Jack Lipscomb.

The last room at the end of the hallway has two dozen gowns in an array of styles, fabrics and colors, several tuxedos and an old clothing trunk.

Also featured are a number of professionally taken wedding pictures; the oldest of these dates back to the 1850s. Of particular interest are photos of black couples from the late 1800s. Knowing that the Civil War had recently ended and the United States was in the midst of a sea change, these images are quite thought-provoking.

The pictures of men in uniform with their brides – taken in the 1940s – are affecting as well. There’s a picture of soon-to-be physician Henry Knabb sipping a soda with his fiancée at a lunch counter downtown while pausing “during a last-minute shopping tour.”

Exhibit Details

What: “Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue – Weddings Throughout the Years”

Where: The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, 830 Boonville, third floor of Springfield’s Historic City Hall

When: Through April 7

Cost: None, though a $3 donation is suggested

Hours: 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

Information: Call (417) 864-1976 or visit www.springfieldhistorymuseum.org