Abominations at Chancellorsville Reenactment- Ladies’
Impressions
I
emerged from hibernation this past weekend to attend the Civil War Reenactment
of 150th Anniversary of Chancellorsville, which was held in
Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Apparently, not everybody in the re-enacting world was presented with a
copy of my October 8, 2012 entry about striving for authenticity.
For
those of you with a friend or acquaintance in need, please feel free to share
this blog or the link below:
Perhaps
we should tackle just one facet of one’s impression at a time. While Elizabeth
Stewart Clark rightly suggests one start with the undergarments and work
outwards, what assailed my senses this weekend most vividly (other than the
pervasive lack of corsets) was the ostentatiously inappropriate head coverings
– this encompasses hair and hair-coverings.
With
regard to hair, I have a link below, which will take you to a Pinterest site
with an abundance of CDVs that show how women of the 1860s actually wore their
hair. http://pinterest.com/ohiomess/cw-era-cdvs-tintypes-photo-images/
Please
note the absence of bangs or fringes.
With perhaps one exception where a woman has parted her hair on the
side, every CDV shows a woman with her hair parted in the center and pulled to
the back into a roll, neatly secured with hairpins. With the exceptions of
young girls, there are no sausage rolls or dangling curls, no flowing tresses
down the back. I can assure you that Wal-Mart
carries the accouterments one needs to pin down errant bangs and created an
appropriate faux period impression. This does not include a “snood” of any
color.
Now
let us turn to hats. I noted the reenactment was swarming with mutton dressed
like lamb – women over 20 sporting little hats with yards of filmy lace or
chiffon trailing behind and bouncing about like a horse prancing during
dressage. While we were quite close to
the horse country, not a soul was wearing a riding habit, save the cavalry. And
since Fredericksburg, Virginia is not close to the sea, wide brimmed straw hats
were not appropriate. If one is out and about, the appropriate hair covering is
a bonnet. For working impressions a corded or slat sunbonnet is the way to go.
For other occasions, a decorated straw or silk covered spoon shaped bonnet is
appropriate. I have links below to a few
purveyors of lovely bonnets.
Please
remember that everybody who attends a reenactment as a participant has a
responsibility to the general public who attend to make an effort to portray
the original actors accurately. For me, few things are sadder than seeing a
visitor photograph a careless or uninformed re-enactor thinking they are seeing
a true representation of the past. There
are original photographs available!!!
Bonnet
Resources:
No comments:
Post a Comment