No, we don’t have Gaultier--he’s the wrong century for our museum. But we are delighted to have received a piece by Charles Frederick Worth. I don’t know if Madonna would have liked his clothing, but throughout the decades around 1900 all the other women in America longed to wear a dress by the undisputed leader of the Paris fashion scene.

The House of Worth was the shopping destination for American women rich enough to journey to Europe for fitting and to spend amounts that would embarrass some of our modern fashionistas. Worth was known for some signature fashion touches, such as using lots of lace. But he championed the practice of constantly changing fashion trends. New shapes, details and colors rendered last year’s dress passé.

American women of the best classes didn’t fall for that. As Edith Wharton shows us in Age of Innocence, no New York society woman would have been seen in the latest Worth gown. When their yearly order of 10 to 20 dresses arrived by ship from Paris, they were packed away for a good two years, till they were clearly out of fashion and safe to wear in conservative society. I am sure that in less strict cities, American women who could afford Worth gowns proudly wore them the minute they arrived.

We don’t have an entire gown, just the bodice, the top half of a two-piece silk dress from the 1870s. That one piece contains a wealth of information. First, look at what an art object it is, in sea-foam green with lace and other decorations. Imagine it paired with the long matching skirt, with a bit of bustle in back. This dress would not have been fancy enough for something like a ball, but it might have been good enough for a dinner.

Look closer and see the elaborate sewing needed to make the shaped, fitted clothing of the 19^th century. Homemade gowns and those of lesser designers were similarly complex, but the House of Worth’s attention to sewing detail is pretty impressive. The bodice is nothing like a modern shirt we could buy off the rack today. Several pieces of silk were seamed together in precise shapes to make the bodice fit one particular woman in the specified shape of the day.

To fit in her bodice, she would first have donned a corset to force her upper half into an impossibly narrow waist and firm bosom. In case the corset’s boning wasn’t hard enough to keep her form rigid, the bodice has a little boning to keep it from folding or creasing. There can be no quick escapes from this piece of clothing. It closed at the front by lacing together those two stiffened edges, each with 18 holes to lace.

 Look to the back to see more of Worth’s artistry. Two large tasseled bows hang off of the bodice, where they would rest on the swell of the skirt. Look closely at those tassels, keeping in mind that Worth would not have used some that came out of Europe’s industrial textile mills. Those were made by hand, wrapping thread around a form. As we saw on the inside seaming, no detail was so small that it did not merit hours of effort by a skilled seamstress.

We will never be able to put on a Worth exhibit with our one little bodice, but I hope you see how it is big enough to teach about fashion standards, comfort expectations and the efforts of French seamstresses. One question to think about: how on earth did they clean this garment?

As you all know, we close to the public in January and August, the two months that feature our worst weather and our lowest attendance.  A few years ago when we analyzed the cost of staying open to the public versus how much revenue we generated during those months,  it was clear that we were losing money being one of the only outdoor museums in the country that operated twelve months a year.  So, we now close to the public during those two months. 

But that does not mean that we are all in hibernation.  Our administrative, education, and curatorial staff and our maintenance contractors  continue normal working hours.   We always have post-Candlelight chores, like putting away the decorations and stowing the candles and stanchions.    Of course, work on Gone To Texas really picks up in January, and various board committees continue working as normal.  The education staff works ahead, knowing that Spring is their busiest time of year.  This year Melissa and Johna are reworking our Girl Scout workshops and planning for the big March 31 Girl Scout Centennial event that will be held on our grounds.  Lots of other Spring education programs are in the works as well.

Building repair projects continue with, for instance, Jason currently working on repairing carpenter ant damage to the Guest Services Office and beginning work to fix up the Shotgun House.  Some tasks are eternal, such as the need to feed the animals every day and the need for the Park Department to pick up trash.

One January project that we are very excited about:  we are getting a new internet and telephone system, featuring fiber optic cabling that will connect our offices, including the Guest Services Office. Yes, for the first time in years, we will all be on the same phone system!   And, we think that we can now maintain communications with the outside world even when it rains!  Thank you Hillcrest Foundation for your generous support!

So, we stay very busy here and look forward to our reopening, but we will also admit that we enjoy our peaceful buildings and grounds for a few weeks. 

Dallas has a rich history. Perhaps surprisingly for a relatively young city, it also has quite a few historical organizations devoted to preserving aspects of that history. In 1998, when Gary Smith, President and Executive Director of Dallas Heritage Village, suggested to me the idea of organizing a conference devoted to local history, I was immediately intrigued. Our semi-annual regional history journal, Legacies, had thrived for nearly ten years, partly because it was a collaborative effort among several historical groups. These and other similar groups might find a conference a perfect project through which to promote local history.

Gary and I contacted staff members at five other historical organizations, all of whom were enthusiastic about the idea. The Executive Director of Preservation Dallas suggested we look at the Scottish Rite Cathedral as a possible site—a beautiful historic structure which had probably not been visited by many in our potential audience. The Cathedral was generous in providing space, but only one date during the fall of 1999 was available, so we took it. A local foundation provided some seed money, enabling us to keep registration fees modest. We issued a call for proposals and received more than thirty; we selected thirteen. I hoped for 150 registrants; we had more than 200. We were off to a good start.

The next year, six more historical groups asked to join the project, and we have enjoyed the support of about a dozen each year since. For several years, we stuck with the fall date, but our numbers began to slip because of too many competing activities. So in 2006 we switched to January, and attendance immediately began to climb. Last year more than 300 people participated.

Over the years, we’ve held the conference at various venues—SMU, the Central Library, Hockaday School, the Old Red Courthouse, the Hyatt Regency Dallas Hotel, Dallas City Hall, even the new Dallas Police Headquarters. Each had its advantages. But now we’ve settled into what is arguably the most impressive historical structure in Dallas, the Hall of State at Fair Park, home of the Dallas Historical Society. With a comfortable lecture hall, spacious Great Hall for refreshments and book dealers, and plenty of free parking, it accommodates the conference perfectly.

Thanks to the generous support of institutional sponsors and individual patrons, and the hard work of a corps of volunteers, we have been able to keep basic registration at a modest $30, and yet the Annual Legacies Dallas History Conference always breaks even. It even provides a bonus, in the form of interesting and well researched papers that are subsequently published in Legacies magazine.

It just shows that local history is alive and appreciated in Dallas.   

This year's conference, "Defining the Spirit of Dallas" will be on Saturday, January 28.  The registration deadline is January 20.  For more details, click here: https://www.dallasheritagevillage.org/Event_Detail.aspx?EID=458 

--Guest Author Michael Hazel, PhD and conference organizer

Candlelight 2011 wrapped up over three weeks ago, but we’re still on a bit of a high from a truly great weekend.  The weather was beautiful, lots of fabulous people came to see us (and hopefully you were one of them!), and everything just seemed to work.  Plus, it was fun to celebrate 40 years of tradition.

During that very hectic week, I caught myself thinking about all of the people that make that event possible.  Part of the reason Candlelight has continued for 40 years is that it’s never been solely a staff-driven event; it’s fueled by our larger community.  Though we work with some of these groups throughout the year, everyone comes together at once for Candlelight.  And it’s pretty magical.

So, in no particular order (and with an almost paralyzing fear that we’ll leave someone out), we’d like to talk a bit about those various groups and individuals that make Candlelight possible.

The Guild of Dallas Heritage Village:  Though the Guild is active all year long, they really shine at Candlelight.  The bake sale has been a part of Candlelight since the beginning, and the Guild has been managing it almost as long.  They bake and bake and then bake some more.  There are cheese ball assembly lines.  Some years, they go home on Saturday night and fire up their ovens again because the supply is running low.  This year was a record year for them, and I know many of these women devoted the entire weekend to us.

Decorating Groups:  Some of the buildings are decorated by curatorial staff, but not all of them.  Since the 1970s, community groups have adopted buildings and decorated them.  They schedule a time to decorate right after Thanksgiving and then come back in January to put it all away.  At least a few of these groups have been involved for decades.

Volunteers:  Of course, the vast majority of people that make Candlelight happen are volunteers, so it almost seems redundant to mention them again.  But I think I have to.  We have volunteers we see year-round and spend the entire weekend with us.  We have volunteers that we see just once a year at Candlelight.  We have some folks in costume.  We have volunteers from community groups like the National Charity League, and we have some from corporations like Comerica Bank.  We have Junior Historians that are somehow able to be in a million places at once.  Sometimes even parents of Junior Historians come to lend a hand.  Over 200 volunteers made Candlelight happen this year.  200!

Friends and Family of Staff:  When you work for a small non-profit, sometimes it is necessary to rope friends and family into the action.  We’ve put husbands, boyfriends and sons in the parking lot to collect money.  Daughters have assisted with the accounting and cash counting.  Parents have provided food for the weekend.  Husbands have picked up extra ice, attempted to fix a photo printer, and run the sound system on Main Street.  Most of all, they support us!

Photographers:  Back in 2007, we began building a team of volunteer photographers.  No doubt you’ve seen their work—it’s now all over our website, facebook, the Annual Report.  They have skills and cameras that are way beyond the skills of our staff.  Plus, there are now quite a few of them so they can capture all sorts of wonderful moments.

The Entertainers:  Rain, sleet or snow—and sometimes even perfect winter sunshine--various performing groups share their talents with our visitors.  Some are semi-professional and some are still in grade school, but all of them bring music to the Village.  This year, we’re especially pleased that members of the Old Time Music Jam (which meets here twice a month) are now a part of our community.

Trinity River Desperadoes:  Throughout the year, they hang out at the Saloon and occasionally get into very dramatic arguments.  But at Candlelight, they set up camp next to the bonfire in the Valley—and it’s beautiful and cozy and fun and adds so much wonderful atmosphere to the event.  Plus, the sweet potato biscuits are pretty tasty.

Board Members:  While their financial support is invaluable, their moral support is pretty important too.  They believe in the Village—we have a few board members that have been involved with us almost since beginning, and they definitely remember those early Candlelights.  You might have met some of them at the front gate, but there were also plenty of board members that simply enjoyed themselves as visitors.  And we like that too.

As 2012 gets going, it’s deeply satisfying to have the support of so many people with so many wonderful talents.  I wish I could go into more details and tell you more stories about how wonderful all of these people are, but that might turn into a book.  So, for those of you that are a part of this wonderful community, please accept our virtual hug as we thank you for all that you do.  And for the rest of you, we’d love for you to become more involved in the coming year.       

Even though every day is different around here (should I mention I had to help catch an escaped rooster yesterday?), it’s still possible to fall into ruts.  A museum educator’s creativity can only go so far before it fizzles.  We have a series of recurring events at DHV, and when you start entering into that era of planning the same event 7 or 8 times, well, the ideas for fun and creative learning opportunities start to fade.  One event I’ve always struggled with is Civil War on the Home Front.

Confession time: even though I am a self-proclaimed history nerd, I’ve never gotten really excited about the Civil War.  I’ve always been more attracted to lesser-known stories, and most people at least know the basics of the War Between the States.  But visitors love the Civil War, and we have a great group of re-enactors that make this event possible every year.  However, at certain points over the years, I feel like I’ve run out of ideas.

Enter Johna.  She’s our Family Programs Manager and has worked with us for just over a year.  And she has lots of fresh new ideas for which I’m incredibly grateful!  We’ve been bouncing around ideas for the last couple of months, but the best ideas have come straight from her.  And suddenly, I’m really, really looking forward to this year’s event.

The standard elements aren’t going anywhere—re-enactors from the 9^th Texas Infantry Regiment and the 1^st US Infantry will be setting up camp, talking with visitors, and getting in some sort of battle at 2:00 p.m.  This year, we’ll also have a Confederate Dentist and Doctor ready to talk about the physical requirements for new recruits.  Did you know you had to have at least 4 teeth to join the Confederate Army?

We’ll bring back the bartering activity, with a few new items to trade or earn by doing some chores.  The rope machine is making a return as well.

But then there’s all this new stuff.  Ed Chytil, a local author and historian, has been working on a beautiful new book series, published by Burnished Bronze Press (www.burnishedbronzepress.com).   He’s putting together a talk that will appeal to all ages, all about the Confederate Home Front and the lead up to the Civil War.  One of his books, Tupelo, will be available for sale.  It’s not often that we’re able to combine a lecture with a special event.

Friends we’ve made through the Old Time Music Jam (which meets here twice a month) will be performing on Main Street.  The Buttermilk Junction Old Time String Band has a great repertoire which includes music from the war era.  Can’t wait to hear them!

Finally, the thing I’m most looking forward to—the War Room.  Did you know that toy soldiers were invented around the Civil War to help generals plan battles?  Me neither!  But they were and we have quite the assortment of toy soldiers ready to go.  Johna has designed a great map that should be somewhat familiar to visitors.  So, boys of all ages can map out their battles with the toy soldiers and draw their own maps to take home.  Did I mention boys of all ages?  Gary got this really excited look on his face when I mentioned our latest acquisition for the education department, and he’ll be playing “General” from 12:30 to 1:30.

Now all that’s left to do is put together the program, buy a few supplies, and keep fingers crossed for beautiful weather.  Hope to see you there!

Full event details—and link to purchase discounted tickets (by Wednesday, November 9): https://www.dallasheritagevillage.org/Event_Detail.aspx?EID=446

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time living in the 70s and 80s.  The 1970s and 1980s.  And for once, that’s not a painful typo sometimes made by history museums—nope, I’ve been looking at our recent past.

 This year marks the 40^th Candlelight.  Round numbers tend to excite us history types.  It’s not often that we take the time to reflect on our institutional history, and it’s even rarer for one single event to last so long.  So, we’re having some fun with it—we’ve ordered a special anniversary ornament (featuring Nip and Tuck), Barbara is making special anniversary clothespin dolls, and we’re putting together an exhibit called Candlelight Memories.

   Over the past several weeks, I’ve scanned over 300 photos and slides from our institutional archives.  I’ve looked at past programs, committee meeting minutes, and newspaper articles.  I’ve marveled at the hair styles, been amazed at watching familiar buildings being rebuilt or restored, and have determined that we’ve always had the cutest kids in Dallas visit our museum.

 But there are certain things that can’t be found in our archive, and honestly, it’s what makes this event special.  We know there are families that have made Candlelight a part of their family’s holiday traditions.  We know that there are visitors that remember coming to Candlelight as a child and are now bringing their children.  We know that there are some really wonderful stories out there that we can’t even imagine.  But what we need are those stories.

            So, we’ve been asking our visitors, volunteers, friends, and now you, to share those stories.  If you have photos, scan them in and send them to us.  If you have stories, get those in writing.  There will be opportunities to share your stories at Candlelight, but we want to gather as many as possible now.  Below are the guidelines.  No story is too small!  While the exhibit will be perfectly lovely with DHV’s memories, I think it will be far more special with your memories too.

You can participate in several ways:

·       Submit family photos taken at Candlelight.

·       Share a favorite memory on the Candlelight page on Facebook.

·       Send favorite stories directly to staff.

·       Write in the memory book at Candlelight.

·       We’ll have memory cards in the Saloon throughout the Fall.  Fill one out while sipping a root beer!

If you have any items relating to Candlelight (old programs, crafts, ornaments etc), please contact staff directly!

To Submit a Photo:

·       Please scan your photo at a high resolution (minimum 300 dpi) and e-mail to mprycer@dallasheritagevillage.org  Please do not send us the original photo.

·       Include the following information:

o   Your Name

o   Names of the people in the photo

o   The Year (an estimate is fine)

o   Any special information about the photo

To be considered for the exhibit, we MUST receive your photo by Wednesday, November 30.

If you don’t have access to a scanner, contact Melissa and we’ll figure something out!

Memory Sparks

·       What is your first memory of Candlelight?

·       Any memorable weather experiences?

·       Why is Candlelight part of your family’s traditions?

·       What are some of the biggest changes in the event that you’ve noticed?

In two previous blog posts I talked about our fund raising efforts as we closed out our fiscal year (September 30).  I can now report that we have had a successful financial year and have finished “in the black” for the second year in succession.  In these troubled economic times, we consider this quite a feat! 

As for our End of Year Campaign, we raised approximately $75,000, falling short of our $85,000 goal.   Despite this shortfall, we were very pleased to raise $75,000, and relieved that we were able to raise this amount of money during a month where the stock market was in free fall.   To all of our donors who braved a very turbulent month and still donated $75,000 to our campaign, we are eternally grateful!

So, how did we fall short of our campaign goal and still finish the year in positive territory?  We pulled this off by holding the line on expenses, and by doing better than expected in some of our other income areas.  Like many non-profits, we get our income from a variety of sources.  The City of Dallas appropriation (about 13% of our total budget), our Gone To Texas gala, facilities rentals, admissions income, school tour income, memberships, and outright donations comprise most of our $950,000 annual budget.

 Having multiple sources of income is a mixed blessing.  It is a strength in that a bad year in one area does not cripple our operations.   On the other hand, with so many sources of income, some areas inevitably come in below expected levels.  So, in any given year some income areas do better than expected, some worse.   In a good year, everything balances.

Above all else, we know that it is important for us to manage our expenses and, as we sometimes say, if “we don’t have it, we don’t spend it.” While many factors in a budget year are beyond what can be controlled, expenses are one area that can be controlled.   We like to believe that our very generous supporters know that we are good “balancing” stewards of the money that they entrust us with.

At the annual membership meeting on September 29 (6:00 p.m. at the Browder Springs Hall) we are going to do more than  the usual ceremonial business meeting    We are going to have a great little history program as well, one that will “bring the present up to the past.”

Do you ever listen to BackStory with the American History Guys?  What I love about this show are the lively and accessible historical discussions that lend perspective to today’s issues.

At our annual meeting we will have our own version of BackStory.  We have lined up three  Dallas historians to discuss how Dallas has faced adversity in the past.   Specifically, I have asked them to address this topic:  given the economic and political turmoil that we have experienced in the past few years, many Americans are convinced that we have never experienced such terrible times before. But actually, we have--- far worse.   Dallas, of course, has had its own periods of crisis, in addition to those affecting the rest of the nation.   Are there any historical parallels with our present dilemmas, anything that might help put our own troubles into perspective?

 I had lunch yesterday with our three historians, Mike Hazel, Darwin Payne, and Tom Smith, and I asked them to comment on my supposition.   Tom Smith has written about the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Dallas; Mike Hazel has closely studied Dallas’s “Great Flood” and the City’s response to that devastation; and Darwin Payne actually covered the Kennedy Assassination as a young reporter.

Together these three historians represent well over a century of accumulated study and knowledge.  Want to know how they answered me?  Come next Thursday night at 6:00, enjoy some wine and appetizers, sit through a brief business meeting, and then hear what our panel has to say.

I just love a new addition to our collection of antiques—and this one is a doozie! We have lots of trunks: wooden trunks, leather trunks, big ones and little ones and one for a doll. Now, we have a wardrobe trunk in wonderful condition. A wardrobe trunk is a much cleverer version of a regular travel trunk. If we still used trunks today, this is the one the Container Store would carry. It is sort of like a chest of drawers and a closet that folds up into a box.

The wardrobe trunk didn’t appear until after 1890 and really came into its own after 1900. This one is late enough to be pushing our museum’s time period. I think it was made after 1910. They are actually more Edwardian than Victorian, and you can imagine a lot of wardrobe trunks went down with the Titanic. That was the sort of travel they were designed for. On one side, the trunk has a range of drawers that could hold shoes, folded men’s shirts, undergarments and accessories. On the other side are the hangers for outerwear. Why do some of them have that funny curve at the bottom? When the garment was hung tightly wrapped around that hanger, the hanger kept it straight all the way down so it wouldn’t wrinkle.

These trunks were not cheap, and they were owned by people of means who took long trips. You had to have plenty of money to pay somebody to carry the thing, as one man can barely move it when it is empty.

We do not put all of our collection on display, but I would like to show this one off for a while. If we had a regular exhibit space somewhere, I could just set it there with a sign that said, “Our Latest Acquisition.” But we have carefully arranged realistic room settings, so the job becomes harder. It has to go someplace where it fits in with the logical activities of the room. The Depot comes to mind, for traveling, but it would not be open at the depot, so no one could see the cool interior.

To show off its best features, I need to show it being packed for a trip, so it needs to go in a house. Millermore? All its furnishings depict 1861, before the trunk was invented. Shotgun House? Section House? No, this was a luxury item that the people in those houses could not afford. Blum House? Right time period, and they are not poor, but it would be a rare shopkeeper who could afford the trunk and the kind of travel it implied. And now we have worked our way over to the Sullivan House. They live in the right time period, they have money, and maybe Mrs. Sullivan would like to go home to Ireland to visit her mother. This trunk would be perfect for that trip. I can place it in the bedroom, and show it in the middle of being packed. That way, I can also display some of our beautiful hats, purses and shoes, because I bet she wants to show the family back home how her successful husband buys her nice things.

We have 24,000 artifacts, and many have not been seen lately by anyone but me. That keeps me entertained, but what about our visitors? I do my best to come up with creative ways to make new displays without compromising our realistic exhibit settings.

This fall, Village Academy classes are back!  In my head, I’ve been calling it Village Academy 2.0, because we’re doing it just a wee bit differently.  How so?

We launched Village Academy classes back in 2005.  The idea was to create a series of hands-on classes on historical topics that may or may not occur in our classroom space.  When you only have one real classroom space (the second floor of the school), you have to get creative!  For the very first series, we had classes for adults, teens and younger kids.  However, only the kid classes seemed to work, so in later years, we focused just on the kids.  A variety of staff members taught these classes—from Mrs. Kennedy at the farmstead to Mr. Clementine with the donkeys, but the education department did the bulk of the planning.

When the economy took a nose-dive, this was a program that we realized had to be put on hiatus.  Planning these classes can be extremely time-consuming, and sometimes we just didn’t have enough students to make it worth our while. Personally, I hated doing this because some of these classes were such fun to plan!  I mean, where else can you do a class all about donkeys?

Since 2009, we’ve been rethinking how we use the buildings on Main Street.  You can already see some of these thoughts in the redesigned General Store.  Right now, both the former Print Shop and Law Office are empty of artifacts and exhibits—which means they’re perfect for programming space.  Suddenly, we have additional classroom space—space that can be shared!  Meanwhile, I was noticing how popular handcrafts had become.  Visitors were asking staff more and more questions about spinning, knitting, and other traditional arts.  There seemed to be a need that we’re in a great position to fulfill.

Our staff is still small, so we decided to experiment.  You’ve probably noticed that we have some very talented people that work with us.  What if we had them come up with classes, we provide the space and spread the word, and then we split the proceeds?  This model is going out for its trial run this fall.  At this point, I don’t know what kind of classes we’ll offer in the future—it’s up to the creativity of our friends!  The hope is that we end up offering a wide variety of topics, at many different skill levels.  Some of these are classes that families can certainly take together.

Sharon DeVolt, aka Mrs. Kennedy, will be teaching the very first Village Academy class in just a few weeks.  She’ll be teaching crochet, and there’s talk about starting a “chain gang” for interested folks to come to the Village to work on crochet projects.

Here’s Sharon:

My reasons for wanting to teach at the Village Academy are twofold, my fascination with 19th Century life and the so-called "fiber arts". When I am working at the farmstead as Mrs. Kennedy, sitting on the porch spinning wool, crocheting, lap quilting in the parlor, or perhaps sewing on the 1850's machine, I often imagine the actual inhabitants of the home doing those very same things 150 years ago.  It is very difficult to find patterns or "how to" instructions from that time period because one generation taught the next. Then, it was as important for women to know how to sew, knit and crochet as it was for them to cook, but now these skills are hobbies. My maternal grandmother, a first generation Scottish-American farmer, taught me how to crochet and hand sew while sitting on her front porch in rural North Carolina when I was 9. That same summer, my paternal grandmother, a genteel Virginian, taught me how to knit and embroider in her formal Antebellum parlor.  About that time my mother showed me how to use a sewing machine and do cross-stitch in our suburban home.  Since that time, I have discovered spinning and weaving and have passed many of these skills on to my daughter.  When I first began spinning and my kids saw the time involved from cleaning, combing and spinning just to make yarn, one of them said, "Mom, you do know you can just buy yarn at Walmart". True, but the feeling of accomplishment in creating a handcrafted gift as a new family heirloom is priceless.

Right now, we have two classes on the schedule, but more will come.  Check them out on our website(here and here), and sign up!  And if you’d like to become a Village Academy teacher, contact me directly.