OBJECT FILE
The wedding dress at Baker Mansion
FOLLOWBaker Mansion, Altoona, PA, United States
THE OBJECT
A wedding gown of the 1830s–40s displayed in a glass case in the bedroom of Anna Baker (d. 1914) at Baker Mansion, the Greek Revival house built 1844–49 by the ironmaster Elias Baker and owned by the Blair County Historical Society since 1941. The Society has attributed the dress to Elizabeth Dysart, of the Bell family, rather than to Anna, who never married. Local press reports that the dress is no longer on display; the Society holds it.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
Tour lore says Anna's father broke her engagement to a steelworker and that the dress she had chosen — or, in the Society's version, the one Elizabeth Dysart wore to her own wedding — moves in its case, hardest at full moon. Staff have attributed the movement to loose floorboards and a case that is not airtight.
WHERE IT IS NOW
In storage — kept by Blair County Historical Society. Baker Mansion, Altoona, PA, United States.
THE SITE IT SITS IN →PROVENANCE · 1 ENTRY
TRACE ON THE MAP →1941 — CURRENT LOCATION
Blair County Historical Society
Baker Mansion (Anna Baker's room; later in storage), Altoona, PA, United States
From-date is the Society's purchase of the mansion; when the dress went into the case is not recorded in the sources used. Reported off display in recent years.
Source: Wikipedia, 'Baker Mansion' (Society purchase 1941); WTAJ
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
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