News
February 2, 2018Albany Institute of History & Art Will Extend Popular Victorian Fashion Exhibition
Well-Dressed in Victorian Albany: 19th Century Fashion from the Albany Institute Collection, which was scheduled to close February 19, will now be extended through May 20, 2018.
Victorian fashion frenzy has hit the Capital Region and at the epicenter is the Albany Institute of History & Art’s exhibition Well-Dressed in Victorian Albany: 19th Century Fashion from the Albany Institute Collection. The exhibition, which features over forty dresses from the museum’s collection of Victorian period costumes, opened in October 2017 and has welcomed thousands of visitors eager to see the rarely displayed dresses.
“I am excited to announce that we will be extending Well-Dressed in Victorian Albany,” says Albany Institute’s executive director Tammis Groft. “The exhibition will run through May 20, 2018. We hope that these additional months will allow more people to see this incredible collection while it is on display.”
The museum will also present an additional slate of related programs, many hosted by the exhibition curator Diane Shewchuk. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, she has a deep affection for these historic clothes and is glad to have the opportunity to share these materials with the public. Her upcoming programs will include a lecture highlighting historic clothing construction, behind-the-scenes tours, and even a talk featuring historic under garments (that talk is an encore for a sold-out talk in January).
More about the exhibition: This exhibition of nineteenth-century Victorian fashion represents a rare opportunity to showcase part of the Albany Institute’s clothing collection, one of the museum’s treasures. Spanning more than 250 years, from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, the Albany Institute’s collection includes more than 4,000 garments and accessories that were used or worn by upstate New Yorkers of all ages, social classes, economic conditions, and cultural groups.
From wedding gowns to walking suits, the garments features in this exhibition reflect the changes in styles during the reign of the British monarch, Queen Victoria (1837-1901). The Victorian era has received renewed public interest with the recent first season of the PBS television series Victoria.
Over forty mannequins are dressed in clothing made of luxurious, vibrantly colored fabrics worn by residents of the Capital Region and beyond. This exhibition presents a selection of extraordinary outfits made by home seamstresses as well as professional dressmakers. Examples of complicated construction techniques are represented by gowns created by the Paris fashion houses of Emile Pingat, Charles Frederick Worth, A. Felix, Callot Soeurs, and others.
Garments produced during this period reflect the wide-ranging impact of the Industrial Revolution on the aesthetics, technology, and social history of the time. The featured costumes include examples of garments worn in daily life and for life’s special events; practical everyday styles are juxtaposed with garments of incredible beauty and design. The decade by decade changes in fashion will be illustrated by the array of silhouettes created with bustles and hoops and elaborate sleeves. The luxury associated with the Victorian era will be reflected in the jewel rich tones and sumptuous textures found in the fabrics: plaid taffetas, plush velvets, and shimmering silk satins.
Major support for Well-Dressed in Victorian Albany: 19th Century Fashion from the Albany Institute Collection was provided by The Costumer, an anonymous donor in memory of Hazel Smith, Jean and Peter Maloy, Magda and Gus Mininberg, and Times Union.
Upcoming events:
- Under the Dress | encore lecture | Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 2pm | Included with museum admission | Space is limited*
- Behind-the-Scenes: Victorian Clothing & Jewelry | tour | Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 11am and 2pm | Each tour limited to 12 people | $20 per person | Register online
- Inside the Dress | lecture | Sunday, April 22, 2018 at 2pm | Included with museum admission | Space is limited*
- Additional events may be announced
*We have limited space for our lectures and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendees will receive a wristband at the admission desk the day of the lecture.
Exhibition Schedule:
The Fashionable Portrait | July 15, 2017 – February 19, 2018
Over the centuries, portraits have offered interesting illustrations of the fashions and social customs of their times.
The subjects of these paintings took care in selecting their clothing, accessories, and adornments. The artists of these paintings frequently took care to include intricate details of dress that reveal themselves upon close scrutiny—delicate lace trims, skilled needlework, shimmering silk fabrics, and more. This exhibition brings together a selection of paintings from the Institute’s collection to provide a look at nineteenth century fashion as depicted in the work of portrait painters.
Spotlight: Albany & Anti-Suffrage | September 2, 2017 – March 11, 2018
Re-opening as abbreviated exhibition in library cases March 17, 2018
The year 2017 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State. There is no suffrage story without the anti-suffrage story. Discover New York’s capital’s “anti” movement through the eyes of a New York governor’s wife and other members of the Albany Anti-Suffrage Association in this special spotlight exhibition.
Paintings of Addy®: Dahl Taylor’s Original Illustrations for American Girl
October 14, 2017 – June 17, 2018
In 1995, Albany-based artist Dahl Taylor was commissioned to re-illustrate the six-book Addy® series for American Girl, a venture begun in 1986, which combined beautifully produced dolls and historical fiction to become a national sensation. Over the next two years, Taylor worked with the American Girl staff to insure their vision and maintain historical accuracy. He found models for Addy and recurring characters in Albany. This exhibition includes more than 40 paintings Taylor created to illustrate the story of Addy Walker, a nine-year old born into slavery who escapes to freedom with her mother during the Civil War.
Along the Eastern Road: Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido
March 14, 2018 – June 10, 2018
Hiroshige’s woodblock print series known as Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido depicts scenic locations along Japan’s Tokaido Road as they appeared in 1832 when Hiroshige traveled the thoroughfare on foot. The Tokaido was Japan’s eastern highway linking the cities of present-day Tokyo and Kyoto. The exhibition was organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Thomas Cole’s Paper Trail | June 16, 2018 – October 28, 2018
In 1818, the youthful Thomas Cole left his native England with his parents to begin a new life in the United States. After several years of struggle and relocation, he embarked on a career as an artist and began to receive praise for his landscape paintings in 1825. Now, during the bicentennial year of his arrival in the United States, this naturalized American artist is being publicly recognized once again at museums and historic sites on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition, Thomas Cole’s Paper Trail, highlights selections from the Albany Institute’s holdings of Cole drawings and manuscript materials, including his earliest sketchbook and tree studies from 1823, his account book that lists the arrival of Frederic Church as a student, drawings of Hudson River scenes that were likely meant to be engraved as a collection of picturesque prints, and letters to and from family, friends, and patrons. The exhibition traces Cole’s artistic career, his personal life, and the legacy he left behind following his untimely death in 1848.
