Preparing for Halloween

It's a little early to be thinking about Halloween, unless you're a museum planning for an exhibition. The Halloween: Superstitions & Traditions exhibit will be open September 5th to November 1st.

With installation coming up in just a few days, staff is busy writing label text, selecting artifacts, and steaming Halloween costumes in preparation for display. Here, Collections assistant, Becky Gates, steams a circa 1960 Blue Fairy costume on loan from a private collector.

The exhibit will feature vintage Halloween collectibles such as costumes, trick or treat bags, noisemakers, Jack-o-Lanterns, and postcards.

The origins of Halloween trick or treating are very old, and connected to Celtic and Roman culture, and also harvest traditions. While doing research for the exhibit, I also came across photographs in the collection of Raggamuffin Day. Though this day is associated with Thanksgiving, its parallels to Halloween are striking, including that people (especially children) dressed in costume and went door-to-door begging. The photo of adults dressed in costume for Raggamuffin Day in Waukegan is from 1903.  (Coon-Mason Family Photo Album, 93.30.194, Dunn Museum).

The Thanksgiving masquerade or Raggamuffin Day existed as late as the 1930s and then, according to sources, suddenly vanished. Afterward, Halloween costumes and parades gained national popularity and Raggamuffin Day was all but forgotten.

An Arabian Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Begging, or trick-or-treating, is believed to have begun in the United States in the 1910s. Around the same time, costumes for children and adults became popular for Halloween parties.

In this 1915 photograph, Diamond Lake resident, Gordon Ray, is wearing what appears to be a store bought costume (note the unusual fabric and crease marks). The photo was taken “the morning after” Gordon attended a masquerade dance in Long Grove.

I have often referred to this as Gordon’s “Valentino” costume, but in his autobiography he does not identify the costume, only the dance he attended. Also, Rudolph Valentino—the silent-film star—did not make his debut until 1921, six years after this photo was taken. It is also tempting to call this a “Lawrence of Arabia” costume, but again the association is too late. The British soldier, T.E. Lawrence, became known as “Lawrence of Arabia” for his role in the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918.

The Arabian-themed costume was probably a popular choice due to the West’s long fascination with Eastern cultures. Gordon would have seen any number of Arabian images in films, nickelodeon reels, vaudeville acts, books, and newspapers.

Halloween Costumes

With Halloween fast approaching, I'm sharing some holiday photos and postcards over the next couple of weeks.

Halloween costumes for adults and children became popular in the early 1900s in North America.
Shown here is an unidentified girl dressed as an "Indian Princess" circa 1905. The photo is credited to Bess Dunn, a county historian and photography enthusiast.

More than likely the girl's dress is homemade. There are three beaded appliques sewn to the front of the skirt. The appliques are reminiscent of detailing seen on women's dresses of this period or slightly before.

The costume is embellished with layers of jewelry. The girl's headpiece appears to be a string of pearls, and her bracelets have heart-shaped charms. The many beaded necklaces consist of shells and unknown materials.



In this circa 1920 photograph (left) is one of the sons of Robert and Frances (Crane) Leatherbee of Lake Forest. Yes, that's a boy with a pageboy haircut, wearing a Native American inspired shirt and pants, and an embroidered pillbox style cap.

The photo was taken at Brae Burn Farm, Lake Forest, more than likely by Dorothy Gleiser, the daughter of the farm manager. The 400-acre gentleman's farm was owned by Robert Leatherbee, an executive of the Crane Company of Chicago. The family lived in a sprawling one-story stucco home, from about 1914-1922 before selling the property to a developer and moving to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

As represented in these children's costumes, Native American culture was romanticized and appropriated by non-native peoples. Today, awareness of cultural sensitivity has led to discussions about the portrayal of Native Americans and their heritage in Halloween costumes and popular culture.