Libertyville museum presents 300 years of wedding gowns

As Beverly Schar rummaged through the attic and closets of the Ansel B. Cook Museum she befell 12 pieces of Libertyville's history dating all the way back to 1708.

One by one, Beverly found luxurious gown after gown, the wedding dresses previously worn decades and centuries ago by brides who had once lived in Libertyville. Some are adorned with glass beads and pearls; others had crimped silk, ruffles and wide satin waistbands. Still others featured heavy drapings and designs of birds surrounded by wreaths.

"I was so excited to find them," said Schar, acquisition and house chair of the Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society. "There are very few historical buildings as old as the Cook Museum in the area. These dresses each bring back a little life to the history of Libertyville."

The dresses are up for display in the "Brides of Yester-Year" exhibit, which closes at the end of the month. The last chance to see them will be on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the museum, 413 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Members of the historical society will be on site to answer questions and give tours.

"Like everything in the house it took a while to put the dresses together again," said Schar. "It took me about three or four years to put together each of the dresses that have been up on display since 2003."

The last two dresses to the collection were added in 2005.

In a combined effort, Schar, Arlene Lane and Sonia Schoenfield, two librarians at the Cook Memorial Library who researched the history behind each of the dresses, have made sure that when guests walk through the museum, they will find that each dress has its own story.

One of the older Victorian dresses, dyed an outstanding copper color, draped with a heavy silk satin material, differs from the others not only in its color, but also because of the nearly invisible pocket sewn into the front seam on the lower left side of the dresses' bodice.

"When I first saw the dress, I thought, oh my, there's a hole in this dress I have to mend," said Schar. "Then I discovered the small pocket was meant for a 'lay down,' which is a tiny, flat glass bottle the owner of the dress would have filled with a type of perfume."

Two other dresses, one a periwinkle color and another in brown satin, are among a few on exhibit that are not white wedding dresses.

"Many women would have worn their wedding dresses after their wedding day," said Phyllis Eggert, member of the historical society. "Back then, some women would have only owned three nice dresses which they wore over and over again and couldn't wash."

Eggert and Beverly agree the Cook museum is Libertyville's neighborhood gem.

"You go through it once and you think you see everything," said Schar. "There's so many little things you come upon, you just can't imagine the history."