Vintage Dress Display

Visit our display in Town Hall Lobby or check out a slideshow here

The Ladies Who Wore The Dresses

On behalf of the HHS we are excited to have a very special display at Halfmoon Town Hall & to learn more about the ladies that wore these beautiful dresses, how the dresses were made, and to take a brief trip back to the mid 1800’s.

Ginny Golden, the owner of the collection and the lady who wore the last series of dresses, donated the collection to the Historical Society. We cannot thank Ginny enough for sharing her family treasure with all of us. The collection will be displayed at Halfmoon Town Hall for the winter.

What makes this collection so remarkable is the fact that all of these dresses were worn by Ginny, her mother Beatrice, grandmother Adaline and great grandmother Annetta. Many museums and societies have had wedding displays with dresses donated from many sources, but hardly anyone can boast about having a collection as extensive as this, and all from one family. What else is remarkable is that they survived 146 years, and remained all together for us to enjoy today. Along with the dresses are a collection of photographs of the ladies at various stages of their lives as well as interesting newspaper articles telling of the festivities of the weddings.

These dresses tell a story and take us back to 1869, to the end of the Civil War and back to when Annetta Terhune was to marry Albert Bogert Van Emburgh, through the end of the 19th Century during the Gold Rush frenzy, and see the drastic change in styles of the Roaring 20’s during the time of the Stock Market crashing, into the early 1960’s with the start of the war in Vietnam and Elvis Presley & rock and roll to the 1970’s with Woodstock and Flower Power. What a trip this is! We hope that you will come to the Town Hall and spend some time admiring the collection!