dress, 1-piece

This wedding dress was worn by Anna May Wood when she married John Henry Murray on October 6, 1928 in Washington, DC. The service was conducted by Reverend John J. Callaghan. These details about the wedding were provided by a wedding announcement from Anna’s mother, Mrs. Andrew Wood, and the couple’s marriage certificate. We do not know the specific location of the wedding or any other information about the occasion.

Although we do not have the wedding veil or attached headpiece that Anna Wood wore with her dress, we do have photographs that show her in a long flowing tulle veil that was attached to a circular headpiece with poufs of the veiling at either side. In the photographs, she is shown carrying a large bouquet of flowers with ribbon streamers, and her attendant is carrying a similar size bouquet. Since there is no label in the dress, we do not know where it was made or by whom. We do know that it was used at a later time as an evening dress.

Anna Murray was born in Tennessee on September 24, 1897. She attended Central High School in Washington, DC, graduating in 1917. She was the captain of the 1918 DC Chapter of the Red Cross Military Unit and worked at the U.S. Bureau of Customs during World War II. From childhood photos we know Anna had a love for riding horses, and she also became an accomplished and published poet.

Her husband John was born in Troy, New York on November 11, 1897. He served in WW I from August 1917 to July 1919 in the Air Service as a Sergeant 1st class. After the war, John came to Washington, DC where he went to law school and eventually became a claims examiner at the General Accounting Office.

After Anna and John married, they settled in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC and eventually purchased an historic home on Dumbarton Avenue in Georgetown. John died on January 26, 1945 of a heart attack after an extended illness. One of the many interests that the Murrays shared was a love of collecting antiques. That began Anne Murray’s, as she was later called, association with the Smithsonian Institution as a collector and a major donor of costume, ceramics, and furnishings. In 1945, Mrs. Murray transferred to the Smithsonian Institution from the Bureau of Customs, serving in both administrative and professional areas before she was placed in charge of the costume collections in July 1956. Mrs. Murray curated the Hall of American Costume, which was one of ten galleries completed for the 1964 opening of the Smithsonian’s museum now called The National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center. She continued as curator of costume until her mandatory retirement in 1967, upon which she became curator emeritus until her death on November 2, 2001 at the age of 104.

This sleeveless dress is constructed from off-white satin crepe. It is short in length. A deep V-neckline in front has an insert at the lower point of layered off-white tulle. The neckline, armholes, and waistline are edged with a row of silver bugle beads, a row of seed pearls, and row of rhinestones spaced 1 ¼ inch apart. A decorative swirling motif of seed pearls is applied adjacent to the rhinestones, and a decorative motif of the same seed pearls edged with the silver bugle beads and interspersed with rhinestones and lines of seed pearls is applied to the bodice at the center front below the V-shaped neckline. The dropped waistline of the bodice section is seamed to the skirt section, and there is a left side opening with a snap closure that extends two inches into the skirt section. The skirt section consists of three scalloped tiers, each of which is gathered to a china silk lining. Each scallop is decorated with the same motif as the bodice front, and the scalloped edges of each tier are edged with a row of seed pearls. Partially boned hoops are applied to the skirt lining at each side of the skirt with a twill tape connecting the ends of each hoop section. The fabric that is covering each hoop section is marked with “Warren’s Featherbone Trade Mark” in blue ink. At the center back, the dress measures 42 inches from the upper neckline edge to the scalloped edge of the skirt.

Currently not on view