Harrisburg Preservation Ball

On Saturday evening I attended a Ball in the Rotunda of the Harrisburg Capital building to raise money for Civil War Monument Preservation. Vince was my escort and date for the evening. We had a marvelous time together and enjoyed the splendor of the Capital building immensely. This is our fourth year attending the ball.

Saturday morning I packed my bags and began to curl my hair for the evening, and we left PSU around lunch time, arriving home just in time to dress for the evening. I wore my grey ballgown silk ballgown that I made several years ago. I wanted to to appear a bit more grown up so I added the jewels to my headdress in the style of a fashion plate from the 1860s and carried an ivory fan with sequin designs.

This year there were - unfortunately - not quite as many authentically dressed ladies there. Many of the ballgowns were beautiful in cut but far too dark to appear stunning in a darkly lit ballroom. Lighter colored ballgowns were immensely popular during the civil war era - for the very practical reason that ballrooms were lit solely by candlelight so wearing a dark gown would make the wearer a floating head. A good thought to keep in mind when recreating an 1860s ballgown - the real stunning dresses are always the light colored dresses trimmed in an airy fashion to replicate the originals.

I had one favorite dress for the evening. It was worn by a lady who reenacts in the Hardtack Society with me (go figure). Her ballgown was pure white silk taffeta and look marvelous with her dark black hair. It had ornate pleats of tulle and ribbon along the top of the bodice and an airy taffeta overskirt with several bows throughout - all smartly placed. The back had a slight train to add to the elegance, and her hair was worn up with two sausage curls hanging at the side and seen at the front with two diamond studded hair combs stuck in the side. It was elegant, grand, stylish and soooo stunning. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. And it looked perfect in the Snowball Reel, which I am convinced was named after the look of the dance during the 1860s - with so many white and light colored dresses dancing up and down the lines it would look like beautiful snowballs doing a dance.