Union County Museum

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Sometimes the quest for vintage treasure strikes gold in one's very neighborhood.  We live in a valley in eastern Oregon which has several small towns around its rim.  Driving over to the town of Union we paid a visit to the Union County Museum during the Pioneer Days festival.

To our surprise, we discovered that the museum had a fabulous collection of vintage clothing which typically was not on display, as the displays tended to focus more on antique and pioneer (19th century) clothing and utensils. However, there had been some flooding in a storage area and to dry out the clothing the museum had moved the vintage collection across the street to a 19th century church they were renovating.  

Blanche, one of the hostesses at the museum, offered to give us a look. What a collection it was. And because the items in the collection were not behind display cases it was so much fun to get to touch many vintage fabrics I had only read about.

After browsing through the vintage collection in the church we returned to the museum to look at the few vintage items displayed and their vast pioneer and Victorian collection, which was wonderfully displayed.  In some cases women's cloths were displayed in rooms with antique furniture.

Sometimes the clothing and accessories were displayed in cases.  

Other times the items were sitting out for close inspection, as were these fabulous hats. Using the light in my cell phone I could examine the lining and construction of these hats and pioneer bonnets.

The collection of purses was also fabulous, but safely behind glass.

A highlight of the collection for me was the display of Victorian wedding dresses, with photographs of the brides who had worn them. Since it was a local museum, it had been gifted with both the dresses and the photographs by descendants of the brides who wanted to share their history with the community and visitors to the museum.

The lace in these dresses was spectacular, and several cases were devoted to other examples of this fine lace work.

Lace is something I know only a little about, so I was delighted to learn that in a future visit I would be able to meet with the curator of these exhibits, who would be glad to help me learn more about lacework.

-- Kayla