West Deptford Wedding Gowns Throughout the Ages

When April Maska looks at some of the old gowns in the collection of the West Deptford Historical Association, she sees “the settling of a community,” she said. 

Maska has led the curation of an exhibit of bridal gowns from some of the older families in West Deptford. It will hang on display in the West Deptford Free Public Library through August, and features some gowns that date back to the early 1900s.

The exhibit had its opening reception Tuesday, during which visitors met some of the brides whose gowns are on display (including librarian Karen Boucher, who joked that her Pearl Harbor Day anniversary was one that will live in infamy).

“The whole concept is to preserve what we can of West Deptford Township,” Maska said. “We still look new to other towns, but there is so much here.”

Very few women throw their wedding gowns away, Maska said, so the dresses became a touchstone through which to connect with some older West Deptford families. The Pfeiffer family, for example, provided three generations of decades-old dresses for the exhibit.

“There are so many different stories to be told” by a wedding dress, Maska said. “Because of that dress they became a family.

Instead of throwing them away when an elderly relative dies, she said, residents can provide their wedding gowns to the historical society on permanent loan, which means the exhibit will “revisit their wedding day every five to seven years.

“Permanent loan means we’ll keep it forever, but if it’s a time you need it or want it back, obviously we’d never say no,” Maska said.

Curators give the gowns “a Woolite wash,” and sets them up with a photo of the bride and groom and their wedding date.

“The idea is to picture that lady in her gown,” she said. “No matter what happened later, this day was special to this lady, that woman, that girl.”