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Re: Pretty In Pink/pink dress/famous dresses of the first ladies, . . .



All this discussion of Jackie's pink dress brought to mind something I learned back at DU in an archives class (probably the one on local history) taught by Enid Thompson. . . (I believe we were talking about all the houses George Washington had slept in) . . . if an artifact is being displayed merely because it is connected with something historic, but does not educate us about the circumstances/time period/event, why is it being displayed? How would looking at Jackie's pink dress help us learn about/understand more about the assassination of JFK? Looking at the pink dress in this light, it seems to fall more under the category of evidence (useful in forensics, but not in the interpretation of the historic event of the assassination). The context in which an item is displayed is important. (I enjoyed the exhibit of the inagural ball gowns of the first ladies--but mostly from the perspective of fashion--how the dresses were constructed, of what materials, what styles were popular during what periods, etc.--I learned very little about the first ladies except for how small some of them were). But didn't someone point out in an earlier posting the pink dress was a "Coco Chanel"?
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Renée LaPerrière de Gutiérrez
Reference/Special Collections Librarian
rlaperriere@tamiu.edu
http://www.tamiu.edu/~rlaperriere/

Texas A&M International University
Killam Library #308
5201 University Blvd.
Laredo, TX  78041-1900
Phone:(956)326-2404
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