front
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

This photograph of an unidentified bride was taken by J.E. Purdey of Boston, Massachusetts c.1920. Before the 20th century, it was rare for a woman to wear a formal white wedding gown. The custom of making or purchasing a dress to be worn on only one occasion was not a familiar one in the 17th to 19th centuries. Most wedding attire of these earlier centuries was a colorful silk dress of green or brown, perhaps, that could then be worn as her best dress throughout the life of the bride. This is a formal portrait, posed in a studio. The hairstyle and headpiece were stylish in the 1920s.

top of page