History museum: 'Fleeting Fashions' part of Victorian Days History museum: 'Fleeting Fashions' part of Victorian Days (August 17, 2005)

Augmenting the San Mateo County History Museum's Victorian Days event on Saturday, August 27, is a new exhibit called "Fleeting Fashions," which features costumes from the museum collection spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. The display includes 10 complete outfits and a variety of beaded dresses.

Most of the garments come from local Peninsula residents, said Mitch Postel, executive director of the San Mateo County Historical Association.

Accessories on display include gloves, furs, stockings, parasols, collars, ties, hats, headdresses and costume jewelry. More than 20 purses are shown.

During the Victorian Days event in Redwood City, the museum admission, usually $4, is waived. People can see "Fleeting Fashions" and other displays without charge.

Included in this year's Victorian Days activities are carriage rides, a celebrity dunk tank, old fashioned fire engines and a bucket brigade competition, lumberjack activities, children's games and crafts, local history booths, reenactments and a vintage hat show.

Victorian Days will take place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Because of construction going around the museum's building, the museum's entrance is temporarily at 750 Middlefield Road in Redwood City.
History museum

The San Mateo County History Museum moved to Redwood City in 1999. Since then, it has opened two permanent exhibit galleries.

"Nature's Bounty" focuses on the natural resources of the Peninsula and how those resources were used by the earliest people, and then how they were employed to build San Francisco in the 19th century.

"Journey to Work" tells the history of the commute to San Francisco from the Peninsula, starting with the San Francisco to San Jose Railroad in 1864.

Changing exhibits include ship models of Charles Parsons, and the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame.

Other attractions are the museum's stain glass domes (one in its rotunda and one in Courtroom A). The rotunda dome is known as the largest stain glass dome in a public building on the West Coast, said Mr. Postel.
INFORMATION

The Victorian Days event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 27, at the San Mateo County History Museum (enter at 750 Middlefield Road in Redwood City). For more information, call 299-0104, or go to www.sanmateocountyhistory.com.

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