Curated by Kay MacGregor and Barb Johnson, the display features dresses and other items from the society’s vast, varied and valuable collection. Members of the public are invited to visit the cottage on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am – 4pm to view these priceless objects.

One special item is an 1860s dress worn by Ava Jane Hall as late as 1920. She was the granddaughter of Wooton Lansell, brother of Quartz King George Lansell. In contrast is a green wedding dress with embossed cotton and black lace, donated by the Victorian era estate of Frieda Kahland. Her parents were Johan Detlef and Elizabeth Fly. Johan was well known as a wine and cordial maker and his house and cellar are still situated in Bendigo. A display folder on Frieda Kahland may be seen at Specimen Cottage.

Among the other artefacts is promotional material for ‘Cadbury’s Cocoa’ designed in the form of a lady’s bag, dating from the early 20th century, printed on the inside of a chocolate box.   There is a selection of bags including a red and navy leather handbag from the 1930s, a coin purse and 1938 calendar enclosed in a bag, a beaded and crocheted Edwardian era bag and a leather coin purse from the same time. Clasps were either xylonite or celluloid which could be purchased separately to allow women to design their own bags to suit their outfits. A gunmetal/silver mesh Edwardian bag and a brown velvet one with an ornate silver clasp, both from the Edwardian era, may be seen together with a vintage 1950s black Cornelli silk faille embellished bag.

Other items include a small Le Dix (a company launched in 1947) perfume bottle and two mirrors in the one bag, ‘Whybrow’ button up boots from the early 20th century, feather fan trims for hats from the 1920s and ‘Gatsby wedding gloves’ from the same era. To round off the display there are dressed dolls, one from the 1950s.

Visitors may be amused to see a pair of ‘bloomers’ in the display. It was the sight of coloured ‘bloomers’ worn by the Bendigo women’s cricket teams in the 1870s that created much criticism from men at the time. The women competed in the first recorded women’s cricket match. Readers may also note the ‘bloomer’ design is used in some modern day costumes.