Photos: Supplied.
BY JAN NARY
A visit to the nurseries of yesteryear is one of the displays on offer at the Redlands Coast Museum. Babies & Toddlers is the first display curated by Susan Hoy as head of the Museum’s Textile Team.
A highlight of the exhibition is a pram, donated in “renovator’s delight” condition and lovingly restored by a skilled museum volunteer. A classic 1960s model, complete with leather suspension, Susan says that it encapsulates a historical time.
“It tells a story, a social history of when we didn’t have cars. Mothers would dress up their babies, put them into the pram and go for a walk; it was a part of their social routine,” she says. “We also have a cane pram which is even older, probably from the mid-20th century.”
The oldest pieces in the exhibition are christening gowns, petticoats and a bonnet from the 1880s, though christening gowns and other garments have disappeared from the well-dressed babies’ wardrobe list over the years.
“Christenings have given way to naming days and christening gowns have virtually disappeared; we’ve lost all the ceremony and pomp of yesteryear,” says Susan. “Other baby and toddler clothes like petticoats and button-up tailored coats are rarely seen now.”
The exhibition includes 1950s-1960s romper suits for boys and for girls, hand-knitted and hand-crocheted layettes of silk and wool, booties and mittens and one very special layette: dress, matinee jacket, leggings, booties, petticoat and a bonnet, knitted from a little doll’s layette pattern for a premature baby, born at 30 weeks. Jan Banks, former head of the Textile Team, contributed a tiny rubber baby’s hot water bottle, decorated with little animals.
Honouring the traditional owners of the land, there is an Indigenous baby doll in a coolamon, covered in fabric “gum leaves”. “For obvious reasons we couldn’t access a possum skin as a liner,” says Susan.
Another feature is a selection of historic photos of local children wearing the clothing of the time and a book for visitors to transcribe their childhood memories of growing up in the Redlands, an addition to the museum’s recorded history of the Redlands.
