If your family was ever one of the few to own a century-old ball gown, chances are Cynthia Cooper knows about it.
The curator of dress, fashion and textiles at the McCord Stewart Social History Museum in Montreal has for three decades been studying the way garments shaped past people’s lives.
But in the fall of 2021, while Cooper was reviewing some of the museum’s archives for an upcoming exhibition on 19th- and 20th-century costume balls, she came across a photo of a dress she had not seen before.
The gown is made of light blue silk, embroidered
