Manships Marry: Weddings in the Nineteenth Century

The Manship House Museum annually displays exhibit on wedding customs of the Victorian era. Manships Marry: Weddings in the Nineteenth Century runs in late winter each year. On display is an array of wedding attire dating from 1845 through 1894 and the recreated setting of the 1879 "duplex wedding"—a common phrase from the era for the wedding of two couples at the same ceremony—of sisters Jennie and Jessie Manship.

Wedding ceremonies in the U.S. underwent a change in the nineteenth century. Predominantly small civil services initially, they became more and more often gala affairs and were increasingly elaborate and expensive.

Displays in the three bedrooms in the house museum will feature wedding clothes and accessories common to the era. It was customary for the couple to display their wedding gifts for guests to admire, and the sitting room will showcase a recreation of the presents from Florence Lee Manship's 1885 wedding. In the dining room will be a recreation of the duplex wedding feast, which featured such exotic foods as fresh fish from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, oysters, salmon chowder from Alaska, oranges and bananas from Cuba, Javanese coffee, and Chinese teas.

Entrance to the Manship House Museum is free. For more information, please call 601-961-4724.