It is the fall of 1901, and friends and family in the communities around Inverness County have received an invitation to a luncheon/tea at the East Lake home of Mr. and Mrs. William Campbell. Here they will have an opportunity to admire the hope chest and trousseau of the Campbell's daughter Rachel, fiancée of Alexander MacGregor, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm MacGregor of Margaree.

So begins the historical fiction that is the basis for an undertaking by the Lake Ainslie Weavers and Craft Guild, whose members and friends have assembled a collection of handcrafted work that we've titled the One Hundred Year-Old Trousseau.

In the fall of 2001 this exhibit opened at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax. This exhibit was brought together with the help of the Nova Scotia Department of Culture and Tourism, the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Guild members, and friends of the Guild. We thank you.

From the middle of the last century into the first decade of this one, William Morris and like-minded artists led a revival of cottage industries in fabric arts and household fashions in reaction to what they saw as loss of quality and creativity in the mass production that characterized the Industrial Revolution. Today, it might be said that a growing interest in these heritage skills is made more poignant by a wariness of a corresponding rapid advance in technology.

Mary E. Black led a campaign of her own to revive traditional arts and household crafts in Nova Scotia from the 1940s onward. It is this that makes it so appealing to mount the Hundred Year Old Trousseau in the Mary E. Black Gallery.

Then there is the notion of revival, suggesting the arts themselves could be lost or become extinct. Morris and Black were able to promote a resurgence in the practice of such arts because the necessary knowledge and skills were available to them. They were carried on a shared through generations of women. They were and are an element of coming of age.

The One Hundred Year Old Trousseau demonstrates how alive these arts are in Inverness County, the community represented by the Lake Ainslie Weavers Guild. From childhood to homemaker the One Hundred Year Old Trousseau presents a chronology of learning and doing depicted in original works by members of the Lake Ainslie Weavers Guild and Friends. Research was carried out to verify process and to avoid anachronism in the work produced. The work was be organized into five sets, with information provided in The Story of Rachel.

1. Learning & Doing — Information and examples of work by beginners (embroidery, crochet, knitting and weaving projects) that show how Rachel would pick up the skills in fabric arts and other homemaking skills.
2. The Hope Chest — Rachel's work finds an objective in the tradition of the Hope Chest in which she collects work of her own plus gifts from family and friends who encourage her to look ahead to life as a homemaker. This encouragement is best exemplified in the commitment of time and energy (by a father, uncle, grandfather) in the making of the Hope Chest itself.
3. Fashion and Style — Presenting examples of the style of the period in clothing and in home fashion (kitchen, parlour, bath, bedroom.) The focus of this information panel will be to describe how Rachel would inform herself about styles of the day.
4. The Trousseau — The highlight of the exhibit is Rachel's wedding gown, styled and made by a local Rachel herself. Other clothing (day wear and lingerie) may have been produced by the new ready-to-wear trade but most of the clothing shown here was made by Rachel or by family and friends. Rachel's favourites are the tea dress made for her by her mother and the fine mohair shawl knitted by her aunt who raised the sheep and goats whose wool she used.
5. Lake Ainslie Weavers and Friends — Rachel received many fine gifts from friends and relations and as her wedding day approaches she will display these gifts along with her trousseau at a special trousseau tea. This set celebrates the quality and range of work being done by artists and craftspeople in Inverness County today.