Canada: ONTARIO: The Queen's Dress

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It was a dress for a museum. Its lustrous white satin billowed from the waist into a crinoline that coruscated with flowers of pearls and leaves of gold. Shim mering gold-and-pearl-embroidered lace swathed the noble bodice, gold and pearl paillettes festooned the ample skirt. It cost $20,000.

When Queen Elizabeth, touring Canada with King George VI in 1939, wore it at a royal reception in Ottawa, Canadians agreed that Her Majesty looked radiant.

To enshrine the legend, the Queen gave the gown (one of her favorites) to the Dominion as a gift. In December 1940 it was elegantly displayed on a dummy in Ottawa's Public Archives. Ever since, tourists have gawked at its opulence.

Ottawa's gain was Toronto's gall. Officials of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum cried loudly that they had asked for the gown, hence should exhibit it. For five and a half years the two cities wrangled over the dress.

Finally the tussle was terminated. Ottawa awoke one day to find only the naked dummy. The dress had gone. On the orders of Secretary of State Paul Martin, it had been sent to Toronto.

Officially, it was merely on loan. But the Toronto Museum had prepared a permanent place for it in its collection of royal robes.*