Gelatin silver print - Costume ball for Anna Cowans, Montreal, Quebec, 1924 | McCord Museum

Bal costumé pour Anna Cowans, Montréal, Québec, 1924

Gelatin silver print

Costume ball for Anna Cowans, Montreal, Quebec, 1924

Photography studio Drucker & Baltes

SignatureWithin image, inscribed, l.r. : DRUCKER / & BALTES N.Y.

InscriptionsUnderneath image, handwritten, l.r. : 4 5 6 1 2 3

Date 1924

Medium / Technique Silver salts on paper mounted on board
Gelatin silver process

Dimensions27.6 × 47.1 cm

ClassificationCommunication Objects - Documentary Objects - Graphic Documents

Origin Montreal, Quebec, Canada, North America

Object NumberMP-1984.125

DivisionPhotography - Documentary Collection

CollectionMcCord

CreditGift of Joan Elspeth Bourne

NotesExhibition Costume Balls - Dressing Up History, 1870-1927
Changing mores
In 1924, when Bessie and Herbert Molson attended the Montreal ball in honour of debutante Anna Cowans, many of the 19th-century taboos around dressing up had disappeared. Guests wore masks, removing them only at midnight for this flash photograph. Anna herself portrayed a male character, which would have been forbidden even 20 years earlier. But no men appeared as female characters! Racialized portrayals always abounded whenever they were not strictly forbidden. A number of ball-goers came as Chinese representations, several guests darkened their skin, and one of the four attendees who came as a Ku Klux Klan member stands out in the centre near the front. These characters show how these balls normalized whiteness and exerted racial control, further contributing to the marginalization of racialized members of society.

Status

Not on view

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