While ‘80s- and ‘90s-themed dance parties have come into their own as stereotypical party themes of the college dance scene, the Hopkins Homewood House added its own temporal twist to the trend this past Saturday with its “Privileged Pursuits Party,” where guests partied like it was the 1800s.
Every year, Director and Curator of the Homewood Museum Catherine Arthur teaches a class about an aspect of early life in Baltimore. As part of the class, the students work with the Homewood Museum to organize several events including inviting speakers and hands-on activities related to the class’s subject.
Junior Lydia Alcock, a student employee at the museum, explained that the class culminates in an exhibition. “Every year the class does the historical research and ends up [putting together a group project],” Alcock said. “The class culminates in an exhibition.”
The course always focuses on life in early Baltimore but it has covered a wide range of topics even within that narrow category.
“Every fall I teach Intro to Material Culture, an undergraduate seminar that meets in the Homewood wine cellar,” Catherine Arthur said. “Students have engaged in pet ownership, pregnancy, personal hygiene and next fall, food.”
Last year the topic was transportation and there were carriage rides around the house. Downstairs, the group used the wine cellar to simulate a tavern.
For personal hygiene, a woman renown for her open-hearth cooking came and spoke in costume about personal hygiene 200 years ago. The woman shaved a balloon with a straight razor to demonstrate shaving in the 1800’s.
Arthur said that the programs the class and the museum plan together attempt to accurately recreate the lifestyle of the times.
“We make it come alive in the [Homewood] house. It’s easier to imagine what life is like. It’s fun for me and great for Homewood to have this academic life in the community,” she said.
According to Alcock, approximately 50 people including students, faculty and community members attended the event. Judith Proffitt, the Program Coordinator at the Homewood Museum, said she was particularly pleased with the number of students that attended.
During Intersession the museum had organized a “Dancing with Jane Austen” course to lead up to the event. “About half of the students from the class came,” Proffitt said.
The guests who had not participated in the Intersession class were at no disadvantage, as a professional dance company, one of the numerous groups invited by the Homewood Museum, gave a free lesson on dancing etiquette of the early 1800s. The dance troupe, called Chorégraphie Antique, is part of the Goucher Dance department.
Led by Chrystelle T. Bond, the group was formed in 1988 by several students who were curious about dancing during Jane Austen’s time period. The troupe branched out to cover dancing during medieval times, the Renaissance, the Civil War and even the “Roaring ‘20s.”
Bond explained that recreating dances of the past are difficult due to the different notation styles used by people of previous times.
“We research the dances using primary sources of the time,” she said. “I’m a dance historian and the best way is to do it — dance, and then you understand why they do it.”
“Anytime there’s war there’s been a good reason to dance. Dance therapy — George Washington had his soldiers dance to keep in shape when it was too cold to train,” Bond said.
This was the first time that Choréographie Antique performed in the Homewood Museum.
Besides the dance group, the event also included a group known as The Manly Arts who demonstrated fencing, card tricks and gambling of the time. Proffitt found out about the group through a park ranger at Fort McHenry who is a member of The Manly Arts.
In attendance was also an actress, Molly Moores, portraying Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (better known as Betsy Bonaparte). Moores explained that she was hired by the Homewood Museum to act as Bonaparte for the event.
“Besty Bonaparte married Bonaparte’s younger brother in 1803,” Moores said. She explained that Betsy was very famous in Baltimore because she married royalty. “If you look at a portrait of her, you can see that I look very similar to her in height and complexion,” Moores added.
Moores is an independent contractor who performs a one-woman show impersonating Betsy Bonaparte. This past fall Proffitt saw Moores perform and thought she would be a great addition to the event.
Moores was not the only person in costume either. Choréographie Antique was in full costume and brought extras which many of the Homewood Museum volunteers wore.
While many of the Homewood Museum’s events require a small fee, the museum tries to have free events for students, the poetry reading “Emergence of American Voices: Early 19th-Century Poetry” being one of them.
Junior Amy-Lou Brouner was very happy she attended. “It was definitely worth it,” Brouner said. “There was a half-hour demonstration of fencing, we got to watch a long demonstration of dancing and then participate. We even learned how to flirt with a fan!”
Brouner’s friend also attended the event and expressed interest in returning for another similar event.
The next event of the Privileged Pursuits series will be a poetry reading on March 10th.
