Photo by Mild Du Lyon County Museum Executive Director Jennifer Andries recently posed with some of the dresses on display at the museum’s latest exhibit. The oldest wedding dress in the exhibit is from 1883

MARSHALL — Wedding season is in full swing this summer at the Lyon County Museum.

An exhibit with more than 40 wedding dresses is on display in the museum’s upstairs community room. All of the couples have roots in Lyon County, either by birth or because they lived here for most of their adult lives.

Museum Executive Director Jennifer Andries said she started with a goal to have at least 15 dresses on display, but expanded to more than 40 as the exhibit was being developed.

Most of the dresses and objects are part of the museum’s collection after being donated. A few of them are on loan for the exhibit, which runs through the middle of September.

“We’ve displayed wedding dresses before in the front entry and the heritage room,” Andries said. “We had many that have never been shown. This year we decided to showcase them on a larger scale.”

All dresses are displayed with the names of the couple, the date of the wedding, and the church where they were married. Most of the signs, made by museum Collection Manager Paul Evanson, include a wedding picture.

The exhibit spans many decades, with the oldest dress dating back to 1883. It is from the wedding of Susanna Brown and Sidney Herrick, who were married in Monroe County, Ohio, before settling in the Russell area.

Two of the other oldest dresses were worn by relatives of Marshall’s earliest leaders. One belonged to the wife of A.P. Rose, while another was worn by publisher C.C. Whitney’s daughter.

One dress was worn by three different women in 1952, 1953 and 1954. It was made by Gertrude Kerkvliet Deutz and worn by relatives.

“We were able to include a wide range of time periods,” Andries said. “Together items in the exhibit show the trends in fashions that developed over the years.”

Some dresses from the 1930s and earlier feature colors other than white. Andries said some women from those decades chose colors like gray, light blue, navy blue or burgundy because they could later wear the dress for other occasions.

Along with bridal dresses, the exhibit includes a groom’s suit, bridesmaid dresses, a mother of the groom dress and a going away dress. Brides from the 1940s until the 1970s sometimes wore a going away dress as they left on their honeymoons.

Some of the earlier dresses are made of velvet or satin. Newer dresses show modern trends such as headwear and ruffles.

Objects displayed on shelves include a German wedding cup, which reflects the German tradition in which a couple drinks from the cup simultaneously. Some of the other objects include wedding gifts, invitations, shoes, a ring pillow and a cake topper.

Andries said visitors like not only the objects on display, but also the factual information about each of the couples.

“The exhibit tells their stories,” she said. “It always makes a difference if we know who owned something, if we can authenticate it as an object with ties to Lyon County.”

She said the museum has some older dresses with unknown owners. She hopes that at some point at least one of them can be identified by a visiting relative or by an old wedding photo.

Ardella Quarnstrom of Marshall donated a group of items that are featured in the exhibit, such as her wedding dress, her going away dress and her cake topper. She and her husband, Warren Quarnstrom, were married in Brewster before they moved to Marshall, where Warren practiced law for many years.

She said she’s impressed with the results of the exhibit because of how it brings together a wide range of weddings that span many decades.

“It’s great that it includes so many couples from throughout Lyon County,” Quarnstrom said. “I donated my wedding items to the museum so they could be preserved. It’s enjoyable to have them on display.”