Theodosia Sanger on her wedding day in 1937. Her complete wedding outfit will form part of the collection on display from this week at Corowa Art Space.
A rare exhibition showcasing four generations of fashions from the Sanger family opens at the Corowa Art Space tomorrow.
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The father of Corowa’s most notable family, John Mildred Sanger, arrived in Australia in 1850 from England, where he was a member of the Royal Geographical Society.
Sanger had proposed a scheme for the construction of a canal through the Isthmus of Panama, which proved to be premature, but was eventually built in 1914.
In 1853, Sanger settled on land to the east of what is now Sanger St with the land to the west settled by John Foord who founded Wahgunyah.
Sanger became wealthy as he sold off parcels of land to start the development of Corowa; established a winery which he later sold to Lindeman’s on the site of the current Red Gum Caravan Park, and bought his first 1000 merino ewes from John Macarthur’s Camden Park.
Sanger Street in Corowa was named after pioneer settler, John Mildred Sanger.
His son, Charles Dunford Sanger married Charlotte Crosthwaite in 1899, and it’s Charlotte’s clothes, including her maternity dresses from 1900 and 1902, that are the first of four generations on display, spanning the 1890s to the 1970s.
Charles and Charlotte Sanger had two children, Jean, whose clothes from the 1920s and 1930s form part of the collection, and Tom, one of the notable characters in Corowa’s history as a farmer, councillor and president of Coreen Shire Council.
Tom married Theodosia in December 1937 in one of Australia’s great society weddings of the time, written up in the newspapers of Sydney and Melbourne.
The most significant of the collection is Theodosia’s complete wedding outfit, worn just three years before she died at 33, leaving her daughter Rosemary who was not yet two years old.
Rosemary Theodosia Creed eventually inherited the Sanger land.
It was there she found an airtight trunk full of the clothes, most in good condition, which she donated to Federation Museum.
Rosemary is now in her eighties, and it is her clothes and those of her four daughters from the 1970s which complete the collection.
Tapestry of Time
• Textiles and exquisite accessories from four generations of Corowa’s Sanger family.
• Corowa Art Space, at Council Civic Centre
• January 15 – February 28
• Tuesday to Friday 9.30am-4.30pm, Saturday 10am-2pm
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