{"id":5155,"date":"2013-10-31T15:42:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T15:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=5155"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:10:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:10:42","slug":"princess-gypsy-or-hobo-a-look-at-halloween-costume-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/princess-gypsy-or-hobo-a-look-at-halloween-costume-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Princess, Gypsy or Hobo? A Look at Halloween Costume History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d In this guest blog post\u2014just in time for Halloween celebrations tonight\u2014Gena searches old newspapers to look at the history of Halloween costumes.<\/em><\/p>\n

What was Halloween like when you were a child? What Halloween costumes did you wear when you went trick-or-treating? For kids, Halloween is one of the best holidays, right up there with Christmas. With all the candy and parties it\u2019s easy to see why children count it as a favorite holiday. When I was a child we rarely had store-bought Halloween costumes; instead we came up with our own costume creations that were a mishmash of clothes from my parents\u2019 closets, makeup, and accessories.<\/p>\n

Historical Costumes in Newspapers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not sure what to dress up for this Halloween? Why not take a cue from old newspapers<\/a>? Early 20th century newspapers have a lot of ideas for Halloween costumes.<\/p>\n

In some cases, costume suggestions from newspaper articles incorporate Halloween symbols (ghosts, witches and pumpkins) but not necessarily dressing up as a particular character. Take this 1917 newspaper article, which provides a \u201cpattern\u201d for two Halloween costumes that can be made from crepe paper. The writer points out that crepe paper is a good solution for a costume since it is perfect for a temporary use but later warns that a \u201clive boy and an entire paper costume do not go very well together.\u201d I think most of us who have sons can identify with that.<\/p>\n

\"Novel<\/a>
Wyoming State Tribune (Cheyenne, Wyoming), 9 October 1917, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This fanciful 1903 newspaper article provides Halloween costume ideas for those attending a masquerade party. The masquerade costumes in this news article are much more complicated than the previous article\u2019s crepe paper creations. The illustrations provide some ideas for the would-be Halloween partygoer, but the article describes even more\u2014including costumes for those who want to dress as a favorite pastime (card playing or cooking are given as examples) or a famous historical or literary figure (such as Marie Antoinette, Madame Pompadour, Du Barry, Marie Stuart, Amy Robsart, Nell Gwynne, Juliet, Portia, or Rosalind).<\/p>\n

\"Masquerade<\/a>
Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 18 October 1903, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our Ancestors\u2019 Halloween Costume <\/strong><\/p>\n

You probably wouldn\u2019t think to search for an ancestor\u2019s name and street address in an article about Halloween events\u2014but that\u2019s just the type of gem you can find in old newspapers<\/a>. Consider this lengthy 1922 newspaper article. It tells about the thousands enjoying Halloween festivities, including a costume contest with numerous names of winners, their street addresses, and what they won (largely produce or \u201clive poultry\u201d). The only thing missing from the majority of this list are the winners\u2019 costumes. Wouldn\u2019t it be great to find out that your great-grandmother won a pig in a Halloween costume contest?<\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/a>
Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), 1 November 1922, page 14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While it is not unusual to find newspaper articles with lists of the names of people attending Halloween gatherings, the occasional historical costume photo also shows up. Here\u2019s a 1922 photo that loses something in the translation; it is of partygoers dressed as \u201cpretty dancers\u201d who decorated themselves with Spanish Moss from Jacksonville and \u201cappropriate Halloween decorations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pretty<\/a>
Baltimore American (Baltimore, Maryland), 29 October 1922, page 14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Halloween Pranks & the Police<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have decided on a costume and firmed up your Halloween plans, make sure that you have fun in moderation. My friend who is a police officer talks about how Halloween is one of his least favorite times to work because of all the pranks and trouble caused by those who hide under the cover of darkness and a well-placed mask. By reading old newspapers<\/a> you can see that mischievousness and mayhem isn\u2019t just a modern Halloween problem. Consider this police warning from 1928.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 31 October 1928, page 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However you choose to celebrate Halloween this 2013, have a safe and fun night! Happy Halloween to you and yours!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d In this guest blog post\u2014just in time for Halloween celebrations tonight\u2014Gena searches old newspapers to look at the history of Halloween costumes. What was Halloween like when you were a child? What Halloween costumes did you wear when you went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[5561,1658,2233,59,5530,465,2020,27],"class_list":["post-5155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-costumes","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-halloween","tag-halloween-costumes","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70431,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5155\/revisions\/70431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}