© Catherine Vanaria

“Magnificent Millinery: Three Centuries of Women's Hats in Danbury” is an exhibit opening Saturday, June 4, 2011, at the Danbury Museum & Historical Society. There will be a ribbon-cutting by Danbury's "first lady" Phyllis Boughton at 10 a.m. followed by refreshments. The museum is located at 43 Main Street, Danbury, CT.

Twenty display cases with over 300 hats from the museum's collection are exhibited with other hatting items from Danbury's history in the millinery trade. The exhibition was curated by guest curator Erika Ketelhohn-Askin.

For the past year or so, our own Catherine Vanaria (printer, photographer, and WCSU professor) has been photographing hats from their collection that are from the colonial period up until the mid-20th century. Her large-format prints are featured in the exhibition.

The Mercurial did a story on it here. The exhibition runs until October 15, 2011.

From the opening:

Cathy Vanaria at the opening, photo by Mark Savoia