My love of late Imperial Russian history… My fascination with Nicholas & Alexandra… My obsession with Anastasia and the story of Anna Anderson…

Living in Arkansas, it was unlikely that I would be able to explore these passions further in a scholarly way. In graduate school, we were encouraged to research and write about something Arkansas-related. It was good for Arkansas history (expanding the scholarship of our small and under-studied state) and research was easier to access because it was close to home.

And then one day while working at the Old State House Museum, I discovered that late imperial Russian history, Nicholas & Alexandra, and Anastasia were much closer than I thought.

The Breckinridge gown was in the collection of the Old State House Museum. Worn by Katherine Carson Breckinridge to the coronation of Nicholas & Alexandra in 1896, the gown was made by Redfern. I’d found my thesis topic. I could do a material culture study of the gown, right?

Well not so quickly. One item doesn’t make a material culture study. You need more. You need a wardrobe or at least a few gowns worn by the same person or the same designer.

So it started with a dress. But it’s really about the papers. The letters. The receipts. The paper trail that people leave about their life and their time.