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The Mary Pickford Costume and Ephemera Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County BethWerling Among the estimated 35 million artifacts and specimens that reside at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) is a collection of fifty objects that document Mary Pickford’s role as Hollywood’s first movie star and female film mogul. Postcards displaying scenes from the actress’s now-lost first features, a pair of badges bearing her photograph from the Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Ball in 1914, costumes from the 1920s, and her iconic blond curls are some of the items that make up Pickford’s extraordinary donation to the museum. Why did Pickford decide to give her career-defining collection to the NHMLAC? The answer is deceptively simple; the institution’s name does not reflect its origins or its mission. Although associated primarily with dinosaurs and other scientific specimens , the NHMLAC’s History Department has a mandate to collect and preserve artifacts from an array of Los Angeles–based industries.⁄ Since 1930, the museum has solicited items from people and organizations in the movie business, including studios, moguls, inventors, animators, cameramen, and actors. Today the institution is home to the world’s foremost collection of artifacts from early motion pictures, including scenarios, costumes, animation cels, cameras, set models, mercury vapor lights, editing equipment, sound e∑ects devices, and more. In 1932 Pickford, who was starting to take a serious interest in the preservation of Hollywood history, responded to the museum’s request for cinemarelated donations. She gave a variety of materials from all aspects of her career as an actress, producer, movie star, and international celebrity. Pickford was not merely cleaning out her closets and storage facilities. She cared deeply for her career and her public image, and the objects in her collection reflect the thought and attention she devoted to her legacy. Among her artifacts are magnificent gowns from films such as Rosita (1923), DorothyVernon of Haddon Hall (1924), and Coquette (1929). Pickford also donated precious items received while traveling the world with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. The couple was greeted as royalty and given gifts of appreciation from the hosts of the nations they visited. The NHMLAC received three of these foreign treasures : a kimono from Japan, a matador’s suit from Spain, and a headdress from Russia. Nothing, however, evokes the image of Mary Pickford more than her donation of five coils of golden hair. Still glistening, the curls (each about eleven inches long) were shorn in June 1928. Today, these ringlets are among the top ten most requested items in the entire museum. Their impact is visceral, prompting a range of emotions from reverence to morbid curiosity. Children who have never heard of Pickford are instantly engaged: Can we clone her? Is that real hair? How does it stay curled? The curiosity value of the curls, the exotic gifts, and the glorious costumes is a wonderful tool for opening the door to silent film history, grabbing visitors’ attention and enticing them to stay, look, and learn about this movie pioneer. By donating these items and other memorabilia to the museum, Pickford provided the means to marvel at and better comprehend the twentieth century’s definitive art form: the motion picture. ¬ Opposite, top: Tinted postcards from two of Pickford’s earliest features: In the Bishop’s Carriage and Caprice (both 1913). No copies of the films are known to exist. Opposite, bottom left: Five of Pickford’s famous golden curls. Opposite, center right: One of two identical badges from the 1914 Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Ball donated to the museum by Pickford. Her appearance at the event created a sensation among attendees. Opposite, bottom right: Bejeweled headdress given to Pickford by the people of Russia during her 1926 visit to Moscow. 228 ...

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