AustLit

'On display for the first time in 2019–20 in State Library Victoria’s Victoria Gallery is the only surviving costume commissioned by the International Club of Victoria for the Pageant of Nations performed in 1934 and 1935 to celebrate Victoria’s centenary. The costume designed for the pageant’s protagonist, ‘Victoria’, was donated to State Library Victoria in 1998 by Jessie Clarke (nee Brookes),1 who played that role on the stage of Melbourne’s Town Hall for the three performances in 1934, and two additional enactments in 1935. Clarke also donated a hand-coloured studio portrait of herself wearing the costume (shown on page 28). The dynamic ensemble included a hand-painted hooped skirt and a shimmering silver bodice over which trailed a long green cloak veined with silver markings. The entire ensemble was crowned with a striking metallic headdress. State Library Victoria had no record of the identity of the costume’s designer until my own research into realia, manuscripts and pictures in the collection in 2013 led me to discover the story of a woman with talent and ingenuity who contributed an enduring legacy to Australia’s performing arts. This article adds to the previous La Trobe Journal article about the Jessie Clarke costume' (Introduction)