A royal dress

Dress, child. Nelson Provincial Museum Collection: NPM2019.59.1

New Zealand has enjoyed a long history of visits from the royal family, one of the most significant being in 1954, shortly after the Queen’s coronation, which included a stop in Nelson on 17 January – 66 years ago today.

For New Zealanders who experienced it, the visit of the young queen and her dashing husband, was a never-to-be forgotten event. The couple visited 46 towns or cities and attended 110 separate functions, giving many or most New Zealanders the chance to see her. Those who were children at the time recall the Big Day, marked for months on the calendar, when they dressed in posh clothes, pinned a royal tour medallion to their chests, collected a flag to wave, and set out to see the queen.

In Nelson, a little four year-old girl turned out for the big event dressed in a pale blue frock made by her mother. If you look closely, the material of this dress matched the occasion perfectly, with its tiny, coloured cartoon images of a queen’s coronation. This dress was donated to the Museum last year along with a hand-written note:

“My mother made me this frock for the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Nelson on her New Zealand tour in 1953. I can remember standing opposite Auckland Pt. School near the Moller Fountain holding my NZ flag waiting for what seemed a very long time for her car to drive past.”