This smooth, cream-colored, satin wedding dress with long sleeves was worn by Dorothy Philomena Link when she married Arthur Paul Frommelt on February 25, 1938. Dorothy’s mother made this quintessential 1930s style gown with a Peter Pan collar and a small v-cut neckline with white beaded leaves below it.
The satin covered buttons go from the collar through to the midback. There is a single-snap closure on each diamond-cut wrist cuff. The dress was reportedly far too long for Dorothy’s height of only 5’2”, which was the reason the dress had a train. Through the 1930s, fitted styles with long, sweeping lines in shiny fabrics like this one were a popular departure from the drop-waisted short dresses of the previous decade.
Both the Link and Frommelt families were fourth generation farm families in the Dubuque/Clayton County areas of Eastern Iowa. Dorothy was the oldest of eight children. She attended school only through eighth grade, and always said she wished she had fought more for education. Dorothy worked for Mrs. Bissell, mother of Richard Bissell, famed author best known for his musical adaptation of The Pajama Game.