A Nice Long Weekend

Hubby and I went up to Newark, New Jersey Friday as I wanted to to go the Nicholas & Alexandra exhibit at the City Museum. I'm fascinated by the Romanovs, and I feel that Nicholas and Alexandra did not deserve the treatment they received near the end of their lives. They were so much in love, to a degree that was quite unusual amongst royalty at the time. This exhibit had items that would have been found in their family quarters at Tsarskoe Selo.

In any case, we had a nice drive up there and I got to do quite a bit of knitting on my socks. We stayed at Holiday Inn right next to the airports. The highway interchanges are very confusing and we missed exit (as in, we never saw that blue sign that was posted very close to the ground. The next day we went up to the museum. It would have been nice to show off pictures, but unfortunately, the museum does not allow pictures. It was so frustrating because I saw quite a few items that would have been of interest related to fiber. So . . . I'll just have to list what objects were of partiucular notice:

• a Gobelin tapestry copied from the painting of Marie Antoinette with her three children
• a hand-knotted oriental rug portraint of Nicholas and Alexandra, with Alexei, in commemoration of the tricentennial anniversary of the Romanovs' ascent to the throne
• a crochet hook
• a chatelaine that was used by Tsarina Alexandra for her needlework
• a picture of Grand Duchess Olga wearing her nurse uniform, knitting a sweater
• two loose-fitting gowns that the Tsarina would have worn in the morning in her mauve boudoir
• a Cossack cloak that looks like it was made from felted black wool
• a truly gorgeous christening gown worn by Tsarevich Alexei, along with the pillows covered with cloth of gold and silver

I did buy the catalog, but unfortunately, only the loose gowns, and christening outfit, I think, are pictured in the catalog. I'm sure they wanted to keep the costs low on the catalog. But I think if they aren't going to allow people to take pictures, they should at least make the effort to have every item in the exhibit photographed and recorded in the catalog so that people can remember what it was that they came to see when going to the exhibit.