April 11, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about some of the many ways our ancestors celebrated springtime and Easter. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I look back on the many ways Americans have celebrated spring and the Easter holiday over the years. Customs and traditions vary, but one cannot help feeling the joy in these celebrations no matter what year they took place! Whether the event called for bonnets, bunnies, or balls commemorating Easter, these celebrations brough hope, gladness, and charity.
1920: Nicholas Senn High School Girls Make Easter Bonnets
A must-have for ladies on Easter is the bonnet. In the 1920s pennies were pinched in many households – “H.C.L.” in the headline below refers to the “High Cost of Living” that followed World War I. Not many had the loot for a high-end hat. But necessity is the mother of invention, and six girls from Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois, came up with a solid solution: they crafted their own.
Featured in this photo, from left to right: Louis Becklenberg, Alice Nothenberg, Viola Swanson, Florence Johnson, Florence Lindrooth, and Mildred Rose.
The girls boasted they made their hats at a cost of $4 to $7, mocking the Hi Cost crisis, and noted these hats would sell for $40 at local milliners. No excuse not to look your best on Easter Sunday!
The annual tradition of the Easter ball or Spring dance is an event carried out all over the country.
1922: Sheik Club Plans Grand Easter Ball
In 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, Miss Helen Pierce was full of anticipation for the upcoming big dance. Here she is featured in a Plain Dealer announcement for the annual Sheik Club Easter Ball, to be held on April 6.
1930: Blossom Queen of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival and Ball
Susanne Virginia Pollard, daughter of the recently inaugurated Governor of Virgina John Garland and his wife Grace Hawthorne (Phillips) Pollard, was the Blossom Queen of the 17th Apple Blossom Festival.
Miss Pollard married Herbert Lee Boatwright Jr., the son of Herbert Lee and Mary Elizabeth (Vaughan) Boatwright, the following year.
According to sources, the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival is always celebrated around the Easter holiday, and started in 1924.
After the coronation is a program of dance presented to entertain the queen, her court, and those in attendance. Other events include the first Torch Light and Mummers’ Parade.
Seventeen years previously, Miss Elizabeth Steck had been crowned the first Blossom Queen of Shenandoah, by the Prince of Apple Blossoms. Elizabeth Steck was the daughter of John Michael and Mary “Mollie” (Cover) Steck, and that same year married Joseph Victor Arthur Sr., son of Benjamin Franklin and Josie (Farrar) Arthur.
Many celebrities participated in the event including Elizbeth Taylor and Lucille Ball.
1947: Horsing Around for the Easter Rabbit!
On 6 April 1947, the Hollywood Auxiliary for the Children’s Hospital sponsored the Fourteenth Annual Equestrian Parade. Easter egg hunts and a grand horse parade were the focus, and Mrs. Ray Rosenthal was the chairperson of the committee.
In this photo taken at the Riveria Country Club, Misses Thais Steele and Merlyn Knight observe the antics of the little lasses Sally Irene Strong and Janet Nunan.
Below is a photograph of one of the horses who is going to be participating in the parade, while expert horseman David Llewellyn shows off the fine saddle the horse will be wearing. Lady admirers left to right: Mesdames Burton Van Tassell, Mrs. William Barshfield, and Mrs. Claude L. Patterson.
1950: Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny and Family Visit Dallas
Despite cold temps, Mr. Easter Bunny and his family flew into Dallas, Texas, from Bunneyville, just a hop away according to the press.
The Jesuit High School Brass Band played tunes as the Bunny family greeted more than a thousand children with loads of candy. A few of the adults did not pass up the egg treats as one father noted “I did not have lunch!”
Due to the cold the event was moved into a Braniff Airways hangar. That did not hinder any of the excitement. The children sported Easter-themed costumes hoping to win first prize, which was won by 7-year-old Antionette Goebel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Goebel of Poinsetta. She was pushing a carriage made in the shape of a large shoe house with a big window where little bunnies were shown inside. Mr. Bunny even made time for an interview!
2017: The Fun Continues!
Our ancestors weren’t the only ones who enjoyed bonnets and parades for springtime and Easter! Here is a photo of the Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival in New York city in 2017, published in the New York Post.
In this photo, revelers wear their Sunday best topped off with extravagant chapeaus along Fifth Avenue in New York.
Stay tuned for more! Happy Spring!
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Note on the header image: “Puck” magazine, 5 April 1899. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
