The Harry Ransom Center has started a campaign to raise $30,000 for the restoration and preservation of five original costumes from the classic film “Gone With the Wind.”
The film, which earned 10 Academy Awards following its release in 1939, has consistently been recognized as one of the greatest American movies ever made. The American Film Institute has repeatedly ranked “Gone With the Wind” as one of the top 10 American films.
The five original costumes that the center is working to restore and display are part of the David O. Selznick Collection, which the center has had in its possession since the 1980s. Selznick was a Hollywood producer who was active in the 1930s and ‘40s.
“The dresses are as much a cultural document as the script or storyboards. Costumes are not the same as clothing,” said Steve Wilson, curator of film at the center. “A costume is meant to contribute [to] and enhance the actor’s creation of character, so in the same way that we can tell a lot about someone’s personality through the way they dress, we can learn a lot about a character’s personality and backstory through their costume.”
In addition to the five costumes, the center has about 5,000 boxes of materials in the Selznick Collection, along with 200 paintings, 2 million feet of film and 500,000 photographs. The original costumes, including Scarlett O’Hara’s green-curtain dress and wedding dress, are currently kept in storage at the center.
The money raised for the project will be used to restore the costumes and to purchase custom-built mannequins that will allow the Ransom Center to safely transport and display the garments.
“We are planning on having a 75th-anniversary exhibition of ‘Gone With the Wind’ in 2014, and so, we’d like to have all of the gowns in good shape for that exhibition,” said Jill Morena, the center’s collection assistant for costumes and personal effects. “To have these costumes in a state in which they can be viewed not just here at the Ransom Center but at venues around the world will be really spectacular.”
