Summary

Alternative Name(s): Hope Chest

Glory box purchased by Kath Davis to house her glory box collection. Kath was born in Bairnsdale in 1921 and then moved to Traralgon with her family. She began collecting items for her glory box when she started work at 17, living with her parents in Traralgon, and had competed her collection by around 1940. She married in 1944.

Physical Description

Walnut veneer wardrobe-style glory box. Two doors open onto a series of shelves, shallow trays and a lower drawer for housing accumulated domestic goods for marrriage.

Significance

Glory boxes represented a significant rite of passage for many women growing up before, during and after World War Two. They provide a material symbol through which can be explored themes of artistry, sexuality, economy and cultural maintenance. Of particular interest is how glory boxes can be used to track the growing consumer culture after World War II and how there was a shift from the hand made to the mass produced. The traditions cross time and cultures.

Kath Davis's box is significant for the strength of its documented story, and for its completeness in terms of survival of both the box and its collection.

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