The World's Only Regalia Museum
In the course of researching for my novel Nitpicky Corners, I discovered that there is not a single museum in the world dedicated just to regalia. Note: there is a museum in Brunei that has regalia, but mainly gold plated cars that belong to the sultan.
So the World's Only Regalia Museum exists on the pages of my book.
Regalia is the term used to describe all the special items of clothing worn for official or ceremonial purposes. As the museum tour guide states in the book:
‘The word regalia comes from the Latin regalis, the root for our word regal, which, of course, is from the root word Rex, meaning king.’
As I began putting together ideas for the book, I remembered pictures I had seen of a uniform and regalia company in of Kalamazoo.
Here is what's weird:
When I started writing, I only remembered that there was a regalia company - not who owned it. I wrote it as a partnership between a clothing company and a sword company - without realizing that was true of the Henderson-Ames Company of Kalamazoo.
I made up the part about secret and frateral organizations - but that was fact.
I invented a scandal that brought down the company, but that happened, too!
I also included a magnificent home built by the owner - and the Henderson Castle in Kalamazoo still stands as a landmark, now a bed and breakfast and event venue.
This photo shows what is likely a ceremonial gown from a fraternal society. You can see below the label for Henderson-Ames.
The company advertised uniforms of all kinds: railroads, letter carriers, fire and
police departments, military, colleges, and bands. Henderson was the regalia and uniform king of Kalamazoo, Ames owned the Ames Sword Company. They merged into a company that provided uniforms of all sorts and also specialized in fraternal and secret society ceremonial clothing and objects.
The book Nitpicky Corners tells the story of a boy who visits the Regalia Museum and accidently touches a ceremonial object that had been produced for the evil Rasputin, priest to Tsar Nicholas of Russia. He finds himself staring at his doppelganger, and together the boys must find a way to reverse the curse.
One thing that was fun about writing the story is that regalia is everywhere! In today's culture, we don't think of it that way, but uniforms are all over the place. Even the guy at the oil change place with the embroidered patch "Ken" is wearing a uniform. So in the writing, I was able to draw attention to uniforms and regalia throughout history.
Since much of the story takes place in Russia and focuses on Tsar Nicholas and his daughter Anastasia, I thought readers might enjoy seeing a picture of two of the royal daughters in their regimental regalia. Want to see more? Google "british uniform regalia" and hit 'Images'. Europeans were serious about their uniforms - especially in the 19th century!
