Wild Wonderful King Vintage Museum
The mission of the museum is to foster an awareness and appreciation of the history of vintage fashion, to ensure the conservation and preservation of the collection for generations to come, to offer an education for all ages on the lifestyles and fashions of past eras, and to provide an education on the conservation and preservation of textiles from the past.
Step back in time at the Wild Wonderful King Vintage Museum in Oakhurst, California. See the fantastic collection of vintage clothing and accessories for men, women and children dating back to 1790. The collection includes dresses, uniforms, wedding dresses, shoes, purses, fans, hats, war memorbilia and much more. The museum consists of three rooms: Lady Barbara’s room, King Allan’s room and the Gift Shop. The research and educational center is in the development phase.
The collection is the personal collection of Allan and the late Barbara King and the Wild Wonderful Women & Friends, Inc, a 501 (c) non profit corporation. Allan and Barbara started collecting in 1952 with the purchase of two Civil War dresses for $1.00. The collection now numbers over 10,000 pieces including an original Civil War sword, a Spanish American military uniform, a velvet bodice from the trousseau of the granddaughter of Chief Justice John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, a Japanese tobacco pouch used by Gentleman Jim Corbett, a 1790 pair of ballroom slippers, 1920′s paper crepe dress, and much more. The museum is located at 40680 Highway 41 in Oakhurst.
The museum is a host institution for the “Abraham Lincoln: Self Made in America ” Learning Station Exhibiit” from March 5, 2010 to April 2, 2010. The exhibition is a first class exhibition created by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois and supported by the “We the People” program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and by the History Channel. The Wild Wonderful King Vintage Museum is only one of four locations in the state of California hosting the exhibition and the only one in the Central Valley of California.
When hasn’t fashion made you smile, shake your head or send you running to the store to get the latest thing! Does a day not go by that you wonder about the clothes you see!! What does it mean to be in step with the times?? You can find out by visiting the museum and see the styles and colors of the times past. Clothes mark the days that we have lived, they reflect our attitudes and our reverence for the tried and true. From generation to generation it’s the same and that is history. We wear the clothes and then leave them in the closet of memories. It is that founding thought that is the spirit of the Wild Wonderful King Vintage Museum. Come and see the look of the lifestyles of our past. Travel with us in time– a hundred years or so. Are you a child of the Depression, a war baby, a baby boomer, or a child of the 50″s? There is something for all of you!!! Now our goal as the museum moves forward its next goal is to acquire a location that holds the whole story!!! We can tell parts of the story now but we sure cannot tell it all!! Come and see the feature exhibit and see if that is your lifestyle of the past!!