Dressed up and ready for Gadsby’s Best Bid & Tucker Ball are Karen Byers, Gadsby's Tavern Museum Society (GTMS) board of directors; Kay and Terry Zerwick, GTMS president; John Gadsby; Carol Ann Brown, GTMS secretary; Nancy Smith, GTMS membership chair; and Danny Smith, GTMS former president. Photo by Ann Cameron Siegel
This year the Gadsby’s Tavern Museum Society is putting on Gadsby’s Best Bib & Tucker Ball - Black & White Masquerade on Saturday, April 11. The term Best Bib and Tucker refers to one’s best clothes and was first used in 1747 in the translation of the Marquis d'Argens' “New Memoirs Establishing a True Knowledge of Mankind:” "The Country-woman minds nothing on Sundays so much as her best Bib and Tucker."
Both bibs and tuckers were women's clothing items in use from the 17th to 19th centuries. Early bibs were somewhat like modern day bibs, although they weren't specifically used to protect clothes from spilled food as they are today. Tuckers were lace modesty pieces fitted over the bodice of a dress.
Doc Scantlin and the fabulous Chou Chou will be back for a return engagement at the tavern. They and their band, The Imperial Palms Orchestra, will be playing Big Band classics for listening and dancing. There will also be the wandering musicians including the Girlfriends. A GTMS Silent Auction will offer a variety of items, services, and experiences.
The Ball is the society’s premier event to raise money to support the museum. This event is timely since it comes on the heels of two floods resulting from frozen pipes that inundated the 1785 Tavern building on Jan. 9 and again on Feb. 20. Funds raised from the Ball will help defray some of the restoration costs. Tickets may be purchased online at www.gadsbystavernmuseum.us or by calling 703-746-4242