To Preserve Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, Smithsonian Relies On Custom Q-Tips And A Lot Of Cash
April 13, 2017 | In the PressFrom WAMU (http://wamu.org/story/17/04/13/preserve-dorothys-ruby-slippers-smithsonian-relies-custom-q-tips-lot-cash/)
The shoes that magically transported Dorothy from the Land of Oz back to Kansas are now about to take a trip of their own — to a conservation lab at the Smithsonian.
The National Museum of American History is getting ready to take the ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz off display for preservation.
The slippers are one of the most popular sights at the museum. Pausing in front of the slippers’ display case during a tour on Wednesday morning, docent Dennis Egan brings up the Kickstarter campaign the museum held last year to help pay for the shoes’ preservation. The effort was remarkably successful, but still attracted criticism for its seemingly extravagant goal of $300,000.
“Three hundred thousand dollars?” Egan remarked. “Are you kidding me?”
Members of the tour group murmured in mutual skepticism.
It sounds like a lot of money to preserve a pair of shoes, but these aren’t just any shoes.
Playing the role of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” a teenage Judy Garland wore several pairs of sequined slippers. One pair was donated anonymously to the Smithsonian in 1979.National Museum of American History
Coveted by the Wicked Witch of the West, the glimmering red slippers were one of several pairs worn by a teenage Judy Garland while filming The Wizard of Oz in the late 1930s. Eighty years later, and nearly 40 years after they were donated anonymously to the Smithsonian, they’re showing signs of age. Keeping them in good shape is both painstaking and costly.
Dorothy’s slippers will be spending a lot of time in a basement laboratory after they go off display April 23.
“We’ll be doing pretty much all the work underneath the microscope, going sequin by sequin,” says conservator Dawn Wallace.
The ruby slippers aren’t actually covered in rubies. The shoes are decorated with plastic sequins, which were fairly advanced material in the 1930s. Analyzing the condition of each and every sequin could take a while, Wallace says — there are roughly 2,400 of them per slipper.
Cleaning the shoes requires special Q-Tips that are custom made at the museum. The shoes also must be housed in a highly sophisticated display case to prevent light from fading their color. Although the shoes looked gleaming red in Technicolor, in person they’re a tamer burgundy.
All these preservation efforts require extensive research and time — and money. But according to the museum, it’s what must be done to ensure visitors enjoy the slippers for decades.
Seeing the shoes was a highlight for Joe Padilla, whose family stopped at the museum on a trip from Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It’s really amazing to see something that they’ve kept for 80… years now in great shape,” Padilla said. “[It’s] just a piece of American history.”
Museum staff say they’re not sure how long Dorothy’s ruby slippers will be undergoing preservation, but once the process is complete, the shoes may find their way into a future exhibition alongside another precious object in the Smithsonian’s collection: the costume worn by Dorothy’s friend without a brain, the Scarecrow.
