Items

Sweden
Silver gilt with paste jewels
The Walters Art Museum, Accession Number: 57.2047

This early 18th-century Swedish wedding crown, delicately crafted from silver gilt and adorned with paste jewels, offers a window into Scandinavian matrimonial tradition. Standing at 5 7/8 inches in height, the crown was not a royal accessory, but rather a ceremonial item worn by brides across all social classes. Typically owned by local parishes, these crowns were lent out to brides, signifying purity and conjugal virtue.

Despite its relatively modest materials, this crown is rich in cultural meaning. The ornamental motifs — often including hearts, doves, or religious symbols — represent ideals of love, fidelity, and community. The fact that such crowns were communal objects rather than privately owned speaks to their function as shared cultural heritage, passed down through generations.

This particular crown was acquired by The Walters Art Museum in 1978 and previously belonged to Ruth Blumka of New York. While not attributed to a known artist, its craftsmanship and decorative detail speak volumes about the artisan’s skill and the values of the society from which it emerged. In contrast to crowns from monarchies, which serve as singular emblems of political power, the Swedish wedding crown reveals how ornamentation can unite a community around shared rituals, symbolism, and values.

It was hard to find diversity in the crowns available in the special collections. Due to the nature of our collection, it was best to utilize the Vanderbilt Library website to find crowns from other regions there. This crown was interesting because it does not look like the usual crown I was accustomed to seeing from kings or emperors in the Western world. I like the grandiose design and paired with the beads, it makes you imagine how the mere presence of this crown would command attention from people. Two aspects that I think exacerbate these features are its size and the sounds the beads likely make when clashing against each other when the crown wearer moves. 

This sparkling crown, modest in size but rich in symbolism, was awarded to Lauren Taylor, the winner of the 1997 Miss Gay America pageant held in Charlotte, North Carolina. While the crown itself may be physically smaller than others in this exhibit, it carries immense cultural weight—representing a milestone of visibility and excellence within the drag of the late 20th century.

The Miss Gay America pageant is one of the longest-running and most prestigious national drag competitions in the United States, dating back to 1972. Unlike many pageants, it has long emphasized talent, poise, and female impersonation artistry—often under strict rules that prohibit body modification and hormone use to maintain a focus on performance rather than transition. Winning the title is not only a personal achievement but also a platform for advocacy, leadership, and community representation.

This particular crown is currently held by legendary performer Carmella Marcella Garcia, underscoring the tradition of legacy and mentorship in drag pageantry. Through its rhinestones and careful design, the crown reflects both the glamour and the grit required to earn it. As a cultural artifact, it captures a moment in history where drag artistry was flourishing.

More than just an accessory, this crown stands as a testament to identity, resilience, and the joy of self-expression. It invites us to reflect on how performance spaces like Miss Gay America have created community, affirmed beauty on nontraditional terms, and challenged dominant narratives of gender and fame.

This grand crown, gleaming with rhinestones and theatrical flair, was worn by Carmella Marcella Garcia during the inaugural Miss Gay US of A at-large pageant in 1989. Though she was named fourth alternate, Garcia’s presence and performance helped define the pageant’s debut, marking a significant expansion of inclusivity in the world of drag competition.

The “at-large” division was created to provide space for plus-sized contestants who had often been excluded from traditional drag pageantry norms. Held in Dallas, Texas, the 1989 pageant crowned Netasha Edwards as its first official winner. Yet this crown—worn by a finalist and preserved through the personal collection of Carmella Marcella Garcia—remains a powerful artifact. It represents not only Garcia’s contribution to drag legacy, but also the symbolic weight of participation, community, and representation in shaping queer cultural history.

Visually, the crown’s elaborate design speaks to the pageant’s values: spectacle, strength, and confidence. As drag crowns often do, it blurs the line between costume and regalia, playing with traditional notions of royalty while offering a distinctly queer, celebratory reinterpretation.

In the context of this exhibit, this crown stands as a monument to the power of performance as protest, pride, and personal triumph. It invites us to consider how spaces like Miss Gay US of A have carved out affirming visibility for those historically pushed to the margins,