The Downton Abbey Exhibit!

Hello my friends, and Happy Autumn! I hope you all are having a good week so far. 😊

Today I'd like to share some pictures with you that I took during my visit to the Downton Abbey Exhibition in Boston last Sunday. It was an absolutely wonderful experience and it got me all primed and ready for seeing the movie later this week! (Eta - tomorrow!)

(Have you seen the movie yet? How about the exhibit? Are you as excited as I am to have Downton back in our lives once again?)

Ok, without further ado, here are my photos. I visited the exhibit with my mum and our dear friend, Cathy. We drove into Boston late Sunday morning - no traffic, yay! crazy parking, yikes! - and were home again before the Pats game was over!

Ahh ... Sundays in New England!

Ok, so here we are just arriving at The Castle at Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. It was a gorgeous September day!

The Castle was the PERFECT venue for the exhibit!

While waiting outside, waitstaff served us little cups of tea and shortbread cookies ...

Perfectly delightful, in spite of the near-90 degree heat!

Here I am with Mum and Cathy, enjoying the tea ... and the moment!

(Do I look giddy or what?)

After only a short wait - enjoying tea, chatting with the nice ladies in front of us - we were moved inside to the exhibit hall. It was time to wait some more, but as we stood and/or moved along there was plenty to see ...

Including movie posters!

And I was very excited to see there would be a gift shop to explore at the end of our tour ...

(Side note: The beautiful shelving reminded me of the old Crabtree & Evelyn stores ... anyone else remember those lovely shops?)

This large TV was playing the trailer for the Downton movie ... oh the feels.

(I can't tell you what all those costumes were representing - but they're quite impressive!)

Well, at last it was our turn to enter the exhibit, and time to explore! The first room was devoted to the beloved characters of Downton as well as various aspects of life at that time. I loved the large cast portraits of our Downton cast that filled the room - honest to goodness I almost filled up as I was looking around. It was such a nice moment to be surrounded by all these dear faces!

And there were so many interesting things to read and "artifacts" to inspect. The room was set up very much like a museum - with a little Disney feel! (Some folks used an audio-guide as they moved about the exhibit but we did not. It was easy to follow along with each part of the exhibit and despite the large crowd of patrons, the noise level was quite manageable.)

Ok, here we go!

So many actual hand-written letters from the set!

(Mrs. Hughes kept a planner!)

(And so did Mr. Carson - that's his "to-do" list above.)

One corner of this room was devoted to Lady Violet and it was just wonderful! A video of her best moments was running and directly below was her correspondence desk ...

I had to zoom in of course!

Leaving that first exhibit room, we entered a hallway devoted to domestics ...

And around the next corner was Mrs. Patmore's Kitchen!!

(You know, the lighting was all rather dim throughout the exhibit but I believe it was not only to preserve all the materials, but to emulate an authentic "vintage" atmosphere as well.)

From the Kitchen we next stepped into Carson's Pantry ...

So many dramatic events occurred in this small pantry! (And how neat that this was the butler's pantry? I always thought of it as Carson's office.)

The next room was interesting - a four-sided "hologram" (?) with a quick recap of the seasons.

And then it was on to the Fashions rooms featuring many examples of gorgeous clothing worn for leisure, weddings, special occasions and dinner.

(I honestly don't remember who the above character was, but he's certainly rather dashing!)

I think a big part of the allure of the show was the amazing costumery. And the exhibit did not disappoint those of us who absolutely LOVED the clothing worn by Ladies Mary, Edith, Sybill ... and Rose ... and Cora ... and well, everyone really. It was amazing to think these outfits were actually worn by the actors during filming! Of special interest - some outfits were noted as being "originals," meaning they were actual clothing worn during the time period. The clothes were right there in front of us, too - they could be touched if someone dared, though obviously no one did!

(Remember that dress? From the Flower Show episode?)

And oh, the weddings ...

(I just loved this shot of my mum looking all around, as enchanted as I was!)

(It was neat to see the gradual change in fashion as the show moved through the decades.)

(Lady Rose's Presentation gown was not my favorite, but the details were lovely!)

(The dark gray-blue dress on the left - oooh, I'd love that one for myself!)

(I loved this dress on Mary - and I LOVED that episode!)

All done with fashion now ... and next came what is perhaps the most memorable of all the Downton Abbey sets: the Grantham dining room!

(I said to Mum - should we be taking notes for our next party?)

And then there was a little more fashion ...

(So neat to see Sybil's bold and beautiful pants in person!!)

And oh my gosh, the HATS ...

It was in this last room that we realized we were behind a somewhat famous television personality - Mary Ann Esposito from PBS's Ciao, Italia! How appropriate to be a little extra star-struck at this wonderful exhibit! (The day before my dear friend Allison, attending the exhibit with her mother and sister, stood beside none other than Diane Keaton - wearing one of her signature hats, mind you!)

So now we were nearing the end of the exhibit and I really wasn't ready for it to be over ...

It's amazing how dear and beloved this show was (and still is) to so many. It's certainly a very special phenomenon and I am so happy I got to be part of it - live-watching as the original seasons aired, coming here to share the love and hash out all the details at my blog with you all. (In case you are wondering - all our talks are archived here in my Downton Abbey archive. And oh my gosh - I just noticed there is no finale recap! I can't believe I would have skipped that ... ?! Hmm ... I will have to see what I can do about that!)

Sigh ...

And a final word from Lord Grantham himself ...

•••••••••••••••••••••••••• ☕️❤️🇬🇧 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Well, that's all I have for now, my friends - though it was rather a lot I must say! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my visit to the Downton Abbey Exhibition - if you are able to attend it I would encourage you to go! It will be here in Boston through Michaelmas - aka this Sunday, September 29th, but here is some information from the website:

Where else will the exhibition be traveling?
Following Boston, the exhibition will travel to Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina for the holiday season.  We anticipate that the exhibition will travel to other locations, however they have not been announced at this time. To be among the first to hear details about Downton Abbey: The Exhibition including details on future tour stops, sign up for the exhibition newsletter.

Ok, I'm off for now but I will be back soon! I have some pictures (though not quite so many) of my recent weekend in Vermont to share and I know I'll be busting to discuss the movie once I've seen it! (TOMORROW!)

Thanks so much for stopping by, everyone ... see you here again sometime soon!