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Lecturer Matt Ripa had heard rumors that the object was in the Hartke building where he worked and had spent fruitless hours searching for it in archives and cupboards.
He had started to believe it was a “big story,” the university said when he spotted a bag above the mailboxes.
“I was curious what was inside and opened the bag. Inside was a shoebox and inside the shoebox was the dress! I couldn’t believe it, ”Ripa said. “My colleague and I quickly grabbed gloves, looked at the dress, and took a few pictures before putting it back in the box and heading to the (college) archives. Needless to say, I found a lot of interesting stuff. to Hartke during my time at Catholic University, but I think this one takes the cake! “
The University’s Tower newspaper wrote in 1973 that the dress was given to then-drama chief Reverend Gilbert Hartke by actress Mercedes McCambridge. McCambridge had been artist in residence the previous year and was a contemporary of Garland, the university said.
The gift, according to the Tower article, was meant to give “hope, strength and courage” to the students.
The university said it was not known how McCambridge acquired the dress.
“As archivists, we have been compelled to work on securing additional material for this national treasure of popular culture,” said Maria Mazzenga, Ph.D. 2000, curator of the American Catholic History Collections at the Catholic University. “We have several photos of Father Hartke holding the robe and articles from The Tower and The Washington Post referring to it. So the circumstantial evidence is strong.”
Mazzenga contacted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Ryan Lintelman, an Oz memorabilia expert at the museum, who provided more information on the dresses worn by Garland.
Five – excluding the museum’s latest find – have been verified to be likely genuine, the university said.
“All dresses have some verifiable features including, for example, a ‘secret pocket’ on the right side of the pinafore skirt for Dorothy’s handkerchief, handwritten” Judy Garland “in a one-person specific script who tagged all of the existing dresses in the same hand. Apparently the thin material of the blouse tended to tear when Garland took it off after the shoot, and a seamstress would often fix it before putting it on for the next shoot, ” declared the university in the Liberation.
The dress found in the Hartke building shared these characteristics, the university said, and LIntelman and two colleagues who had seen it said “the evidence around the dress was strong.”
The Catholic University said her dress will be kept in the University’s special collections.
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