Description

Sharlot M. Hall posing in her copper dress for a formal portrait, while on a trip to Washington, D. C.

In January 1925, Sharlot was elected to carry the Arizona presidential election ballots, in a sealed envelope, and give them to the President of the Senate, or Vice-President, in Washington, D. C.  Sharlot arrived in Washington, D. C. by train on Thursday, January 22, 1925 and was met by Senator Ralph Cameron and his wife, Ida (Spaulding) Cameron. After meeting with senators and President Calvin Coolidge, she was the first to deliver her sealed envelope to the Senate chamber.  

Sharlot remained in Washington, D. C. for the next couple of months doing speaking engagements, poetry readings, book signings, and research at the Library of Congress.  During this time, a beautiful copper mesh overdress along with a copper mesh handbag and a hat ornamented with cactus was delivered to Sharlot at the Camerons’ apartment.  This copper overdress was commissioned by the Arizona Industrial Congress and created by Whiting and Davis Company, makers of mesh bags of Plainville, Massachusetts, specifically for Sharlot’s trip to Washington, D. C. Sharlot had worried about how this outfit would look; however, she wrote to her friend, Alice Hewins, that it “is really very pretty and not a bit freaky.”  She wore the copper gown for the first time to a luncheon given for Senate wives honoring Mrs. Grace Coolidge by her friend Ida Cameron on February 24, 1925 and to the Presidental inauguration. Later, she would wear this unusual garment and its accessories as she lectured about Arizona and its resources.

Today [2018], this copper mesh overdress, handbag and her cactus hat is on display in the Sharlot M. Hall exhibit in the Lawler Exhibit Center Building at the Sharlot Hall Museum.