ST. LOUIS — Judy Garland’s iconic red dress and coat she wore in “Meet Me In St. Louis” are now on display at the Missouri History Museum as part of the 1904 World's Fair exhibit.
The exhibit, which opened in April, features more than 200 artifacts, a 1:400 scale model of the fairgrounds that shows visitors the enormity of the 1,200-acre exhibition, hundreds of photos, original artwork and historical commentary from partners across the St. Louis community.
The latest artifacts are the dress, which came from a private collector in St. Louis and the coat, which came from a private collector in New York, according to Adam Kloppe, public historian for the Missouri Historical Society.
“We’re really excited to be able to bring the dress and the coat together, potentially, for the first time since they were used in the film,” he said.
“Meet Me In St. Louis,” is a musical rom com that centers on a family living in St. Louis when the city was on the verge of the 1904 World’s Fair.
“It’s about the year leading up to the Fair and how excited people were about the Fair,” Kloppe said. “That’s really the backbone of the whole movie.”
Millions were introduced to Fair thanks to the movie, according to Kloppe, which was nominated for four Academy Awards.
At 4 feet 11 inches tall, Garland wore both garments during the Christmas scenes of the 1944 classic movie, according to Kloppe.
“The dress is on a riser, so it looks a little bit taller, but you can really see how short she was, how small she was, and I think that’s something so striking about it,” he said.
The dress and the coat will be on display through Jan. 6.