SXU 01746 - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

As a non-native Illinoisan, the Daley family mystique is a bit lost on me. It becomes readily apparent, however, that the politically accomplished men overshadow the women of the family, who tend toward the obscurity of private life rather than the limelight of public service.

This week’s image shows Mayor Richard J. Daley and his wife attending an event in connection with the Foreign Fantasy exhibit held at Saint Xavier College in September 1958. Though she ascends a few steps ahead of her husband in this photo, if ever there had been a woman behind the man, it was Eleanor “Sis” Daley. By all accounts she embraced the traditional domestic role of wife and mother of seven (although she was reportedly less fond of her reputation for baking bread).

Yet for a woman who preferred to stay in the background, Mrs. Daley certainly knew how to dress to stand out in a crowd. In a group photograph from the Foreign Fantasy exhibit, which simulated a tour around the world with international themed rooms, the bold contrasting print of Mrs. Daley’s dress draws the eye past even the more elaborately attired student hostesses in ethnic costume. Zooming in reveals the print to be a floral pattern—it’s hard to say for sure, but I’ll hazard a guess that Mrs. Daley, who was responsible for decorating the Ireland room, chose to wear “Irish eyes” (Rudbeckia hirta) in keeping with the exhibit theme.

Fashion shows as charitable fundraising events were all the rage with women’s organizations in the 1950s and 1960s, and Mrs. Daley chaired more than a few. During the last week of January 1964—proclaimed “Chicago Fashion Week” by the mayor— such an event was held on behalf of Saint Xavier College. Yet another photo in this collection features Mrs. Daley at the fashion show, modeling a hat presumably designed by Chicago milliner Luci Puci (Lucylle Smith Gilbert) pictured to Mrs. Daley’s right. Gilbert designed hats for Mamie Eisenhower, so why not for the First Lady of Chicago? This image resembles a film still, and in fact there is a cinematic link: Audrey Hepburn wore an identical hat in the 1964 film version of My Fair Lady, premiering in October but not in wide release until December of that year. More fashion-forward than a Hollywood movie star, that’s how stylish Mrs. Daley was.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Assistant Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

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