The dressing table set was owned by Laura Kilborn herself, whose initials are engraved on each item. Dressing table sets (or vanity sets) such as this one, were essential tools in woman’s grooming ritual and elegant additions to bedroom furniture up to the mid-20th century.
The Kilborns were a well-known Kingston family. The Queen’s University Collection of Canadian Dress already contains the wedding dress worn by Anna Laura McCrea at her 1882 wedding to Dr. Roland Ketchum Kilborn, who would become medical Superintendent at Kingston General Hospital from 1891 – 1896. His fonds are at the Kingston General Hospital Archives. The dress was donated by their only child Laura Kilborn, who had been born within a year of their marriage.