When Catherine Peabody married Fred Jolliffe from Kingston, at St. Stephen’s Church in Westmount, her “gown of Renaissance blue silk velvet” dress was noted in the Montreal Daily Star. Reflecting the economy and resourcefulness of pre-WW fashion, this dress was intended to be worn beyond the wedding day, as indeed the newlywed did the following New Year’s Eve. At the same time, with its long draping lines emphasizing feminine curves, the dress evokes Hollywood elegance, which was widely copied in the 1930s. Bolero jackets (especially as part of a dress ensemble) were also “in the van” in 1937.
The groom, Fred Jolliffe, attended KCI (now Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute) then went on to recieve a BSc in 1929 and MA in 1931 from Queen’s University and a PhD in Geology in 1935 from Princeton University. He worked for the Geological Society of Canada mapping the NWT and, while completing his PhD, he made a significant discovery of gold that resulted in a mining boom and the founding of Yellowknife (Jolliffe Island in Great Slave Lake is named after him). Jolliffe then taught first at McGill from 1946 and then Queen’s as Professor in the Department of Geology from 1950 until retirement in 1972. The Jolliffe Club (of the Department of Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) is named after him. Catherine Jolliffe donated her husband’s fonds to Queen’s University Archives in 1989.