Dear America: Behind the Scenes: So Far from Home

Go behind the scenes of
So Far from Home: The Story of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl,
Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847

Like the other Dear America stories, So Far From Home is the tale of an ordinary girl who lives in extraordinary circumstances and acts in heroic ways.
In these stories, the characters share their experiences with you and bring history to life. Today, there are a lot of great women who work behind the scenes on Dear America TV. They too are helping to bring history to life. So, for this episode, we thought we would introduce you to some of the other women of Dear America.
Behind Scenes Joyce Schure is the costume designer for all of the Dear America shows. We talked with her about what it's like to be a costume designer and how Dear America is special to her. That's her in the photo below.
Joyce says she always starts with research. "We begin by reading all the books that the shows are based on and we make up research packages. We look at books and pictures of people from that specific time and place to get an idea of the overall look." But it really doesn't come together until they find the perfect actress to play the lead! And when they find her, "the goal is to be historically accurate but also to make that girl shine and be the one everyone looks at in a scene. She's the one that shines above all else." Don't you wish you had someone like Joyce with you every morning when you got dressed?
Joyce says she really likes working on Dear America and that her job is a lot "like going back to school.
It's like I've had another year of history where I've learned a lot about people from all over the US that lived in different time periods." Remember that the next time a teacher tells you fashion and school don't mix!
Behind Scenes Marie Grogan is the Wardrobe Key on the set. The Wardrobe Key picks up where the Costume Designer left off. She works on set and makes sure that the clothes actually look great for the camera. Marie is from Ireland so she had a special interest in this particular episode. "I wanted it to be portrayed true to my historical background." Marie and Joyce look at old prints, like this one below of a mill worker, to learn how typical girls dressed.
Marie told us about a funny wardrobe accident that happened on the show.
"Since the clothes are actually authentic, one character was wearing a hundred and fifty year old shirt so we had to have it dry cleaned (and you thought your soft blue sweater was delicate!). So I went to the dry cleaners at 5:00 AM and they promised it would be back in an hour and a half..." because the character absolutely had to wear it in a scene being taped first thing that morning. Well, they had it clean in a half an hour, but with a special surprise - it was PINK! Now, we know pink is all the rage these days, but... not in 1847! So at the last minute they found ONE white shirt that the character could wear that day. Phew!
In this photo below, Marie is standing with an actress dressed in the typical clothing of a mill worker. "They wore wooden clogs, petticoats, skirts, and this pinny that they made for themselves to keep the fluff off their clothes and underneath it they wore a chemise and a shawl and they always had their hair tied up because of the danger of catching their hair in the looms." This is an instance when function over fashion could save your life!
The girls of Dear America teach us about history as seen through their eyes.
The women who work behind the scenes of Dear America television are a part of history too. By bringing their vision to these stories, they help to bring stories from the past to life today. And maybe some of you will be inspired to share the stories of your own lives as only you can tell it -- 'cause you're making history right now!