Isabella Stewart Gardner in Norwegian Dress

Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband Jack traveled to Norway in the summer of 1867, where Isabella was photographed in Kristiania (now Oslo) wearing a bunad, a Norwegian folk costume worn by girls and women. Bunads have regional stylistic differences, and Isabella is wearing a romanticized version of a bunad from Hardanger with some elements from Fana, both towns on Norway’s western coast.

In the travel album Isabella compiled from this trip, she devoted two pages to photographs of Norwegians in local dress. As tourism boomed in Norway in the late 19th century, photographers offered photo sessions with bunads. Today folk costumes are commonly worn during the Syttende mai celebrations (Norwegian Constitution Day), weddings, and during the opening of the Norwegian Parliament.