More than 750 items chronicling the life of Princess Diana will go on view at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley starting Nov. 7. The traveling exhibition, titled "Diana: Love Life Legacy," with the subtitle "A Life of Giving," will make its first stop at the library. No later venues have been announced.
Melissa Giller, the library's chief marketing and cultural programming officer, said the museum had long wanted to present a show on the princess. "She lived a short life but a very remarkable one," Giller said in a phone interview. "She gave so much. She donated her time. She donated the clothes off her back. She was a true humanitarian."
The exhibition will include glamorous gowns, jewelry, letters and childhood treasures. It was curated by Southern California resident Renae Plant, who drew most of the pieces from her personal collection and maintains a virtual Princess Diana Museum online. According to Giller, only 10 of the 750 items have ever been shown publicly, which makes the presentation a world premiere.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was born on July 1, 1961, and died at 36 in a Paris car crash on Aug. 31, 1997. She became one of the most famous and photographed women in the world through her wedding to Prince Charles, now King Charles III, their troubled marriage and 1996 divorce, and her advocacy for AIDS patients, landmine victims and other causes.
Giller said the show carries a link to the Reagans. When Diana Spencer married Charles on July 29, 1981, both President and Mrs. Reagan were invited, but the president was recovering from the assassination attempt, so only Nancy Reagan attended. The two women kept up a friendship and exchanged letters for decades, Giller said.
Among the displays is a "spare" of the famous silk taffeta and antique lace wedding gown, which had a 25-foot train and was made in case something went wrong at the last minute. Visitors will also see a duplicate of the black sheep sweater Diana wore in 1981 when she was engaged. After she snagged a cuff, Buckingham Palace asked the maker for a repair and received an entirely new garment with one small design change: a black sheep facing the opposite direction. The last dress Diana was fitted for before her death, with its pins still in place, will be shown as well.
Another highlight is the midnight blue "Travolta dress," worn to a 1985 White House state dinner. Giller recounted that Nancy Reagan, through social secretary Gahl Burt, encouraged actor John Travolta to cut in while the princess danced with the president. He tapped President Reagan on the shoulder, and the Marine Band began a medley from "Saturday Night Fever." Giller said the resulting photo is among the most requested in the library's archives. The gown will be displayed alongside the one Nancy Reagan wore that evening.
The library hosts two special exhibitions a year, and Giller said this will be one of the largest. It will fill 10,000 square feet across two levels, the same space used by the recently closed "America: 250 Years in the Making." The show runs through May 31, and Giller expects the first couple of weeks to sell out.
Entry is included with museum admission, which costs $16, or $13 for seniors 62 and older and $9 for youths ages 11 to 17. The library is at 40 Presidential Way in Simi Valley. A separate, unrelated exhibition, "Princess Diana & The Royals," is on view at The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas.
