The Gaskell Ball - History

History

The Gaskell Ball is named for the British writer Elizabeth Gaskell. The Gaskell Ball originated in 1979, when the troupe playing the Gaskell family at the Charles Dickens Fair decided to hold a ball in her honor. The first ball was held at Mills College, a women's college in Oakland. In proceeding years it was held at the Veterans' Auditorium in Oakland. In the 1990s the ball outgrew the hall and had to be moved to accommodate the 300-500 visitors that now attend. The Christmas Ball is still one of the most popular events.

Read more about this topic:  The Gaskell Ball

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Spain is an overflow of sombreness ... a strong and threatening tide of history meets you at the frontier.
    Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)

    Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)