Difference between revisions of "Carma de Jong Anderson"

Revision as of 12:36, 28 May 2014

Carma Rose de Jong Anderson is a writer, producer, director, costumer, watercolorist, and theater actress, especially noted for her skill in historic costuming. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She was born in Provo, Utah, to Gerrit de Jong Jr., the founding dean of BYU’s College of Fine Arts, and Rosabelle Winegar.

She attended the Brigham Young University Kindergarten and loved learning. She attended college classes every year of her marriage to Richard Lloyd Anderson, from 1951 to her graduation in 1992. She earned her BA in art and design, with a minor in modern languages, from Brigham Young University in 1976. In 1992 she earned her PhD in theater and film, with an emphasis on historic clothing.

Anderson’s mother died when she was nine years old. She and her sister (her only living sibling) traveled all over the world with their father, who was on the general board of the Sunday School in addition to his BYU duties. They lived in Brazil for one year.

She met her husband in a BYU Oriental History class taught by Hugh Nibley. Months after their marriage, they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for him to pursue a law degree. They also lived in Cedar City, Utah, and Berkeley, California, before returning to Provo and BYU. During those years, they raised a daughter and three adopted children while she continued to take university classes.

Working for the Church’s Historical Department and for the Museum of Church History and Art, she spent thirty-four years restoring twenty Church historic sites throughout the United States. She designed, created patterns, cut out clothing, and then, under her direction, a team hand sewed the clothing and textiles. Shoes and hats were hand made. In 2011, she received a special recognition award from the Mormon History Association for her work.

She consulted with many artists, working to give authenticity to their depictions of clothing and hairstyles from Mormon history.

She taught classes on early Mormon clothing at BYU. She wrote a book entitled The Cultural Arts of Nauvoo. She was a writer and editor for the Costume Institute of Utah. She was also a dance and costume critic for the Provo Daily Herald.

She enlarged and expanded her doctoral dissertation on Mormon pioneer clothing with hundreds of photos. The volume is forthcoming from BYU Religious Studies Center. She donated 5,000 pieces of historic clothing to the BYU Fine Arts Collection.

Anderson received $16,000 in grants for her research on Scandinavian clothing. She continues to sew quality Scandinavian folk clothing reproductions and consults on ancient arts. Sixteen pieces of the clothing were used in the Olympic performances at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City.