Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
The painting by Rutherford from 1875 displays
some of the costumes at a costume skating party in Halifax.
The Halifax Skating Club was formed in 1862, and skating on Griffin’s Pond in the Horticultural Society’s grounds became a very popular pastime. By January 1863 the skaters had developed a barn sitting adjacent to the pond into an indoor skating rink complete with gas lighting to enable evening ‘ice dancing’ and fancy costume balls.
