Diana exhibition heads for Florida

A collection of Diana, Princess of Wales’s evening gowns, family photographs and childhood treasures will be featured in an exhibition opening in Fort Lauderdale, her brother, Earl Spencer, announced today.

Diana, a Celebration, which includes the Princess’s wedding gown, diamond tiara and 25-foot train, will be on display at the city’s Museum of Art from October 10 to December 31.

“She could have done the usual royal thing of just turning up and cutting ribbons or whatever but she was never like that,” said Earl Spencer. “She wanted to do much more and to give of herself to people.”

Photographs and home movies from their ancestral home of Althorp show Diana as a youngster, posing in her ballet shoes or diving into a swimming pool.

Spectators can see her childhood passport, a blue gingham frog she kept on her bed or a letter she wrote to her father as a nine-year-old.

Her relationship with the Prince of Wales is displayed through a 1980 Christmas card from him – inscribed “from your tap dancing partner, Charles” - and the white gown, tiara, shoes and parasol she wore during her 1981 wedding, an event watched by nearly a billion people in 70 countries.

In a nod to her sense of style, the exhibit offers 28 dresses, suits and gowns designed by Versace, Valentino and Chanel, including the light green protective vest she wore over denim during 1997 trips to Angola and Bosnia to fight the use of land mines.

The display offers tributes that followed her fatal Paris car crash in August 1997, including the musical score and handwritten lyrics from Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s adaptation of Candle in the Wind, and the original text of Earl Spencer’s tribute to his sister delivered during her funeral at Westminster Abbey.

The 150-piece exhibit is currently on display in Toronto and attracted as many as 5,000 visitors a day during a 2002 stop in Japan. Earl Spencer said it was natural for the exhibition to move to the United States.

“I don’t think any country embraced Diana with such warmth as the United States. It seems only appropriate to come here,” he said.

Earlier this month, audiotapes made by Diana were aired by the US television network NBC, detailing her decision to confront Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles over having an affair with her husband.

Earl Spencer said the exhibit “cuts through” the tabloid attention his late sister attracted, offering an insight into her labour on behalf of charitable causes and works that made her known as the “people’s princess.”

“You can look at any life in many angles, but to me, this is one that Diana’s life should be remembered by,” he said.