Hiding in Plain Sight - The American Scholar

Hiding in Plain Sight - The American Scholar

Years from now, perhaps it is the dress you will remember most. I recall the first time I saw it, at sunrise, on a summer morning in July 2000: it was celestial white, made of cotton and sailcloth, billowing elegantly in the welcome breeze, wrapped around a 30-foot, steel-framed mannequin atop the historic Coal Tower in Charlottesville, Virginia, hard by the railroad tracks. An early riser, I was bringing coffee home that morning when the haunti…