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Dating the Maine Nine-Patch Quilt

7/6/2017

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Museum Textile Services conserved three quilts from the Maine State Museum in summer, 2017, with another six on the docket for the fall. Part of a significant donation to the museum from a Maine family, the quilts cover over one hundred years of textile manufacturing and use. This project will result in several new quilts within the museum's already impressive exhibits.
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Overall front of the Maine State Museum quilt, before conservation.
We began by assessing the fabrics and construction of a coppery-brown four-poster bed quilt made of alternating blocks of nine-patch squares and solid printed fabric set on their corners. The fabrics vary in design and are not arranged in any complex pattern. The quilt is much used and it is possible that it was from older, worn-out clothing. A larger amount of yardage was needed to make the solid blocks and the binding which are all from the same fabric, and this was more likely bought for the intended purpose of this quilt. The quilt top, cotton batting, and solid tan backing are hand stitched together in a simple grid. All three layers are bound with the same fabric as the larger square blocks. Although the sewing machine would not arrive in New England homes until around the time of the Civil War, hand stitching remained common throughout the 19th century. The fact that this quilt is hand sewn, therefore, is not a great help in dating it.
The first method for printing repeated patterns used a block carved with the design to deliver pigment onto the fabric. This is labor intensive because the color has to be repeatedly applied to the block, and the block has to be to meticulously lined up to continue the pattern. In the United States, woodblock printing generally gives way to roller printing by the beginning of the 19th century in  both single- and multi-color patterns. Invented at the end of the 18th century in England by Thomas Bell, roller printing could deliver continuous pigment to bolts of plain cotton, imitating the popular Indian designs of the time. John Hewson is credited with bringing the process for printing “calico” to Philadelphia shortly after, where it spread throughout the Eastern seaboard.  
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Detail of roller-printed fabrics in the Maine State Museum quilt.
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Color drawing of Bates Mill
The first reasons to date the fabric in this quilt to the third quarter of the 19th century are the many different geometric and floral designs on the fabrics, including squares, rectangles, stripes, and circles. Quilt historian Ellen Jahnke Trestain explains that geometric shapes line up easily while printing, making them an economical choice for manufacturers of fabric for fashion and home décor. Plaids and stripes, as well as paisley prints, reflect the popularity of Queen Victoria, and the continuing influx of fabrics from India and other eastern British territories.

This quilt has an overall warm tone with browns, reds, and yellows, which are typical of the period of 1860 to 1880. Browns were obtained from widely available materials including walnut hulls, clay, madder, onion skins, and wood chips. Adding minerals to these dyes could create a darker brown and a black dye. Dark brown with a warm tone was achieved with manganese dye. Minerals frequently added during the dye process are know to make cotton dyed with manganese brittle and prone to losses. This effect can be clearly seen in a brown print used throughout the nine patch, exposing the cotton batting underneath. We conserved fragile blocks like these with overlays of sheer nylon net.

The quilt has many other fabrics in this color range. Colors like red and other copper tones, were derived from the madder plant, Rubia tinctorum. It is clearly distinguishable from a later red dye, alizarin crimson, which is a purer, rosier red. Blocks with yellow background or print could have been dyed with cadmium yellow, which took over as the most popular dye during the 1840s. 
By the end of the 1820s, all of New England was participating in the industrial revolution, fueled by textile production. The textile mills could produce the in fashion prints quickly and keep up with the trends. The largest textile center in Maine was in Lewiston, where factories like the Bates Mill spring up along the Androscoggin River. Although we don’t know for sure where the materials in this quilt came from, we have reason to believe they date to the third quarter of the 19th century.
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Quilt block before treatment. Dyes such as manganese cause cotton fabric to degrade, requiring stabilization.
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Sample book of printed fabrics, circa 1860, by Steinbach Koechlin, Gros Odier, Tolu & Bertrand, and others.
Stay tuned for more blogs about the amazing quilts we are conserving for the Maine State Museum's upcoming exhibition schedule.
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Gretta Hempelmann is a graduate from The University of Missouri with a MA in Clothing and Textiles. She has a BA in Fashion Design and Merchandising from West Virginia University. ​ She received a certificate for Care of Special Collections for Textiles from IPSC in the summer of 2016.
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The People Behind the Objects

6/6/2017

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The Massachusetts Historical Society recently contracted Museum Textile Services to aid in the conservation of items for their upcoming fashion exhibit. Each of the textiles is associated with different historical figures that relate to the history of Massachusetts. This significance of an object often has a lot to do with the importance of the person who once owned it. Many are saved and passed on through generations largely because of their history of ownership. Of course, the importance of a historic object is often much more than just its previous ownership, especially if it has survived many years. Certain artifacts may have signatures and clues that alert us of previous owners; however, many items are considered historical due to a storied line of family history. Historians, appraisers, and conservators have developed expertise in the history and style of materials, allowing us to determine whether the date of the object is current to its proposed time period. 
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Detail of embroidery in gingham square courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
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After treatment photograph of gingham square courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
A blue-and-white “Gingham Square” with the initials “LD” hand-embroidered in the top left corner was chosen for the exhibit. We are lucky to have these initials, because they bring us closer to identifying the original owner of this object. According to the Massachusetts Historical Society, this domestic textile once belonged to Lydia Dawes (1718-1760). Lydia Dawes is mostly known for being the mother of William Dawes, who was one of the men who alerted colonial minutemen of the approach of British Soldiers during the American Revolution. There are several clues when observing this object closely that help us to date it to the time of Lydia Dawes. The style of fabric is very characteristic of the 18th century, and “slugs” in the fibers (where the cotton thread thickens) help us to determine that it was hand spun. 
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Before treatment photograph of Benjamin Franklin's infant cap courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
We also conserved two infant caps reported to have been worn by Mather Byles (1706-1788) and Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Byles was a well-respected clergyman from Boston who was arrested as a loyalist during the revolutionary war. His family had a long history of working within the church; his descendants were instrumental in the formation of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and have a storied past in the early history of the Common-wealth. Benjamin Franklin is known for being a founding father, inventor, and politician, whose early life was in Boston. He was one of seventeen siblings, and was baptized at the Old South Meeting House. Both infant caps have nearly identical craftsmanship and design, not surprising since both men were born in the same year. Other clues that were noted about these caps are the extreme refinery in their construction. These objects were very obviously loved based on the fine repairs that are evident. 
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Detail of Benjamin Franklin's infant cap (before treatment) showing some of the intricate repairs and re-weaving. Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society.
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After treatment photograph of Mather Byles' infant cap courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
The most complex conservation treatment we are undertaking for the exhibit is a hand-embroidered baptismal apron. According to catalog records, this apron once belonged to Mary Woodbury (1716-? ) from Essex, Massachusetts. Little is written about her online, however, the Massachusetts Historical Society also has a painting of “Pocahontas” that she supposedly made as a school girl in 1730. According textile expert, Pamela Parmal, samplers and other examples of fine embroidery completed by school girls were often kept throughout generations because they represented an investment in a young girl’s education. This particular style of apron is concurrent with other examples of embroidery from the mid-18th century, with its Indian influence seen in the exotic flowers and animals. Some of the motifs are exact copies of a nearly identical group of aprons in the Museum of Fine Art, Boston’s collection that came from the mid-18th-century Boston school of Mary Turfrey. We surmise, therefore, that Mary Woodbury was may have been her student.
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Before treatment photograph of Mary Woodbury's embroidered baptismal apron courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
A late-Victorian gown is also among the objects treated to date from the Massachusetts Historical Society. This particular gown was believed to have belonged to Rachael Hartwell (1868-1905). Rachael was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Wellesley College. She married her husband, George Joseph Pfeiffer, in 1896, and they spend many years traveling and living abroad. They later relocated to Arlington Massachusetts, and Rachael died during the birth of the couple’s only child, Hilda, in 1905. There is a lot of fine detailing in this dress, included a very intricate campaign of bead work. Based on our knowledge of style and materials of the dress, conservators can guess that this particular dress is from the early 1900’s, due to the distinct silhouette which is very characteristic of the dress and style from this time. Dating this dress to then would mean that it was worn towards the end of Rachael’s life. It was obviously a much loved garment, as three distinct campaigns of repairs were found during conservation treatment. 
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After treatment of Rachael Hartwell's silk gown courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
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After treatment of Rachael Hartwell's silk gown courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
Stay tuned for another blog with more textiles we will treat this summer in preparation for the opening of the Massachusettes Historical Society's fashion exhibition.
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Melissa King has experience in objects and paintings conservation. She received her B.A. in Art History and Communication Studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has been accepted into the next class at the Winterthur/ University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
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New Ideas on Ancient Peru

5/16/2017

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​On May 2, 2017, I traveled to Lima, Peru, to participate in a convocatorio, or gathering of archaeologists, conservators, textile historians, artisans, and other specialists who are affiliated with Huaca Malena. A ceremonial center located 100 km south of Lima in the town of Asia, Huaca Malena was in use for over 1000 years, including by the Incas as a cemetery prior to the Spanish conquest. Managed by the National Institute of Culture, the Municipal Museum of Huaca Malena was opened in 2001 as a repository for artifacts and mummy bundles salvaged from the surface after the nearby archaeological site was heavily looted in the 1990s.
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Camille and her students visiting Huaca Malena with Rommel Angeles Falcon in 2009, where they found an ornate textile left on the surface by grave robbers.
​I have been affiliated with Huaca Malena since 2004 when the Museum’s Director, Rommel Angeles Falcon, invited me to surface clean and document a mummy bundle. I had met Rommel at a conference of the Comité Nacional de Conservatión Textile in Lima in 2002 and expressed an interest in collaborating. Then, from 2005 through 2010 I ran the Ancient Peruvian Textiles Workshop, through which I brought conservators and textile enthusiasts from North America and Europe to Huaca Malena every January to work with Peruvian archaeology students.
​The convocatorio participants, all of whom were expertly guided by textile scholar Ann Hudson Peters, will collaborate on the publication of a book. This book will illustrate how textiles from Huaca Malena shed light on research in a variety of subjects due to their unusually excellent levels of preservation (even for Peru), extraordinary ​variety compared to similar central coast sites, and the history of openness to research shown by Rommel over the past 16 years.
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Rommel Angeles Falcon helping Camille Myers Breeze rehouse ancient women's dresses in May, 2017.
Thanks to the Individual Professional Development Grant from the FAIC, I was able to participate in the convocatorio between May 3 and May 9.  Unlike ten years ago, today I can point to examples of ideal or nearly-ideal solutions within Peru, rather than having to cite museums in New York or Berlin. Some of these examples are the new metal storage cabinets built in Ica for the Ica Museum, the mummy bundle rehousing project at the Museo de Sitio Arturo Jimenez Borja Puruchuco, funded by a grant from the US Embassy (and being presented at the AIC meeting in Chicago by Peruvian colleagues courtesy of the Latin American and Caribbean Scholarship Program), and several installations at the newly renovated Amano Museum in Lima. ​​
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The Museo Amano, Lima's only museum dedicated to textiles, was recently reopened following a complete refurbishment of the 1960s building. Head of visitor services and experienced conservator Doris Robles showed Camille and Angela Pacheco (textile conservator and former MTS intern) inside the drawers of this new storage/exhibition space.
On my first day working with the team, I began to strategize on two rehousing projects.  Peruvian-French textile conservator Jessica Levy is writing about feathered objects from Huaca Malena, and we decided to construct a box for three of the most fragile examples. The tallest, which a recent trip to the Museo de Historia Natural confirmed is made of duck feathers, needs a storage/display board so it can be exhibited without being handled. I built one out of archival materials I sourced in Lima, as well as BEVA adhesive film donated by Hollinger Metal Edge and unbuffered acid-free tissue donated by University Products. The individual mounts tie closed and fit into a three-tiered storage box made of corrugated polypropylene. 
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Camille Myers Breeze and Jessica Levy discussing the design of an archival storage container for a delicate feathered headdress.
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Oversized textiles were archivally packed on tubes and supported on foam cradled in a custom-made box.
The other rehousing challenge I faced was how to properly store oversized textiles such as tunics and women's dresses like those researcher Lena Bjerregaard of the University of Copenhagen will write about. Ideally, they would lie flat in an inert storage cabinet, however the Huaca Malena museum has neither the space nor the funds for this. Instead, I used plain cardboard tubes covered with a barrier of polyethylene sheeting and a layer of polyester batting. We laid the women’s dresses out onto strips of tissue placed over a sling of Notex (nonwoven polyester fabric used for airplane pillow cases), covered them with more tissue, and made a new accession tag.  We then rolled the dresses up and covered them with an outer roll of tocuyu, or Peruvian muslin. I also built a custom box for the tubes using corrugated polypropylene and fashioned cradles for the ends of the tubes out of expanded polyethylene foam. 
These rehousing projects will become case studies alongside the chapter I will write about mounting and stabilizing pre-Columbian textiles. On this trip I also learned that inert polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester materials can now be found for sale in Lima and other larger cities. In many cases, these are identical to archival products sold in conservation catalogs in the US and elsewhere. But my favorite thing about my visit was seeing that so many students who I had the privilege of supervising are now working in museums and private practices all around Peru.

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On my last day in in Lima, I visited Huaca Huallamarca with Rommel, Lena, Jessica, and Ann Peters. There we were assisted by two of my former students, museum director Aranzazu Hopkins Barriga and archaeologist Claudia Dilla.
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Camille Myers Breeze founded Museum Textile services in 1999. She is a prolific author, and educator of museum personnel and emerging conservation professionals in the US and abroad.
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Lacing Together History

5/9/2017

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In partial fulfillment of my internship at Museum Textile Services, I recently cleaned, repaired, mounted, and framed three lace objects that were donated to the study collection from a single family. I was fortunate to be able to spend an afternoon learning about the history of lace, manufacturing techniques, and how to identify various forms of lace. 
According to leading lace scholar, Pat Earnshaw, there is little evidence of lace before the 16th century.  Lace has a storied history of having both ecclesiastical and secular purposes. The secular use of lace was subjected to the ephemeral nature of fashion, and for this reason, there is a great array of designs and techniques that have been developed over the years, and even more styles developed based on the region of manufacture. 

​In the early 19th century, several styles of machine lace were developed, which allowed for mass production and lower costs. The influx of lace resulted in a resurgence of preference for the art form, and Earnshaw noted a large revival in handmade lace between 1840 and 1890. However, these works had a hard time competing with the cost and time efficient machine-made work. 
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Detail from an anonymous portrait of Mertijntje van Ceters, 1623. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
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Detail of the Irish crochet lace collar. MTS study collection.
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Cotton lace collar mounted and framed in a vintage frame. MTS study collection.
​The first of the three objects I conserved was worn by the ancestor of the donor, who lived in Oberlin, OH, in the late 18th and early 20th centuries. The hand-made cotton collar and its matching cuffs were salvaged from a garment, which indicates its value to the owner. Known as Irish Crochet, this technique of lace was first produced in the 1840s using an extremely thin steel crochet hook. After MTS conservator Morgan Carbone wetcleaned the collar with Sodium Borohydride, I mounted it with hand stitching to a fabric-covered archival board. A vintage grain-painted frame was found in an appropriate size, which I cleaned and toned to hide a flaw. The lace was framed with acrylic spacers behind UV-filtering glass.
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Detail of hand-made Teneriffe lace from South America. MTS study collection.
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Cotton Teneriffe lace mounted and framed. MTS study collection.
​The second of the three objects I conserved is an example of Teneriffe lace that was likely picked up in South America during the donor’s travels in the 1960’s. According to Heather Toomer, Teneriffe or “Sol work,” is a Spanish craft with known examples from as early as the 17th century. We learned about Teneriffe lace in 2016 when a customer brought three pieces for us to conserve, which gave us the idea to mount and frame the piece in the MTS study collection. Again, Morgan Carbone wetcleaned the lace and I mounted and framed it in another vintage grain-painted frame.
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Card attached to the Indian crochet lace in the MTS study collection.
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Photograph from Lutheran Woman's Work, Volume 15, 1922.
The third lace object I worked on is was from the donor’s childhood, which was spent in India during the 1950’s. It came to us sewn to a piece of blue paper with a card reading “Rajahmundry Lutheran Lace Industry E. Godavari Dist., India pattern no. 33 L.M. 484.” After doing a bit of research on this label, I learned that Rajahmundry is a center of textile production on the Godavari river in the eastern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh.  A 1922 bulletin found online tells us that Lutheran missionaries trained women who had converted to Christianity in the art of lace making. ​The hand-made lace included needle lace, pin lace, and crochet, like the example I worked on, and the profits of the industry were used to support a “home for unprotected women.”
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The Indian lace will be matted and framed with the original paper card.
​The Indian lace was wetcleaned and soon it will be mounted to a fabric-covered board like the previous examples. In order to frame the card along with the lace, an acid-free mat will be placed around the lace with a cut-out for the card to sit in. The card will be mounted with small dots of archival adhesive. This piece of lace will be framed behind UV-filtering glass in a newly purchased frame and will be displayed in the Museum Textile Services studio. 
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Melissa King has experience in objects and paintings conservation. She received her B.A. in Art History and Communication Studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has been accepted into the next class at the Winterthur/ University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
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"Threads of Change" features Andover Figures®

4/20/2017

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On April 19th, 2017, Museum Textile Services staff made the trip to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, for the opening of "Threads of Change: Clothing and Identity in the North" at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum. Included in the exhibit are twelve of our Andover Figures® manikins, which were skillfully padded out and arranged by the museum's collections staff.
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Left to right: Pencil skirt by Peter Kawogaelg Williams, Sitka, Alaska, 2015. Amaut flare dress by Becky Qilvvaq, Nunavut, Canada. Beaded Amauti by Lucy Ittinuar, Nunavut, Canada, c 1970. Labrador Amauti by Nancy Pamack, Labrador, Canada, c 1980. Embroidered wool parka by Gladys Mesher, Goose Bay, Labrador, 1985.
The exhibit features contemporary and antique garments from all over the arctic region. Included among the costume are artifacts and photographs that tell the story of the gathering, processing, construction, and design of both functional and special-occasion clothing for children and adults. Materials as disparate as walrus intestines, wolverine, lynx, sealskin, fox, wool, canvas, acetate, and ecopoly/spandex are represented in the collection, and are decorated with everything from beads to coins to bone dangles. ​
The talented exhibit team including curator/registrar Geneviene LeMoine, were able to take the Andover Figures core forms and adapt them using polyester batting and other padding materials to support the sometimes-complex and heavy garments. Some manikins employed bases and others cleverly "float" inside exhibit cases via hidden brackets. Their choice of black show fabric allowed the garments to be the center of attention and evoked the long arctic nights.

Prior to the opening, clothing designer, filmmaker, and educator Becky Qilvvaq from Iqaluit, Canada, gave a lecture, "Inuit Clothing and Identity in the Modern World." Becky  was born and raised in the Inuit mountain community of Pangnirtung, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, located on Baffin Island. She works in the Department of Social Policy at the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, and is also a photographer and master throatsinger. She was chosen to perform at the 2010 Olympics and has been travelling the world for over a decade as a cultural ambassador. Her Inuit-inspired fashions, including dresses, skirts, leggings, and art work, are available on her website inukness.com. 
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Becky Qilvvaq and Camille Breeze after Becky's lecture on "Inuit Clothing and Identity in the Modern World."
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MTS Director Camille Myers Breeze suction cleaning the beaded amauti.
Visiting the exhibit also gave us a chance to see the beaded amauti that was conserved at MTS earlier in 2017. Made by Lucy Ittinuar of Nunavut, Canada, around 1970, the coat had extensive water marks and dye bleeding that MTS Director Camille Breeze and Conservator Morgan Carbone removed using a suction platen. "Threads of Change" will be up at the Peary-MacMillen Arctic Museum through December 2018.

Exhibit team: David Maschino – designer; Susan Kaplan – director; Steve Bunn – Exhibit technician; staff members 
Anne Witty, Julie Santorella, Jamey Tanzer; and students Tanisha Francis and Aiden Coyle.​
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MTS at OSV Thanks to NEH

4/3/2017

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On March 29th and 30th, 2017, Museum Textile Services Director Camille Myers Breeze and Conservator Morgan Carbone indulged in every textile specialist's favorite activity--surveying costume from one of the finest collections in New England. Old Sturbridge Village, a c 1830 living history museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, received a generous Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for Humanities, which covered our fees.
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Some of the storage cabinets contained large numbers of equally well preserved garments, like these men's shirts.
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Many cabinets were impressive for the variety of vibrant prints and weave structures preserved for 200 or more years.
The goal of this survey was to photograph as many items as possible and record their condition issues, any treatment needed prior to exhibition, and whether they should no longer be stored hanging. In order to do this as efficiently as possible, MTS Administrator Kathy McKenna created a spreadsheet based on catalog data provided by OSV. Fields containing possible condition issues, such as abrasion, discoloration, insect damage, and fading, were added for us to quickly check off when present. Using this system, Camille and Morgan were able to assess 352 garments in a mere 14 hours!
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Rebecca Beall, Morgan Carbone, and Camille Myers Breeze. Photo by Old Sturbridge Village Assistant Curator Shelley Cathcart.
Helping us throughout the project was OSV Collections Manager and Curator of Textiles Rebecca Beall, who along with her colleagues is tasked with preparing the upcoming 2018 costume exhibition. We met Rebecca in 2013 when she brought a number of garments to Museum Textile Services for conservation in advance of the exhibit Delightfully Designed: The Furniture and Life of Nathan Lumbard. The narrow passages between the hanging textile cabinets were just large enough for a rolling cart that held a laptop into which Morgan entered her and Camille's observations. The well-cataloged collection of dresses is arranged by decade, allowing us to travel forward in time as we worked from the late 1700s to just after 1850. This type of hands-on examination provides a rare opportunity to learn from the objects in ways that mere book reading cannot.
Among the 352 items assessed were bodices, dresses, capes, cloaks, coats, dressing gowns, frock coats, jackets, pelisses, petticoats, shirts, smocks, spencers, tailcoats, vests, and one uniform jacket. Over 50% of the items are in excellent condition and require no conservation prior to exhibition. Of the remaining garments, fewer than 10% require substantial conservation for their ongoing preservation. The conservation recommendations included stitched repairs to holes or tears, stabilizing linings or hems with sheer overlays, and steaming or surface cleaning prior to exhibition. Overall, the collection is extremely well preserved and has been acquired and cared for to the highest standards by several generations of museum colleagues.
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Morgan's favorite waistcoat is made of patterned silk with white silk embroidery that speaks to the opening of trade with China and the growing craze for all things oriental.
Once we returned to Andover, the entire MTS team spent an additional two days compiling the data and generating individual worksheets for each item surveyed. Our report includes recommendations for future volunteer projects, such as constructing garment bags for some items, moving the most fragile garments to boxed storage, and basic surface cleaning. We now look forward to organizing volunteer training sessions both on site and in our Andover Studio.

If your institution needs a collections survey like this NEH funded project with Old Sturbridge Village, please contact MTS Director Camille Myers Breeze.
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Camille Myers Breeze founded Museum Textile services in 1999. She is a prolific author, and educator of museum personnel and emerging conservation professionals in the US and abroad.
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The Infamous Major Fitz-John Porter

3/27/2017

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History took center stage this winter at Museum Textile Services when a rare example of a Civil War bicorn, or chapeau-de-bras, arrived along with its original cardboard box. The hat was made by Warnock & Co. of New York, which specialized in military headwear. The bicorn is constructed of beaver fur with a leather band around the inside of the cap. The cap is lined with purple silk imprinted with the Warnock & Co. label. The hat box is made of cardboard with a blue exterior and red paper tape around the edges. A Warnock & Co. label reading “From St. Nicholas Hotel No. 519 B-Way New York Warnock & Co. Fashionable Hatters” identifies the original owner of the bicorn as none other then the notorious “Mr. Fitz Porter 66 Union Place.”
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Label on hat box. Courtesy of New Hampshire Historical Society.
Hailing from New Hampshire, ​Major General Fitz-John Porter served in the American Civil War in the Union army. Throughout 1862, it was the mission of the Union army to take the Confederate capital of Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln created the Army of Virginia, led by General Pope, to protect Washington and intimidate the nearby Confederate troops. General Porter, with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Potomac, had made disparaging remarks in telegraphs that would later be seen by General Pope on his way to joining Pope’s troops. 
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Gen. Fitz-John Porter's bicorn, after conservation. Courtesy of New Hampshire Historical Society.
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Portrait of Fitz-John Porter wearing what appears to be the bicorn conserved by Museum Textile Services. Courtesy of National Park Service.
​General Jackson of the Confederate army attacked Manassas on August 26, leading to what would later be called the Second Battle of Bull Run. Pope tried to destroy Jackson’s divisions before he could retreat, but Jackson remained strongly on the defensive. General Longstreet of the Confederate army flanked Pope with the remaining 5 of General Lee’s divisions. The only thing left to do was retreat by the time Union reinforcements arrived. 
​The battle was so devastating that the Union feared they might lose their great capital. As chaos ensued, President Lincoln dissolved the Army of Virginia and thus Pope’s position. General McClellan was in charge of maintaining the capital. Pope felt that McClellan set him up for failure and blamed McClellan for the loss of this battle. Pope knew he could not file charges against McClellan, but he could file them against McClellan’s assistants, Fitz-John Porter and a General Franklin. 
​Fitz-John Porter was charged with five counts of disobeying orders and four counts for shameful conduct before the enemy, charges that could result in the death penalty. Porter hoped that McClellan would be able to help, but McClellan was dismissed from the army before the trial. In 1863, Porter was found guilty of these crimes and dismissed from the army in this so-called “trial of the century.” He was exonerated in 1886 and had his rank restored to colonel, but would never work in the military again. 
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Sculpture of General Fitz-John Porter in Haven Park in Portsmouth, NH.
General Porter was honored with a statue in his hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1904. A WWII American Steam Merchant ship was named after him, and now his bicorn worn during the time of this great battle has been conserved at MTS. After gentle surface cleaning and polishing of the metallic elements, MTS Director Camille Myers Breeze repaired a tear to the silk lining of the cap. One of the two bullion tassels was reattached, and a custom mount was made of fabric-covered Ethafoam. The hat is now enlosed in a custom-made polypropylene box. The pieces of the original hat box were treated by paper conservator, Bryan Owen, and are now stable enough for display.

To see the entire collection of Major Fitz-John Porter holdings at the New Hampshire Historical Society, visit their online catalog. We are honored to contribute to the enduring history of this New Englander, and hope that others will be inspired to learn more about him. 
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​Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Morgan's interests include lace knitting and cats.
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Uncovering Concealed Objects

3/6/2017

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This month at Museum Textile Services we were excited to conserve a set of four concealed garments: a shoe, a shoe sole, a boot, and a bonnet. The objects were found during renovations to a 1725 Ledyard, CT, house, and were located in the floorboards of an attic above the birthing room. ​The boot and bonnet are 19th century, while the shoe could be even older. The bonnet closely resembles silk crepe spoon caps from the Civil War era. ​
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Interior of a Civil War era bonnet, before conservation.
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Exterior of a Civil War era bonnet, before conservation.
When items such as these are hidden in secular or religious buildings, they are often placed close to doors and fireplaces, or under floorboards. These areas were considered the weakest parts of the house, where malevolent spirits might enter. Concealed garments are often interpreted as protective symbols. As Dinah Eastop and Charlotte Dew explain in their article Secret Garments: Deliberately Concealed Garments as Symbolic Textiles:

…The concealed garment is symbolic in
that it stands in for the wearer; the former wearer stands for his/her community of interest (e.g. their household/trade). Arguing by analogy moves the protective role of garments for the body to the protective role of the house for these inhabitants.
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A similar Civil War spoon bonnet.
​Deliberately concealed garments are often heavily worn and bear the imprint of the wearer. The objects we conserved show many indicators of heavy use including separating layers of leather and abrasion to the fabric at the interior of the shoe, holes, heavily caked on mud and dirt, and evidence of re-soling on multiple occasions. The bonnet was generally deformed and was missing layers of fabric at its interior.
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Concealed boot, before conservation. Courtesy of private collector.
The shoes and bonnet were carefully surface cleaned with a micro-vacuum attachment, toothbrushes, and vulcanized rubber sponges. During the process, we found different types of beans in the toe of the boot. While they easily could have been transported into the shoe by way of rodents, it is also possible that the beans were put there by the people who originally concealed the garments. Beans, seeds, and corn cobs symbolize fertility, and are often found in historic homes along with concealed objects. ​
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Interior of shoe, before conservation. Note the separating layers of leather. Courtesy of private collector.
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Bottom of shoe, before conservation. Note the multiple layers of the shoe sole. Courtesy of private collector.
After cleaning, the garments were humidified in a Gore-Tex chamber to facilitate reshaping. We were concerned with the leather hardening, or crosslinking, in the presence of water, so the objects were very carefully monitored. When dry, the leather was treated with renaissance wax, a micro-crystalline wax conditioner and cleaner. This did not change their appearance greatly, but will help to coat the leather and aid in its preservation. Support mounts were made for the two shoes and the bonnet from pieces of Ethafoam covered with knit jersey. A custom box protects them all and allows the owner to easily show them to friends. 
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Concealed objects, after conservation and mounting. Courtesy of private collector.
We are excited that the concealed objects will be returning to the house in which they were found, and continue to tell the history of the home. For more information about deliberately concealed objects, see the the website  developed by Dinah Eastop and Charlotte Dew.
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Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Morgan's interests include lace knitting and cats.
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All the "Craze"

2/20/2017

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​While conserving several crazy quilts that arrived at Museum Textile Services this winter, we noticed a trend--the use of fabrics influenced by the the Far East. Asian designs and decorative arts were a big part of the Aesthetic Movement of the second half of the 19th century, and many Americans had their first exposure after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Crazy Quilts have their roots in the cracked finishes seen on Asian pottery, called “crazing.” American women adapted this ceramic finish into the decorative embroidery work and irregularly shaped patches that typify crazy quilting. 
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Example of Chinese ceramic with crazing (13th Century) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The crazy quilt we conserved from ​the Dudley Farm Museum, which we discussed in the blog Crazy for Crazy Quilts, contained many printed patches that were inspired by East Asia. The fabric seen below has white clouds outlined in black intersected by red curvilinear shapes. Clouds are a lucky symbol in Chinese iconography because they bring rain for crops, and the pronunciation of the word is very similar to the words "luck," "fortune," and "fate." This pattern can be frequently seen in the swirling shapes of robes of the Qing dynasty, like the example below from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Printed patch on a crazy quilt. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
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Segment of a Qing Robe from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
​Another, very simple patch is white with stylized black writing. Chinese characters are both symbolic and decorative, expressing important concepts such as happiness and longevity. A ceremonial umbrella we conserved in 2015 for Wheaton College had writing on several ribbons, believed to be the names of donors who supported the gift of the umbrella to a retiring government official. These umbrellas can be seen throughout the 1987 movie The Last Emperor. 
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Printed patch on a crazy quilt. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
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Chinese calligraphy on silk ribbons. Courtesy of Wheaton College.
​The Dudley Farm Museum quilt also contains several patches printed with blue lattice work intersected by ethereal light pink peonies. Peonies are extremely important design elements in Chinese textiles, and are sometimes called the "King of Flowers." They are indicative of the spring season and symbolize royalty and virtue. The ladder, or ladder of heaven, is used to symbolize longevity.
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Printed patch with lattice work and peonies. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
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Japanese textile with lattice work and cherry blossoms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Wood block print of a peony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Another crazy quilt that came to MTS from a private collection contains patchwork fans, which were a very popular Victorian element. ​The word for fan in Chinese sounds much like the word for "kindness" or "good," making fans a symbol of good luck and generosity. 
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Pieced fan design. Courtesy of private collector.
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Chinese Ming dynasty fan at the Metropolitan Museum of art.
Quilts are often illustrative of the fashion of an era, because of the myriad of fabrics they contain. Crazy quilts go one step further by shining a light on how interconnected the globe was becoming at the height of the Victorian era.
​
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​Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Morgan's interests include lace knitting and cats.
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Crazy for Crazy Quilts

2/1/2017

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​An influx of crazy quilts helped to keep Museum Textile Services warm over the recent holiday season. Crazy quilts consist of irregularly shaped patches of many different fibers and weave structures that are pieced together like a jig-saw puzzle. Many makers cut patches from worn out garments. ​The pieces ware frequently sewn together into squares before the completed sections were sewn together. Many crazy quilts have rich velvet boarders and printed cotton backing fabric. They came to fashion during the aesthetic period of the late 19th-century and continued into the early 20th century.
PictureCrazy quilt from c 1893. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
After working on so many crazy quilts, we have become curious about the individuals who made them. The Dudley Farm crazy quilt, now housed in Guilford, Connecticut, is predominantly wool patches including numerous plaids. At least three women contributed to its construction. Like many of their contemporaries, the makers included dated ribbons, or embroidering names and dates on blocks. One square has patches that read, “Anna,” “Waterbury,” “February 20,” “1893,” and “Blizzard.” Another block is signed "Wolcott Feb. 13 1893." A third reads “Fair Haven Feb. 25 Leila Wade.” How did these three women know each other? We concocted a romantic story of three friends or cousins stitching the quilt during the hard winter of 1892 to 1893.
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Block commemorating the 1893 blizzard. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
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Patch with a town name and date. Courtesy of Dudley Farm Museum.
MTS conservators also had the opportunity to treat a pair of crazy quilts brought to us by a private collector. The two quilts were likely made around the same time and perhaps by the same woman or group of women. Although the same finished size, one quilt consists of just twelve blocks of the same vintage as the other, plus eight blocks made at a later date or by a less skilled quilter. Both quilts had some identical patches, including miniature silk appliqué American flags, printed cigarette silks, and memorandum ribbons commemorating the death of Ulysses S. Grant on July 23, 1885. The maker or makers of these quilts was an accomplished embroider and painter on fabric.
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Crazy quilt from after 1885. Note top and bottom rows of blocks in a different hand. Courtesy of private collector.
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Crazy quilt from after 1886. Courtesy of private collector.
​Crazy quilts often are brought to us for conservation in very bad condition due to the interaction of the varied fibers and weave structures, the presence of weighted silks, and the practice of re-purposing fabrics that were already worn. The three crazy quilts mentioned in this blog were all stabilized to prevent additional loss of textile fragments and allow safe display. The Dudley Farm quilt was completely encapsulated in sheer nylon net in order to protect the deteriorating fabrics on both the front and back. The private collector chose a different approach for her two quilts. Instead of a full nylon net overlay, we covered only the most deteriorated patches with different shades of sheer nylon net. The pair of quilts will be display in the future, so we also installed twill-tape sleeves to accommodate a magnetic hanging system.
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Grant memorial ribbon. Courtesy of private collector.
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Applique American flag. Courtesy of private collector.
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Cigarette silk. Courtesy of private collector.
During a recent search through Director Camille Myers Breeze's family textiles, we came across the identical American flag ribbon found in one of the recently-conserved crazy quilts. The label accompanying the ribbon tells us that they were worn by Camille's grandmother and great aunt on "Decoration Day," more commonly known now as Memorial Day. Another way to see crazy quilts, therefore, is as fabric scrap books containing memories of clothing worn, and historical and personal events.


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​Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Morgan's interests include lace knitting and cats. 
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