Museum Textile Services
  • About MTS
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Client List
    • Press Room
  • Textile Conservation
    • Architectural Interiors
    • Asian Art
    • Ethnographic Textiles
    • Flags & Banners
    • Historic Clothing
    • Quilts and Coverlets
    • Samplers & Embroideries
    • Sports Memorabilia
    • Tapestries
  • Collections Care
    • Vac & Pack
    • Surveys
    • Disaster Response
  • Education
    • LL
    • Porto
    • C3 >
      • C3 readings
    • HPRH
    • Becoming a Textile Conservator
  • Resources
    • MTS Magazine
    • Textile Conservation Basics
    • Textile Stabilization
    • Textile Storage
    • Displaying Historic Costume
    • Displaying Flat Textiles
    • Museum Pests
    • Disaster Response
    • Advanced Topics
    • Class Readings
    • Staff Publications
    • Resources in Spanish
    • MTS Videos and Slide Shows
  • Blog
  • Andover Figures™
    • Our Mission
    • The Andover Figures System
    • Choosing a Form
    • Purchasing Andover Figures
    • AF Contact Form

The American Women's Voluntary Services, Part II

2/25/2013

0 Comments

 
by Tegan Kehoe and Camille Myers Breeze

In last week's post, Jen Nason introduced you to the American Women’s Voluntary Services and the collection of WWII uniforms and accessories we are conserving for Wheaton College. Today we will take a closer look at the garments themselves, and what we they tell us about fashion and rationing during WWII.
Picture
This dress shows evidence of wartime economy, with its eight-gore skirt. Gores, or panels, in a skirt add fullness while getting the most out of the piece of fabric they are cut from. All images courtesy of Wheaton College.
1940’s women’s fashions for daily wear were heavily influenced by the war, even outside of the armed forces and support organizations.  Women favored tailored blouses, jackets, and knee-length skirts. They were practical, sturdy, and used relatively little fabric, but had feminine details such as shoulder pads and higher hemlines than 1930’s styles. These fashions were sometimes called utility fashion, named after the Utility Clothing Scheme, one of the rationing schemes used in the UK. An exhibit on this topic, entitled “Beauty as Duty,” came to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2011.
Picture
An assortment of details from the Wheaton College American Women's Voluntary Services uniforms.
An indication not only of the war-time economy but also of the long duration of the conflict is the variety of fabrics found in the Wheaton AWVS collection. Among the collection, we find two pocketbooks, two ties, one belt, five garrison caps, two hats, three skirts, three jackets, and one dress. There are no fewer than 5 different fabrics represented, from 100% cotton plain weave to different styles or types of rayon.
Picture
AWVS skirt made of cotton. Before conservation.
The light-blue cotton skirt, belt, and hat could perhaps be the earliest in the collection. Sgt. Burgess Scott's 1945 article Clothing and the War states that cotton was extremely difficult to come by and rayon was the most common substitute. A manufactured cellulosic fiber, rayon is neither a synthetic nor truly a natural fiber. It can mimic the characteristics of silk, linen, and cotton but rayon has poor elastic regain and was best dry cleaned. 
Picture
Woman's rayon jacket with metal buttons. The buttons, as well as signs of hard wear, may indicate this is an earlier jacket.
Another interesting feature of this collection is that two of the three jackets have wooden buttons that are painted a gold color to look like metal. During WWII, metal was in short supply, so it was considered patriotic to use substitutes whenever possible and donate metal to scrap drives to be recycled for military purposes. The Wheaton College collection has extra sets of buttons, apparently salvaged from other garments.
Picture
Both the faux-metal wooden buttons, above, and the metal buttons, right, bear the letters AWVS
Picture
Metal buttons are found on one jacket and the dress in the collection.
Wheaton's AWVS collection is in very good condition and had probably been dry cleaned before going into storage decades ago. Stay tuned for our final AWVS blog, a show-and-tell of the uniforms before and after conservation.
Sign up for the MTS e-Magazine!
0 Comments

The Great War for Civilization

2/4/2013

1 Comment

 
by Courtney Jason

When this WWI Army jacket came to Museum Textile Services, we did not know too much about it. According to the client, it had belonged to their grandfather, who was an Irish immigrant who enlisted to escape the orphanage he was living in. Beyond that, the rest was unclear. In the intervening weeks, much has come to light about Alexander G. McLean, his uniform, and his service in the Great War for Civilization.

Picture
McLean's WWI jacket before conservation.
McLean's army jacket is a 1917 pattern jacket, which is distin- guishable from the earlier 1912 pattern by a single line of stitching around the sleeve cuffs. Details like this can be found on the US Army's website in an extensive PDF by David Cole.

Picture
From David Cole's "Survey of U.S. Army Uniforms, Weapons and Accouterments," p. 61.
Recently the client returned with more items belonging to their grandfather. The buttons, pins, business cards, and books have inspired us to begin our research anew, and while we still do not know a lot about the life of Alexander McLean, we are developing a more complete picture. We know he joined the Army with the Yankee Division, and that he likely spent the majority of his time abroad fighting in France.  
Picture
Items belonging to A.G. McLean including victory medals, shell casings, and key to the City of Boston.
The first step of the project is to mount the jacket for display. It has been carefully vacuumed and an archival support pillow has been constructed. Next it will be mount it to a fabric-covered solid-support panel and covered with a UV filtering acrylic shadow box. When the jacket is complete, additional shadow boxes will be constructed for the other items.
Picture
Medal awarded to Alexander G. McLean from the town of Hopedale, MA, for service in WWI.
While there are still a lot of unanswered questions, we are looking forward to learning more about the life of Alexander McLean. Be sure to check our Facebook page for updates as we continue to work on this project.
Sign up for the MTS e-Magazine!
1 Comment

Who Was Ludovicus Rex?

7/16/2012

43 Comments

 
by Michelle Drummey

Sometimes a big mystery can come in a small package. Museum Textile Services recently acquired a jar of 20th-century buttons to aid in conservation treatments, such as replacing missing buttons from garments. Of all the buttons, a single one has inspired curiosity in the MTS team. 
Picture
Front of MTS button
Crafted from what appears to be thin brass-colored metal, the stamped face of the hollow button bears an image of two figures surrounding a crown atop a crest or shield. Circling the image is text reading, “LUDOVICUS REX PLURES NON CAPIT ORBIS,” which translates as, “There is no room in the world for more than one King Ludovicus.” While this button is clearly modern, I wondered if it is a reproduction of an older design. As it turns out, these buttons are popping up throughout Europe, as well as in in Russia and the United States. The internet is abuzz with button collectors and even numismatists trying to figure out who King Ludovicus was.
Picture
A similar, and apparently older button from a Polish website.
The challenge is that the Latin name Ludovicus can translate into a number of names, including Louis, Ludwig, or even Luigi. Ironically, while the button states that there can only be one King Ludovicus, history says otherwise, as Kings bearing various forms of the name Louis reigned across Europe, as far back as the time of Charlemagne.
Picture
Heraldic Crest of King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Although I’m no expert on buttons or European heraldry, the image encircled by the text may be the key. At the very center of the button are three cross-like shapes within an emblem resembling a crest, topped by a crown. After comparing our button to other examples, it seems that those three shapes may actually be fleurs-de-lis. I discovered that our button actually looks a lot like the insignia of French monarchy during the 17th and 18th centuries. An almost identical motif can be seen in this photograph of a carved ceiling at Versailles.
Picture
Similar imagery within a gilded ceiling at Versailles. Photo by Tara Bradford.
It appears, therefore, that Ludovicus Rex may refer to King Louis of France...but there was more than one King Louis, of course. The Palace of Versailles, where the above image above was taken, was the official residence of the Kings of France from 1682 until 1790, included Louis XIII through Louis XVI. 

Still, some researchers claim that the King referred to on our button was King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who notably built the castle which stood as inspiration for the iconic Sleeping Beauty castle of Disney fame. Will we ever know who King Ludovicus is? Perhaps one day, with the help of specialists, we may.  
Picture
20th-century, cast aluminum button.
If you are interested in learning more about buttons you can contact a society dedicated to the collection and preservation of buttons such as the National Button Society or visit one of the numerous museums dedicated to them, such as the Waterbury Button Museum in Connecticut.
43 Comments

    MTS Blog

    Want Answers?

    Categories

    All
    Abigail Brooks Adams
    Adams National Historical Park
    Admiral Perry
    AFL
    Africa
    American Institute For Conservation
    Amherst College
    Andover Figures
    Armor
    Arts And Crafts Movement
    Assuit
    Awvs
    Ballardvale
    Ballard Vale Mills
    Bamboo
    Banner
    Banshou In Temple
    Baseball
    Bed Hangings
    Bicorn
    Bleach
    Bombing
    Boning
    Books
    Boston
    Boston College
    Boston Marathon
    Boston Strong
    Brooks Brothers
    Bulldog
    Burnham
    Button
    Buttonwoods Museum
    Campbell Center
    Casablanca
    Chinese
    Christening Gown
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Cloak
    Cold Water Army
    Colonial Dames
    Concealed Objects
    Concord
    Copley Square
    Corset
    Costume
    Cotton
    Cotton Net
    Coverlet
    Crewel
    Crochet
    Digitally Printed Textiles
    Display
    Dog
    Dress Form
    Duchesse De Choiseul
    Echo Lake Aquarium
    Education
    Egypt
    E Magazine
    E-Magazine
    Embroidery
    English
    Ethafoam
    Exhibition
    Exhibits
    Fairbanks House
    Fancy Dress
    Farnsworth Museum Of Art
    Father Diman
    Featherbone
    Felting
    Filet Darning
    Fire
    Flag
    Flags
    Folly Cove
    Frame
    Framing
    France
    Ft. Knox
    Fur
    Furniture
    George Patton
    Gore Tex
    Gore-tex
    Handsome Dan
    Hat
    Henry Adams
    Hermansville
    Higgins Armory Museum
    Historic Replica
    Hitchcock
    Hockey
    Honest Marketing Revolution
    Hooked Rug
    Hopedale
    Huaca Malena Museum
    Infestation
    Insects
    Installation
    Intern Ryan
    Internship
    Ixl Museum
    Japan
    Jifu
    Journeymen Tailors Union
    Judaica
    King Louis
    Knitting
    Ky
    Lacquer
    Laundry Bluing
    League Of Their Own
    Leipzig
    Lily Yeats
    Ma
    Maine State Museum
    Mannequin
    Marines
    Mary Baker Eddy
    Mascot
    Massachusetts
    Mead Art Museum
    Middlesex School
    Military
    Mold
    Mon
    Monuments Men
    Moths
    Mourning Wmbroidery
    Moving Messages
    Natural Sciences
    Navy
    Nazi
    Needlecraft Magazine
    Negro League Baseball
    Nema
    New England Museum Association
    New Hampshire
    New Hampshire Historical Society
    News
    Oberlin College
    Olympets
    Olympics
    Painted Textile
    Painting
    Peabody Historical Society
    Peace Flag
    Peru
    Pests
    Phillips Academy
    Presidential Seal
    Quilts
    Rayon
    Religious Textiles
    Restoration
    Reverse Painted Glass
    Robe
    Rug
    Sack Suit
    Salescaster Inc
    Sampler
    Samurai
    Self Portrait
    Shaker
    Shakespeare's Tomb
    Shawl
    Sheer Overlays
    Shelburne Farms
    Sign
    Silk
    So Clan
    Sodium Borohydride
    Softball
    Soot
    Sports Uniforms
    Stays
    St. George's School
    Storage
    Study Collection
    Swatch Book
    Synthetics
    Tapestry
    Textile Conservation
    Textile Manufacture
    Textiles
    Thangka
    Trapunto
    Trustworth Studios
    Tru-Vue Optium
    Tsushima
    Uniform
    Uniforms
    Union Railroad Station
    Velour
    Versailles
    Vietnam War
    Waves
    Wedding Dress
    Western Task Force
    Wheaton College
    Will "Cannonball" Jackman
    Wisconsin Land Lumber Co.
    Women
    World War One
    World War Two
    Yale
    Yarn

Join Our Mailing List

Picture

Museum Textile Services, LLC

P.O. Box 5004
Andover, MA 01810
admin@museumtextiles.com
​
978.474.9200
  • About MTS
    • Our Team
    • Contact
    • Client List
    • Press Room
  • Textile Conservation
    • Architectural Interiors
    • Asian Art
    • Ethnographic Textiles
    • Flags & Banners
    • Historic Clothing
    • Quilts and Coverlets
    • Samplers & Embroideries
    • Sports Memorabilia
    • Tapestries
  • Collections Care
    • Vac & Pack
    • Surveys
    • Disaster Response
  • Education
    • LL
    • Porto
    • C3 >
      • C3 readings
    • HPRH
    • Becoming a Textile Conservator
  • Resources
    • MTS Magazine
    • Textile Conservation Basics
    • Textile Stabilization
    • Textile Storage
    • Displaying Historic Costume
    • Displaying Flat Textiles
    • Museum Pests
    • Disaster Response
    • Advanced Topics
    • Class Readings
    • Staff Publications
    • Resources in Spanish
    • MTS Videos and Slide Shows
  • Blog
  • Andover Figures™
    • Our Mission
    • The Andover Figures System
    • Choosing a Form
    • Purchasing Andover Figures
    • AF Contact Form