"Food and Clothing for Three Days" - A Story from a WWII Internment Camp

​A private client brought their grandmother’s embroidery to Museum Textile Services for conservation late in 2020. The embroidery was started by the client’s grandmother and later finished by their mother. The embroidery depicts the client’s grandmother’s family, who were held at an internment camp in the Philippines during World War II. The internment camp was at the University of Santo Tomás in Manila from January 1942 until February 1945.  

Front of Embroidery before conservation. Image by MTS. Courtesy of private client.

​The lettering around the perimeter of the embroidery reads “Santo Tomas Univ.  ‘Food and clothing for three days’ Internment camp Manila. Jan. 6, 1942; Feb. 3, 1945.” At the center is a family portrait under a tent with the internment camp in the background. There are faint lines of handwriting in the upper-left corner, of which the last word is “Philippines.” There are two miniature figures on either side of the top line of cross stitch that appear to be agricultural workers.

Detail of Tidelines before conservation.

The embroidery was carefully removed from its old mount on a padded foam core board. Due to the stability and strength of the textile, the embroidery was wet cleaned with a conservation-grade anionic surfactant to reduce the tidelines and discoloration. After conservation, the embroidery was mounted on a fabric-covered archival board and custom framed as requested by the client.
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​From a recent water leak event, the embroidery had heavy tidelines toward the bottom of the embroidery and lighter tidelines toward the top. There was also some fading of the embroidery from light exposure and a haze of discoloration often seen when a textile is exposed to smoke (i.e. cigarettes, fireplace). The canvas ground and embroidery threads felt structurally stable and there were no holes.

Embroidery in the wash bath. Tidelines appear lighter in color.

Embroidery after conservation mounted in custom frame.

​This embroidery provides a snapshot into a young girl’s life during a tumultuous period in history. After conservation, it can now be shown for years to come. 
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Kayla Silvia is a Conservator at MTS. She has a BA and BS from (SUNY) at Oneonta, and a MPhil in Textile Conservation at the Centre of Textile Conservation from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.