Honoring Heirlooms

With Thanksgiving on our minds, we want to acknowledge all of the ​families, collectors, and individuals seek out conservation and advice for textiles and clothing deemed vulnerable—and valuable—enough to invest in preserving. ​

Italian child’s cloak. Image by MTS.

Margaret Hodges brought us a number of family heirlooms over the course of the past 2 years. After we assessed them, she decided to conserve some items for her family, and to donate others to the MTS study collection. Among the loveliest textiles are a blue cloak and bonnet from italy, worn by Margaret’s sister Mary Bloxam, who was born on March 2, 1957. 

Ella Bishop Freidinger wearing the satin skirt , next to her husband Daniel.

Gretta Hempelmann stabilizing the skirt in summer, 2016.

Margaret Hodges also donated several historical garments to our study collection for the purposes of teaching and research. The blue satin skirt can be seen in the above photograph of Margaret's great-grandmother Ella Bishop Freidinger.  MTS Director Camille Myers Breeze brought the skirt to the International Preservation Studies Center where students, including future MTS technician Gretta Hempelmann, learned conservation stabilization techniques.
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William Raymond Brown in his WWI uniform.

Uniform trousers, after conservation. Image by MTS.

A four-piece uniform worn by William Raymond Brown of Winchenden, Massachusetts, came to MTS from his great-granddaughter Heather Brown. First Lieutenant Brown served with the 10th Engineers in France, where he was responsible for keeping the lumber mills running for the duration of the war. The uniform consists of a tunic jacket, jodhpur-style trousers, a brown leather belt with shoulder strap, and an officer’s service cap with leather brim. Brown’s ribbons and pins have been removed and are in the possession of his great granddaughter. Rather than trust her 100-year-old heirloom to a commercial dry cleaner, Heather Brown had Museum Textile Services clean it before framing.

Anne Berardi discovered a moth-eaten service flag and two other textiles while cleaning out her mother’s house. Destined for the dumpster, Anne could not bear the thought of losing these heirlooms without learning more about why her mother had saved them. During our assessment of the textiles, we explained that this three-star service belonged to a family that sent three men to war—perfectly describing the owner’s grandfather and his two brothers. None of the stars were replaced with gold, confirming that all three men returned home from war. Conservator Courtney Jason mounted and framed the flag on color-compensating fabric, and it once again garners the respect it deserves.​

Detail of a service flag before and after conservation. Image by MTS.

While our name may suggest that most of the clients we work with at Museum Textile Services are institutions, this is actually not the case. Our favorite solutions are those that meet the clients’ needs while also meeting the needs of their heirlooms.
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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.