Textiles in Trust

On May 11th, 2018, Museum Textile Services conservators attended the long-anticipated opening of the exhibit "Leisure Pursuits" at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. Part of the 100-plus special places in Massachusetts overseen by the Trustees of Reservations, Fruitlands hosted this display of clothing and textiles from several Trustees locations. This show is one of eight MassFashion exhibits in 2018, all of which showcase the different facets of fashion and how it connects to the modern day individual and history.

Two Worth gowns displayed on Andover Figures® in "Leisure Pursuits" at the Fruitlands Museum.

During the fall and winter leading up to this first-of-its-kind exhibit, the MTS staff conserved 20 pieces of costume ranging from a Worth gown to a rayon bathing costume to a waiter's jacket. Some items once belonged to famous Bay Staters, such as a hat worn by poet William Cullen Bryant and a Knox trench coat favored by Mabel Choat when gardening at her Berkshire estate Naumkeag.  What brings the exhibit of essential clothing and accessories together are the various forms of entertainment, sport, and holiday favored by New Englanders from the Guilded Age to the late 20th century. 

The largest group of dresses worn by a single woman belonged to Helen Stevens Coolidge, descendant of one of the founding families of Andover. The country house she lived in with her husband John, the Stevens-Coolidge Place in North Andover, is one of the finest Colonial Revival estates in the northeast, with many acres of farmland and gardens to explore around the mansion. John Coolidge was the great, great grandson of Thomas Jefferson and a nephew of Isabella Stewart Gardner. This status is reflected in Helen's wardrobe, which contained both day-to-day essentials like lawn dresses, and elegant evening gowns by Paris fashion house Worth. Senior Curator Christie Jackson spent over two years researching the vast collections found throughout the Trustees 16 historic houses. After researching Worth gowns, Christie dated Helen's two dresses to c 1895. She later discovered that Helen and John Coolidge met in Paris in 1895, which begs the question whether it was one of these dresses that caught John's eye.

Conservators Courtney Jason and Gretta Hempelmann building two Andover Figures® for "Leisure Pursuits."

The Trustees commissioned Museum Textile Services to build custom archival manikins for their two Worth gowns. This provided yet another opportunity for our Andover Figures® system to be an affordable solution to safely display even ornate, heavy costume. Starting with our basic Ethafoam core, we used additional Ethafoam, polyester batting, and nylon tulle to create individual silhouettes for the two slightly different dresses seen above. 

Take a trip out to beautiful Harvard, Massachusetts, to see "Leisure Pursuits" at the Fruitlands Museum through March 24, 2019. 

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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.