Welcome to the 2021 MTS Magazine

Camille, Morgan and Samantha are pleased to share with you the latest Museum Textile Services Magazine, featuring highlights from our work during the last 18 months. In many ways, our clients and projects kept us focused during the Covid-19 emergency, and provided much-needed diversion and stability. We hope you enjoy.

Our feature article Five Dresses, Five Voices presents different aspects of the study of women's clothing ranging across nearly 200 years. Each garment provides a different preservation challenge and tells a story unique to its maker and its wearer. Whether faced with the decision to restore rather than conserve, archive rather than display, or assign a time period or function, each author uncovers hidden information and adds meaning to our knowledge of the dress.

Associate Conservator Morgan Blei Carbone.

Embroidery by Mary Scott Hamilton.

Embroideries are among the most commonly conserved textiles in the MTS studio. But we had never seen a needlepoint made in an internment camp before the Hamilton family brought is their treasure after noticing water damage. Camille Breeze spoke with Sam Hamilton IV, the eldest son pictured in the embroidery, about his mother, how she loved to "escape into her crafts," and family life in Manila during WWII.

​In Restuffing a Steiff Teddy Bear, former MTS conservator Kayla Silvia walks us through the painstaking process of plugging the leaks in our client's father's 1923 bear, restoring his iconic shape, and giving him a safe yet visible place to pass his golden years.

Bear in an archival box.

MTS conservators Morgan Blei Carbone and Kayla Silvia.

Perhaps the most fragile of all the textiles we conserved recently was the 35-star Civil War silk flag given to Col. Henry H. Hadley by "colored refugees...after he had conveyed them in safety within the Union lines." As a result of our testing and strategizing, MTS conservators chose the path of least intervention, deciding to leave the flag glued to its old board rather than risk turning it to dust.

Other information contained in this year's magazine includes dates and registration information for Camille Myers Breeze's two classes being taught in June, 2022, at the Center for Collections Care at Beloit College. The MTS Learning Lab is also returning to life in March 26, 2022, with our first Spotlight class about the diverse and luxurious art of tapestry. Many textiles are misidentified as tapestries, and we will discuss how to assess, condition report, and exhibit tapestry-woven textiles with exclusive access to tapestries undergoing conservation at MTS.