The CFM report Museums & Society 2034 explored a trend we dubbed “MyCulture”—a rising generation demonstrating an extraordinarily high level of creative output and creative consumption. This week’s guest blogger, Allison Thurman, shares her thoughts about how museums can fulfill their potential as repositories of knowledge and sources of inspiration for this creative community.
I like to make things. I’m a looker and a doer, too—I visit museums, I fence (both historical and modern sport.) But big part of my time and enthusiasm goes into creating historically accurate clothing. Happily I’m not the only one, and have found a number of good groups of people in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Costume Society of America, and International Costumers Guild to brainstorm and play with.
This is no casual hobby. My vacation time is spent going to different academic conferences, like the Florence, Italy costume colloquium in 2008, and the Kalamazoo Medieval Congress. At these events museum curators, academics and amateurs share research and trade notes on various aspects of costume and textile history, from details of construction and design to histories of manufacture and trade. I’ve given over a significant portion of my modest apartment to fabric, sewing machine and storage for my creations. I have an extensive book collection and seek more obscure sources, like inventories, when needed for a particular project. Of course, the primary sources for a lot of my interests are locked up in museums and archives, in storage, not on public view. From my point of view, it’s great that this material exists in public institutions, but only if it can be accessed by the public!
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Since my teen years I’ve been particularly fascinated by Mariano Fortuny’s pleated silk tea gowns. It’s not just the luxe, timeless look, but the mystery behind the pleating process that intrigued me – patent documents exist but aren’t entirely clear, and each gown had to be sent back to the Fortuny atelier in Venice for re-pleating every time it was cleaned.
Over the years I’ve read all of the readily available books on the designer, and have seen a few of the pleated gowns behind glass in museums but some of my questions regarding construction could only be answered by close examination inside and out. After discovering that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History had one tea gown, I decided to ask if I could visit behind the scenes to satisfy my curiosity.
I was a museum volunteer in the past and have visited museum storage spaces before, but this was the first time I’d ever made an appointment to handle a delicate item and I wasn’t sure they’d say yes. I’m not trained in museum studies nor do I have any “academic cred”, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.
Finding who to ask was fairly easy. I looked up the dress on the NMAH website, and browsed backwards to find the curator in charge of the department that held it. My email was fairly formal but concise, simply asking if I could make an appointment and including the catalog number of the dress (taken from the website) to ensure we both knew what I was talking about.
Once the curator said a visit was permitted, I went about scheduling (a month in advance) and asking specifically what kind of handling, if any, would be allowed. Sketchbook with pencil and a cloth measuring tape were permitted, as was supervised handling with cotton gloves. Photography was permitted as well, as long as it was for research only.
The day of the actual appointment I was a bit nervous, but the curator, Nancy Davis, was friendly and informal, which put me at ease. She asked me about my research as she took me to get my visitors pass.
She had pulled the dress in advance, laying it flat under tissue paper on a muslin-covered table in one of the costume storage rooms. It was accompanied by two other gowns that were also pleated and hence derived in style from Fortuny’s work. The curator had pulled them simply because she thought I might be interested!
There is truly nothing like The Real Thing. I was able to learn a great deal the light weight and “hand” of the silk even through cotton gloves, and examination of the inside neckline and seams revealed some of the coveted construction details. Even evidence of wear (frayed trim, faded, flattened sections) told a story about how the dress was worn and repaired – and when it wasn’t. Measurement of the tiny pleats suggested that the pleating was done by industrial processes, rather than by hand.
The visit created as many questions as answers. As the Smithsonian’s dress is sleeveless, I still don’t know how the sleeved gowns were formed – were they pleated and added before or after construction? How wide were the fabric sections unpleated?
Though I’m not the only one of my fellow costumers to take advantage of museum collections, I think there could be so many more if it were more obvious that going behind the scenes was an option. I have some advice on how to win the hearts and minds of this corps of potential fans:
Make it easy for people to find what you have. What was most useful in my NMAH experience was the quality search on the Smithsonian site that helped me find exactly the item I was looking for – more museums should create lists (or preferably, photos and descriptions) of their collections online, especially those that aren’t often/ever on display. If behind-the-scenes visits are allowed, contact information and requirements for appointments should be somewhere on the site linked from the collection pages.
Let us know if you allow researcher visits in the first place, and what you require/allow. In my limited experience, serious researchers will go the extra mile, but most of the general public isn’t even aware that viewing items outside of an exhibition is possible. The curator I worked with mentioned that assisting researchers with garments is difficult with inadequate staff coverage. If you do allow appointments, make it clear how far in advance to request a visit and what kind of handling/photography (if any) will be permitted.
Tell us more. I was deeply flattered that Dr. Davis took time out of her busy schedule not only to pull the Fortuny out of storage and meet with me, but took extra time to present other garments and ask me about my research. After my time with the gown, I was also given access to the “additional information” files that the Smithsonian keeps on each designer, and these gave me leads for future research in other institutions. I recognize that no matter my enthusiasm for a subject, museum staff have more experience and knowledge of the history and context of their collections than I ever could. I valued Dr. Davis’ expertise and additional information.
Ask what we can do for you. Even if my private research is never published in an academic journal, it may be of interest to you! Tap into the thousands of hours of work that amateurs undertake, for love, to add to your catalog records and supplement your work.
I’m sure some museum staff reading this post are thinking “yeah, but how would we accommodate hoards of amateurs wanting to look at stuff we have in storage?” I can’t answer that question for you, and I’m sure it would be challenging. But really, wouldn’t it be a nice problem to have?
Does your museum make collections in storage accessible to interested amateurs? Do you actively reach out to such users, or wait for them to come to you? Share your stories here in the comments sections. If you have questions for Allison, she can be reached at athurman@gmail.com.
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I work at a museum, and I visit other collections to do research. You pretty well covered it–be specific about what you want to see and allow plenty of time to make arrangments, and be flexible. We need to schedule such visits around availability of part-time staff and other programs that are going on.
Of course, write a thank you note after–a donation might also be in order, especially for a smaller non-profit. Offer a copy of your product, if there will be one–research paper or article, for instance.
As to mis-cataloguing, if you think there is an error, say so, and why. We all know things that came in with faulty attributions, or were catalogued a long time ago, when there wasn't as much information available.
Excellent points about listing what's stored behind the scenes and making the procedures for viewing available; might take a long while for some institutions, depending on funds/staff/technology, but the payoff in making the place a greater must-see destination for visitors/supporters will always make the work worthwhile. Plus tracking hits on the various virtual displays/items provides a fascinating and useful set of public interest stats … always useful when campaigning for more funds or acquisition of a particular treasure.