Domestics and the Crinoline in 1862
Yesterday we went to an estate sale at a huge ranch. Thousands of items were being sold, but most of them were just ordinary things like throw pillows or boxes of glassware from… Continue reading
Category Archive: Historic Clothing
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What Clothes Reveal
You know the image of our industrious forebears — After studying textile history for the last 20 years, I had a hazy idea that that image casts our ancestors in a glorified light,… Continue reading
Dress Diary 1855-1917
A few days ago, when I was looking at the Hollywood costume sketches at the Brooklyn Museum, I noticed this wonderful dress diary in their archives. The diary’s owner, Ida Jackson, was born… Continue reading
1880s Favorites
I’m still staying inside out of the heat, cataloging my antique photos. I’ve been working in the 1880s, and here are a few of my favorites. When you look closely, you can see… Continue reading
A Belle and a Wild Child
It’s August, it’s hot, and I have plans to only work on projects that involve sitting still and sipping cooling drinks. One that fits the bill is cataloging the antique photographs I’ve collected… Continue reading
The Cloth Antiquary
What do you do when there’s no Wikipedia page? In my last three posts, I have given you some small samples from the 1936 book, The Romance of French Weaving. There are so… Continue reading
Generosity and Splendor
This is wonderful antique shop that I visited a few weeks ago, the same one where I bought the flour sack quilt. On that same visit, I walked into a large, airy room… Continue reading
Shadows of the Past
Three years ago when I was photographing this dress from the 1800s, I got to wondering how it would look by candlelight, the way it was seen when it was new, 170 years… Continue reading
A Cloud of Witnesses
This is an old photograph I got in an antique store. It captures the essence of what I try to preserve in this blog – ordinary people, finding a sense of competence in… Continue reading
Textiles at the Briscoe Museum
As many times as I’ve been to San Antonio, you’d think I would have seen every attraction in the city. But when I was there last week, I noticed the Briscoe Western Art… Continue reading