This morning was awesome. We got a tour of the textile gallery from a very sweet elderly lady. The gallery displays clothing made from silk, wool, cotton, and linen, as well as blankets/quilts/coverlets. Did you know that babies AND boys wore corsets? I thought that was very interesting. I realized this morning that I would really enjoy curating textiles. After all, it is a "language" that I understand, especially compared to the architecture and furniture we have been discussing. The rest of the morning was spent in the Wells-Thorn House. We will be having "house studies" of each of the museum houses; examining the furniture and decorative art pieces in the houses, why they were chosen, what they imply, viewing the entire house and fitting into context, that sort of thing. We actually only made it to three rooms because of all the things we were noticing. My group of fellows is very intelligent, and we ask all kinds of very good questions. :) But after lunch was the real fun. We got to look at the new acquisitions in the collections and pick out our objects for the paper.
So the textile collection is AMAZING! There are drawers of samplers and other embroidery, so I'm very excited about looking at those. What I think I'm going to end up looking at is the Colton Family papers and collection. There are two samplers that this family collection has, and the museum hasn't had a chance to look at much, if any, of the collection. I know that I will be helping them out, besides examining this incredible object and have a lot of fun doing it. The library has several boxes of papers, so I should have enough research information and may actually find my final paper topic in this collection, as well. There are several ideas floating in my head at the moment, though none of them are developed, so I'll tell you what comes about.
There are two articles to read for tonight about mannerism and museum theory, which will be important, so that's the plan for after supper. Hopefully I can get these articles done early enough to have time to watch a movie. I am in desperate need to watch something, jut because that is what I do...Tomorrow we have a short trip in the morning, get to look at new acquisitions (as in a van coming in tomorrow with more objects), and more object research. It should be a good day, though hopefully warmer than it has been...
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3-0 <-- Erin in a textile gallery. (The 3 is supposed to be shut eyes, and the 0 is supposed to be a yawn... I thought it was clever.) Personally, I think I'll stick to architecture. It's interesting that both babies and boys wore corsets though. I think I actually did know about babies, but not boys. I guess no one could escape the torture. Did your tour guide happen to mention why anyone ever thought corsets were a good idea?
ReplyDeleteThe Colton papers sound interesting. And those count for your object study? I mean, I guess papers technically are objects, but I do think there's a difference between studying something textual and something material. Both leave plenty of room for inference, but text guides your interpretation in a different way, I think. I am also intrigued by the idea of examining furniture as a way of learning about a culture/people. If, down the road, someone were to study the furniture we have now, I feel like all they'd find is that there is a large variety in preference. But maybe even among that variance there is something that characterizes our current age? I don't know. I admit I'm no expert. I guess if you could determine the origin of the furniture, you could tell whether people had traveled, or whether it was imported, and that sort of thing. What exactly does one look for when examining furniture?
Mannerism? Was Deerfield run like a manner? Or is that mannerism as in behavior? (Interesting that the two words are the same, isn't it? Where's Kathy when you need her? :)
All right, that's all I have to say for now, and I should be getting to bed, since I have to get up and work tomorrow.