The Hats Just Keep Coming

We made a lot of headway on our clothing project at the Marquette County Historical Society last week! One Tuesday, we finished work on the shoes and started on the actual clothing. We sorted everything out of these plastic bins (which are very bad for storing clothing- I will show this later,) into several different groups.

First, we separated out the Men's and Children's clothing into separate spaces. Both of these are easier to identify and there are smaller quantities of each. As we went along, we divided the women's clothing into three piles: Pre-1950; Post-1950; and undergarments that are Pre-1950 (petticoats and the like.) Below is a photo of Joanie holding up a woman's top/coat. We noticed how very small people were back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As I said above, the plastic bins the clothing has been stored in for who knows how long are very bad for the clothing. In order to be properly preserved, clothing needs to be stored in special acid-free boxes, stuffed with acid-free paper to maintain shape and avoid creasing, and be allowed to breathe by not being stored in air-tight containers and being taken out every so often. Below is a fur coat that has been severely damaged by the plastic bin. We had to throw the coat out due to its poor condition.

Bits of the destroyed fur coat left in the container

By the end of the day, we had gotten through all of the plastic totes and sorted everything, as partially seen in this next photograph. This bed holds women's clothing dated before 1950.

On Wednesday, Joanie and I decided to start making some more appropriate hangers for some of the pieces we are working with. The hangers needed to be padded, so we used a bit of quilt-lining, those sheets of cotton/polyester found at sewing stores. We cut strips and stapled them on to the metal hangers, seen here:

We then covered the entire hanger with acid-free paper. When metal comes into contact with clothing, chemical reactions can occur over time (including rusting) which damaged the material. These makeshift hangers will provide a much better home for many of our hanging pieces.

We spent the rest of the day going through all the dressers, trunks, and closets and sorted the clothing inside. It is very important to have everything out so we can see how much we have and to determine if a piece is really worth hanging onto. Many items, from being improperly stored, have been damaged beyond easy repair. Luckily, we usually have more than one of each item. The next photo shows all of the pre-1950 undergarments sorted by type. As you can see, we have at least ten of each item (and often much more) so we will be able to make a few sacrifices, as well as pick out extras to be sold at a fundraising auction. In the center of the photo are long undergarments; on the left are petticoats; the right front is a stack of more than a dozen bodices, and behind that are roughly 10 pairs of pantaloons.

Each of the items we have needs to be photographed, cataloged, cleaned (if applicable) and properly stored. We have at least 300 items (probably more, this is only a rough estimate) and I only have two more days to work! They certainly have a lot ahead of them in the coming months...

Also, as you may have noted by the title of this, we found more hats! And more shoes! They were tucked away in drawers and boxes with the clothing. About 15 more hats and 4 pairs of shoes, just when we thought we had finished with them!