Library Textile Project Sorts Through The Fabric Of Newtown’s History

By Nancy K. Crevier

C.H. Booth Library curator Mary Thomas has a passion for fabrics and history, and since discovering the trove of antique gowns and other fabric-based items in the library’s attic when she took on the curator position in 2009, she has been anxious to create a catalog of the textiles and make them accessible to the public.

This past spring, at the request of Ms Thomas and reference librarian Andrea Zimmermann, the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library granted money for a special Vision Project that would allow for the inventorying, conservation, and creation of a digital record of the library’s extensive textiles collection, only partially accounted for in the attic of the library.

To assist the C.H. Booth Library in difficult economic times, the Friends in the fall of 2010 created the Vision Project, a program designed to fund innovative ideas to improve library services for staff and patrons. In 2011, the library support group funded the best ideas presented to them, enabling the library to purchase lapel microphones for the meeting room, tack panels for the children’s department, and conserve the library’s collection of art work, among other things. The textile conservation project is one more idea that fit the criteria of the Vision Project.

The attic collection includes gowns — some worn by famous local figures such as Grace Moore and Mrs Ezra Levan Johnson — uniforms, children’s clothing, scarves, bedding, rugs, quilts, and other fabric pieces dating from the mid-18th Century. Once it was ascertained what items were in the library collection and in what condition those items were, and once they were properly stored, Ms Thomas envisioned a rotating exhibition of the many pieces could be planned.

A scrapbook album from the 1930s depicts some of the gowns, as modeled by descendents of the original owners. What Ms Thomas found when she tried to match those photographs with dresses discovered in boxes in the attic, though, was that the inventory numbers in the album did not match. “It’s like a puzzle,” she said. “If we own it, where is it? Someone had done an inventory at some time, with numbers in the hundreds, but the album inventoried only about 35 gowns,” she said.

Intricate Sewing Skills

“There is a huge level of intricacy to the gowns we are seeing,” said Ms Thomas. “The sewing skills evident are way beyond what I have seen before,” she said. Hand sewn buttonholes and French seams are among the high quality techniques on several gowns, and a good number of items are from hand spun and/or hand dyed material. There are many crocheted and handwoven items in the collection, as well.

With the money provided by the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, said Ms Thomas, materials needed to properly conserve and store the valuable textiles were purchased. Those items included acid-free tags and strings, archival cotton twill tape for labeling, archival pens, acid-free textile storage boxes of different sizes, unbleached natural muslin to wrap individual gowns and other clothing, and heavy-duty chrome shelving racks on which to store the newly inventoried items.

Where to start was a problem neither Ms Thomas, Ms Zimmermann, nor volunteers Mary Goebel and Luecella Tondreau felt they could adequately address, as they began to sort through the fragile items.

Reaching out to Kathy Craughwell-Varda, project director for Conservation ConneCTion, Connecticut State Library, the volunteers found the spark they needed to get underway. “We are very grateful to Kathy, our textile expert,” said Ms Zimmermann. Ms Craughwell-Varda provided the volunteer archivists with the initial input and continued guidance needed to preserve the library’s collection.

“She is very knowledgeable and guided us as to what we should purchase as we tackled the first phase, preservation. Some preservation techniques had been put in place by whomever tried to inventory the collection before, but we are learning today’s best practices for preservation from Kathy,” said Ms Zimmermann.

Ms Craughwell-Varda donated her time to demonstrate preservation techniques and teach the volunteers about modern best practices.

“She taught us to leave what we found as it is — it doesn’t have to be repaired, buttons should not be cut off. What we might think is ‘ruined’ by a stain or tear may be a very good example of a piece from a particular era, according to Kathy,” Ms Thomas said.

“We thought there would be about 50 items when we started,” said Ms Zimmermann, but the volunteers have unearthed nearly three times that many so far. Many of the boxes in the attic held several layers of clothing and other fabric pieces, she said.

The volunteers have spent many hot hours this summer in the library attic, gently laying out each piece, photographing it, and describing it fully. To the extent that it is possible, they are cross-referencing new inventory numbers with the old inventory numbers that they have, said Ms Thomas.

“We believe a great percentage of the gowns and clothing are from Newtown or Sandy Hook families. Some are marked with detailed information, as to who wore it and when. We are researching the families, too, and will include that information in the inventory,” said Ms Zimmermann. “It gives you goose bumps when you come across an item inscribed in pen by someone like Mary Hawley or one of the Nettletons,” she said.

Along with the gowns, many of which are hand sewn or have intricate handiwork embellishing them, there have been other interesting finds, said Ms Zimmermann.

Mystery Uniform

A red wool men’s uniform, somewhat moth-eaten, was found neatly folded into a box. One epaulet was tucked in with it, and the volunteers are currently working with Town Historian Dan Cruson to approximate the date of the uniform, and from what branch of service it might be. Mr Cruson’s preliminary guess, based on cut and design of the uniform, is that it is first half of the 19th Century — after the War of 1812 and before the Civil War. Buttons impressed with an eagle and anchor indicate a sea-faring unit, said Ms Thomas, but beyond that, they are still researching.

“We also found a collection of night and day caps, each with a tag noting the date it was washed by Mary Elizabeth Hawley,” said Ms Zimmermann, “and a baby dress worn by Mary Hawley’s grandfather.”

One box opened up was like the clown car of textiles. The volunteers pulled item after item out of the packed box. As with most boxes unpacked, the items were not stored according to color. The new inventory process allows the volunteers to divide family donations and store by colors, so as not to have dark colors fade onto light colors, and still be tracked via the digital photos and new numbering system.

A 19th Century

Masonic Apron

What looked to be a couple of hours of work turned into a long afternoon of removing, photographing, tagging, and describing each piece, said Ms Thomas. Just when they thought they had finished, they realized that one more piece was sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard at the bottom of the box. What they found made the whole afternoon’s sweaty toil worthwhile, said Ms Thomas.

“We found a Masonic apron, dated from between 1820 to 1828, hand painted, in between the cardboard,” she said.

The apron is in fragile condition, with a tear down the middle, but it is from the Sandy Hook Masonic organization, said Ms Zimmermann.

They have also come across a quilt identified as being “made from grandmother Edmond’s wedding clothes.” It is unclear if the date of 1796 refers to the original wedding date, or when the quilt was created.

Thanks to the assistance of library pages Jane Moran, Julie Davin, Dylan Jones, and Candice Woods, said Ms Zimmermann, the group has been able to combine digital images with text and the initial research on the owners of the textiles. The project is well on-course for the first showing of some of the collection this fall.

Ms Craughwell-Varda has cautioned, they said, that each exhibit should be on display no more than three weeks at a time, in order to prevent further deterioration of the fabrics.

Being able to easily find and identify the textiles stored in labeled archival boxes will make it a pleasure to bring the historic finds into the public eye, said Ms Thomas.

There is great value to the public in preserving the textile collection at the library, Ms Thomas said. “Number one is a respect for design and fashion that reflects the period,” she said. The dresses, in particular, show the relationships between people in Newtown of a certain era. “In early America, women might have had one ‘good’ dress. If that person changed size, got pregnant, or had different needs, a dress might be passed between family members or friends. Clothes didn’t get discarded the way they do today,” said Ms Thomas.

The textile collection also serves as another connection to Newtown’s past, said Ms Zimmermann. “It tells a story of a lifestyle in our community, and the differences in affluence,” she said.

“And who would think,” asked Ms Thomas, “that a hundred years ago, Mary Elizabeth Hawley was laundering night caps herself?”

Down the road, the volunteers see the future value of the archives, in that other libraries might use the C.H. Booth Library pieces to help date their own items. It is not unusual for libraries to be the storehouses for a town’s historical items, they said.

Phase II of the project includes further researching of families associated with items they have found, as well as rewrapping and repacking each of the pieces. Young adult volunteer Alison Baranovic will assist in this phase, said Ms Zimmermann.

With the inventory nearly complete, Ms Thomas and Ms Zimmermann are anticipating a fall exhibition, so that the Newtown public can begin to appreciate their treasures from the attic.

“We’re excited to get going on these exhibitions,” said Ms Zimmermann.

The documentation of the textiles can be reviewed by the public upon request, at the reference desk of the C.H. Booth Library, on the third floor.