clothing Archives - Maureen Taylor

Episode 135: Stitch by Stitch: Saving Historic Clothing A Piece at a Time with Conservator Maria Vasquez

Maureen Taylor — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 04:05:00 +0000

If you’ve ever wondered about the color of the uniform worn by your ancestor pre-color photography or how to save the textiles in your family collection, then you’ll love this episode about textile conservation with historic clothing expert Maria Vasquez.

A few years ago, I gave a presentation at The Varnum Armory a medieval-style building in East Greenwich Rhode Island. After the talk, members took me behind the scenes. Built in 1913, it is the headquarters for Varnum’s Regiment, a chartered unit of the RI colonial militia. Flags, banners, uniforms, artifacts, and weaponry in the collection date from the colonial period through the twentieth century. Since I’ve worked on the Last Muster series of books of images of individuals who lived during the American Revolution and into the age of photography, seeing all those collections preserved was fascinating. Later I learned that there was a conservator working on the textile collections and I had to meet her. Well…Covid intervened but we did manage to chat via Zoom.

By the way, one of the items she’s worked on is now known as the oldest colonial American flag in existence.

Episode 127: Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress with Dr. Alison Matthews David

Episode 88: Ancestral Tours of Battlefields and Bonefields

About My Guest:

Maria Vasquez is a textile conservator with a Masters’s Degree in Textile Conservation and sixteen years of sewing and patterning experience, including two Master Seamstress Certificates. She owns her business, Royal Conservation and Exhibition, where she does contract conservation and stabilization work for exhibitions of museums and private collectors. Currently, she is also volunteering at the Varnum Memorial Armory in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in exchange for lab space in one of their back rooms. This allows her to have a secure and climate-controlled workroom to mount and stabilize objects for the Varnum museum, but also do her own contract work.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

The post Episode 135: Stitch by Stitch: Saving Historic Clothing A Piece at a Time with Conservator Maria Vasquez appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Ask Maureen: Postcard Help

Maureen Taylor — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Bridget wrote with following question:
I have a photo of my grandfather when he was between the ages of 5 and 11 in Dublin, Ireland. It is a postcard type, however, I was more curious about his clothing. How do I narrow down the time frame using his clothing? Apparently I have been doing this all wrong and I hit road block after road block.

Dear Bridget,
Before focusing on your grandfather’s clothing, turn over your postcard and look at the stamp box. Photographic postcards were first introduced in 1900. That little stamp box is full of clues. The design changes over time and can help you date the image. There is a handy little reference tool on the Playle’s Online Auction website. You can compare the design on the back of your postcard to the one’s in this database.

As for your doing it wrong, dating clothing is full of little details. Dating those outfits worn by kids is even harder. There are very few changes in boy’s clothing between the ages of 5 and 11. Boys wore full length trousers beginning around age 12 but before that age, it’s usually short pants.

Instead of focusing on the clothes think about how old your grandfather looks in the picture. 5 year old’s can still look very toddler-like with round faces, while by age 11 they look older.

Good luck with your image and keep trying!

The post Ask Maureen: Postcard Help appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Closet Clutter and Photographs

Maureen Taylor — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:11:00 +0000

The other day my daughter was looking for an outfit to wear in a school play so she started digging through my closet. She pulled out a blouse and said, “How old is this?” I looked at it and thought, “It’s time to clean the closet.” It was practically paleolithic. Looking at that item also made me think about family photos and a common question that lecture attendees ask about ancestor’s wearing older clothes.

Just how fashionable were your ancestors? Well, it depends. Take a look at your own closet and think about the answer. While I try to update my wardrobe each season by adding a few pieces, other basic items have been around for a couple of years. While teens in pictures usually wear the current fashion trends, older folks tend to stick with some favorites. There are exceptions to every case. I’ll go through my photo collection and see if I can find some really good examples to illustrate this point.

The post Closet Clutter and Photographs appeared first on Maureen Taylor.