Mary Ann Perkins and Professor Cathie McClellan, Theater and Media Arts

When I submitted the proposal to catalogue the Theater and Media Arts Department collection of historic clothing, I had no idea what was ahead of me. Of course, I didn’t know the size of the collection, the content, or the relative value of the pieces included. Additionally, I wasn’t sure how to set up the organization. I knew I wanted to create an organization system that would be easy to access and add to. Over the intervening 8 months since my proposals acceptance, many ideas, solutions, and goals have been put before me by my mentor and other faculty regarding this collection and its potential.

Beginning in January, I made my initial inventory of the collection. This produced a master list of 240 items, organized by their location. Most of the pieces were wrapped in muslin with a description card safety-pinned to the outside. This initial inventory was based solely on the description from the card. As I found out later, some of the cards were inaccurate, but for the most part they provided a concise description of the garment.

After this inventory had been completed, I began making a more detailed file of descriptions. This involved inspecting each garment for wear, stains or other damage, verifying or rejecting the reported garment date, and determining if it could be displayed in a museum setting.

While completing the second inventory my mentor suggested that I use the organization system Mary Farahnakian had used for the former Clothing and Textiles Department collection. Unlike the TMA collection, Dr Farahnakian’s collection was organized like museum collections with accession numbers, information about the donor, and item location. Superior organization was not the only motivation for her encouragement. Dr Farahnakian’s collection is currently stored in the Smith Family Living Center, which is scheduled to be demolished this year. Therefore, it is very likely that the two collections will need to merge and a similar organization system would ease that transition.

I met with Dr Farahnakian, who also encouraged me to use her template to organize the TMA clothing collection. The template is divided into columns for accession number, accession date, garment date, donor, item description, and location. The only additions I made to this format were a column for information about pictures, and in the ‘garment date’ column I included either ‘S’ or ‘M’ to indicate quality (Study for very worn or tattered pieces / Museum for rare items or those in good condition). I have also adopted her format for organizing donor information. This table is organized into columns as well, including; catalogued donor number, name and address, number of donations, and donation date.

Formatting my second inventory into this cataloguing system has produced a document in excess of 40 pages. An accompanying document recording donations has also been completed. The costume studio had kept donation records since the early 1990’s, but the record was vague and included all donations (fabric, makeup, costumes, etc.). Due to this uncertainty, an asterisk right of the donor number indicates a donation may (or may not) be in the historic clothing collection. Now that each item has been catalogued and given a number I am in the process of replacing the labeling tags. Originally the labeling was done on index cards safety pinned to the muslin wrapping. These are being replaces with tags made of acid-free materials fastened with copper safety pins that will not rust or cause damage.

I am also reorganizing the clothing according to time period. When this process is completed, the accession record as well will be organized by time period. This will make researching a particular decade easier. I anticipate having the organization completed by early September 2000.

The final goal of my grant proposal included a visual index of the collection. Soon after I began the project I realized that the DAP digital camera would not be suitable. The picture quality was rather low, and it was only able to capture 6 or 7 pictures before the batteries ran out. Soon thereafter I was able to borrow a better camera to continue work on the project. Despite the improved equipment, the pictures do not always represent the garment well. In many cases a drawing is superior to a photograph to portray the cut and style and decorative qualities. These can be easily scanned into text documents. At this stage I have either drawings or photographs for about one third the collection. I expect to have the visual index finished by mid October. The accession records column labeled ‘Picture’ will list the page number in the visual index where the images can be found.

As the past few months have gone by I have changed my focus from simply making the items accessible, to creating a Museum quality organization system. Each time a donation comes into the collection it can be accurately documented and added into a well-organized system. Additionally, instructors will be able to quickly and easily determine if an item from the collection would be useful in a classroom setting. The most exciting thing about creating this catalogue was discovering all the truly excellent pieces in the collection. More than half the pieces are in good condition and could be displayed in a museum exhibit. I hope to encourage the Museum of Art administration to allow storage space in museum for this collection and the one currently housed in the Smith Family Living Center. In a museum environment the collection could be properly maintained and cares for. It would also be more accessible to the campus. I imagine something like the Print Study room in the museums lower lever where anyone can request to see an item from a given date and it can be viewed in the room. I hope to see this extension of my original project realized.