Great article about the 80s show at the Fashion History Museum this past weekend

http://www.therecord.com/living-story/5837444-fashion-a-window-to-history-at-cambridge-museum/

 

I hope your town council members get to see that great article...and are going to cheerfully open the wallet again when you need local support.

I am intrigued by the fact that you have ca. 10,000 items in your collection and found myself wondering if you have them all photographed and/or in a database of some sort. If so, is it now, or will it ever be, browsable online? If not, why not? And if you don't have the items in the database how do you keep track of what you do or do not have?

 

Lynne - To be perfectly honest, I don't know the actual count of artifacts in the collection because not everything is registered and catalogued. There are 1, 397 artifacts registered and numbered in the museum collection, and 756 artifacts in the founder's collection, which I own (because I bought them) but are a promised gift to the museum when it becomes financially beneficial to donate them to the collection. The museum's current collection is about 2/3 registered in the computer, and my collection is about 1/10 registered in the computer, so 10,000 artifacts is only an estimate. I had more things photographed until a computer melt down last year that lost most of my images, including things photographed for publication in books and calendars... Right now there are about a thousand items on Pinterest if you want to see some of the things in the collection, but until we get the money, time and staffing needed, we can't do much more.

 

I understand...and I have exactly the same problem(s), which is why the comment jumped out at me.

 

PS: I forgot to answer your quesiton about how we keep track.
The museum collection is okay - EVERYTHING has a basic registration - a one line description with an associated number, and tagged with a paper label. But that isn't a fully catalogued item - only a way of maintaining an inventory for tracking. As for the founder's collection... there are old inventory lists that I need to collate, but I know there are a LOT of things that fell through the cracks and I can't remember where I got them now. I am trying to get everything registered like the museum collection so at least I can create a paper trail to the item in the future.

 

Great article, Jonathan--congrats! I love the emphasis--by the journalist as well as you--on the connection between fashion and history, which I think still has a ways to go on "sinking in" to the collective cultural consciousness...

You must still have nightmares over that. Horrible!

 

This should go out with the next newsletter!

 

I am okay now, but it really pissed me off at the time!

 

That's a great positive article! Love the pictures too.

Jonathan, it's seems like a lifetime ago and the thread is long gone, but way way back I had a Lucian Lelong velvet jacket.
Very plain, peeked sleeve cuffs if I remember, but I still have it.
If that would be of any interest to you for the museum, just send me a message and I'd be happy to send it along...,
big clean out here, so thought I should ask while I think of it before it's lost in the fray.

 

Jonathon, such a wonderful article.I so want to visit.
You are living my dream ! I always wanted to open a museum in Cape May N.J. but was not cost effective and
then life got in the way!
So very happy for you!!

 

Nope, those are my photos. They have guidelines about how they want the photos placed (ie: square shaped image, no background...)