Fashioning Illinois: 1820-1900, on display at the Rockport Gallery of the Illinois State Museum until March 31, 2022, with 22 costumes on display.
“Illinois Fashion: 1820-1900″ curator Erika Holst (Erika Holst) said: “The real beauty of it is that it suits everyone.”
“If you are under a lot of pressure and just want to go to the show and see beautiful old clothes, there are a lot of eye-catching things here. We also introduced the process of making fabrics and making clothes and repairing clothes in detail. If you want to dig deeper, That story is there too.”
The exhibition looks at the first eight years of Illinois’s statehood, including homespun, linen and wool dresses in the 1860s, Native American woven beaded headbands in the 1880s, and mourning clothing in the 1890s.
“What’s really sad is a pajama belonging to a lady who wore it in 1855. This is a maternity dress. It has these folds,” Holst said of the descendants of the Illinois Museum.
“This woman was a bride in 1854 and died in childbirth in 1855. This is a very small window that allows us to understand all these life experiences and the changes that have taken place in this woman so quickly. Like her, she died of dystocia. There are too many women.
“Because we have this pajama, we can save her story and the stories of other mothers like her. Almost a full year after the day of her marriage, she died of dystocia.”
Shaping Illinois: The dress worn by the freed slave Lucy McWorter (1771-1870) was also copied from 1820 to 1900.A photograph from the 1850s was used in collaboration with Springfield and the Museum of African American History in Central Illinois.
“We are really happy to have it. It was remade for us by Mary Helen Yokem, she is a very talented tailor,” Holst said of her Said when compatriots of Springfield residents.
“Our goal is definitely to be inclusive and representative in our exhibition content. Unfortunately, basically due to the white prejudice of several generations of curators, we don’t have many surviving African American costumes in the museum collection.
“We don’t have an example in the collection of the Illinois State Museum. The next best thing is to move to photo-based reproductions.”
Fashionable Illinois: 1820-19900 debuted at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield in July 2020 and will be exhibited there until May 2021 before being transported to downtown Lockport to give people a glimpse of the museum’s Illinois Heritage Collection.
“The Illinois State Museum has a large collection of historic textiles and clothing,” said Holst, who is also the history curator of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.
“Before the exhibition, most of these dresses had never been exhibited. The original idea was to display all these exquisite clothes where people can see.”
On the first floor of the historic Norton Building in the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, the Rockport Gallery provided the main support for Illinois Fashion: 1820-1900, provided by the Rockport Women’s Club.
“A lot of women are related to stories about making and repairing clothes and the clothes they wore in the past.”
“It has a lot to do with the amount of labor in clothes and the way people get clothes. As early as the 19th century, all clothes were custom-made, especially in the first half of the 19th century. You repaired it and let it last for many years,” she says.
“Now we think our clothes are disposable. You go to the store to buy something and you spend $10. If you make a hole in it, you throw it away. It’s not a super sustainable lifestyle, but it’s Where we ended up.”
In addition to the Springfield base and Lockport Gallery, the Illinois State Museum also operates Dixon Hill in Lewistown.
“We are museums throughout Illinois, from north to south, from Chicago to southern Illinois,” Holst said.
“We try to tell stories and highlight culture throughout the state. We want people to see themselves in the exhibitions and shows we produce.”
Post time: Dec-29-2021