A close encounter

Earlier this week I was fortunate to be invited by the Society's Hon Curator Costume, Jo Pearson, to join a group of embroiderers who had an appointment to view the collection under Jo's expert guidance. The visitors (and I) received a welcome bonus in the form of an encounter with conservator Patricia Moncrief who arrived bearing a large storage box containing a newly conserved garment.


Patricia, on the left, unpacked the garment to give Jo Pearson, second from the right, a report on the work she'd done to conserve this important historical garment. Part of the Lovegrove Collection donated to the Society in the 1030's, the dress was worn by Elinor Eliot at her wedding to Dr Lovegrove circa 1869.


Patricia explains the process of making a 'soft sculpture' padded shape to support the garment.


A detail of the garment's sleeve


The neckline of the bodice resting on its soft sculpture padding


Returning the garment to its storage box.

Since I last posted I've been in the Eastern States teaching, but before I flew out I had a session with the Society's Honorary Librarian, Jill Maughan. Jill kindly taught me how to use Collections Mosaic, the computer program via which information about items in the Society's collection can be accessed. This cleverly designed search engine can find the needle in the proverbial haystack when in the hands of an experienced user.

Since my return I've been getting to know Mosaic, and found it very helpful as I applied the logical left side of my brain to locating some specific information. However, the problem my right brain has with with this sort of logical search process is that in order for it to succeed, you need to know what you are looking for.

My more flighty right brain prefers to browse until it finds stimulation, not knowing exactly what it is looking for until it finds it. Fearing that Mosaic is not designed for such silliness, I thought our time together might be limited. However, I found that Mosaic's layered research tags allow me to browse through the collection until I find an area of interest, then to look at all the items listed in that area. This has led to some fascinating discoveries warranting further investigation.