Ask + Answer

ASK:

Loaned Object: Applique Bedcover Likely Made by Esther S. Bradford, 1807

Created by 22-yearold Esther Bradford, this masterpiece of American needlecraft recently returned from the Florence Griswold Museum, loaned for its exhibit New London County Quilts & Bed Covers, 1750-1825.

How do museums collaborate?

ANSWER:

Museums engage, educate and inspire with their objects and stories. And, at times, we do this by collaborating in ways large and small with colleagues at other museums — some readily apparent to museum visitors as well as less noticeable behind-the-scenes activities.

What will visitors notice? Most obvious to the public are objects loaned by one museum to another to enrich an exhibit. (Objects on loan from another museum are acknowledged on the exhibit label.) These loans extend the reach of museum collections, providing an in-person experience for people in other cities and regions.

Less noticeable, perhaps — sharing research of mutual interest about an object or a topic.

Sometimes museums work collaboratively to place at-risk collections in more stable circumstances. Museum staff also refer potential donors to other organizations if the offered items would be more appropriately placed there.

Explore these objects to discover textilerelated stories of collaboration.

Loaned Object: Evening Dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga, 1950

Elizabeth Parke Firestone’s stunning Balenciaga was loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum and traveled around the world with its Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibit, which examined the work and legacy of influential Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Collaborative Research: Reel Variation Quilt, circa 1846

This quilt — with its nonhierarchical sensibility — was thought to have a Quaker origin. Research indicates that virtually all of the people whose names appear on the quilt were associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. Independent research recently found that a very similar quilt — inscribed with many of the same names — was definitely not Quaker. Both were likely made within a few years of each other as presentation pieces.

Referring Collections: Evening Dress by Bob Bugnand, 1959-1960 (top right)

When a donor learned that The Henry Ford’s collection included garments by designer Bob Bugnand, they offered us archival materials from Bugnand’s estate. We discovered that the Fashion Institute of Technology at the State University of New York had the rest of Bugnand’s papers from another source and knew that the offered archival materials more appropriately belonged at the institute.

READ A Story Worth Telling on Page 18 to learn more about what The Henry Ford has done to help at-risk collections from the now-closed American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusettsc