Protecting the Mrs. A. H. Taylor Collection

FAIN: PG-271620-20

Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY 42101-1000)
Sandra L. Staebell (Project Director: January 2020 to May 2022)

The purchase of a cabinet and preservation supplies to rehouse a collection of 19 articles of clothing designed and made by Mrs. A. H. Taylor, owner of a Bowling Green, Kentucky, clothing factory that made garments from 1880 to 1917, primarily for the American South and Southwest. The collection helps to demonstrate female entrepreneurship at the turn of the twentieth century and is currently used in both exhibitions and classroom settings. The applicant would also engage the assistance of a textile conservator to give recommendations for rehousing the Taylor collection and to conduct a general preservation assessment of the rest of the university’s textile collection.

This project supports purchase of storage supplies and engagement of a consulting conservator to rehouse the nationally significant Mrs. A. H. Taylor Costume Collection. Sewn between 1880 and 1917, these fashions are associated with a Bowling Green, KY., clothing factory owner who went from a small-town dressmaker to a business entrepreneur whose client-base extended throughout the American South and Southwest. The Collection is particularly useful in examining the ways in which Victorian and Edwardian women participated in business on a local, regional, and national scale. By rehousing this collection, the Kentucky Museum ensures its continued care and accessibility for research, teaching, and creative projects, such as an upcoming exhibit on Mrs. A. H. Taylor’s life and work and their use in Fashion Merchandising classes at WKU.