Storage Materials to Preserve a Historic Textile and Costume Collection

FAIN: PG-51775-12

Friends of the Middle Border, Inc. (Mitchell, SD 57301-7901)
Lori Holmberg (Project Director: May 2011 to April 2014)

The purchase of storage materials to rehouse 550 textiles and costumes, including quilts and carriage robes, large costumes, such as military uniforms and wedding dresses, and children's clothing, from the upper Great Plains region dating from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries.

The Textile and Costume Storage Project will address the need of the Friends of the Middle Border, Inc. d/b/a Dakota Discovery Museum to provide proper storage for the costumes and textiles in the collection. Significant components of the collection include wedding dresses and suits, handmade quilts, military, recreational and occupational uniforms and children’s clothing. The textiles and costumes of the collection are used extensively in permanent and temporary exhibits, as well as being incorporated into educational activities. The objects date primarily between 1860 and 1940 and demonstrate the broad historic social and economic base of the Middle Border region (the upper Great Plains) as well as the craftsmanship and resourcefulness of the people who settled the region. The Preservation Assistance Grant will allow the museum to properly store nearly 100% of the quilts of the collection, the heavy or fragile costumes, which should not be hung and children’s costumes.