The Framingham History Center has been fortunate to receive the talents and enthusiastic energy of several interns over the course of Summer 2012. Catherine Murphy is a graduate student from the University of Rhode Island, working on a Masters Degree in Historic Textiles and Costume. Here, Catherine describes her passion for historic textiles and her experience as an FHC intern.
“Since I was a young child, clothing has always fascinated me in more ways than just appearance. My sister and I used to create our own clothing with duct tape and staples. As the years progressed, so did my passion for fashion. I decided to take this passion with me to college. I attended Framingham State University, where I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree in Fashion Design and Retailing. After taking a historic clothing class there, I realized I had a joint passion – design and historic clothing. During my senior year at FSU, I realized I wanted to continue my education further and applied to the University of Rhode Island. Since URI has multiple tracks that you can focus on for your masters degree, I chose Historic Costume and Textiles. I absolutely love looking at garments and textiles from hundreds of years ago and imagining the people who wore them and the life they had.
I called the Framingham History Center and after speaking to Dana Ricciardi, the Curator, I knew that this was where I wanted to complete my internship. The textile collection is fabulous and there are so many unique and spectacular pieces that any person with a love for historic clothing would cherish. Luckily, for my internship, I was able to admire all of them. My work at the FHC involved the cataloging, photographing and inventory of the textiles. Each box contained something new and equally fascinating. Years ago, Nancy Rexford went through the collection and gave a detailed description, including date, of some of the textiles. My job was to inventory the ones that she had not done and also input them into the Past Perfect system on the computer.
Since beginning my graduate studies at URI, I have developed a love for crazy quilts. The FHC has several of these quilts. One of them, a beautiful quilt with a large square of painted silk was in terrible shape. The silk was completely shattered and the quilt was unexhibitable. Since the quilt was so beautiful, I hated the idea of it hiding away in some box. When my instructor from URI, Dr. Margaret Ordonez, came to visit and observe what I had been doing, she suggested that I use this quilt as a special project, and repair it. Since attending URI I have been taking classes in repair and stabilization of historic textiles and conservation and wet cleaning courses. I have not yet begun to repair the quilt, but it will soon be able to be put on display.
Just recently, I came back from a trip to Washington DC with classmates where we presented at the Textile Society of Americas biennial symposium. The topics upon which we based our presentations were from a course at URI that focused on ethnic dress and culture. My topic was a penis sheath worn by indigenous male inhabitants of Papua New Guinea. Being able to experience the conference and meet other textile enthusiasts was a great experience. I look forward to doing more in the future.
My time at the FHC is almost complete, and the time I have had there has been awesome. I would absolutely recommend other students to intern there and experience the collection of textiles as I have. There is so much to learn just from exploring the variety of textiles at the FHC”
