Curator's Corner

1. Cover Up
   

   
   

   
   
   

   In the last article, I discussed the corset, which really hit the height of fashion in the Victorian times.  Victorian ladies wore many layers of undergarments, some of which continue into today’s fashion world.  The specific wardrobe piece I have in mind is the camisole.  The camisole has been around for a while, though its exact origins are unknown and it has been called by other names.  We have a wonderful example of a camisole in the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection from the early 1900s.

   
   

   Between the types of fabrics, the lack of washing machines (and dry cleaning!), and the lack of good personal hygiene, it was very hard to keep clothes clean or in good shape.  To help, people of the Middle Ages and the Victorian Age used layers in order to keep garments clean or to protect the layers from each other.  Corsets were not easy to wash, so ladies would wear a chemise as a barrier between the skin and corset.  The camisole, then, would go on top of the corset between the corset and the gown.  Not so much a hygiene item, the camisole would hide the corset, especially under thinner materials, cover the neckline of the corset for modesty, and provide protection from the corset’s clasps which could catch on clothing.  Camisoles were generally short, ending at the waist, where the chemise was longer like a modern day slip.  Camisoles were generally sleeveless and began as a plain garment but became more decorative into the 1900s (tudorlinks.com).  While we don’t wear corsets much anymore, the camisole has remained one of the staples of a woman’s wardrobe.

   
   

   The camisole serves just about the same purpose today as it did during the Victorian Age.  It’s a layer between the woman’s undergarment and the blouse and can be used for modesty.  Camisoles today can be plain or embellished with lace and have become more than a simple undergarment.  Stop by the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and see other items that have remained through the ages like Martha Eller’s camisole in the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection.
2. Is a Museum...
   
   

   I have just stumbled upon a really interesting project:  #isamuseum.  Sam Durant began the project at the Getty.  The website tells us that Sam Durant, the 2013 Getty Artists Program invitee, is a multimedia artist whose work explores the relationships between politics and culture.  Sam placed specific questions throughout the Getty for visitors to contemplate and answer and has expanded to social media.  "Is a museum a school?"  "Is a museum political?"  "Is a museum truthful?"  "Is a museum fun?"  "Is a museum for everyone?"  With these questions, both the visitor and staff members are asked to think about what museums are and/or what they should/could be.  It is really insightful to scan through the answers that people have left.  There is one answer that is bothering me, however.  The first answer that I read in the "Is a museum fun" question stated:  "Museums put their visitors in touch with the deeper questions of life and humanity.  An atmosphere of levity means the museum is failing at some level."  So if a visitor has fun the museum has failed?  I agree that a museum or exhibit dealing with the holocaust or 9/11 or something like that should not necessarily be "fun" but I want my museum, the Western Heritage Museum, to be fun.  We will be taking down Crime Lab Detective soon.  I would hope that kids and families had fun while they were trying to solve the crime.  They were still learning.  In fact, sometimes if you're having fun you don't even know you're learning!  I want people to have fun.  There's a kind of extreme, I think.  If a visitor has fun, they will want to come back.  At the same time, at the museums or exhibits where you don't have fun, like a holocaust museum, you are touched emotionally and while you may not want to experience that sadness again in person you never forget that experience and you'll think fondly of the museum.  I also think some topics are able to touch people and use levity at the same time.  In any case, it's hard to explain but ultimately I think a museum should be fun.

   


   To read more about this website or to answer the questions yourself please visit the website:  http://isamuseum.org
3. Brands
   

   
   

   
   I've done a short article on brands way back at the beginning of this blog!  Check out this article from the Smithsonian Magazine:
   
   Decoding the Range
4. Lace Me Up
   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   It’s that time again to talk about things rarely mentioned.  This time we’re talking about underwear.  The concept of underwear has been around for a good while but what that underwear looked like has changed over time.  Specifically we are going to look at corsets.  Corsets are an important part of fashion history and we have a nice example from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection.

   
   

   Corsets have been around for at least 500 years and there is some who say a form of the corset started back about 1700 BC and disappeared for a chunk of history (gallery.sjsu.edu).  Corsets have always served the same purpose throughout history:  conform the body into a certain shape.  Those shapes, however, have varied depending on the styles of the time.  Corsets were originally made of stiff material and fitted with rigid stays, hence the name “stays” as they were better known, made of whalebone or horn.  In their early days, in the 1500s, corsets were meant to give women a conical shape in their torso (deyoung.famsf.org).  The corset would therefore flatten the bust giving a straight-lined look down to a narrow waist.  The front of the corset would continue past the waist but the sides stopped at the hip.  In the 1700s tight-lacing became popular in England, while in France the waist of dresses was raised and if a corset was worn it was a short corset and more like the bras of today (deyoung.famsf.org).  In the 1800s the corset reappears.  Waistlines are back to their natural location and corsets came to support, rather than flatten the bust, creating the hourglass figure that we are accustomed to today (deyoung.famsf.org).  At the turn of the 20^th century, another new shape was introduced:  the S-bend shape (deyoung.famsf.org).  To achieve this look the corset holds the front of the torso straight while pushing the hips back, not a natural position, mind you.  By 1910, the desired look was a straight line from under the bust to below the middle thigh, but during World War I the corset fell out of favor as women entered the workforce (deyoung.famsf.org).

   
   

   After WWI, the idea of the corset became more flexible with the introduction of elastic and they evolved into girdles.  Corsets made a slight comeback in the 1950s and then again in the 1980s, but overall, corsets are a specialized item now, usually reserved for theater or reenactments.  The corset from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection seems to be one from after the 1900s, creating more of a straight line than the s-bend.  To find out more about the early 1900s in Southeastern New Mexico stop by the Western Heritage Museum and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and learn what life was like when New Mexico was just becoming a state.
5. Minds at Work
   

   
   

   
   

   This current traveling exhibit that we have up, Crime Lab Detectives, is turning out to be a big hit.  Of course we have school tours and I have the privilege of helping with these tours.  The kids seem to really be enjoying themselves.  "I love solving puzzles!"  And this is a giant puzzle.  The kids really have to use their senses and critical thinking to work out all the clues and figure out who it is.  The kids pick up on the smallest things, things I didn't even catch in the interviews.  It's amazing to see their little minds at work.  We use math, science, and language skills to solve the crime.  I have been able to work at three of the six lab stations:  footprints, physical evidence, and fingerprints.  They all have their upsides and downsides but I have to say that my favorite station is the physical evidence.  Every time I work that station I am able to add something new to their story and through working with them I learn new ways to approach the subject of the physical evidence.  My absolute favorite thing to discuss, however, are the maggots.  Yes, maggots.  The fish died and the maggot inside it tells us how long ago the crime happened.  But then at the end I tell them how modern medicine is bringing back the practice of using maggots to clean out wounds.  Boy do the kids look at me!  Sometimes they get kind of melodramatic about it, sometimes they squirm, and sometimes they simply stare at me, but there's always a reaction.  I love it!  "That's gross!"  Yes, it is gross, but it is so cool!!!!  How often do you get to talk to people about maggots, I mean seriously.  My mom, being a nurse, has dealt with unintentional maggots in wounds so I've even gotten to tell that story!  Crazy.  I'm not a bug person, and I don't want maggots on me but it's so cool.  The kids will say that they are never getting cut again...I tell them "Just don't let it get infected!".  It's so fun.  It really is a learning experience both ways.  When you are a docent you have to be able to alter your teaching style depending on the age of the students, the attention span of the students, and many other things.  You learn to adapt and alter your speech as you learn to tie it into the crime even more.  Sometimes you're tap-dancing depending on if the kids aren't ready to change stations yet but even that requires you to keep your wits about you.  Now, as much as I've been mentioning kids in this article, adults have enjoyed this exhibit as well.  So bring the whole family out and see if you can solve the crime in Crime Lab Detective through May 5.
   
6. Spring Break
   The Museum is going to be closed Saturday, March 9 - Sunday March 17 for Spring Break.  Everyone please have a safe Spring Break.  Don't forget that the traveling exhibit Crime Lab Detective is open through May 5.  Solve the crime and see what it's like to be a real detective.
7. Bugging Out
   

   
   

   
   Check it out!  smithsonianmag.com, part of the Smithsonian family did a blog about an exhibit that we're getting in 2015.  How cool is that?  Click the link below to read the blog.
   
   Honey, I Blew Up the Bugs
8. Crime Lab Detective
   

   
   

   
   
   Our newest exhibit is open!
   

   
   

   A crime has just occured at the Johnson's house!  They were on a wonderful vacation in Hawaii and came home to this...  But you are a professional and you know exactly what to do.  With your trusty notebook you're going to gather clues and listen to statements.  You will use what you find there and take it to the lab to determine who committed the crime.  Check your answers and see if your instincts were right.

   
   

   In this exhibit you'll learn about the scientific method, fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, dna, and much more.  Learn what it takes to become a detective.

   
   

   Crime Lab Detective is open from Jan 24 - May 5, 2013

   
   

   The exhibit comes to us from the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, Arkansas and if funded in part by the J.F Maddox Foundation, Hobbs Lodgers Tax, and New Mexico Junior College.