Operation Textile Preservation – Trego County Historical Society 2012 Institutional Grant Award
Display prior to receiving archival boxes.
The goal for the KMA grant received by the Trego County Historical Society was to preserve our textile collection. The collection includes textiles that date back to the early 1800’s through the 1970’s. Many of the donations were received by the founding families of the county.
With the grant funds, we were able to purchase 14 archival boxes, gloves and tissue paper to store the textiles, when not on display. With proper storage available for the textiles, we were able to transform the textile collection to a more eye-appealing space in our museum.
We started with the most fragile textiles, the wedding dresses and other the elegant dresses. We sorted through the entire collection determining which artifacts should be stored at this time and which items should be on display. This also allowed us to display a better sample of textiles from the collection.
In the process, we uncovered some textiles that created for outstanding displays or added to other collection in the museum. Baseball uniforms and photographs were hanging under other clothing artifacts. These items told a story of their own dating back to the 1900’s to the 1930’s. A nurse’s uniform and hospital gown are now included with our medical collection. A unique addition to our school collection was a handmade lettermans sweater from 1918 and a gym uniform from the late 1920’s.
What treasures we have uncovered and history of the county we have learned in the process of organizing our textile collection. The KMA grant made it possible for the historical society to preserve this collection for generations. We greatly appreciated receiving the KMA grant in 2012.
