The mission of the Historic Textile and Costume Collection supports teaching in the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design, as well as other departments on campus; encourages research by students, faculty, and visiting scholars; and provides artifacts for use in class, exhibitions in the Textile Gallery, and loans at other museums.
Featured Item
Embroidered and beaded net trim
Embroidered nets embellished women’s evening dresses in the first three decades of the twentieth century. This design, with its curvilinear floral…
Featured Collection
Parasols and Umbrellas
The Historic Textile and Costume Collection (HTCC) owns eighty-six parasols and umbrellas dating from 1775 to 1930. A parasol is defined as “a light,…
Featured Exhibit
Feminism and Fashion of the Twentieth Century
Feminism and Fashion of the Twentieth Century explores the First, Second, and Third Waves of American feminism through the medium of fashion....
Recently Added Items
Quilted Petticoat
This petticoat, donated to URI by Winslow Ames in 1971, contributes to our understanding of quilting as an important element of a woman’s life in the…
Quilted Petticoat
This brown silk petticoat originally was owned by Mary Perrin. Mary was born 14 September 1811, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts (Steere 2011). The…
Quilted Petticoat
The donors of this quilted petticoat suggested that it was “probably worn by Martha Cross Browning or her daughter Anne or Elizabeth Browning who…
Quilted Petticoat
This petticoat is an example of imitation Marseilles work. In the late eighteenth century, manufactured yard goods that resembled the prized, time…