First I would like to thank everyone who came up with suggestions on where to stay and what to see. The Hotel Harrington was ideal - walking distance to wherever we wanted to go to, clean, a bit shabby, but really helpful staff.
I got to spend a whole day (!) at the DAR Museum, looking at female clothing from +/- 1780-1820. Alden O'Brien asked a colleague, a former curator, to join us, and then simply opened drawers and asked if we wanted to see the contents. There were short gowns, altered gowns, corsets, a bodiced petticoat, fans, pockets, purses, a few fashion plates referring to a couple of garments we were looking at...........
The next day we started off for Virginia, but got seriously distracted by G street Fabrics, where I topped up the stash, and bought several items from the Notions department. (DH meanwhile was buying shoes.)
The former curator very kindly arranged for Anne and I to meet with Linda Baumgarten at Colonial Williamsburg for an hour and a half, where we got to see some ladies' garments of the same period, plus drawers full of quilted petticoats, pockets and stomachers. We over-ran our time, so Linda sent me the details of what we saw, which I will enjoy checking out once my brain stops aching.
I spent some very pleasant,if busy, days with Anne, her DH and my DH, including a trip to see Colonial Williamsburg - the town - and Jamestown. We only hit one fabric store, honest, and I only bought a couple of notions, no fabric.
On the morning of the day we left, Mary, the former curator, met me, showed me some more items from her personal collection and we then had a very rushed visit through the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where there is a wonderful Venetian exhibition currently on show, I also bought a few (not!) postcards to add to my collection.
If anyone would like more details, I will be sending a newsletter to my friends and colleagues who are interested. I can add you to the list. Unfortunately there will not be photos, as I signed forms to keep them to myself, and not publish on the internet. (Quite normal with museum collections.)
Suzi _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
