Preserving Provenance: Collaborative Conversation with a Textile Collector

Susan M. Strawn, Mary A. Littrell, and Linda Carlson

Donations of textiles are of critical importance to universities and museums that rely on historical and ethnographic textiles as a basis for research, teaching, and exhibitions. In turn, textile collectors who have amassed substantial numbers of pieces during life-long international travel often seek appropriate donation venues. Much of the provenance for individual textile pieces may be lost, however, before a donor selects an institution and the donation is accessioned into a collection. A museum or university often receives a donation after the demise of a donor who did not document individual textiles in a scholarly fashion. Loss of provenance limits the story-telling ability of individual textiles used for teaching, publication, and exhibitions. This paper describes a method that assures provenance will be retained for each textile in a living collection bequeathed to a university's historical costume and textile collection. Well in advance of actually receiving the collection, a collaborative photo- and text-documentation procedure in the donor's home not only recorded each of more than 300 extraordinary textiles but initiated a conversation between donor and university educators and curators. Nurturing this ongoing conversation assures provenance for each textile and records the most salient design elements applicable to current teaching and exhibition opportunities. The donor gained an understanding of scholarship that is shaping her subsequent choices and documentation of the textiles she selects into her living collection, a personal narrative of her collecting life.

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