Stories Told in Stitches

Introduction

Stories Told in Stitches came from my internship at the Museum of Cornish Life. I was an Assistant Museum Curator funded by Cultivator and organised through the University of Plymouth. As I was investing so much of my time and energy into my work, it made sense for it to become my Dissertation Project. I produced an exhibition for the museum and analysed my work and how I applied certain theories. This acted as my Dissertation project for MA Heritage Theory & Practise.

Theory

The research and analysis looked into how Daybell et al.’s Gendering theory could be applied to a small regional museum. This approach involved looking deeply into each object’s life story and examining what stories were unearthed that are typically overlooked—such as those about gender. Inherently intersectional, this allowed a dress worn by a rich white woman to represent the stories of those who produced the raw materials, transported them, made it, and more. 

The exhibition itself explored the theme of gender – how it is a social construct and clothing can illustrate how much expectations have changed over time.

Dark grey interpretation panel, with light grey illustrations of a mannequin and hanger. Title reads: "This is Stories Told in Stitches: an exhibition on what clothing tells us about how women lived". White body text reads: "Each theme will introduce two or three items in detail, exploring the item's 'life story'. How did it come to exist and be here today. Why was it designed? What does it tell us about the women making it or who wanted it designed? What was it for? Clothing tells us about gender as it shows what was prioritised. What ideas mattered most for that item? The exhibition asks the question how have ideas of gender changed? Different eras, occasions, events, class and geography all changed ideas. So did women's responses as individuals. Gender can look like so many different things. Learn about how these change and adapt."
Exhibition Poster A photograph of a black 1840s mourning dress on a light grey background is behind Green text reading: "STORIES TOLD IN STITCHES. What clothing tells us about how women lived. 18th June - 16th July 2022" The poster also features logos for Museum of Cornish Life. Cornish Museum Partnership, Uni of Plymouth, Cornwall Council, European Union, Cultivator, National Heritage Lottery Fund, and Arts Council England.

Design & Interpretation

The main marketing of the exhibition focused around this image of the mourning dress featured in the exhibition. The image is a still from an earlier project where certain items had been 3D scanned. This helped position the exhibition within the existing offer and programming of the museum. 

I also wrote and designed all the interpretation material for the exhibition. This was an amazing chance to put my new theoretical knowledge and advise on interpretation writing into practise. This was especially useful in creating interpretation around complex topics.

Even though this work improved on my previous work, it’s really interesting to look back now and see what I could have improved!

Curating

The exhibition had three sections: Ideal Body Shape, Working Women, and Breaking Expectations. These sections allowed me to explain things through the public’s existing knowledge about gender and its history.

For each section, I chose specific items to explore the life stories of using the Gendering methodology. This was incredibly hard at times as little to no information was recorded with the item’s donations, which meant a lot of time spent researching and in the archives. All the information was then available for the museum to add to their CMS.

Ideal Body Type
Ideal Body Shape contrasted an S-bend corset with a 1920s flapper dress, explaining these two opposing ideals were just 20 years apart. This section also featured other items by tailor B. Thomas who made the mourning dress to add context to it's life story.
Working Women
Working Women looked at Balmaidens (Cornish women who broke up the coal on the mine's surface - a very physically demanding job), and the Women's Land Army. It explored how regardless of expectations, necessity always came first be that a war effort or a family's survival.
Breaking Expectations
Breaking Expectations looked at the association of embroidery with masculinity in the 1700s and how that opposes stereotypes today. It also explored Ethel Le Neve's disguise in male clothing when fleeing with Dr Crippen and the factors in that decision to present gender identity (not seen in photo)

Explore More of my work:

Queer History: Hey that's like Me! Images styled within gold frames of Molly working with different audiences including group of children at a stall and in a care home. Text at bottom reads Email molly.wyatt@heritagehistoryher.co.uk

Queer History: That’s like me!

They may not know today’s terms for it, or have it be part of their identity in the same way, but LGBTQ+ people have always existed - when you break from the norm, you have to create who you are yourself.
Neurospicy History: Hey that's like Me! Images styled within gold frames of Molly working with different audiences including group of children at a stall and in a care home. Text at bottom reads Email molly.wyatt@heritagehistoryher.co.uk

Neurospicy History: Hey that’s like me! Community Workshop

They may not know today’s terms for it, or have it be part of their identity in the same way, but neurodiversity has always existed - and people who don’t follow the expectations and rules of society tend to stick out from the norm.