Sauk County Historical Museum’s Textile Collection
By Mona Larsen, Baraboo, Wis.

I would like to highlight some of the more notable pieces in the Society's textile collection at the Sauk County Historical Museum. Some of these items are displayed and others are in storage. Most of the items in storage are available for viewing upon request, but textiles are amongst the most fragile artifacts within any museum's collection. Some pieces cannot be viewed because they are too fragile. The following is a summary of some of the items in the collection. If you wish to see any of them and more, please call the Museum at 608-356-1001.

1. One of the oldest items in the Society's collection is a white bonnet circa 1830. It has a wide brim similar to the one Queen Victoria wore on her honeymoon.
2. In storage on the second floor is a wool shawl Mrs. Hackett of North Freedom used to wrap her 10 children as babies during the years 1825 to 1835.
3. Laura E. Ableman's sampler of 1825 shows the effects of sunlight on the dyes in the yarns with the backside showing more of the original colors.
4. Carefully stored on the second floor is an 1840s wedding gown of silk chine, a fabric that is made from winding the weft threads on a frame then printing the design onto the threads and lastly weaving the cloth, thus creating the blurry effect. The two-piece dress was hand stitched, pre-dating the sewing machine's invention in the 1850s. This item was on display for almost 60 years. Constant exposure to direct sunlight and acid leeched from the old newspapers that once stuffed it has caused this rare dress to become fragile.
5. A circa 1870s tintype shows three-year-old Fred Nehs wearing a little pink wool dress trimmed with black velvet, which was very popular during this period. The museum also has the actual dress Fred wore in the picture. Young children were dressed alike until the boys received their short pants. The secret to telling girls from boys in vintage photos is that girls parted their hair in the middle and boys on the side!
6. In the Devil's Lake room on the Museum's first floor you can see Mrs. W. B. Pearl's two-piece dress from approximately 1890. This dress shows off a 21-inch waist. In the 19th century women averaged 5'2" and men around 5'6".
7. On the second floor, in the Van Orden family exhibit you can see Mrs. Van Orden's mother's wedding gown of burgundy velvet, which has elaborate buttons featuring a castle and trees. The asymmetric style of the skirt was very typical to the 1880s.
8. Stored with the textile collection on the third floor is a turn-of-the 20th century man's wool bathing costume. With colors red and white, this bathing suit looks more like a tank top and shorts with a belt. But made of wool, it had to be scratchy!
9. And finally, stored in the collection on the third floor is a circa 1933 uniform from the all-girl American Legion Auxiliary Band. Frederica Brown, who played in the band first as a bugler and later playing the drum, donated the complete uniform, drum and photograph.