Genesee Country Village & Museum has announced the lineup of speakers in its Fall Lecture Series on the topic of 18th and 19th-century American fashions. This day-long program on Saturday, November 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., features four presenters speaking on different subjects, culminating with keynote speaker Susan W. Greene, namesake and donor of the Bruce & Susan Greene Costume Collection housed in the John L. Wehle Gallery at GCV&M. Tickets to the Fall Lecture Day will include access to all four lectures as well as a continental breakfast, prepared boxed lunch, and behind-the-scenes tours of the Gallery vaults, which house the museum’s extensive historic clothing collection. Tickets are available now at https://www.gcv.org/event/fall-lecture-series-opening-our-closets-18th-19th-century-fashions/.
The opening talk is “Redeeming the Irredeemable: The Diabolical Striped Garment” with Brandon W. Brooks. The presentation will explore how the stripe and striped garments have been used by society to draw line between those who are welcome and those who are not. From nefarious criminals, rebels, insurgents, and prisoners, to the middle-class masses, and those wishing to embrace seaside luxury; the history of stripes is full of colorful and conflicting implications. Extent pieces from the Bruce & Susan Greene Costume Collection will complement this discussion. Brooks has been Curator of the John L. Wehle Gallery at Genesee Country Village & Museum since March of 2020. Brooks works with over 400 years of European and American sporting and wildlife art, and over 300 years of fashion and textile material culture.
Next is “A Survey of Dress – A Careful and Complete Look at Extant 18th-Century Woodland Clothing” with Michael Galban. This talk will explore a very complete catalog of known 18th-century woodland objects of clothing. Attendees will have the opportunity to examine the materiality but also the social and economic implications of commerce and trade in goods during the colonial period in the northeast. Presenter Michael Galban is the Historic Site Manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site and the curator of the Seneca Art & Culture Center. Ganondagan is a 17th-century Seneca town site and is nationally regarded as a center for history, cultural, and environmental preservation. His academic research focus is on woodland art/aesthetics, Indigenous semiotics, and regard.
The third talk will be “A Story in the Threads: The Clothing of Enslaved Women in the Antebellum South” with Cheyney McKnight. What was the difference between the clothing of enslaved Black women and free white women during the Antebellum period? Discover what enslaved women were wearing and how their culture, circumstances, and creativity impacted their clothing. Find out the clues left behind that help us to understand what they were wearing. Speaker Cheyney McKnight is Manager of Living History at New York Historical Society. She develops and runs Living History Programs at the museum. McKnight is also owner of Not Your Momma’s History, a public history consulting business that aids museums and historical sites in talking about the African experience in 18th and 19th century America.
The keynote presentation, “1840’s: Fabric Rush” with Susan W. Greene, explores the wide range of textiles available by the 1840s, from high-end silks to printed dress cottons to utilitarian drills, featuring period photographs and extant garments. The rapid improvements in manufacturing resources usually referred to as the Industrial Revolution brought the possibility of a real “wardrobe” to an eager population in the United States of America, as well as in other industrialized nations. Susan W. Greene is an author, collector, lecturer, weaver, and historian. Her collection of late 18th and early 19th-century clothing is housed in the John L. Wehle Gallery at Genesee Country Village & Museum, under the name the Bruce & Susan Greene Costume Collection. She is the author of Textiles for Early Victorian Clothing and several entries in Valerie Steele’s Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion and Carol Kammen’s Encyclopedia of Local History.
Tickets for GCV&M’s Fall Lecture Day must be purchased online in advance as space is limited. General admission is $95, admission for college students is $75, and admission for Museum Members is $85. GCV&M is now offering virtual access to the lecture, at a discounted rate of $40 for the general public at $35 for Museum Members. Tickets (non-virtual) include access to all lectures, a continental breakfast, prepared boxed lunch of choice, and behind-the-scenes tours of the John L. Wehle Gallery vaults with GCV&M staff. Tickets are available now at https://www.gcv.org/event/fall-lecture-series-opening-our-closets-18th-19th-century-fashions/.
Find all upcoming event listings and more information at https://www.gcv.org/events/.
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