When we think of historical interpretation of society, many of us think of the larger issues – technological advancement, political shifts, scientific breakthroughs and so on. But there are many other day-to-day concerns that affect how our society progresses and help to tell the story of our history.
One man’s gift to the Indiana State Museum was to tell the story of nearly 30 years of Hoosier history through fashion. Harold Mailand, a Decatur, Indiana, native and textile conservator and collector, donated nearly 30 years worth of his clothing to the museum in 2004. Harold’s mother collected the clothing when he was a child and he continued the collection as an adult. The collection represents fashions from a child born in 1947 to a young adult living in the 1970s.
“It is very unusual to have such a complete sequence of clothing from early life to adulthood,” said Mary Jane Teeters-Eichacker, Curator of Social History. “Usually just special-occasion garments are saved, or ‘first’ garments, such as first shoes and first communion wear. Even more rarely does such a sequence represent a male.”
Though not every piece of clothing from Harold’s life is in the collection, it is still comprised of 209 pieces and represents the clothing worn by a male growing up in farm and small town environment in northern Indiana from childhood to young adulthood. It includes matching outfits (from Harold and his brother), shirts, trousers, jackets, sandals, a milking cap (worn when milking cows), suits, socks and shoes – and one outfit purchased as advertised in Gentleman’s Quarterly in the 1960s.
”… these items represent choices that were weighted by our conservative environment and the desirability of modern influences, aesthetics, purchasing power of a limited income and an unspoken religious tenant of staying within community and not advancing beyond your peers,” Harold wrote in a short biography submitted with the clothing.
Teeters-Eichacker said that portions of the collection eventually will appear in the Global Indiana Gallery and the Indiana’s Treasures Cases.
“Such groupings showing change and continuity over time are particularly important, highly useful, both for exhibit and research,” she says.