The Lost Post

So when I first started blogging, I created an account using my LUC email instead of the Gmail, so when I went to write my new post, I forgot that I had used my LUC email. Basically, I had written a pretty good description of what I did my first few days, and didn't know where to find it, however, I just found it and wanted to post it here:

Day One

So my first day was pretty amazing. It looks like I won't have any set project, but will get put on whatever needs to be done that day, which suits me just fine. The more varied experience I can get, the better.

My job today was Textiles.

The Ramsey County Historical Society, or RCHS, recently had to move most of their collections out of their old storage facility, and into a new one. So, today, I had to unpack the boxes of textiles from the move and make sure that they were repacked properly for long term storage. A few of the items were folded up a lot to fit into the boxes, so I transferred the larger items, like dresses, to larger shelves. It was pretty sad to see the way that silk pretty much shatters with age along creases. Hopefully my careful efforts will help preserve some of the items, we'll see. Lol.

A few of the items I came across were really interesting. The two most notable, were a "bust enhancer" and a lace doily with swastikas. Unfortunately, I am not able to take pictures of the artifacts, but I'll try to find pictures that resemble what I found today as closely as possible.

The bust enhancer was a single flat piece in which one stuffed front pockets with lord only knows what, and then put in one's corset. It always strikes me that no matter how much "progress" and "innovation" there is in fashion, people always want to look fairly the same as they did 200 years ago.

This picture isn't the one that I found today, but it's a similar idea. Mine was just the back piece, like a flat insert, and the breast pockets were empty so that you could put as much boost in them as you wanted.

The swastika doily was a bit weird, because it was totally unexpected. Here I am, sifting through flowers and the usual lace patterns, when BAM. Nazis. It just shows how there really were Nazi pockets all over the US in the 30s and 40s. I think it's easy to forget that the Nazi movement began as a legitimate political movement, and then became something twisted as it spun out of control. It brings up interesting questions like what would have happened had it not been Hitler and Goebbles in power? The doily really makes me think about all of the people who believed in the Nazi movement before the concentration camps. It makes me wonder what my life would have been like in the 30s. Would parts of my family been Nazis? Would some of my friends? It's interesting to think about.

Again, this isn't the actual lace, but it looked just like this, with a bit more work above the swastikas. All pretty and such.

It'll be interesting to see what I do next week. I believe I'll be doing more textile repackaging, but we'll see!