Managing Costume Collections: An Essential Primer

Costume Society of America Series

by Louise Coffey-Webb, Robin D. Campbell (Foreword)

Managing Costume Collections offers systematic approaches to organization, accessibility, record keeping, safety, and a host of other stewardship concerns related to managing costume collections of every type. Conceived to address needs long identified by the Costume Society of America, this guide is written for a broad spectrum of collection managers at museums, historical societies and houses, university theaters and study collections, and company archives, as well as for vintage dealers, private collectors, and living history performers. Drawing on the wisdom of many disciplines, Coffey-Webb takes a holistic approach to problem-solving, explaining appropriate procedures and the reasons behind them, to arm collection managers, specialists and nonspecialists alike, with sufficient tools to make informed decisions on their own. She also offers alternative solutions to the recommended guidelines. Although there are books on costume conservation, there is a paucity of 04 Activeable material on costume-collection management. Managing Costume Collections is the first work in collection management to address a wide audience, from general to academic and hobbyist to professional, interested specifically in costume.

Genres: Nonfiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2016

Reviews

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic--so much so that I've recommended we purchase a copy for our library at work (a professional costume shop attached to a LORT theatre, a graduate program, and an archive of historic costume).

The author addresses the various aspects of administering and managing a collection of garments for a range of purposes--a costume rental company, a museum archive, a study collection, a theatre's costume stock, an extensive personal/family wardrobe collection, and more. She discusses considerations even an experienced collection manager may not have considered, like disaster plans and obtaining an adequate insurance policy.

Coffet-Webb has traveled extensively in working on this book, to collections/archives in the US, Canada, and the UK. She illustrates various methods of storage, databasing, documentation, and preservation, and she provides sources for all kinds of relevant products/equipment, like acid-free boxes/tissue paper, neutral ph labeling/tagging systems, and so forth.

I only wish i'd had this book back when i was managing a collection myself, and although that is no longer my responsibility, I look forward to how we might take into consideration the issues raised in here at my own workplace now.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This book didn't have much to offer for costumers in theatre. It is heavily geared towards museums and curators for storing and maintaining their vintage and antique collections, and I imagine it's very helpful for those people, just not costume designers.