The Missouri Historic
Costume and Textile Collection

The Collection was established in 1967 by Carolyn Wingo to support the teaching mission of the Department of Clothing and Textiles. Today, the collection continues to support the Department of Textile and Apparel Management under the supervision of curator and professor Dr. Laurel Wilson, serving as a valuable study resource for students, faculty, and outside researchers. Items from the collection have been featured in exhibitions throughout the state of Missouri and may often be viewed in rotating exhibitions in Rogers Gallery in Stanley Hall, an exhibition space devoted to the research and creations of students and faculty within the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection currently houses over 5,500 items, ranging in date from the 16th century through the end of the 20th century. The Collection has an unusually strong collection of men's garments, such as 19th-century long underwear, and everyday clothing, such as 19th-century "Mother Hubbards," that provide a rare and valuable glimpse into the daily lives of men and women in the past. Many of these garments have been well-worn, repeatedly washed and mended, making them unusual to find in museum collections because such garments were typically discarded since they were not clean, pure, and unaltered examples of dress. The Collection also contains a unique group of fifty-eight quilts made over 100 years by three generations of women from one Missouri farm family that show the communication of aesthetics and values over multiple generations. Other items in the collection include women and children's clothing, household textiles, and ethnographic garments and textiles. These items are used extensively in the classroom to demonstrate changes in culture and society and the development of technology and industry.