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Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Studying George Washington's Black Velvet Suits, with Timothy Long | Episode 103
00:34:50
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A
The weather has warmed up and it's an ideal time to make shorts. Sewing teacher Kelly Williams walks you through how to make two versatile styles in her course, a pair with patch pockets and a draw cord, and another known as paper bag shorts. In this On Demand elearning shorts class, you'll find out how to sew pockets, create an elasticized drawstring waistband, and how to install grommets. The course includes downloadable patterns so you can get started right away. To sign up and to find other On Demand courses, go to courses.threadsmagazine.com. Hello and welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast from Threads magazine. I'm your host, Jeanine Clegg, and today I'm joined by special guest Timothy Long. Tim is a fashion historian, curator, and museum professional with nearly 30 years of experience working in museums and historic institutions in the United states and the U.K. he previously served as vice president of museum services at Freeman's, that's the oldest auction house in the United States. He's currently focused on research relating to George Washington and serves as a research fellow at Sulgrave Manor in the uk. Welcome, Tim.
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B
Thank you.
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A
We're so glad you're here. I'm excited to talk to you today. And you've been able to see up close some beautifully designed and constructed garments over the years, whether it was while you were curating exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum, the Museum of London, or through your work at the auction house. But for years, you've also been doing a lot of detective work on your own time related to historically significant pieces, specifically the garments worn by George Washington. And as we all know, he's a founding father and the first US president. So as America celebrates its 250th anniversary as a nation in 2026, there's a lot of interest in and appreciation for our history. Could you tell us a little about your research and those prestigious fellowships that have helped make your work possible?
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B
Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me here to speak about my research. My research focuses on George Washington surviving clothing, how we understand those clothes, how we interpret them, and really, ultimately how we place those clothing items within his life and legacy. And so I've been fortunate that this work has been supported by a number of fellowships and institutional partners that have really allowed me to move between collections and examine the garments in detail. My first fellowship was at the Mount Vernon Presidential Library in Virginia, just south of D.C. and I was recently awarded a fellowship at Saul Grave Manor, George Washington's ancestral home in the uk. And my research has also been supported by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National Society of the Colonial Dames. That support has really been essential because this kind of research isn't something that can be done from a distance. It requires access to objects, to rare and fragile objects, to archives and to conservation expertise. And the fellowships and at the fellowships that I've had have supported that work across institutions in both the UK and the US it's allowed the work to evolve from individual object study into something much larger, a connection or connecting the investigation into Washington's wardrobe, his household, and even the world that produced those garments.
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A
That sounds like a lot of hands on work in place at those two locations, Mount Vernon and Sulgrave Manor. How long have you been working on this project?
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B
So it has been a long time. Right Now I'm at 11 years since this project began. It began at Sole Grave Manor in the uk. I was based in London at the time. I was working as curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts at the Museum of London. And I was brought in as one of a team of individuals who were asked to review all of the artifacts in the Sole Grave Manor collection, which began in the early part of the 20th century and had assess the collection at different points. But at this point was looking to assess the entire collection and highlight pieces that really stood out. And at the core, trying to authenticate a lot of these items. Some items had been donated by family members, direct descendants of George Washington's. Others were acquired by different means. And so a new assessment of that collection was done. And so grave, as we've discussed discussed, is George Washington's ancestral home in the uk. He never lived in the uk. He never stepped foot in England. But his fifth great grandfather built this house that became a museum in the early part of the 20th century. A museum of the Washington family as well as a museum that was working on Anglo American activities at the time, in the early part of the 20th century. And so throughout all of those items in their collection, I became particularly focused on a jacket, one black velvet jacket in their collection that was donated by descendants and recorded to belong to George Washington. And what was fascinating was that as I worked through that material, I began to realize that this wasn't just a question of attribution, it was a question of significance. That jacket and the wider group of garments that I have found that are connected to it started to open up new ways of thinking about George Washington's biography and how his clothing functioned within his life. So then we Fast forward to 2023. I began a fellowship at Mount Vernon, at the Presidential library there. And that really was a great insight into his life through his estate. And that transition was incredibly important for the research because it allowed me to work directly with the material culture, the archives, and the physical environment of his household. Many people may not know this, but George Washington was a prolific note taker. And many of his notes and business papers survive to this day. And so my fellowship offered me access to this material. And so I was not just studying these garments in isolation. I was seeing them in relation to place, to landscape, and the networks that supported his life. And so I then returned to Saul Grave Manor more recently with a new fellowship and starting to connect sort of the British and American sides of Washington's material culture. And so what's emerging is a really much more integrated picture of his wardrobe than we've ever had before, including a growing understanding of how individual garments may relate to very specific and key moments in his life. And what's at the core of this research is the possibility that one of these surviving garments, a suit, may be the one depicted in the image that is on the American dollar bill. And so that's really sort of the core of the research, looking at his wider wardrobe, but realizing that one of these items is very likely something that we are all very familiar with, or at least Americans are. It might be in our pocket or in your billfold or in a purse, but if you open up that dollar bill, that jacket that George Washington is wearing, I believe actually is a real garment that survives to this day.
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A
That is amazing to be able to make those connections. I know you spent many hours, and you've talked to me before about George Washington being a meticulous note taker. Can you talk a little bit about what kinds of documents you were looking through to. To try to make some of these connections? And like, are we talking about receipts, we talking about invoices? What were you looking at to try to make some of these connections?
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B
All of the above, really. George Washington, as we've just mentioned, was really a prolific note taker. I think the way after living in England for quite a while, I see the way that Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, other queens and monarchs spoke or speak about their time as being owned by the people or for the people. I think George Washington felt very similarly, especially during his presidential years, those eight years, first endeavor as a president, a new experiment for this country. He really felt passionate that his time, his money, was needed to be spent efficiently, needed to be recorded, and that care filtered down into pennies that he would Give to people who had asked for assistance, people that would come up to him along the way. There were notes about Revolutionary War soldiers who had had issues or lost limbs would come up and ask for money. And he would give them money from his own pocket, but he would record that. And so individual sense, up to major transactions are very well documented, and I believe much more documented through George Washington than many other presidents throughout the history of this country. And so for someone like me and others researching George Washington, you have such a plethora of information that is available. Notes that he wrote his own journals, his own diaries, very personal information shared between he and other members of his household. But then the larger business dealings or his land holdings, his plantations, his relationship to his very large number of enslaved individuals that were part of his life. And all of that information has. A majority of that information has survived to today. There are some periods in his life where there are missing letters or missing journals. Either they were known to have been burned in a fire or there's a note about them existing, but the actual item doesn't exist. And a lot of that is through Mount Vernon, but also the Library of Congress. And a lot of these resources sort of speak to each other, if you will. So if you're reading a letter at Mount Vernon, there's usually a note that says this letter corresponds to a conversation that actually is recorded at the Library of Congress. So there might be one letter here, but it might be part of a 200 letter correspondence between two people that you can actually read. And that kind of interest and focus has been supported, reported for basically his death, individuals looking to better document George Washington. And so that's the kind of resource that I've been able to tap into.
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A
Wow, that's really incredible to be able to trace all of that. These days, most of us don't keep diaries. We may keep diaries in the sense of photos, but not written word. So it is fascinating to be able to make all of those links and spending as much time doing that work that you have. Did you need any special training to prepare for this research, or did you rely on some experts to help you analyze some of the letters or some of the evidence that you discovered when you were at Mount Vernon or Sulgrave Manor?
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B
Yes, I. So my entire career has been about using clothing to tell stories about people and place. Not just about people, but really place has been significant. I've been a curator at the Museum of London. I've been a curator at the Chicago History Museum. I've worked at the San Diego History center, and of course, now with Mount Vernon and Soul Grave. And through all of those opportunities, I was not only telling stories about people, but telling stories about people through artifacts and specifically about place. And so that is what helped me with the foundation I'm using for this analysis. And that relationship between dress and geography, it reflects where people lived or look using garments. It's how garments reflect where people lived, the economics they were part of or economies they were part of, and the wider sort of cultural systems around them. I've then added to that a scientific investigation that I have had to supplement my education with courses on microscopy, my courses on textile production, agriculture, I've taken both in the United States and also abroad when I was living abroad. And that those courses have helped me fine tune my understanding of not only how to apply scientific investigation, so things like fiber analysis, that's something we're applying to these garments, is making sure that we know the fiber. And so for the velvet, velvet is a complex textile. And so we're looking at weft and warp fibers, we're looking at the pile and fine tuning our understanding of the garments through that scientific investigation. And I've had to supplement my education with courses that I'm continuously taking as I learn more about what other techniques are available for clothing analysis. Things like isotope or geolocation abilities that are taking the analysis of these garments and pushing them into really exciting areas that are revealing more and more. And so that combination is really something that speaks specifically about how I interpret garments. But applying that sort of curatorial voice, but also adding some of that scientific
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A
investigation, and that's so important. I mean, the technology has come so far in many ways. So my question is, how do you know for sure George Washington wore the velvet suit you discovered at Solgrave Manor?
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B
So the question of whether or not these items were worn by George Washington is the central challenge to this project. Only a small number of Washington's surviving garments have firm documentary dates attached to them. And only one of the surviving garments is clearly recorded as being worn more than once. But what that means is most of George Washington's surviving garments have not had a proper investigation to prove its authenticity. But beyond that, to prove where these garments fit within George Washington's life. So there's really a lot of complexity in the surviving material. And so what I do is treat each garment as a piece of evidence. I look at provenance, construction materials, the wear patterns, stains, even those are really important, and then compare all of that with the documentary record and other surviving garments. So sometimes the evidence strongly supports traditional attributions. And sometimes they raise entirely new questions. So, and that's, of course, very important. The goal isn't just authentication. It's an understanding on how these garments fit into Washington's life, how they were used, and what role they played in his household and his broader world. So, for example, one of the pieces I'm studying now, I believe was the very first black velvet garment he wore during his presidency. And that in itself is, of course, very important. But then when you look at the symbolism of his using black velvet as a transition from a uniformed leader during the Revolutionary War, that was where he really became known internationally. And that image was him in a uniform. But that simply wouldn't work. And he knew this when he went to stand in front of the American people as an elected official. He felt that standing in front of them in a uniform would go completely against what the Revolutionary War was about. He wanted to not rule by force, but rule as a democratic leader. And so choosing a black velvet, unadorned, no ermine, no gold, no embroidery, it's not a uniform. It wasn't a simple. It wasn't a simple choice. It was something that he really used to sort of curate his image, something we hear a lot about now. But that was of paramount importance. And so beyond authenticity, it's to not only say it's George Washington's, but when was it purchased, where did he use it? And in some instances, like the dollar bill, is there evidence today to connect the surviving garments to known portraiture that was created throughout his life?
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A
And that's what I was just going to ask you. You know, these garments, the garments that you focusing on, the velvet suits, they're different from those we have seen General George Washington wearing in paintings, right? I'm thinking of the Charles Wilson Peale portrait of Washington depicted in his suit of regimentals. You know, the blue coat with the buff colored waistcoat and breeches, and the Rembrandt Peale painting titled Washington Before Yorktown that depicts Washington on horseback during military maneuvers. But the garments that you investigated are more like what we see Washington wearing during his presidency in the portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart. You know, he's painted a few of them. That's where President Washington is standing in this ornate room next to a table, and he's wearing a black velvet suit that, that life size painting I'm sure many people have seen. It's called the Lansdowne Portrait, I believe, and it's part of the President's exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. And you know, there are other Stuart paintings of Washington wearing this, the black velvet suit that you've been describing as well. But it's interesting because so many of the paintings that we think of, he's in this military garb, but that, you know, but as you were describing, he wanted to change, have a different image now in his new role as president.
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B
That's right. And so I have then taken that study and looked at other surviving black velvet garments not owned by George Washington, but from this period, and looked at painted portraits to understand what we as the public would have understood seeing George Washington. These sort of codes, the implied language that today we don't understand as much, but then they would have been fully versed in. And so other black and black velvet was a very expensive fabric. And you could also see it regularly on the sort of pillars of society, if you will. The doctors, the lawyers, clergy, those were the individuals that were trusted, respected, and those signifiers are what he relies on for that transition from a military leader to the president of free populace. And so that is, of course, central to this story, is utilizing these surviving garments for that image and so taking them beyond just authenticating them as being his, but really trying to understand which garment came into his life at which time, and what was that garment's purpose, serving that sort of visual representation of his biography.
- [22:54]
A
Fascinating. How did you handle the garments? Like, were you even allowed to touch them while you were examining them? Because they were so fragile, I'm sure at this point, you know.
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B
Yes. So the. There are about 20 garments that survive of George Washington's, and I have reviewed almost all of them in person through the fellowships that I have held. And the. Some of them are in very poor condition. They're shredding. The fabric is so brittle. And it almost looks like if you were to buy a zombie costume for Halloween, this sort of shredded fabric, some of them could pass as Halloween costumes for zombies because they are in such poor condition. And then some of them have had conservation attempts. I put conservation in air quotes. So back in the 20s or the 1920s and 1950s, there were different attempts to mend these garments. And so the world of conservation has learned a lot from past experiences. And so some of the garments even have, like, tape on the inside from some careless conservation practices, or maybe even not conservation. Maybe they were just even family members who are trying to make something look good and not really understand the residue and all of that ramification of those actions. And so time has not treated these nicely. Then on top of that, these garments have what's known as inherent vice, meaning they have chemical properties inside themselves that degrades on their own. So the black dye, the sulfur, some of the agents that are used to stiffen material because on the inside of the jacket, just like today when you make a collar, you have interlining and interfacings and they had their own versions and sometimes they used starches to stiffen or other materials, other glues or starches, and those start to break down. And so you'll have a perfectly healthy exterior fabric, but the interior fabric is starting to degrade and that is causing the exterior fabric to be brittle. And so all of the handling is of course, done under strict museum conditions. We use gloves. We have very easy, you know, nice spaces to review these items. There's assistance with the curators or the collection managers or the conservation staff to help with measuring. And so a lot of it is hands off. You know, you're, you're looking at it, but you might list the caller, but you list it in a very conservation friendly way. Someone else uses their two hands to lift the collar. Why I then can go in and while I'm sort of slightly touching the fabric, I'm not really, I'm sort of leaning against it with the protected grip of the measuring tape as I'm measuring the shoulder line. Or if we're looking into the sleeves, you have a team of people there that are opening the sections to allow for the visible, the visual access, but keeping that handling to a bare minimum. We've also some of these garments have been conserved more recently. And so that approach took out some old conservation repairs that were, in one instance there was a polyester fabric that was added and, and of course that didn't exist then. And it has, you know, all its. There's some challenges of adding a polyester or at least this type. So that was taken out and that I was present for that treatment, which helped me see the inside of the garment in a way that I wouldn't have been able to. And so some of these things have allowed us to see inside in a way. Some of these repairs may not have been ideal, but they've allowed for access in a way that we couldn't have if it was in its original state. And so that handling also has been applied for when we've taken photography. Just two weeks ago I was in the UK and we photographed for the very first time their jacket, one of their, one of the Washington pieces that they own. It had never been photographed on a mannequin. And some of these items can never be photographed on a mannequin because they are too fragile. But this garment had been conserved and was in a strong enough condition to wear. A custom made mount was used to support the chest. And then we ordered period specific breeches, waistcoat, stockings, shoes, the cravat, and completed the ensemble with modern reproductions of what he would have originally worn. So that Lansdowne portrait you mentioned earlier, we used that painting as inspiration for this new photograph that we took. And so we had conservators involved, registrars, curators, all involved with the dressing of that piece and being mindful and careful. And so the handling is for a variety of purposes, but always kept to a minimum and always under the focus of making sure that no condition changes during that handling or very little condition changes during that handling.
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A
All of your work, especially most recently with this piece you just described and all of your years of research are unique and pretty amazing. I have to say, I'm so impressed. And you know, I want folks to know that you are putting together an article about some of your findings that will be in the fall issue of Threads, and that issue will be available on noonstands by September 8th of this year, and Threads Print subscribers will receive their issues by August 31st. And Tim, it's just amazing listening to you now and what a unique and special experience this has been. People will learn so much from all of this work that you did and the time that you spent training, doing special courses to learn how to do this has made your research very special. You know, and I, I want folks to know that they can find out more about your work and if they read the article, but also check out via your Instagram. Your Instagram is what? Timothy Long Fashion Curator Do I have that right? Well, one word.
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B
That's right.
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A
Okay. That's right. So they can check out a little bit more about that. I, I'm sure you're going to be writing a little bit more about that. Can you tell us a little bit more about all your research? Can you tell us where they might find more information?
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B
Absolutely. So what I'm working towards primarily now is a peer reviewed publication in a journal. There are a few that I have focused on and that's where my main priority is to put all of this research into a lengthy, peer reviewed article that would provide me the opportunity to go into all of the details about the scientific investigation, the results, all of the things that I am speaking about. I've also, beyond that, putting it into a book form that condenses some of those Very detailed scientific investigations, but packaging them for a more general audience. And then now, even at Soulgrave Manor in the uk, which is just a short trip outside of London, there is a display that highlights some of this research. We just opened it recently. The new case, a new mount, a new photograph for this jacket, one of the items I'm studying is now being presented. So if anyone is around and in the UK and interested in going to Soulgrave, you can see this jacket and then you can also see some of that research and then through social media. I have been very active over the years on social media, but more recently I've gone quiet as I focused on this research, but eager to now that some of the conclusions have been made. Creating stories through social media to engage people with the results, but also to invite people to join me as I'm now entering the final phase, which is the publishing of the results. And so using social media as a storytelling tool to help bring people along the process to understand about this type of research and the publication process. So Instagram will be a key place to see the results of this research and follow along as it happens.
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A
Oh, I'm right there. I'm start following that a little bit more closely, you know. Thank you, Tim, for, for sharing all of this. Just a taste of what you've been doing. It's, it's really so interesting and especially, especially now during this year long 250th anniversary celebration. It's very timely and I congratulate you on choosing a really great time to release it. And I'm glad that the research has come together and come as far as it has during this period. So thank you for a taste of this. I can't wait for the article to come out.
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B
Oh, thank you. It is a really exciting project. I'm thrilled to now be given the opportunity to present some of these results. Finding these results, it's always a sort of quiet hooray moment when you're in an archive, but you know, then you have to sit quiet with it and keep it under wraps, so to speak. And so I'm very eager and very excited to see more people react to the research and results. And so I can't thank you enough for giving me this platform to speak about it and to sort of let the information now be released so more and more people can engage with it. So thanks a lot.
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A
Thank you. Thank you, Tim. And happy birthday America.
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B
Yes, happy birthday America. Thank you.
- [34:26]
A
Thank you to our guests for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening. Please remember to stay. Send your comments, questions and suggestions to th at threadsmagazine. Com and please like comment and subscribe wherever you are listening until next time, keep on sewing with Threads.