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Wool Comb
In addition to flax, wool was an important fiber during the colonial and frontier era. Wool combs arranged the fibers, separating the undercoat from outercoat and teasing the wool before carding by disentangling, cleaning and intermixing fibers. This…
Spinning Wheel belonging to the Slaughter Family
This spinning wheel is said to have belonged to Caldweller Slaughter who came to Kentucky as early as 1787. It could also have come from the family of one of his wives. His first wife, Margaret Ransdell Slaughter, died in 1786. Some sources indicate…
Weaving Reed
Weaving reeds are a part of weaving looms that are used to separate and space the warp threads, which guides the shuttle's movement across the loom and pushes weft threads into place. Reeds were interchangeable and different reeds were used to make…
Textile shuttle
Shuttles were textile tools designed to carry and move yarn back and forth through the warp which in turn creates cloth.
Piece of Tow Linen
A piece of tow linen (has a coarse texture) used for a bedtick, a bag shaped mattress stuffed with feathers and straw. Both free and enslaved women were responsible for the production of all household linens. Young girls were taught to sew and knit…
Linen and Cotton Sheet
An 'M's & O's' patterned sheet made of linen and cotton. The family narratives for this linen sheet states that it was made in 1816 by Betsy Breckinridge Meredith, sister of John Breckinridge. Family narrative also states the flax was grown, spun,…
Linen Sheet
According to family narrative, this bed sheet was made by an enslaved weaver using flax that was grown on Dabney Carr Overton's farm in Fayette County, Kentucky. In 1830, Overton enslaved thirty-two persons, including twenty female children and…
Ann Clark Shawl
This shawl is said to have belonged to Ann Rogers Clark Gwathmey (1755-1822). See also 1943.5.1 (miniature portrait). Paisley Shawls were a luxury item worn by affluent women. Paisley, as a style, didn't get its name until the 1830s-40s, named after…
Blue Empire Dress
Empire dresses emerged in the early 19th century and rapidly became fashionable across Europe (particularly England).
Brown and White Cotton Dress
This cotton dress is a great example of the changes (simplified, 'natural' dresses) occurring in women's fashion in the late 18th century to early 19th century. 'Naturalness' in this context refers to the use of lightweight , easily washable…
Multicolored Silk Dress
Silk dresses of the early 19th century embodies the period between the whiteness of dresses of the early Regency gowns and the decorative frills and flounces of the 1810s. This dress belonged to a woman of the McNair -Anderson family.
Empire Wedding Dress
Early silk empire style wedding dress. Empire dresses emerged in the early 19th century and rapidly became fashionable across Europe (particularly England).
Featured Item
Enid Yandell with Red Cross, ca. 1917
Enid Bland Yandell, (seated, third from the right) sits with fellow Red Cross members at the Debarkation Records Department in New Jersey.