A Blog from the Museum of Boulder Collections
Inspired by the variety of tasks undertaken by the collection’s staff at the Museum to safeguard our permanent collection, this blog focuses on both the objects in that collection and what it takes to care for them.
Assembling an Agricultural Worker’s Wardrobe
Written by Hailey Roller
Edited by Elizabeth Nosek, Curator of Collections & Exhibits
As part of our upcoming exhibit Boulder Eats! Food Traditions Along the Front Range, a display featuring orchard and truck farmers will be highlighted. I was asked to replicate the clothing of a field worker as seen in a number of the photographs from the Museum’s archival collection which is housed at Boulder’s Carnegie Library. Working with the Museum of Boulder’s Phyllis Plehaty Costume Collection, I chose a dress and accompanying garments that could have been worn by these workers in the late 19th century, Not only did this task present an interesting challenge, but I found it to be a fascinating way to examine the lives and perspectives of farm workers who lived and worked in Boulder during this time period.
The work dress itself was the most important garment selected for the display, showing not only the typical outer attire of an agricultural worker but the wear and stress she underwent through her labor. The dress consists of blue, striped cotton and closes with three buttons at the back. Other than ruffles at the collar and hem, the dress is plain and practical. While the maker put effort into these decorative details, nothing delicate or easy to ruin was included. Its life as a work dress can be seen at the shoulders and upper parts of the sleeves where the faded fabric shows the sun damage sustained from long hours working outdoors.
To create the correct silhouette of a farm worker at the turn of the century, we required the proper support garments. No dress will be able to sit accurately on a person or mannequin without the support garments of its time period, so we sought a late 19th century petticoat to go under the dress. The Museum’s collection certainly has a wide range of petticoats and it took a while to find one that reflected the needs of an agricultural worker. Many of the petticoats in our collection were made of delicate materials or had lace trim and ruffles, none of which would have held up while working the fields. Eventually, we found a petticoat that met our criteria. Aside from some simple embroidery at the bottom, the cream colored petticoat was made of a simple, strong cotton without any extra frills that could be snagged, torn or otherwise ruined by heavy labor.
One of the main details from the photo reference we felt important to include was the sunbonnet. The sunbonnets worn by field workers kept the sun from burning their faces and necks. Given workers needed to withstand hours in direct sunlight every day, these bonnets were made in plain colors that could withstand the elements. The brown sunbonnet we chose is made of two pieces, the bonnet itself and the excess fabric which was secured by buttons and ties that hung down to shield the neck.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project. It not only provided me with new insight into the selection process used by museum staff for exhibits, but I also learned why a worker’s dress was important to telling the Boulder story.
A term I kept coming back to as I combed through the collections was “survivorship bias”, this is the idea that our concept of history is highly informed by what survives to the present and more often than not overlooks what does not. For this discussion, it can often mean “nicer” clothing that was not worn as often, were for a specific occasion or were worn by a famous person are more well known, while garments that see more use or are worn by the working class get damaged and lost before their worth can be recognized. I had never seen a worker’s sunbonnet before this task, likely because most of them did their job and were then used for household rags. It was wonderful to see that even against these odds, the garments worn by these female agricultural workers could be found and used to help tell an often neglected story of these women who were an important piece of Boulder’s story.
