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Managing Costume Collections: An Essential Primer

by Louise Coffey-Webb

A practical framework for caring for costume collections

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A practical framework for caring for costume collections

Costume stewardship involves more than conservation alone: it also requires systems for documentation, access, organization, and safe handling. Louise Coffey-Webb’s guide brings these responsibilities together in a broad collection-management framework for garments and related costume materials. It explains recommended procedures alongside their rationale, helping managers weigh decisions rather than simply follow a fixed checklist. Alternative approaches are included, acknowledging that collections operate under different circumstances and resources. Covering institutional, academic, commercial, private, and living-history contexts, the book addresses the operational work of making costume holdings usable, recorded, and responsibly maintained.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Museum, historic-house, and archive staff responsible for costume holdings
  • University theater and study-collection managers
  • Private collectors, vintage dealers, and living-history performers

Themes

Costume collection managementDocumentation and record keepingOrganization and accessibilityCollection safetyStewardship decision-making

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

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.
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