This is the operation room, this is the largest section of our facility. In here we have one supervisor, two pattern and makers. And the rest of the people you see working diligently are tailors. We build and maintain all the garments for the historic area of products. So maintaining includes laundering and dry cleaning. This rack right here is often issued to people and then its going to they can come in and pick it up and take it out for their use. Generally when you come to work here, youll get an allotment. Thats based on what it is you do and how you do it. Its about 60 to 65 articles of clothing. We we clothe from the head to toe and skin out. The average allotment is worth about 4,000 so quite an investment for the foundation. Here we have the two outfits that were manufactured in this building. On the right here is a fife and drum uniform. We have a large the fife and drum corps which is the musical component of the Virginia State garrison. You have red with blue facings. These were redesigned in 2008 for the 50th anniversary of the fife and drum corps and this is based on an antique thats in the collection of the National Army museum in chelsea in london. Here we have a digitally reproduced painted silk. Probably the origin was china. The original garment, original textile in our collection and is actually made up into a gown. We had it photographed. The antique photographed. Then swept it off to new york to be digitally printed on to this silk style. This is a garment that we made for a special event. We had someone portraying lady dunmore for a day and we build this for her for that special event. Can you tell us how clothing would have been different for the different classes of williamsburg . Actually, this this would have been a threepiece suit. Not unlike this. Thats true up to 1960 and the only thing that changes during that time are the lengths of the lengths of the various components. The coat got shorter. The waistcoat got shorter and the breeches got longer. These components would have been available to all strata of society, but in different qualities, fabrics and finishes. How about for women . For women the division of labor in the 18th century is interesting. Generally, mens garments are flat patterned and manufactured by tailors. Womens garments are draped on a form, that was the difference in their makeup. And then sewn to fit the specific body. Again, it would have been the forms would have been very similar. It would have been probably a constrictive or tight upper body garment or torso. She would have been stayed which is the basic undergarment, what we call a corset. There would be a petticoat. So the ideal silhouette in this period for women is essentially a cone perched on the ellipse. Thats the fashionable silhouette. Dress its based on a number of things. Based on regionalty, occupational and personal choice. A variety of textiles would have been available to the residents of Colonial Williamsburg and they would have been imported from england. How would someone have gone about getting new clothes in the 18th century . There are a number of ways. We know theres a lot of remaking of items. You could purchase things ready made. Thats a huge ready to wear business in the 18th century. Generally, there are things like shirts, shifts, things that are multisized. You could have something custom made for you or bespoke. There are we know in other southern colonies for instance in south carolina, theres a huge tradition of youth clothing. Were assuming that takes place in virginia as well, but the documentation isnt as readily available in virginia. Can you show us some others examples . Sure. Now were in the warehouse which is where all things are initiated. You have before you three reproduced textiles and various forms of reproductions. This is the painted silk i showed you downstairs, the lady dunmore outfit. The design was from a french fashion plate of the period. But the textile is one thats in our collection. This is also a digitally reproduced textile and reproduced linens. That was photographed on to the textile and then then washed the backing is washed off. This is actually a reproduction of a garrment that survives of a garment that survives at the smithsonian. Its from a coat that was originally owned by Benjamin Franklin that he purchased in paris. What is a silk. A silk, and the linen. There are a lot of buttons on the attire. Not so much the womens. What you see before you are a few reproduction buttons that we have. This particular button is for a military british regiment, the 80th. And this was actually cast for us by a company in rhode island. These are livery buttons and livery is the attire of servants. In the 18th century, you could display your wealth on your back and show how wealthy you are by dressing your servants in matching livery. And generally the color is based on something thats in your craft. These are the memorial craft buttons for the next to the last royal governor of virginia, and the lord dunmore who was the last royal governor of virginia. When which did livery for the palace servants. I can tell you theyre probably wrong. Because there have been no after we did this and we got gift money to do these, i discovered that there are no armoiral craft buttons discovered in virginia. We know that dunmore when he ordered the livery, he ordered blue and brown cloth, and silver tape silver lace and silver buttons for his livery. We know that it arrived. The materials arrived, but we dont know who made them up or what it looked like after it was made up. These buttons, these are interesting. These buttons go on the general officers coat in the military. Its a cask button. This is made for us by a vendor in the united kingdom. Its interesting because it kind of copies what buttons looks like in the 18th century. A form of buttons in the 18th century. Which would have been cast and crimped over a bone core like this. There would be this would have been bone. This is a polymer. There would have been a drill hole placed in there and then the shank would have been created by cat gut. So its a really beautiful reproduction. And theyre outrageously expensive so therefore very precious. So thesebuttons theyre perfect for the 18th century. These were manufactured for us by a company in colorado. But theyre dead on perfect for buttons that we matched up to a garment that we recreated, thats currently in the a pair of trousers that are in the metropolitan museum of art. Then for embroidered buttons, you know, embroidered waistcoats this is all done by machine. Then they would be covered so this this would be the result. Theyd go over a wooden chloroform. All soft materials are in this room. And its its very, very, very difficult i can tell you to find items that are appropriate to the 18th century. This woollen up here we got from the manufacturer in the united kingdom. These are all for fife and drum uniforms and they have to match and we order quite a few yards so we only have to do a dye lot only every five or six years. We have woollens here. Prints here. Prints are very popular in the 18th century. We use natural fibers that would have been appropriate in the 18th century. Woollen, wool linen. Some hemp. A little bit of cotton and silk. Thats what were limited to. We do use some blends but its a very, very slight blend. Less than 5 . We try not to use any acrylic fibers. Because theyre dangerous, you know, they melt. Instead of burn and we have people working around open fires. Okay. This accessories and this room is responsible for adding all the little pieces that are required to make up a wardrobe. They fit shoes and caps and they they they finish the hats. They are traditional 18th century menswear. All the little pieces that make up a wardrobe theyre responsible for. The majority of things that you see in this table were build in this room. This is a market bonnet. Here you can see the depiction. We have one of the few surviving examples of these. Theyre depicted you see lots of depictions of them in the 18th century, but very few survive. I think we have the only surviving example thats over in collections. So what we did was we took a pattern off of it. I say we, it was done before we got here. They took a pattern off of it and then they did a reproduction. Now its not terribly accessible because its permanently mounted so we cant check our measurements to make sure that its correct. But its pretty close. As you can see its pretty close too, to the depiction. These mitts, based on a pair in the metropolitan. A set of pockets that are actually reproductions of ones in the collection. These are things that would have been worn underneath a womans gown. Its essentially storage. Its large purse. This is the hat that was made in this room. Actually by melissa sitting right over here. And its based on a depiction from an english fashion plate of the period. This is the one worn by the lady that played lady dunmore. This jewelry was made for us by a jewelry maker, who does reproduction jewelry in marble head, massachusetts. Based on the surviving example in massachusetts and was actually owned by the wife of the last royal governor of massachusetts. This is a stomacher. Reproduction stomacher. Its worn on the upper body and it would be pinned to a set of stays. The reproduction of one in our collection. Heres this. Then we have shoes. Mens shoes, these are made here. Not in this building but made by Colonial Williamsburg shoemakers. These are womens shoes made in the u. K. This is out of las vegas, nevada, they call this the dunmore, theyre for sale in our shop actually. What its supposed to do supposed to look like a calamenko shoe. Thats a wool product, wool textile product and washington ordered those shoes for martha yearly. At least five to six pair yearly. So we know theyre being worn by all strata of society. The calamenko covered pumps. This is a reproduction of the epaulets. They go on now shoulder boards in the modern military. And they are a sign of rank. These are reproductions of ones that are in currently held by the Yorktown Victory Center which is right down the road in yorktown, virginia. We have a large a large portion of our programming has to do with the military, and with the revolution. So within the past 20 years we have really increased our military presence and our knowledge of military history and military draft here at the costume design center. Hats. We get these as blanks so do you have one of those . Not unlike this. This is which has been cut down. It would have had a larger brim. Thank you. Which would have had a larger brim and then its steamed and shellacked and molded and shaped into place like it would have been done in the 18th century and then lined. Heres one. Perfect. So these are the Raw Materials in the 18th century. It would have made from a number this is primarily a wool. It could have been made from both rabbit and or beaver fur and a mixture of wool as well. In 1991, Linda Baumgartner our curator started the project whereby she started most of Jefferson Thomas jefferson come to Colonial Williamsburg reproduced and then it was sent back to the respective museums. We have a bobcat lined cat. It was a reproduction owned by jefferson. It ended up in the Natural History museum. A lot of these survived which is wonderful. So you can see how it went together. Jefferson from what i discovered is not a very natty dresser. A couple of things survived a at the collection of monticello that were repaired and something that you wouldnt expect. On items owned by the president of the united states. He also suffered from the cold his entire life. At monticello there were several waistcoats lined with old cutup stockings. Because he was always cold. But thats this is a virginia bobcat that we i think they got it through the state. I think it was the road kill, actually, and now it lines our reproduction cap. This is research and design. What happens here is we developed items for use in the historic area. Generally, when you develop a garment for use in the historic area you like to have three things and the majority of the garments have been through this vetting process. First, youd like to have an antique that you can study and pattern and that has some kind of attachment to the chesapeake. Then, youd like to have a period depiction of someone in that antique. Finally, ideally, you have some kind of written documentation that talks about the antique, either an invoice or a letter that describes it or a bill. Ideally, it would be a letter or a diary entry that says on this day, at this time, i bought this garment from, it was made for me by. That absolutely never happens. Unless youre the 2 of society. Unless youre a washington or a jefferson. Lots of documentation regarding their clothing and a lot of their clothing survived. Whats difficult to get at is common attire and or the other half. I mentioned earlier in the interview that were doing a lot more military programming. And there is a garment called either overalls or gator trousers that we couldnt find a surviving example of. So prior to prior to finding this particular garment which lives at the metropolitan museum of art, we used to just extend our pattern and make it longer and do the fitting that way. This is a depiction of a gentleman in a regiment in gator trousers or overalls. What is this garment . Fortunately we were able to find a surviving pair at the metropolitan museum. And what you see on your right is a reproduction of that particular pair of gator trousers that are at the metropolitan. We went up there. We studied them. We patterned them. This is all and photographed them. Did copious photographs of them and this is a schematic of what it is that we found and what we saw. There are notes on here how it went together, the stitches, how many stitches per inch, what the textile is. The construction. The order of construction. All of that is copied on here. Then we came back and did a reproduction of the garment. Thats the reproduction using hand techniques. Its all done by hand in the 18th century manner. Then we digitized it on that digitizing board which is our cad system and finally, built a prototype by machine. I would love to be able to practice the craft all by hand, but unfortunately we need to use modern construction methods because of the volume we have to create here. This is the prototype. We fit it on a number of different people. It works really well. Originally what we had been doing this sort is of sort of the tedious technique, but we found in the 18th century one thing they did which is really ingenious is that the inseam actually all the shaping is done on the inseam because the outseam is straight and its a salvage edge. That answered a lot of questions for us. Here we have british general officers uniform. This was and the button from this are the buttons that i showed you upstairs. The ones that are cast very similar to the antique. All of this embroidery is done on that machine over there. There are several that survived. So theyre easy to study. But they were constructed in house. Then we have the epaulets. Which i wont be able to get off here. Here we go. These were actually embroidered in pakistan. But we do have the ability to do this here now. Again, it was all by machine. This is an adaptation of a court suit that we have in the collection. This would have been very formal attire. Theyre called court suits. They would have been worn at court primarily. This particular one is generally worn by the person who portrays lord dunmore. We know that there are surviving American Court suits particularly in south carolina. There was one that was owned by a pinckney that survived in the Charleston Museum of art. Its not that theyre not being worn here, but they dont seem to survive. This is another one of the jefferson projects. This is a great coat that is now in the collection of the l. A. County museum of Natural History. This is done in 91, this is machine embroidered as well and it fits our current thomas jefferson. When people come here for a tour, i think theyre surprised by the complexity of the operation. The fact that we use modern equipment, but we are trying to give the impression of the past. Because clothing is a strong cultural marker, you know . Not only is it regional its very, very personal as well. Its an indication of who you are. Both now and in the 18th century. How has the clothing changed during the time that Colonial Williamsburg has existed . Well, originally, thats an interesting question. The first costume here was october the 20th, 1934. It was for the dedication of the duke of gloucester street and the first people in costume were the six hostesses at the raleigh tavern. The period that they depicted was the 1750s, 1740s. So it was a very wide panniers and hoop gowns. It was so popular by november the 5th, churly james koeger and the restoration architects decided that all the hostesses and all the exhibition buildings should be in period attire. And from then to now, 81 years with the exception of six months in world war ii, when rationing sort of prohibited the use of the reproduction of clothing we have had people in historic dress. The way its changed is we now view these items as material culture and as something that teaches. That tells about the society, rather than just to create ambience. I think thats a major shift and that happened in the 70s and 80s. Long before i got here. Thats the major change. That its now a way to teach about the past. This Holiday WeekendAmerican History tv on cspan 3 has three days of featured programming. This evening at 6 30 eastern, to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of president Dwight David Eisenhower his grand daughters susan and Mary Eisenhower gather for a rare family discussion at Gettysburg College to talk about his military and political career as well as relevance for 21st century americans. Then on saturday afternoon at 1 00, 60 years ago rosa parks defied a City Ordinance for blacks to make room for white passengers. Her stand helped instigate the montgomery bus boycott. Well reflect on the boycott and see what role lawyers played in that protest and the civil rights movement. As we hear from fred gray attorney for rosa parks and montgomery bus boycott demonstrators. Then at 6 00, civil war author and historian William Davis on the little known aspects of the lives and leadership of ulysses s. Grant and robert e. Lee. Sunday afternoon at 4 00 on real america, a 1965 Progress Report on nasas projects including the manned Space Program and the mariner 4 flyby of mars. Just before 9 00, filmmaker rick burns on how the public learns about history through film and television. American history tv, all weekend and on holidays too. Only on cspan3. Cspan takesio unon the road takes you on the road to the white house and in the classroom. Students were asked to tell us what issues they want to hear from the president ial candidates. Follow cspans road to the white house coverage and get all the details about our student cam contest at cspan. Org. Next on American History tv mark noll discusses the bibles role in American Public life between 1492 and 1783. In the talk, noll argues that americans frequently relied on the bible to support and oppose political ideas. The Wilson Center hosted this 90 minute program. Thank you all for coming out on this overcast fall afternoon. It is my pleasure to introduce this afternoons speaker, professor mark noll who is the