National Trust Collections Online

As I'm sure many of you have read by now, considering how quickly the news has spread only yesterday on Facebook and throughout multiple blogs, the UK's highly respected National Trust has recently launched a searchable online database of their extensive collections of historical objects - including their very prestigious costume and textiles collection!  Some of the items from the National Trust costume collection are patterned in the books of Janet Arnold; many others are sketched and described in great detail in Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail; still others are pictured in glorious detail in Jane Ashelford's The Art of Dress (just recently republished) and in the ...from the Snowshill series (sadly getting increasingly harder to find).

A silk sack, 1770-1774.  Don't you love the way the pleats have been laid?

National Trust acc. no. 1360401.1.

Image linked from the National Trust Collections.

Be sure to add this link to your "must-go-to" list when doing research!  Most of the object listings include photos, some with multiple views and many with zoom capabilities, so you can check out all those mouth-watering construction details up close.  With everything from stockings, caps, and hats, to shoes, fans, and umbrellas, to men's waistcoats and breeches, to gowns, jackets, and petticoats, this online database makes a tremendous contribution to costume and textile research by making such a renowned collection more widely accessible than ever.

Extant covered hats from the 18th century are quite difficult to find, so this one,

now viewable online at the National Trust's collections database

is extra special.  It is dated 1730-1770.

National Trust acc. no. 1349840.

Image linked from the National Trust Collections.