Woven Stories

What can a piece of clothing tell us about the people who wore it? Join Sarah Duggan from the Historic New Orleans Collection's Decorative Arts of the Gulf Coast project as she explores the rich stories woven into the Shadows-on-the-Teche's textile archive. Drawing on the collection's extensive holdings of nineteenth-century garments, Sarah will reveal how clothing and textiles shaped everyday life for the adults and children who called the Shadows home, whether free or enslaved. She'll also share new research tracing where the Weeks family sourced their garments and textiles, shedding light on the broader networks of trade and taste that defined the era.