Foreword: It takes a team of people to create an exhibit as fabulous as Ordinary and Extraordinary, and many times the pieces of an exhibit are on loan from other museums and collections. The Robbins Hunter Museum (RHM) is proud to display borrowed garments, as well as undergarments belonging to the museum in the exhibition. Suzanne Kennedy has been intimately involved with preserving these textiles since they arrived at RHM from the Robinson Museum in Granville 10 years ago. We asked Suzanne to note what she thought about pieces from the collection on display in the current exhibit.
The current Ordinary and Extraordinary exhibit includes items from the museum collection, from the Granville Historical Society and from the Ohio History Connection. The collaboration enhances the result.
Undergarments in the museum collection are special for several reasons. They have a provenance or history that is well-documented as belonging to Granville and to the Devenney family of Granville. The collection is exceptional because ordinary, everyday garments were saved, as well as beautifully embellished extraordinary garments. It is unusual for a museum to have the quantity of garments covering such a long time span as those in the Robbins Hunter Museum collection. Garments in the collection cover a span from 1850 to 1920. Items from the Victorian era have been selected for display in the current exhibit.
Of particular interest is Emma Devenney’s signature in India ink on the waistband of an ordinary set of drawers (underpants). These would have been her everyday underclothes, not a fancy pair, and perhaps it was done because she was headed to the Granville Female College. The ink is permanent, and you will notice there are no blots in her signature. She was very precise while inking her signature on her regular underwear. Great insight to her personality!
Also on display are garments sewn by Charlotte Spelman while living on the first floor of the house. Charlotte made the garments for her sister, Martha Spelman Downer, whose photo is also on display. Come for a tour and learn about the Spelmans. See up close the Victorian underwear they left behind. What would they think if they knew the world was invited to take a peek?
