Weaving together academic research and applied learning experiences, Emily Bailey ’24 and Annabelle Kahle ’26 have been examining the history of homespun garment manufacturing, and using historic tools of the trade to build costumes that their ancestors would have worn.
The two distinct independent projects, that sprung from the prestigious Presidential Scholars Program, have allowed the duo to receive financial and academic support from faculty and staff as they explore their research topics. After mastering the art of clothing production and sewing over the past few years, Bailey has built an early 20th-century Edwardian costume, while Kahle, still at the beginning of her Presidential Scholars project, is conducting research and will be restoring a flax spinning wheel found in her grandparents’ historic St. Lawrence County home.
“I was intrigued by the fact that my direct ancestors had probably used these pieces of equipment. With my family connection, I wanted to learn how to use that spinning wheel. That’s my goal. And I’d like to build a weaving looming wheel using 17th-century technology."
Bailey is using her Presidential Scholars project as a springboard to a career in historical costuming. She recently worked as the costume designer for the Spring 2024 production, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where she produced 23 costumes for the show. Taking on the role of both designer and seamstress within the Performing Arts Center’s cutting-edge costume shop, Bailey was able to not only support the show but also use the space to create a traditional outfit from the early 20th century, from scratch.
Bailey works with garments in the Performing Arts Center's Costume Shop.
Bailey's design sketches for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," are spread out on a work table in the Costume Shop, as Bailey prepares for the show.
“I knew that this program would allow me to graduate with the skills to jump right into my career field and develop my own work ethic. I met with Dr. Tom Baker to develop my own framework for how I was going to graduate with historical costume experience. The program gave me money to purchase any fabric I needed, and I was able to take personal classes in historic costuming. Now I’ve built a historically accurate 1905 women’s outfit, while promoting sustainability by using materials that are thrifted and/or purchased from small businesses to create less textile waste."
Living in the Past
During the summer of 2023, Bailey landed her dream internship as a seamstress and interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum located in southern Massachusetts. The internship created a window into the past as she mastered traditional sewing techniques and wore handcrafted costumes around the period accurate 1830s New England town, which features 40 historic buildings on 200 acres.
“It was awesome, and a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. I worked in their historical clothing office, which builds all their costumes for their interpreters, using historically accurate techniques. We were taught hand sewing from the 19th century to make any repairs or new builds to their garments. We had a team of about six interns, and we would all find a little place to sit on the floor and hand sew, making repairs daily as we built new dresses, caps, and trousers,” she said.
With $1,800 in funding provided by the Presidential Scholars program, Bailey was able to offset the costs of travel to and from her internship, as well as fund subsequent applied learning projects back on campus. “I used a sizeable portion to receive reimbursement for travel during my internship so that I could work weekends at my summer job in New York and spend the work week in Massachusetts, which made a huge difference in allowing me to experience my internship without food or housing insecurity,” Bailey said.
The internship, a pivotal experience in her Presidential Scholars project, almost didn’t happen. After Bailey had applied and never heard back, she took additional steps to connect with the Sturbridge staff, reaching out directly to the costume shop manager on LinkedIn. The direct outreach led to a Zoom meeting. “I was able to get to know her and I kind of pitched myself. I told her that I had applied to the internship and she said, ‘You know, I recognized your name. I thought you sounded familiar.’ And within a week she had communicated with her team, and they had built another spot in their internship program for me, because I was able to make that connection with her,” Bailey said.
Two weeks later, Bailey was in Sturbridge learning historic hands-on techniques for garment production, including being placed in a household where she learned 19th-century straw braiding hat techniques. She would also interact with the guests to discuss New England history and the clothing worn during that time period. “I would sit in this gorgeous house and tell the patrons a story about the family who lived there. Working as an interpreter really gave me a great perspective on the amount of work that I was doing as a historical costumer, reproducing those heritage skills. It was amazing,” Bailey said.
Back on campus, Bailey took the skills for her internship, and continued her own independent research as she constructed a beautiful period costume from 1905, which included foundational layers, a corset, corset cover, and petticoats. “Heritage skills like hand sewing and learning how to fit a garment to your body, are tools that we’ve forgotten as humanity. I grew up watching period dramas and seeing those costumes in a movie, and I just knew I wanted to create them. They are so poetic. There is so much of a story in the individual garments from the past,” she said.
Applied Learning in Vermont
For Kahle’s Presidential Scholars project, she is planning on building a loom, working with her family’s historic flax spinning wheel, and attending a weaving school in Vermont. This summer she will be using funding from the program to attend The Marshfield Weaving School in Central Vermont.
“I’m going to be face to face with all these professionals who know everything there is to know about historical weaving. I’ll be taking a weaving class that looks at the changes in techniques prior to 1840, which is very exciting because that’s a date that factors into the spinning wheel in my family’s house. I’m excited to go there and learn how to weave,” she said.
In the fall of 2024, Kahle will return to campus to continue her research on textile production in colonial America, with plans to write a research paper about the shifting gender roles related to homespun garment manufacturing in early America as wars broke out in New England.
“I’m interested in the time period between when people arrived in America and when they established an economic structure. I’m looking mostly at English and Scottish settlers. During the medieval period, it was men who did the weaving, but in New England, it became more of women's work again. My working theory is that wars like King Phillip’s War and Cape David's War played a part in the gender shift in northern New England when men were off fighting. I'm just very fascinated by the gender dynamic in this,” she said.
Her Presidential Scholars project will come to life her junior and senior years as she builds a 17th Century inspired weaving loom. With most of her funding already being used to attend the weaving school in Vermont, she plans on using repurposed wood from second-hand furniture and pallets as she creates the loom.
Kahle, who is pursuing a dual degree in history and music composition, loves exploring the intersection of history and art, while bringing the past to life through music or theatre. “I have done some dramaturgy work in the past. When someone is putting on a new show, or a play, they’ll hire a person to do the history of the show, investigate when it was performed, and look at all the socioeconomic context behind the story. I did a little bit of that in high school too. I really love it when performance, music and the arts combine with history. They are all so carefully intertwined,” Kahle explained.
Professors from the Department of History, like Baker (who oversees the Presidential Scholars program), have inspired Kahle during her project's developmental stages. “The history department here is great. I love it. They’re not just professors, they’re also writing and publishing. They all have lots of experience in that world, and it’s helpful with my own research. I have all these resources. I love it. I think it’s a really cool program because it’s so open-ended. You can do anything with it, and the incoming class of scholars is one of the bigger ones we’ve ever had,” she said.
Family Connections
For both Bailey and Kahle, family has played a pivotal role in both selecting their projects, and moving forward with their hands-on research.
Baily’s grandmother and mother, alumna Catherine Bailey, are both seamstresses and when she was just six years old, her mother taught her how to use an 1892 treadle sewing machine for the first time. Her mother has worked in professional theatrical settings, including recently as a designer and seamstress for the Community Performance Series production of “Once Upon a Mattress” in the College’s Proscenium Theater.
“My mother does a lot of period clothing as well, so I picked up my love of historical costuming from her. She made Easter and Christmas dresses for us when we were kids. At one point she said, ‘you know what, you guys need to learn,’ so she sat me down in front of a sewing machine and she made sure I knew how to thread it. Getting that experience from my mom was huge in establishing this love for historical costuming,” she recalled.
Family was also a catalyst for Kahle’s project. Normally focused on European history, her examination of Colonial America was directly related to spending time at her grandparents’ home, which was built in 1837. Through genealogy records, Kahle can trace one side of her family all the back to the Mayflower.
“Their house is one of the oldest stone houses in Northern New York. All the old farm equipment is still hanging on the back porch. One day we were in the barn looking for furniture, and as we were moving something I saw a spinning wheel sitting back tucked in the corner. I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing I've ever seen,” she recalled.
In a state of some disrepair, she plans to fix the distaff and treadle on the spinning wheel to bring the family heirloom back to life. Her Presidential Scholars project will allow her to spin thread on the wheel again for the first time in many decades. “You have to figure out the right tension-to-spin ratio. It’s a whole process. My grandpa has a wood shop, so I’m hoping he can work with me, and my stepdad has tools too. I have a lot of resources of people with knowledge about this,” she said.
Financial Support
In addition to the President Scholars’ funding, both students have been able to offset the cost of their education with academic scholarships recognizing their outstanding work. During her freshman year, Kahle was awarded The Robert and Katherine Briggs Scholarship, which is given to an outstanding history student from St. Lawrence County. She is also the recipient of the Provost Scholarship for academic excellence.
For Bailey, the combination of hard work and scholarships means that she will be graduating this month without any loans or debt. She has received the Noreen M. Canfield Theatre & Dance Scholarship, the Eileen Goss Whelley Scholarship for Women Leaders, the Dan Hurley Student Leadership Fund Internship Scholarship, and the Ronald & Teresa Fishbeck Foundation Scholarship. “Ron and Teresa are amazing people. They come to all the alumni events, and I’ve had great conversations with them. It’s really important for me to be able to meet the donors and get to talk with them,” Bailey said.
To cover the rest of her tuition, Bailey works a variety of side jobs including as a peer advisor at the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning, as the Costume Shop Manager at the Performing Arts Center, and by running her own private alterations business. “I have ads up around campus, and if students need recital garment alterations, it gives me a little bit of expendable income,” she said.
The Future
While Annabelle is entering her junior year this fall, and ramping up her Presidential Scholars project, Bailey is ready to take her skills into the real world, parlaying her experience into a fruitful career.
“I want to work with historic garments, or produce garments for educational purposes, either working in a museum or as a small business owner to build costumes for interpreters. And I’m open to theatre intersections. A lot of theaters will only do period shows, so working with them and building those costumes to a degree of historic preservation is really my goal,” she said.
And as she walks across the stage at Commencement this month, Bailey will be able to reflect on the layers of support that helped her pursue her dream. “I’ve really enjoyed SUNY Potsdam. The professors are incredible. They understand the importance of low-income and rural students being able to access education,” she said. “The importance of having that personalized education is something that everyone here understands and supports.”
Article and Photos by Jason Hunter