I am about ready to put up a new display and one of the items I want to display is a graduation gown from the 1910s.  I think it is made of rayon but I am not positive.  It is in fairly good condition with only a few holds and spots where it has faded.  I found it crumpled up in a plastic shopping bag in our storage room and did some investigative work to determine its age and what collection it belongs to so that is how I determined its approximate age.  However, since it was stored so poorly it is somewhat wrinkled.  I have had it hanging on the mannequin that I plan to use for the display and over the last few weeks some of the wrinkles have worked themselves out but the library director asked that I steam it so that it looks nicer for the display.  I am hesitant to do anything with it because of the age of the material and the fact that I don’t know what kind of material it is.  The last thing I want to do is ruin it.

 

So my question is, what should I do?  Is it better to just leave it, wrinkles and all and hope that no one complains or should I treat it either with a steamer or an iron or some other method?  You can respond directly to me at [log in to unmask]

 

Thank you!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christina J. Zamon

Head of Archives & Special Collections

Emerson College

(617) 824-8679

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~