It's good to see there was some response. "Slanderized?" Didn't they do that to themselves when they wrote about using the museum's dresses?

It's the small museums, with less formal security and procedures, where we hear these stories. I've heard of volunteers taking something home and throwing it in the washing machine, with no idea that antique textiles need to be cleaned in different ways. The idea of sneaking something out of a display could encourage someone else to do the same.

What would have been wrong with stating up front that they were permitted to borrow the repro dresses? Did they think the photos would be better received with a story of illegal or unethical behavior? Obviously from the reaction on this list, we did not like the story and would otherwise have enjoyed the photos more.

I'm also amused about her complaint of museum buffs "hating on" her. What did she expect? As a good museum employee, if she read the same thing posted by someone else, I would hope for the same sense of outrage.

I have to go kick a dog now. Oh, I'm just kidding, I'm not really going to do that!*

-Carol

*No actual dog or vintage dress was harmed in the writing of this post.

On Feb 25, 2011, at 1:34 PM, Perian Sully wrote:

FYI: the author responded on her own blog: http://thedarlingsfables.tumblr.com/post/3505332820/dear-sarah-i-recently-ran-across-a-link-to-your-blog

Hello!

Hey Cass,

I didn’t mean to alarm anyone about the post, the dresses I believe are reproductions in good condition and belonged to a set of costumes that our boss had designated as ones we wore for museum events; they had been worn before for these purposes.  Regarding the description, I kind of exaddurated for effect- they were in fact in the attic, not on the mannequins, and upon logging in this morning and finding my post being re-posted and slanderized, I realized I shouldn’t have said that.  Its a very small town museum in poor condition and much of the restoration and preservation done that summer regarding garments and other things around the museum had been done by my friend and I as there had been a slew of poor managers/curators who have kind of let things slide.  Student summer employees wouldn’t just be given full authority over re-vamping displays and such, to give you an idea of the hap-hazard state of the museum; there are many things in the small museum that have been damaged just by poor insulation and state of the building in terms of moisture (it’s very old), far worse than the dresses.  This is to say I understand where you’re coming from in terms of antique preservation, and it saddens me that many of these items have been damaged beyond repair, so we would never have intentionally damage artefacts.  As for the reproductions we wore, none of the dresses were damaged and my friend and I were very good museum employees- we would never have taken anything without permission or used actual era gowns for these photoshoot purposes, we too have a love of museums and all things vintage, hence the photos.  Please spread the word that these were not damaged so that the photos themselves can be appreciated and my friend and I won’t be given bad names on the tumblr-verse!  I have deleted the original but I suppose I can’t prevent the spread of the post and museum buffs hating on me for it so I’m feeling pretty badly! The joys of the internet. Anyway, hope this clears things up, if you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Sarah

Kudos to Cass, who contacted her directly!

(I totally wanna see better study collections now, though...)

~P

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