204 Human Ecology Building West Circle Drive
517-355-7712
The Human Environment and Design collection began in the late 1930s with a large gift of household furnishings and clothing from the Fred Jenison Estate. In 1941-42, Carolyn Wicker made a large donation of foreign costumes and textiles, reference materials, books, and photographs. These donations defined the breadth of the department's historic collections.
The major portion of the collection is devoted to historic costumes: about 900 pieces of men's and women's outerwear including clothing for special occasions as well as everyday dress. A small collection of children's outerwear dates to the nineteenth century. There is also a large number of accessories consisting of headgear, footwear, handbags, gloves, jewelry and others. Costumes from China, Japan, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, and other European countries contribute to the collection's diversity.
The collection of historic textiles includes oriental carpets, quilts, coverlets, samplers, and other household textiles, and various fragments of apparel textiles. The strength of the textile collection rests in its Indonesian batiks, late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century printed French toiles, handmade laces, and various Persian textiles from the Safavid period. Reference materials also have been collected over the years. These include periodicals on fashion and interior furnishing, mail order catalogues, books, photographs, and slides.
The collection of decorative arts includes glassware, porcelain, china, pottery, and stoneware. Textile and apparel construction tools and equipment also are included in the collection.
The major purpose for the collection is to provide illustrative material in courses offered by the department, primarily in apparel design and construction, socio-cultural aspects of clothing, history of costume, textiles and interiors, and the historic collections management course. The collection may also be available for research. Artifacts are exhibited in display cases in the Human Ecology Building and are available for loan to outside exhibits.
Access is limited to students of the Department of Human Environment and Design, researchers, and a limited number of other interested individuals by appointment during the academic year, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The collection is housed in the Human Ecology Building, West Circle Drive.
At present, the collection is augmented through donations only. Although the department is not actively seeking donations, there is a need for greater representation in the areas of women's leisure and sports apparel, women's clothing form the period 1800 to 1920, men's clothing from all periods, and children's clothing from the 1940s and 1950s. Currently no limits have been set on household objects such as rugs, glassware, and ceramics. Given the land-grant philosophy of the university, the focus of the collection is on the clothing of middle-class and professional people, including students.
Professional organizations do not rank collections housed in colleges such as the MSU College of Human Ecology. However, a complete listing of the MSU Human Environment and Design Collections is available in Resources in the Form of Collections of Historic Costumes, Textiles and Slides Located in Universities and Colleges, a bibliography by Frances J. Duffield (1979).