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 The clothing and textile collection - one of the largest in the Midwest - spans from 1750 to the present. The collection contains a vast assortment of women's, men's, and children's clothing and accessories.
Over 100 quilts and other household textiles also make up this collection.
Areas of greatest strength are women's clothing of the 1920s and children's everyday clothing from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
Highlights include:
- Theatre costumes from Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen was one of Broadway's first musical stars. At the height of her popularity around 1901, she left musical theatre for the study of grand opera. She went on to become a diva, singing opposite the legendary Enrico Caruso in La Boheme, and eventually became the star soprano of the Boston Opera Company. Raised primarily in Kansas City, MO, Nielsen gave many of her stage costumes – see photo at right – and other items to the Kansas City Museum shortly before her death in 1943.
Supplemental material: Photos and phonograph records.
- Clothes from The Donnelly Garment Company
At its height, the Kansas City Garment District was the second-largest garment district in the nation.
Supplemental material: Oral histories from company employees.
- Clothing from political events
This section of the collection includes gowns worn by Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower, as well as a dress that Betty Ford wore at her first White House Press Conference as First Lady, on August 13, 1974.
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Additional Collections:
» Native American Collection
» Clothing and Textile Collection
» Loula Long Combs Collection
» Archival Collection
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