Historical Clothing & the New Canaan Museum: Interview with Charlotte Engel

 Historical Clothing & the New Canaan Museum: 

Interview with Charlotte Engel 

Dresses from the New Canaan Museum Collection 

On September 8th, I had the privilege of interviewing Charlotte Engel, the clothing historian at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society. Charlotte Engel attended both the University of St. Andrews and The College of William & Mary as part of their Joint Degree Program. She worked at the NCM&HS as an intern throughout high school and college before joining the team as the Clothing Historian in 2021. Charlotte was absolutely lovely and so helpful in teaching me more about historical clothing and their beautiful collection in New Canaan. 

Q&A with Charlotte

This is a very basic question but something many people probably want to know. Do you have a favorite dress in the collection at the New Canaan Museum? 

     A: It definitely depends on the day because I have a few favorites. I think it changes based on what I'm looking for or what I'm really inspired by. But I definitely have a soft spot for the green Worth dress. It's a huge crowd-favorite. But I also love some lesser known ones...there's an incredible sea-foam one with ribbon embroidery and beadwork from around 1910-1912. It's super fragile and it can't be put on a mannequin very often. The beadwork on it is so incredible. 

The dress dates back to c. 1912 and was donated by the Finch family. 

Edward Cornell Kip Finch (1911-1988) married Ruth Earle Woodward (1916-2004) in 1951, after which the two lived in New Canaan. The dress belonged to one of their mothers, Persis Davis Woodward or Lolita Mollman Finch. The interior label of the dress reads “Whelan-Hannan, 26 W. 47th Street, NY” and while not much can be found on the background of the dressmaker, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a dress with the same label in their collection. The body of the gown is made of seafoam net and chiffon over ivory satin, lavishly trimmed with crystal beads, bugle beads, with a number of silk ribbon rosettes and leaves. It exhibits many distinctive features from the c. 1912 time period, including the loosely draped chiffon over the front of the bust, as well as the columnar silhouette of the skirt and small pointed train.

With the green House of Worth dress, I saw there are two different bodices for it. Is this common with dresses from that era or is this something unique to this particular gown? 

     A: I wouldn't say it's uncommon. I wouldn't say every dress comes with two bodices but it's totally not unheard of. It depends on the dress or...the particular person who owned it. There's another gown we just took down from the 1880s which had two bodices--a similar vibe going on. 

What was it that made you choose history? I saw you're also a makeup artist.

     A: I studied history in college and I wanted to do something creatively with that. I originally thought I would go into something like costume design for TV. I thought, "Oh, I'll never work in a museum it's so sad. The dresses go into a box and you never see them." Never say never! My initial path was to work in the film industry. Long story short, I wanted to do makeup in the past and I just kinda fell into it and I absolutely love it. I have worked on period film which is like...my joy. But I always had this background love for historical clothing so when this opportunity presented itself to me, I thought it was too great to pass up! 

What do you think is the most common misconception about historical clothing? 

     A: I would say in terms of my videos, people ask why we don't wear gloves. That's such an interesting discussion because I think it depends on where you go and who you talk to, the discourse definitely changes. Based off of my own personal knowledge, in the present day a lot of museums have moved away from gloves handling garments. People don't realize you lose a lot of dexterity handling historical garments and it's actually can be more harmful for fragile garments. We do a lot of research on the subject and it's just something I've been taught by other professionals. The other one is in person when people see the garments they say it's interesting how people were much smaller back then. I like to tell them that on the one hand, it can be true that we have more access to vegetables and more well-rounded diets that keep us healthier. But on the other-hand you just don't see a variety of sizes because survivor bias. It also depends on how many mannequins are accessible--for a museum like us, we only have a very specific budget and size mannequin. It takes a lot more time and effort to show garments of different sizes. That being said, we do have a huge variety of sizes in the collection which I have found over the years. 

If there was a different area of history you had to choose, what would it be? 

     A: Maybe art history? I did take an art history course and I really loved analyzing the paintings. I would say I'm really into clothing history because I'm a very visual person and art history is a very visual form of history. 

Is there one movie that you've noticed did historical clothing very well?

A: I would say Downtown Abbey is known for having super well-done research, costuming and everything. I think the Gilded Age doesn't get as much credit for the amount of research they do because the costumes come off as very wacky. They do a lot of extension research into their clothing. But they do say they take artistic license. In the past, it's very hit or miss with audiences. Even Outlander takes liberties and people love that show. Reign, I know, is a historical mess in terms of accuracy but people love those costumes, so it depends!

How long does it take to get an exhibit ready? 

A: Normally it takes us about six months to put an exhibit together. If we're taking our time, photographing everything, doing all the research. Our last one we put together in six weeks, which I would not prefer but we did it. It depends on what kind of exhibit it is. The next one that we're thinking of doing is in tandem with a man's painting collection to see if we can match up pieces in the clothing department with his painting collection. That process is gonna start now and hopefully have it ready by next August. 

What is your favorite museum you've been to that isn't the New Canaan Museum? 

     A: I really like the MET and I feel like that's a boring answer. It's so amazing to see the scale of how they operate and what they have in their collection. It's very inspirational. I would say that that's really cool. But I also have to give props to the other small museums. I've been to the one in Portland, Maine and they have an insane collection. I feel very lucky to have grown up next to the MET because it's such an amazing museum. 

New Canaan Museum Collection: Photography

Plan Your Visit to the New Canaan Museum

After talking to Charlotte, I cannot wait to one day visit the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society. If you're in the area, do not miss this chance to see this fantastic museum and it's beautiful collection. Find out more about it at their website, https://nchistory.org/ or their instagram: @newcanaanmuseum. Or you can follow Charlotte and her amazing videos about the dresses and clothing pieces in the New Canaan collection. Her instagram is @charlotteeengel. Thank you so much for reading this article and thank you, Charlotte, for allowing me to interview you. 

LE