This talk will explore how individual donors to public collections influence and are influenced by their surrounding culture, through the lens of the Charles William Stewart (1915-2001) costume collection within National Museums Scotland. Individual collectors follow different paths towards becoming accumulators, but their collections are usually shaped by personal interests and inclinations. Studies of collectors have often focused on personal acquisition journeys, yet the ways in which individual collections influence knowledge and understanding after they enter public museums is an instructive and important aspect for curators to consider. In order to assess the ways in which Stewart’s collection continues to shape the fashion and textiles collections as well as knowledge of fashion history within National Museums Scotland, this talk will introduce how his early life and social world helped to shape his collecting, what is present and what is omitted through the inevitably personal approach he took to acquisitions, and where this might leave curators when considering future acquisitions.
Dr Emily Taylor has been an Assistant Curator, European Decorative Arts, at National Museums Scotland since 2013. Specialising in historic fashion and textiles, she completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow in 2013 and has worked on the permanent Fashion and Style gallery as well as temporary exhibitions. Most recently she contributed a chapter on working men’s fashion in Everyday Fashion Interpreting British Clothing Since 1600 (Bloomsbury 2023).
