Professor Irma G. Bowen began collecting items in 1920 as a hands-on teaching tool for students in the Home Economics department at the University of New Hampshire. The collection was named in Bowen’s honor after her death in 1947, and by the time it transitioned to the University Museum in 1969, the Bowen Collection had gained new significance. With most of the objects donated by local colleagues and families, the preserved items were recognized as an unexpected archive of New Hampshire heritage on a personal scale, a glimpse of lives otherwise invisible to the historical record.
This digital catalog continues the Bowen Collection's mission to teach while expanding its reach by making it more widely accessible to those interested in the design, technique, artistry, and historical relevance of clothing.
The Irma G. Bowen Historic Clothing Collection digital catalog was produced by the UNH Library Digital Collection Initiative, supported in part by a grant from the Mooseplate program and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Additional funding provided by the E. Ruth Buxton Stephenson Memorial Fund.
Photography copyright, Astrida Schaeffer.
Production Team
Curator, Preparator, Photographer: Astrida Schaeffer, Clothing Historian
Project Advisor: Dale Valena, Director of the University Museum
Project Advisor: Eleta Exline, Scholarly Communication Librarian
Production Coordinator: Sarah Stinson, Digital Collections Coordinator
Publishing Coordinator: Nikki Cogdill, Scholars Repository Coordinator
Photographic Technician: Angela Constantian, Digital Projects Assistant
Processing Assistants: Melissa Bauer, Charlotte Skala
