Long Thread Podcast: Emily Whitted, Texile Historian

A pair of silk stockings, mended again and again below the ankle, set Emily Whitted on the path of discovery that has led her through archives and museums of early American history. The stockings belonged to Philadelphia’s Stephen Girard, who was one of the wealthiest men in America. Museum records didn’t mention the mends, though the socks had been repaired several times, making them as invisible to historians examining records as anyone Girard met on the street. Textiles were valuable in the early 19th century, and even a wealthy man wore stockings mended by one of the women of his household.

Mending, darning, and repair became the subject of Emily’s doctoral thesis at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a project she has nearly completed. Her research into mending has led her to investigate how repaired clothing could identify a person trying to self-emancipate, how well repaired clothing could indicate moral character, and how groups of men repaired not only their belongings but also sails in maritime life.

Emily was drawn into the history of textiles by her interest in the role of cloth in women’s lives. With a background in public history (presenting information about the past to non-specialists), she recently curated an exhibition at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum in Connecticut about the variety of samplers that early American girls stitched. Although we generally think of samplers as purely decorative showpieces, darning samplers demonstrated practical skill in mending, too.

As a badge of creativity and conservation, mending has recently taken center stage, with visible mending as a badge of honor. Emily Whitted’s historical research shows just how much we have in common not only with the girls who stitched samplers but also the invisible hands that repaired the cloth of early Americans.

Links

• Read more about Emily’s research: “A Historical Antidote to Today’s Fast Fashion Culture,” UMass Amherst College of Humanities & Fine Arts
  
• “Stockings once worn by Philly’s wealthiest man show the value of women’s mending in early America,” Emily‘s essay for The Conversation
  
• American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and the Making of a Nation, the sampler exhibition Emily guest-curated at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut, is on view through December 2026
  

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