Weekend at the Museum: Historic Threads: Three Centuries of Clothing

In honor of the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond, Virginia in May I've selected an exhibit on the Colonial Williamsburg site. This online exhibit lets viewers take a visual stroll through their costume collection in Historic Threads: Three Centuries of Clothing.  A beautiful piece of embroidery provides the backdrop for two choices--learn about the clothing or view pieces from their collection.  I chose to look at the exhibit. 

A screenshot from Historic Threads:Three Centuries of Clothing

A caption and description accompanies each image.  There are so many wonderful pieces of clothing of head to toe fashion such as this embroidered man's undress cap. In the eighteenth century, men who wore wigs shaved their heads. When they removed those hairpieces, they donned caps like this to cover their heads.  They were decorative and functional.

Now try to imagine one of your ancestor's wearing such a cap sitting by the family fireplace.