Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising 1 idea x 2 objects x 8 histories

What is the role of the museum in the digital age? How can museums engage their publics while being a forum for scholarly research? How do museum curators use objects to construct and communicate meaning? These were some of the questions considered by students in the graduate seminar “Care and Exhibit of Museum Collections” (DM 563) held in the Spring 2025 semester. 

Over the course of the semester, each student developed an idea for a hypothetical museum exhibition. This involved articulating a clear curatorial concept, selecting and interpreting objects related to the curatorial concept, identifying the exhibition’s objectives and takeaways, and determining a plan for associated programming activities and events.  

In this installation, the distinct curatorial ideas developed by each student are represented in two objects selected from the Avenir Museum collection. These parameters invited students to thoughtfully experiment with the relationship between object and concept. Ultimately, the eight “micro” exhibitions that constitute this installation celebrate the diverse interests and disciplinary backgrounds of the student curators, as well as the seemingly endless opportunities to use objects to convey aspects of history, culture, and identity. 

Paula Alaszkiewicz, PhD 
Avenir Museum Curator 
Assistant Professor of Design and Merchandising 
Instructor of DM 563  

By Aubrey White, MA Candidate in History

The Historical Characters line of American Girl Dolls aims to “[teach] girls about history and who they want to be” (emphasis in the original), utilizing 18-inch dolls representative of different periods in American history. [i] Comparing the dolls’ clothing, historical outfits worn by girls in the United States, and contemporary girls’ outfits reveals that American Girl products contribute to the identity formation of young girls who use these items. The dolls and their clothing utilize consumerism as a way for girls to experience the past, which ultimately contributes to how they form their own identities as modern American girls.

1. Child’s Day Dress, 1950s, Avenir Museum Collection

This 1950s dress is known as a child’s day dress, indicating that a young girl would wear it as a casual, everyday outfit. The dress does not have any zippers or working buttons, which facilitated dressing. It is also made of cotton, making it comfortable to wear while running and playing. It aligns with the Maryellen doll’s “meet outfit,” which is the casual-style dress worn by the doll at the time of purchase. 

Whether you are an adult or a child, consider what kinds of clothes you prefer to wear if you know you are going to run around and play at the park or in your backyard. Adults, what kinds of clothes did you like to wear during playtime when you were a kid? American Girl decided to sell a t-shirt that girls could wear to match their Maryellen doll rather than a casual day dress. By purchasing and wearing that shirt, a girl can look similar to her Maryellen doll, wear an item of clothing she is more comfortable in for playtime, and look like a modern American girl in 2025.

2. Red Circle Skirt, c. 1956-57, Avenir Museum Collection

The red circle skirt with a white carousel pony and white sleeveless blouse seen here date from the 1950s. The skirt has an especially unique history, as the donor’s mother handmade this skirt for her with felt material when the donor was in middle school around 1956 or 1957. That means the donor was around the same age as the historical American Girl doll Maryellen represents. 

Why might a young girl be drawn to the look of a 1950s poodle skirt? Could there be something about girlhood in the 1950s that resonates with her? Or perhaps she is attracted to the way a beautifully decorated skirt looks and makes her feel when she wears it? American Girl did not sell a girl’s poodle skirt to match the Maryellen doll in favor of a pink polka dot skirt that shares the poodle skirt’s circle shape. This allows a young girl to still identify with her Maryellen doll, consume an American Girl product, and still look like a contemporary American girl. 

By Aimee Wagner, MA Candidate in Anthropology  

This exhibition aims to highlight how sports are a form of play that fosters an environment for growth and belonging. Participating in sports also promotes well-being by helping to develop identities and community.

3. Colorado State University Athletics Football Helmet, Avenir Museum Collection

This helmet was worn by CSU football players from 1982-1993. First designed by Leon Fuller, the helmet features a dark green base with yellow ram horn spirals on each side. Using this choice in colors, the helmet is visually striking and can be easily identified within Fort Collins as being affiliated with CSU. As homage to the university’s mascot, Cam the Ram, the horns depicted on the helmet present a uniform and collective identity as CSU football players. When competing against other teams, the helmet’s unique design sets the players apart from the other team on the field. With this signage, fans can easily identify the team they affiliate with and gain a sense of pride and belonging by watching their team play. This has helped to create a widespread CSU football fanbase through developing a community that enjoys football and creating identities as Rams. With the arrival of coach Sonny Lubick in 1993, the helmet’s design changed slightly from yellow horns to the gold horns that we see today. However, even with this change in design, the horns remain as a symbol of the Ram collective identity.

4. Colorado State University Baseball Jersey, Avenir Museum Collection

Although the exact date this baseball jersey was worn is unknown, the style depicted here was worn by CSU baseball players in the 1970s. By 1980, the style had changed. Baseball at CSU has a rich and memorable history. Founded in 1900, the early team members experienced a rocky start to their baseball career through a series of losses. By 1914, the CSU baseball team was suspended due to the events of WW1. By 1940, towards the start of WW2, the team was once again suspended during this conflict, with coach Pete Butler being a key figure that returned to his position after serving in the Navy. Yet, despite these challenges, the team continued to play as a varsity league after WW2. At this time, coach Mark Duncan led the team to success. In 1950, the team made it to the college world series. Despite the struggles the CSU Rams baseball team went through, they remained resilient and left a collective memory within CSU athletics by the time the men’s baseball program was discontinued in 1992 due to financial constraints and efforts to “provide equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes” as mandated by Title IX regulations.

By Evan Stackpole, MA Candidate in History 

Anchors Aweigh explores the historical evolution of the sailor look from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century through the interplay of styles between sailors’ dress and women’s leisure wear. By incorporating nautical motifs, twentieth-century womenswear adapted potent symbols of sartorial freedom at a time when female consumers embraced more active and liberated lifestyles. The exhibition asks to what extent the sailor style, which often held creative and subversive meanings for mariners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, retained these connotations as it entered civilian women’s wear in the twentieth century. Through this historical investigation, the exhibition demonstrates how uniforms may be appropriated and redeployed to subvert hierarchies of gender and status 

5. US Navy, Blue Wool Blouse and Trousers, c. 1941-45, Wool, Avenir Museum no. 94.1a and 

Along with the white “dixie cup hat” and knotted kerchief, this jumper and trouser ensemble represents a standard set of enlisted sailors’ dress blues of the Second World War. The jumper, according to contemporary regulations, “shall be of blue cloth, loose, square sailor collar, trimmed with three stripes of white tape on the edge, and shall have a machine-made white star in each lower corner.”[ii] Worn during the winter months, the jumper features a yoke over the front and rear, as well as a small watch pocket on the upper left breast. On the right, the embroidered yellow eagle design, known as the “Ruptured Duck,” indicates an honorable discharge.[iii] The contrasting white tape around the cuffs indicates a seaman first class.[iv]

The trousers feature bell-bottoms and a broad fall-front fastening.[v] The latter is particularly noteworthy. Closed with thirteen plastic buttons bearing an eagle motif, this peculiar fastening derives from eighteenth-century civilian men’s breeches.[vi] By the mid-nineteenth century, the fall evolved into a cherished feature of naval dress. The navy’s attempt to replace it with a more modern fly opening following the Second World War led to protests and the eventual withdrawal of the order.[vii]

6. Henry Rosenfeld, Blue Sailor Dress, Cotton, 1940s, Avenir Museum no. 86.16.4

The mid-century American Look aimed to reconcile high fashion with mass consumption. Designers like Claire McCardell and Norman Norell adapted nautical designs to create dresses that were, in fashion scholar Amber Butchart’s phrase, “sporty, casual and democratic.”[viii] This dress from the Avenir Museum collection illustrates some of these influences. Dating from the 1940s, the dress is made of blue cotton and features a fitted bodice and box-pleated skirt. The collar mimics the decoration of enlisted sailors’ uniforms, down to the embroidered stars.

The dress’s label identifies it as a product of American designer Henry Rosenfeld. In the mid-twentieth century, Rosenfeld specialized in budget versions of high fashion designs.[ix] In the early 1950s, Rosenfeld received a series of contracts from the United States military to manufacture clothing for female service members. While it is not clear if these contracts influenced the design of this particular dress, Rosenfeld’s production of military clothing points to the centuries-long influence of uniforms on readymade civilian fashions. 

By Rachel Stenz, MA Candidate in History 

Throughout the twentieth century, female skiers navigated the tension between femininity and athletic skill. This exhibit examines the dual meaning of performance, referring to both athletic ability and social expectations. By focusing on fashion, it explores how women’s embodied experiences of skiing shaped their identities and often challenged societal expectations of how women appear in outdoor spaces.

7. Red Wool Ski Jacket and Pants, 1933, Avenir Museum Collection

This red ski jacket and pants set is from 1933 and is made of a thick red wool material.
The jacket features a high collar with an offset row of brass buttons. There is one small pocket at the hip and a matching belt with a brass buckle at the waist. The pants are made of the same wool material and are secured with a zipper. They cinch at the ankles, ensuring that no snow can enter the wearer’s pants. This outfit was originally owned by Ruth Williams and was worn on her first, and only, time skiing in Marble, Colorado. Ruth’s family purchased the red outfit so that she could easily be spotted on the mountain as a novice skier. By the 1930s, women’s freedoms were expanding broadly within the United States and on the mountain. At this time, ski pants were replacing the old standards of skirts. Pants helped women embody the new values of independence and allowed them to express their autonomy by increasing their mobility on the mountain. 

8. Coat made from Hudson’s Bay Company Blanket, 1930s, Avenir Museum Collection

This striking red jacket with black stripes is a handmade capote style jacket made from a Hudson’s Bay Company blanket. The Hudson’s Bay Company logo can be seen on the bottom of the coat. It features a distinct large, pointed hood, high collar, and fastens with two rows of large black buttons down the center. Additionally, there are rows of small white beads adorning the collar, cuffs, and across the shoulders. Made between 1934 and 1940, this piece originally belonged to Carrie Arnold and features hand-stitching and unfinished edges, which suggest that it was homemade. The capote style originated in the fur trade era of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Hudson’s Bay Company exchanged wool blankets with Indigenous and Métis peoples across eastern Canada. These communities fashioned the blankets into coats suited to harsh winters. This jacket reflects the complex relationships between Indigenous, Métis, and white communities and highlights how Indigenous technologies have influenced winter styles present within predominantly white resort settings. 

By Annie Watterson, MA Candidate in History  

For thousands of years, natural fibers like wool and cotton were used extensively in everyday wear, as synthetic fibers were not yet invented. This exhibit explores the transition from the use of wool textiles to synthetic textiles in activewear, swimwear, and knitwear of the 1800s through the present day. Ideas of how wool versus synthetic textiles function and feel, the environmental impact of natural versus synthetic textiles, and how such textiles have been produced are explored in this exhibit.

9. Wool bathing suit, late 1930s, Avenir Museum Collection

Both of these bathing suits may look familiar to our modern eye, but the materials they are made of tell unique stories. This blue swimsuit from the 1930s speaks to the decade’s love for sunbathing with its low-cut back.[x] However, its wool material is perhaps one of the most interesting details of this swimwear. Wool would not have been an unusual textile for bathing suits historically and even into the first half of the 1900s. For centuries, swimmers’ outfits consisted of natural fibers like wool, linen, silk or cotton, as the synthetic materials that make up most modern bathing suits had not yet been invented.[xi] Though a wool bathing suit may sound odd to present-day swimmers, the material’s properties would have allowed for a few advantages when wet: a one-piece wool swimsuit like the one displayed here would have been insulating and kept its shape while providing modesty due to its opaque nature.[xii]

10. Nylon bathing suit by Peter Pan, mid-1960s, Avenir Museum Collection

Like its wool predecessor, this brown mid-1960s bathing suit might appear at home on the beaches of 2025. And in fact, the synthetic nylon material it is made of relates it quite closely to the swimwear and activewear of today. By the late 1940s, swimwear manufacturers increasingly began using synthetic fibers for swimwear.[xiii]  Nylon and polyester—both textiles derived from petroleum—were popular choices for swimsuits due to their strength, easy to care for properties, and quick drying time.[xiv]Other synthetics, such as Spandex, allowed changing swimwear designs of the mid-20th century to better fit the body.[xv] These material properties and more revealing cut of synthetic-based swimsuits would perhaps have allowed the wearer of this bathing suit to achieve the suntanned ideal of the 1960s look.[xvi]

Although historically innovative for swimwear, we now recognize some of the drawbacks of synthetic textiles, such as microplastics pollution shedding from synthetic fibers. As the fashion industry has turned toward seeking sustainable alternatives for polyester, nylon, Spandex, and other synthetics, it is up to the future to see how swimwear will next evolve with the changing materials of our times.[xvii]

By Alena Lee, MS Candidate in Design and Merchandising 

This exhibit aims to explore and examine the textile art techniques used by the Hmong Leng group in their traditional dress as a way to preserve Hmong cultural heritage. It will also explore and discuss the symbolic importance of the different motifs created by these textile art techniques and the meaning these motifs hold in the Hmong community.

11. Hmong Leng Jacket and Skirt, Avenir Museum Collection

This object is representative of the Hmong Leng group from the regions of Thailand. It is specific to the type of dress that would be worn by this group of Hmong people from this region. Depending on the region that the different Hmong subgroups are from, the dress style will change as well (Lee & Tapp, 2010; Yang, 2021). This specific object is representative of the Hmong Leng group as it uses all of the textile techniques, batik, appliqué, reverse appliqué, and cross-stitching embroidery, to show that the wearer is from this specific group in Thailand. Between the pleats of the skirts are the different textile techniques that were used to create different motifs such as diamonds (which can represent the Earth or the four seasons and can also bring prosperity and safety to the wearer), snails (which is for family and interconnectedness), and fish hooks (symbolizing that the wearer, most likely female, is seeking a husband or to marry). This object suggests that the two pieces were hand-made either by the wearer or by another woman in the wearer’s family.

12. Hmong Leng Ensemble, Loan: Alena Lee

This object is specific to the Hmong Leng group from Xieng Khouang Province in Laos as the construction of the textile work is different compared to the Hmong Leng group from Thailand. The Hmong Leng group from this province typically only use red and yellow fabric throughout their textile techniques which is why their style of dress is distinctive compared to other groups. The motifs used throughout the skirt are leaf fronds for growth, mountains for strength, seeds for abundance and snails for family. This object would typically also include accessories such as the Hmong people’s iconic silver necklaces (xauv), a red tie or neck scarf, and a purple turban typically worn by the Hmong Leng group from the Xieng Khouang Province. Since the curator is from a different Hmong Leng sub-group,  she does not own a red tie or red scarf to go along with this type of dress. 

On the back of most, if not all, of women’s traditional Hmong jackets, and some men’s jackets, there is a square fabric that is attached on the back collar, called dab tsho “spirit cloth”, that not only displays the textile art skills of the wearer, but it can also aim to protect the wearer from evil or harmful spirits (Yang, 2021). This dab tsho attached to the jacket in Object 12 contains diamond motifs to represent abundance and protection for the wearer and uses both appliqué and reverse appliqué techniques to create these motifs. 

By Lekha Tummala, MS Candidate in Design and Merchandising 

This exhibition explores how embroidery in India has long served as a sacred language of belief, memory, and identity. From royal regalia to everyday ritual attire, these textiles reveal how stitches carry spiritual meaning and preserve generational legacies.

13. Zardozi-Embroidered Dress (Indian Ensemble), Avenir Museum Collection

This three-piece Gagra Choli ensemble illustrates how Mughal court embroidery practices continue to shape ceremonial dress in contemporary India. In contemporary India, it continues to sanctify garments worn for weddings and religious festivals, signaling continuity through changing times. The Zardozi embroidery technique—utilizing gold and silver metallic threads on silk—was once reserved for royalty, used to signify divine alignment, purity, and opulence. The floral and mango motifs, often seen in Mughal textiles, are preserved in this piece, signaling spiritual fertility and eternal life. This object is a cultural and spiritual heirloom, representing the intergenerational transmission of sacred labor within Muslim artisan communities. The dress introduces embroidery not as decorative flair but as ritual inscription—where every stitch enacts a prayer, a tradition, and a cultural memory.

14. Indian Maharajah Suit, Avenir Museum Collection

This opulent Maharajah suit exemplifies the Indo-European fusion of colonial era India, where tailored British silhouettes were combined with indigenous textiles and embroidery. Composed of a richly dyed silk coat, drawstring trousers, and an embroidered sash, this ensemble was likely worn for a formal or spiritual occasion. The sash evokes the Hindu sacred thread (yajnopavita), used in initiation rites that mark entry into spiritual and societal roles. This object encapsulates how Indian elites used dress to negotiate identity under British rule, asserting sovereignty through sacred aesthetics. The embroidery functions not only as ornament but as a visual assertion of divine right and masculine sanctity. In this exhibition, the suit advances the theme of embroidery as a vehicle of spiritual power and political resistance, revealing how sacred threads adapted within colonial constraints without losing their cultural potency. 

By Anna Hall, MS Candidate in Design and Merchandising

For many people, quilts are seen as simple everyday objects that serve to keep them warm. However, quilts possess a wide and nuanced range of meanings and functions that deserve to be further explored. This exhibition uses the following lenses to understand, analyze and contextualize quilts: utility, aesthetics, social connection and political activism.

15. Crazy Quilt Robe

Crazy Quilting was a cultural craze among upper-class woman from 1880-1900 C.E. The unique quilting style is hallmarked by its irregular pattern, mix of textiles, use of jewel tones, and elaborate embroidery stitches that run along the seams. While patchwork quilting had long existed with its origins in utility and frugality, the process of creating crazy quilts has its origins in leisure and aesthetics. Previously, patchwork quilting was done to save valuable scrap fabric from being wasted. Many crazy quilters, on the other hand, would purchase Do-It-Yourself kits with pre-marked fabric that guided the women to cut their newly purchased fabric to create their “scraps.” [xviii] The purpose was not primarily in the utility of the quilt, but in the aesthetics. This robe was created in 1929 in Colorado by Julia Velma Dot Sorenson almost 30 years later. Sorenson’s garment is guided by the crazy quilt aesthetic but is unique because of the utility it provides as a wearable robe. Here, we are provided yet another lens to understand the tension between function and aesthetics in Crazy Quilts.

16. Quaker Quilt Square

This block is from a quilt created in 1842 C.E by women in the Quaker community to raise money and awareness for the abolitionist movement. At the center of this quilt block is a print of the “kneeling slave” abolitionist icon. It is important to note that at the time, this symbol was used as a sign of alliance and support for those who had been enslaved, but today, scholars approach the symbol with more nuance and an acknowledge that it can present a deeply incorrect narrative that enslaved people were passive during the fight for abolition. [xix]During this time, women had extremely little political power and creating and selling quilts provided an avenue for women to have influence in the movement. They achieved this by using quilts as a visual vehicle of political symbolism and as an opportunity to create monetary value for their cause. Quilting has been and continues to be an important aspect of women’s involvement in political activism.

[i] Historical Characters,” American Girl, accessed May 14, 2025, https://www.americangirl.com/pages/historical-characters.

[ii] United States Navy, Uniform Regulations: United States Navy (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1941) 17-18, PDF.

[iii] See an identical blue jumper, with Petty Officer insignia, in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “US Navy dress jumper worn by Lorenzo DuFau on USS Mason,” 1944-1945, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2009.5.1

[iv] United States Navy, Uniform Regulations, 28; and Robert H. Rankin, Uniforms of the Sea Services: A Pictorial History (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1962), 110-111,
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015019067746

[v] United States Navy, Uniform Regulations, 18.

[vi] C. Willet Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington, Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century, (Plays, Inc.: 1972), 69; ironically, sailor’s trousers retained a central button-fastening for several decades after the flap front became the norm for breeches, see Bryan Paul Howard, “Had on and Took with Him: Runaway Servant Clothing in Virginia, 1774-1778,” (PhD diss., Texas A&M University, 1996), 26.

[vii] Rankin, Uniforms of the Sea Services, 110.                            https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2012.746580

[viii] Amber Butchart, Nautical Chic (New York: Abrams, 2015), 173.

[ix] Emmanuelle Dirix, Dressing the Decades: Twentieth Century Vintage Style (Yale: Yale University Press, 2016), 123.

[x] Susan Ward, “Swimwear,” in The Berg Companion to Fashion, 1st Edition, edited by Valerie Steele (Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010).

[xi]  Ward, “Swimwear”

[xii] Christine Schmidt, “Shaping Up: The History and Development of the Swimsuit’s Integration into the Fashion Industry,” in The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk (London: Berg, 2012).

[xiii]  Ward, “Swimwear”

[xiv] Schmidt, “Shaping Up.”

[xv]  Ward, “Swimwear”

[xvi] Ward, “Swimwear”

[xvii]  Lisa Heinze Lake, “Sustainable Fashion Movement,” in Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion 1st Edition, Volume 10: Global Perspectives, edited by Joanne B. Eicher and Phyllis G. Tortora (Oxford: Berg, 2010).

[xviii]  Spencer, C. A., (1990). Victorian crazy quilts. The Palimpsest 71(1), 16-32.                 https://doi.org/10.17077/0031-0360.22423

[xix]  Hamilton, C. S., (2012). Hercules subdued: The visual rhetoric of the kneeling slave. Slavery & Abolition, 34(4), 631–652.