Not all about wool is warm and fuzzy…. In this talk based on their new book, ‘Fleeced: Unravelling the History of Wool and War’’, Madelyn Shaw and Dr Trish FitzSimons expose how heightened demand for wool in wartime existed historically in an international vortex of negotiation, intrigue and anxiety, and the unexpected effects of all this on how we dress today.
The 19th century rise of industrial manufacture of woollen fabrics and Southern hemisphere sheep husbandry supported an enormous increase in the size of 20th century armies. But wool was also central to frontier war. Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay and Western Districts were key nodes in how sheep took over much of Australia, but some of the fiercest resistance to the invading settlers came from the Gunditjmara.
Victoria was also pivotal in the world’s wool market coming to be centred in Australia. Pulling at
threads of family history and finding objects that embody stages of our story are key strategies of ‘Fleeced’.
Madelyn Shaw is a curator and author specializing in the exploration of American culture and history, and its international connections, through textiles and dress. She has held curatorial and administrative positions at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; New Bedford Whaling Museum; The Textile Museum, Washington DC; and the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City. She has curated more than 50 exhibitions and published widely on topics related to the development of the American textile and fashion industries, the China Trade, Slave Cloth, and Aviation clothing and popular culture.
Dr Trish FitzSimons is adjunct professor at the Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. She is a documentary filmmaker and exhibition curator with a passion for social and cultural history. Her intellectual and creative interests had not included textile history prior to this shared research project with Madelyn. Letters written by her grandfather 1904 -07 to her great grandparents in Melbourne and associated documents were one impetus to this book. Interview has been a defining component of her practice for the last 40 years, in documentary films, a book and exhibitions.
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Image: US Civil War Overcoat (detail), courtesy of the US Army Quartermasters Museum.
