The Milliner's Tale: The Craft of Hat Making Opens at METC

The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts (METC) opened its exhibit, “The Milliner’s Tale: the Craft of Hat Making,” on Sunday, Jan. 17. The exhibit will run through Wednesday, June 29. This exhibit examines the changing landscape of the millinery trade over the last two centuries.

Award-winning milliner, guest curator, and Madison resident Monika Stebbins worked closely with METC staff to create an exhibit that examines the millinery trade from the 18th-20th centuries’ perspective of the milliner as a craftsman. The collection of hats in the exhibit show the outer aesthetic and the complicated techniques used to make the hats. Visitors are taken through the historical eras of the millinery trade and cultural aspects of hat-wearing and how one hat can speak volumes about the milliner and the hat wearer.

Beginning in the late 18th century, the millinery trade, along with dressmaking and other sewing industries, provided women with an acceptable occupation at a time when few women worked outside the home. By the mid-19th century, Women began to take their places as shopkeepers and business owners by the mid-19th century in order to prove that they could make their own way in the world.

METC collaborated closely with Stebbins, the Morris Museum and the Morris County Historical Society/Acorn Hall to include a collection of historically important hats and ephemera. METC members and friends also provided vintage and antique boxes, an important part of the millinery trade.

“Collaborating with Monika has been extremely enjoyable,” commented Deborah Farrar Starker, METC’s executive director. “Her breadth of knowledge about the history of millinery and her expertise were invaluable throughout the entire process.”

METC guests can explore American history with a focus on the life and stories of 18th and 19th-century craftsmen and artisans. Drawing on its rich collection, METC is connecting the lives of people and their stories while providing a bridge from the past to the future. Housed in a stunning Richardsonian Romanesque Revival building donated by D. Willis James to Madison residents in 1900, METC guarantees something for visitors of all ages.

METC is located at 9 Main St. in the heart of downtown Madison. Regular hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Further information is available through the METC website.