History's Mirror: revisiting clothing from 1900 to the early 2000s

A close up of a white dress with floral pattern
A dress from the History's Mirror collection

Your Heritage

Date awarded
Location
Central
Local Authority
Peterborough
Applicant
City College Peterborough
Award Given
£49900
This project was based around a dress collection that was gifted to City College Peterborough.

The dress collection dates from the 1900s to the present day, with many of the items having been bought or made locally. The collection includes at least a thousand garments including dresses, coats, cardigans, underwear and accessories.

The History’s Mirror project focused on developing a visual history of the clothes and accessories, capturing images of outfits from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. The project also involved collecting and sharing local memories about clothes and their impact on society. The project team visited community and faith centres, care homes and schools sharing memory boxes and reminiscing about clothes.

A group of volunteers were recruited from the local community to document the dress collection and update the website, create memory boxes and lead the reminiscence sessions.

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