Textiles

Textiles include garments, blankets, bags, flags, other woven or flexible material used through wearing, wrapping, sheltering, affiliation. Staff examine manufacture, repairs, marks of use, bodily fit, the participant's account of care or inheritance.

A coat can be worn during an event under an explicit permission, displayed with a selected history, examined through a photograph. Wearing may reveal weight or movement absent from a visual account. It also changes the care requirements and the relation between visitors. A custodian may permit examination while reserving wearing for a particular occasion.

Staff distinguish material evidence from assumptions about the earlier wearer. They can compare the participant's account with a visitor's imagined history during show-and-tell. Care, roles, projective interpretation help explain the different actions and accounts.