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Project Details

Connecting Threads is a public-first, collaborative digital history project dedicated to amplifying the contributions of Indian weavers and African Caribbean consumers to global histories of dress. The project showcases the history of production of checked cotton textiles called "Madras Handkerchief" in southern India and their use in the Greater Caribbean Region by free and enslaved communities of color in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The project includes a digital exhibition, a database, and lesson plans.

Subjects or Themes

Fashion & Dress, Material Culture, Caribbean History, South Asian History, African American, African Caribbean, Indian Artisans

Project Language(s)

English

Time Period

Geographic Location

Project Categories

  • Exhibit
  • Database; Educational Resource

Content Type

Archives, Artifacts, Images, Teacher Resources

Target Audience(s)

Creators

Dr. Meha Priyadarshini, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Deepthi Murali, George Mason University
Avalon Fotheringham, Victoria & Albert Museum
Dr. Victoria de Lorenzo, London College of Fashion
Dr. Jason A. Heppler, George Mason University

Year(s)

2023-2025

Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

Software Employed

  • Django

Labor and Support

The core team includes five scholars across US & UK as well as a large cohort of collaborators that include graduate and undergraduate student assistants, advisory board members, other scholars and practitioners in the field. The team worked on the project part-time since 2022 to develop the current version of the project. The team's disciplinary expertise include history, art history, public history, curatorial practice, and digital humanities. The project was created with two major grants from AHRC and NEH. Our second grant from NEH was terminated by the current administration.

Project Cost

Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement

Project Institutions: George Mason University University of Edinburgh Funding Institutions: Art and Humanities Research Council National Endowment for the Humanities Partner Institutions: Victoria & Albert Museum The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Louisiana State Museums