A new exhibit entitled “Dressing History: Fabric of War” is now on display at the Pensacola Museum of History. Located in the Textile Gallery on the second floor of the museum, the exhibition opened earlier this month and will be on display until early next year.
The exhibit is a snapshot of the museum’s collection of military pieces that are textiles, with a goal of showing how fabrics have evolved and shaped the American military experience, from uniforms to protective materials.
“But rather than looking at the uniform as a whole, we wanted to break it down and look at the way textiles functioned for our military and how those innovations changed over time,” said Jessie Cragg, curator of exhibits. “So what we’re really looking at is, kind of, the innovation of textile theory behind the uniform.”
In her research, Cragg says she discovered that the evolution of fabrics used by the military was driven by the environment, different kinds of global conflicts and technological innovations —such as polyester and nylon — that are considered common-place today.
“We’re really looking at the timeline of how these textiles have been changed and treated and how they kind of benefit military members on and off the field,” Cragg stated. “So our earliest pieces will be entirely of wool, and our newest pieces are going to be synthetic blends that are made for specific functions such as fire retardant or less snagging or light weight, something of that nature.”
All the items on display in the Fabric of War exhibit come from the UWF Historic Trust Collection, which has been building since the 1960’s and '70s.
“Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough, fortunate enough, to have members and donors who have given us either their family member’s or their own personal military items, everything from buttons, insignia, covers, full uniforms, sometimes piece of uniforms, sometimes it’s just the jacket or just the pants or boots,” she said.
When visitors enter the exhibit, the first thing they’re going see is a big wall of military hats — or covers, as they’re commonly known — from different eras.
Among the more current uniform items on display is a U.S. Navy uniform from the 1980s and a Blue Angels flight suit that was donated in 2015. The display also includes a WWI uniform jacket, WWII U.S. Army “Eisenhower” jacket, WWII U.S Marine Corps Dress Blues uniform, 1940s Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service jacket, and U.S. Navy cadet uniform dated 1950.
“Our oldest piece in there is actually a West Point cadet jacket,” said Cragg. “The style is from the 1830s, but the actual uniform piece from, the best we can tell, is probably the 1860s. And then we have that next to a Union (Army) shell jacket from the Civil War. So those are our earliest pieces we have in our collection.”
Cragg says it’s been a few years since their last exhibit of this nature, primarily textiles are very fragile for display.
“Any kind of light will damage the fabrics, so we try to limit our textiles to only display it every few years and rotate it often so we don’t damage the pieces,” she explained.
Precautions also include lower lighting levels and turning off lights at night.
The exhibit “Dressing History: Fabric of War” will be on display through early 2027 and Cragg says it should be well received here in Northwest Florida, which has over 50,000 active-duty and civilian personnel and more than 130,000 veterans.
In fact, one of the first two visitors was an Army Veteran.
“He immediately recognized a uniform he had and he was like “Oh, I know what that is, I have that; it’s in my closet,’” she said. “So it was really special to kind of see that even though it was a history exhibit and we’re talking about the textiles, it still was easy for the people in our community to connect to.”
The Pensacola Museum of History, part of the UWF Historic Trust properties, is located at 330 South Jefferson Street in downtown Pensacola. It's open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.
