Staff Choices

We asked members of the team to pick their favourite item from the stores, Chief Executive Shirley Collier looks at a 1930s dress...

What is your role within Scarborough Museums Trust?

I’m the Chief Executive.  Ultimately, I’m responsible for the whole organisation, but day to day I spend my time helping the team to do a brilliant job.

What is your favourite item in the collection?

A beautiful printed silk chiffon dress dating from the late 1930s. The dress would have been day wear for summer and would have had a full length underdress of a matching or contrasting silk. It would have been worn with silk stockings, court shoes, wrist length gloves and a wide brimmed summer hat of fine plaited straw or crin (woven horsehair) and would have been suitable attire for a visit to the spa but not the beach.

What do you like about this item?

The fabric caught my eye immediately – if you saw it in Topshop today you wouldn’t be a bit surprised.  Also, someone has done quite an amateur job hemming the underskirt – it’s the sort of thing I would do if I were in a hurry!  Perhaps they remade the underskirt from one that had belonged to someone taller!

What does Scarborough Collections mean to you?

Well, it’s a treasure trove, isn’t it?  Most museums have 97% of their collection in store, and some of it is kept purposefully for research rather than display, so to me it’s an Aladdin’s cave, full of inspiration.  For a museum, collections, and the stories they can tell, are our reason for being.