An Interview with Petra Slinkard Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts

This article contains an interview with Petra Slinkard, the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Ms. Slinkard is the first to hold this position at the museum and has held it since February 2018. Prior to this, Ms. Slinkard was the Curator of Costume at the Chicago History Museum. She has a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising, a Bachelor of Arts in Art History, and a Master of Science in Fashion/Textile History. Over the course of almost ten years, leadership at the museum endeavored to create a plan that would mobilize its fashion and textile collection and reinvigorate its active collecting of fashion objects. This year, the museum opened a new wing that has allocated a specific venue for showcasing exhibitions dedicated to the exploration of its fashion collection. What follows are excerpts from a conversation between the author and the curator. Topics include the Fashion and Textile Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum, the new Fashion and Design Gallery, and the accessibility of the institution’s collection.