This program is sold out and we are only taking registrations for the waitlist.
The Rhode Island Historical Society will kick off its annual theme Making History, celebrating creators and makers in our state’s historic and contemporary, by welcoming museum curator Madelyn Shaw on Thursday, January 18 at 5:30pm for the talk, A & L Tirocchi, Dressmakers to the Rhode Island Elite, 1915-1947.
Anna and Laura Tirocchi emigrated from Italy in 1912, first to Canada and then to Providence, Rhode Island. They brought with them their dressmaking skills and Anna’s shrewd business sense. This illustrated talk highlights aspects of their lives and work and places them in the context of American fashion in the first half of the 20th century.
This talk is free and will be hosted at the RIHS Aldrich House headquarters in Providence.
Madelyn Shaw is an independent curator and author specializing in the exploration of American culture and history through textiles and dress. She has held curatorial and administrative positions at the National Museum of American History, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, The Textile Museum, and the Museum at the Fashion institute of Technology. Recent work includes the exhibition, Everyday Luxury: Silk Quilts from the National Collection, at the National Museum of American History, and the ongoing project, Fabric of War: A Hidden History of the Global Wool Trade, with colleague Trish FitzSimons, for which she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar award in 2019 and a National Library of Australia Fellowship in 2022.