Beulah Blackmore arrived at Cornell in 1915 to teach courses in millinery, clothing, and textile design. She started the CF+TC as a study collection and used pieces to illustrate lectures and curate displays. As early as 1919, Blackmore curated an “Exhibit of Foreign Costumes” for Farm Week. Student models wore examples of dress from places like Mexico, Norway, Hungary, and Scotland. Blackmore was able to expand the diversity of the costume collection when she planned a trip around the world in 1936, which she later shared with existing items and other loans during Farm and Home Weeks in the late 1930s. Blackmore worked with other Cornell faculty, staff, and students as well as missionaries on furlough to disseminate the collection within the fashion showcase, “Costumes of Many Lands.” According to the 1938 press release, the showcase was supposed to promote world peace by providing the audience with a greater understanding of the traditions and customs of other peoples. Some of the models were international students modeling clothing from their home countries. However, in other cases, Blackmore attempted to recreate the ethnic identities of those cultures she experienced abroad by having the faces of white-appearing students painted in brown or blackface and encouraging them to dress up in the fashions and identities that differed from that of their own. This ultimately clashed with her intention to respectfully foster respect for the dress practices of diverse peoples.

Blackmore’s display practices were both problematic and progressive: she engaged the knowledge and expertise of several international students in the College of Home Economics and created an inclusive environment where they could document dress on their own terms. Lee Ong Jung Smith ’39 was a first-generation Chinese-American student majoring in home economics at Cornell, who helped Blackmore disseminate her collection within the fashion showcase. Jung was born and raised alongside her seven siblings in Rochester, New York. Her father was born in California, while her mother immigrated from China to New York. Jung supervised the dressing and presentation of all “Chinese costumes,” which included both “modern and old-fashioned dresses.” She herself wore the ensemble displayed here that Blackmore purchased in Peiping, China and represented the traditional dress practices of Han women during the Qing dynasty.

While Blackmore recruited both American and international students to wear the garments she collected abroad, she recognized that, in order to represent the diversity of dress within a single country, she would need to acquire additional pieces. In 1939, she began to work with missionaries on furlough who attended Cornell’s School for Missionaries to collect additional examples of international dress for the collection. Initially, she circulated a call for costumes within the pamphlet for Cornell’s Tenth Annual School for Missionaries. Several students reached out to Blackmore and agreed to loan her objects for the 1939 installment of “Costumes of Many Lands,” including Baptist missionary Charity Carman, who worked at the American Baptist Paku Carman School in Toungoo, Myanmar. Correspondence between Blackmore and Carman revealed the different ensembles Carman loaned for the 1939 showcase, two of which she later donated to the collection and were featured in the 1942 exhibition “Costumes and Crafts from Many Lands” that displayed a range of objects acquired by missionaries from China, India, Korea, and Myanmar.

“Contrary to common belief, the Moslem faith encourages the education of women. Home economics is now being taught in only a few high schools and colleges, but is enthusiastically accepted by the majority of Pakistani women. With the increasing demand for home economics, the future looks encouraging.” - Zahida Quarishi '53

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, international students began to represent their own cultural practices during Farm and Home Week in lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitions. This was largely brought on by the students themselves. According to several reports published by the Student Review Committee, the students suggested that fashion showcases and pageants should be supplemented with "a more personal touch" whereby the audience could better engage with the costumes in exhibitions or between-act displays. In 1952, several graduate students in the College of Home Economics from Pakistan, China, and Iran contributed to a series of lectures entitled, "Family Life in Other Lands," where they discussed the major issues and challenges currently impacting their home countries. The pendant displayed here was donated by Zahida Quraishi ‘53, a graduate student from Karachi, Pakistan who spoke during the event in 1952 and 1953. Quarishi also wrote her dissertation on how curriculum in the United States could be used to address issues concerning family life in Pakistan. In 1958, additional discussion sections were added to this event that concerned family life in the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Iraq. In addition to speaking about family life in their home countries, these women also collaborated with one another to represent and display their fashions in an exhibition on the second floor of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall (MVR).

KhussaUnknown designer, PakistanCFTC #360 Gift of Professor Margaret HutchinsonThese shoes were donated to the collection in 1954 by Professor Margaret Hutchinson, and likely owned by Zahadia Quarishi ’53, who graduated from Cornell with a PhD in Home Economics. Professor Hutchinson was Quarishi’s advisor, so it is likely that they belonged to, or were gifted by Quarishi. The shoes are a particular style commonly worn by men and women living in Northern India and Pakistan. Traditionally, this style of shoe, also known as jutti, was characterized by a leather sole and gold or silver thread embroidery. In Pakistan, this style of shoe is referred to as khussa and can be identified by the upwards curl of the toe.