Connecting Threads: Digitally Connecting Collections, Expanding Public Engagement

连接线是一个天生的数字项目，探索十八世纪和十九世纪在大加勒比地区非洲散居社区的印度和仿印度纺织品的时尚。该项目将英国和美国的五个藏品——维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆、格拉斯哥大学档案和特别收藏、库珀休伊特设计博物馆、布里斯托尔档案馆和路易斯安那州立博物馆——汇集在一起，旨在重新定位全球纺织品和服装的历史，从以欧洲为中心的叙述转向印度-加勒比时尚交流对全球品味和贸易的影响。通过这样做，该项目突出了有色人种对全球时尚史的贡献，并促进了人文学科更广泛的非殖民化。项目成果包括为期两天的研究活动、学习和教学资源，以及一个定制的网站，通过定制的链接开放数据库、数字展览和解释性论文，向公众提供项目研究和成果。

Connecting Threads is a born-digital project exploring eighteenth-and nineteenth-century fashions for Indian and Indian-imitation textiles in African diasporic communities of the Greater Caribbean Region. Knitting together material from five UK and US collections - the Victoria and Albert Museum, the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, the Bristol Archives, and the Louisiana State Museum - the project aims to reorient global histories of textiles and dress from Euro-centric narratives towards the influence of Indo-Caribbean fashion exchange on global tastes and trade. In so doing, the project foregrounds the contributions of communities of colour to global fashion history and promotes the wider decolonisation of the humanities. Project outcomes include a two-day study event, learning and teaching resources, and a bespoke website offering public access to project research and findings via a custom linked-open-database, a digital exhibition and interpretative essays.