USS监视豌豆外套：1862年的手机

Dear Readers:

我们打算向您更新有关飞行员外套监视器's collection for a couple months now… So… here it is: THE USS监视器WOOL COAT IS ON DISPLAY!!!

Please come and see it, it looks gorgeous in the captain’s quarters of the Ironclad Revolution exhibit! Only half of it is on display at a time though, don’t be surprised if it does not quite look like… a coat. The fact is that the nice, fine wool constituting the fabric is still very fragile today; and its worst enemies are humidity and temperature variations as well as light. As a result, in order to protect it from degrading further (or too fast), we are only showing one half of the coat at a time. The other half will be displayed next year, while the half currently on exhibit will get some rest from the display light for one year, and so on. Around it, a most beautiful microclimate case has been custom made by our very own Exhibit Design team. This allows for humidity control as well as restricted light exposure. All this would not have been possible without the most generous contribution fromThe Bronze Door Society（BDS）。我们非常幸运和感谢他们的支持！！！

除了为展示案例提供资金外，BDS还使我们能够在博物馆级背材材料和展览支持上签订主涂层碎片的安装。保护过程的这一部分是由两名纺织保护者Colleen Callahan和Newbie Richardson的进行的服装和纺织专家在里士满；他们做得很好！

几周前,我们兴奋地欢迎英航ck Colleen for a short visit. Colleen had not seen the coat on display yet and was delighted to have the opportunity do so! She also took the time to make a couple measurements of the garment in order to assess the size of its owner (see picture below). What we learned from these measurements is the following: allowing for the fact that the wearer would have his uniform under the coat, his chest would probably be about 42 to 44 inches. Therefore the coat was meant to fit someone with that chest measurement range. This type of coat was meant to be about mid-thigh in length and based on the 28 inches it measured under the arm, the height estimate is 5’ 8”. In other words, we are looking for a crew member with a wrestler profile!

We have been trying to narrow down a possible owner for this garment but it is not an easy task. Also, a few elements mislead our reasoning at first. The wool grade for instance, which appears really thin to us in 2017 (merino type wool), was actually not particularly fancy in 1862. In fact much finer wool was used for upper classes (N. Richardson, verbal interview, 03/17/17). This piece of information, correlated to the fact that the coat had rubber buttons (as opposed to brass buttons), strongly suggests that this garment was worn by a petty officer or an enlisted man. However, the fineness of the wool made us believe at first that it could be an officer’s coat! Likewise, the pattern misled our reasoning at first: it is a hybrid between a frock coat in the back and a sack coat in the front. This mix of two patterns made us believe that it was tailor made. However, according to the textile specialists, this coat was most likely a prototype of what later became the classic navy pea coat. Fashion in the making… but it was not meant for the upper classes, and it was not tailor made! Newbie compared it to the equivalent of a cell phone today. It is top notch technology, but most people carry it and it is not exclusive to the elite.

我们遇到的另一个领导者是，这件外套本来可以是船上需要临时恶劣天气服装的几个领导者（A. Mordica，Tidewater Maritime Living Resistal History Association，Forbal Femplove，03/11/17）。换句话说，它可能是“每个人的外套”，剪得很大，以适合大多数男人在船上……

话虽这么说，汉娜开始根据船员的身高和排名来缩小机组人员的可能主人。考虑到5'8“ +/- 2英寸的高度和排除官员的高度，有19名机组人员本可以拥有这件外套。现在，如果我们排除船舶下沉期间在机房中的机组人员（为什么在最温暖，最潮湿的房间里工作时穿羊毛外套？），我们将降到11名机组人员……悬念！我们几乎可以将搜索范围缩小到2位机组人员，但我们需要更多信息。我们将继续在许多其他努力中进行搜索，我们将向您发布。

现在来看看这个令人难以置信的作品，是最相关的监视器'shistory, it’s a humbling experience.