Connecting Threads Launches Project Site

On October 11, 2024, the Connecting Threads project launched its website and celebrated the conclusion of the first phase of the project with a public symposium at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Connecting Threads is a collaborative digital history project dedicated to amplifying the contributions of Indian weavers and African Caribbean consumers to global histories of dress. Drawing on the work of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, the project re-examined the history of the Madras handkerchief, an internationally popular dress accessory made of brightly coloured checked cotton, produced in coastal southeastern India and used by diverse cultures across the Global South. In the recently completed first phase of the project, we examined the influence of the Madras handkerchief on 18th and 18th century dress, particularly in the context of their use in the Greater Caribbean Region including coastal southeastern United States.

Our research has included objects and archives from eleven institutions worldwide. From the research conducted, we have produced three main project components: a database that includes all relevant records on Madras handkerchiefs we have collected, a digital exhibition that provides analysis and interpretation based on our research, and lesson plans for instructors teaching at the undergraduate level to make use of the exhibition and database in their courses.

We designed this project to be interdisciplinary and intensely collaborative, and our core team of scholars reflects this – we are historians, art historians, and curators working in institutions in the US & UK. We also conceived this project to be rigorously researched academic scholarship presented primarily to the public, following the central objectives of RRCHNM to “democratize access to history.” As such, the website prioritizes interactivity and ease of access to content with the digital exhibition that is specifically designed for public consumption. The story told in this exhibition begins with the origins of Madras in South India before exploring Madras fashions in the Greater Caribbean, and the impact of those fashions in Europe and beyond. We invite you to explore the website at www.connectingthreads.co.uk 

Thanks to your collaborators at V&A Museum, we have the full recordings of the project launch event and symposium available on our website. The symposium included academics from India, the Caribbean, the United States, and the United Kingdom, handloom weavers and designers from India, and Caribbean designers and creatives working with Madras in the Caribbean. The keynote lecture was presented by Carol Tulloch, Professor of Dress, Diaspora, and Transnationalism at the University of the Arts, London. Full recordings are available here.

In 2025, the Connecting Threads project will move into its second phase thanks to a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our goal for the coming year is to refine the existing components, particularly the database to make more data available in accessible ways and to build a data visualization timeline & mapping tool that is interactive and that can convey the complexities of production, circulation, and use of the Madras textiles.