Stroud Broadcloth - Archive Collection at the British Museum

A visit to the British Museum's Archive in Shoreditch.

The hair that I was looking at was real, and so was the scalp attached to it. The embroidery was so finely done by the Colonists and the Indigenous alike, although the Indigenous use of pattern is striking and so completely contemporary. I've been reading an account of the Redcoats in the new world and am so shocked by the times and the atrocities in North America.

It's moving to look at these objects and see the connections to Stroud in the UK and its red woollen cloth.

Photos: Patricia Brien

Permission: British Museum (research only)