
Chinese dress and textiles
National Museums Scotland’s collection of Chinese dress and textiles illuminates transformations of social life and textile crafts in nineteenth-century China. Insights from this collection communicate dress histories of wider social groups, diversifying narratives of Chinese history and materialities.
Last updated: 03 July 2025
About the project
This project is a collaboration between National Museums Scotland and Dr Rachel Silberstein, a specialist in Chinese dress and textiles. The three-month British Academy Visiting Fellowship will survey and study a selection of nineteenth-century Chinese textiles and clothing in the museum’s permanent and loan collections.
These include examples of Qing dynasty (1644-1911) imperial and vernacular dress that were collected by Scottish connoisseurs. They also include objects that were acquired and displayed as representations of Chinese textile design and technology in order to improve Scotland’s industry and trade.
Applying her established method of garment scholarship, Dr Silberstein will combine an in-depth analysis of selected objects with archival and literature research to reinterpret these artefacts as documents of cultural and social transformations in nineteenth-century China and Great Britain. The results of the project will be disseminated through a hands-on museum session (object workshop) for specialist and general audiences, upgraded museum object records, talks, and publications.

- Project title
Collecting and Exhibiting Chinese 'National Dress' and Industrial Design: Charting Qing Dynasty Dress and Textile History in the Collections of National Museums Scotland
- Project active
26 May 2025 – 29 August 2025
- Research theme
Colonial histories and legacies, research topics: Material histories; Object meanings
- Strategic priorities
Developing, preserving and increasing access to the National Collections. Strengthening and sharing collections knowledge and research
Contributors
Rachel Silberstein, project investigator (Independent scholar, affiliated with University of Washington)
Friederike Voigt, project host (National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh)

Project contact
Friederike Voigt
Funded by
This project is funded by the British Academy’s Visiting Fellowships Programme, supported under the UK Government’s International Science Partnerships Fund. Award reference VF3\102676