The Marjorie Russell Clothing and Textile Research Center

The Marjorie Russell Clothing and Textile Research Center is open by appointment Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The Center mission is to develop a study center for the understanding of dress and adornment. Dress and social history are much intertwined as we seek to understand our history and how it has shaped our perceptions of today.

As a study center, it is a resource for fashion designers, teachers, students, historians and the general public. The Center supports a fashion library and presentation space. In the back area of the facility, the costumes are stored in protective cabinets and acid-free boxes for protection. You will see there is also table and counter space for the support and study of the garments, their structure and detail.

The Marjorie Russell Clothing and Textile Research Center is the branch of the Nevada State Museum which is responsible for textile preservation. The collection is composed of approximately 9,000 artifacts of dress, accessories and textile household furnishings. Wedding dresses, christening gowns and spectacular haute couture gowns as well as fashion accessories -- shoes, hats, eyeglasses, hatpins and handbags -- as well as fashion periodicals are at the Marjorie Russell Center. The collection ranges from an 18th century quilted ball gown to the hot pants of the 1960s.

Let the people who lived the historical moments come alive as we see them through the definitions of beauty and form of period dress.