Dressed in History: a Look at the Collection of Women's Clothing at the National Historical Museum (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Different women of the first half of the 19th century, mostly belonging to the Buenos Aires elite, wore various garments on their bodies, such as dresses, capes, robes, mantillas, which decades later were donated to one of the main historical museums of Argentina, the National Historical Museum. In this article we intend to study these garments as objects that reflect not only the daily lives of the time in which they were used, but also how those objects became pieces worthy of being a testimony for national history. Another of our objectives with this article is to generate new knowledge about the women of the past, which enriches the current museological scripts. hi addition, we seek to add a type of material source to the study of clothing that allows a different contribution on the circulation of these garments, as well as to inquire about symbolic and political dimensions that emerge from their use.