Artisan Field Trip with Milliner Kirsten Hammerstrom

As part of the Museum’s Artisan Field Trip series, featuring interviews with living history artisans and makers as they demonstrate their Revolutionary-era crafts, Kirsten Hammerstrom joins Museum Gallery Interpretation Manager Tyler Putman to discuss her work and use of historical techniques as a milliner, a person who designs, makes, or sells women’s hats.

Hammerstrom will be a guest artist in the Museum’s upcoming four-week virtual Artisan Workshop, where participants will learn about fashion history and how to make their own short gown based on Elizabeth “Betty” Dorn’s short gown on display in our special exhibit, When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807. 

Read more from Hammerstrom and follow her work online at kittycalash.com and khammerstrom.com. Follow her at Kitty Calash on Facebook and Instagram. You can shop 18th- and 19th-century costumes and accessories, like bonnets, pincushions, and more products, on her Etsy shop.

Interested in more about historical dress? Watch past Artisan Field Trip interviews with seamstress Jana Violante and shoemaker Shaun Pekar or check out the Museum’s Fashioning Eliza Project, which documented the recreation of two historically inspired dresses of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton in conjunction with our 2018-19 special exhibition, Hamilton Was Here: Rising Up in Revolutionary Philadelphia.