(Media release from Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home):
Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home, in partnership with the Rome Area History Center will continue the Summer Author Series with author and scholar Ashley Callahan on August 4th from 6:30-7:30pm at the Rome Area History Center located at 305 Broad Street.
Considered an authority on textile designer Frankie Welch, Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar and curator in Athens, Georgia, and a contributor to Ornament Magazine as well as the author & co-author of four books. Her latest work, Frankie Welch’s Americana: Fashion, Scarves, and Politics showcases her research on famed textile designer Frankie Welch and compliments an exhibit of Welch’s work by the same name at the UGA Hargrett Library curated by Callahan that was on display from January – July 2022.
Frankie Welch (1924-2021) was an American designer and entrepreneur best known for producing thousands of custom scarves. Born in Rome, Georgia, she spent most of her career in Alexandria, Virginia, where she established a dress shop—Frankie Welch of Virginia—that was open from 1963 to 1990. She introduced her first scarf design, the Cherokee Alphabet, in 1967, quickly followed by her Discover America scarf for the White House and prominent political designs for the 1968 presidential election. Frequently described as “Americana,” Welch’s designs provide a remarkable chronicle of American life, especially as she and her peers experienced it. Her scarves constitute a unique body of work in the history of American fashion, standing apart from exclusively design- or art-based scarves because of Welch’s embrace of their commercial and documentary possibilities.
The August 4th event will feature a presentation by Ashley Callahan discussing her research on Frankie Welch as well as a book signing for those in attendance. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
This presentation is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Rome Area History Center.
For more information about the event or the museum, visit www.chieftainsmuseum.org or call (706) 291-9494.