In October of this year, the Albany Institute of History and Art (AIHA) will be showing Old Souls, a small exhibit that will display three centuries of shoes from the museum’s permanent collection. In order to put together this exhibit, the AIHA culled through its vast collection of art and objects that represent the culture and history of the upper Hudson Valley region.

Keeping Track

So how does the AIHA keep track of all of its possessions? The museum has a file on everything that they own including one for each of the pairs of shoes that will be shown in the Lansing Gallery this fall.  Some of the files are more lengthy than others, but they all have detailed information on its subject including a photo, a scholar’s report and, perhaps, a picture of where it was previously displayed.

In one of these files was a picture of the same shoe shown in another exhibit at the AIHA in 1928.

Centuries of Shoes

With white gloved hands, Tammis Groft, Deputy Director of Collections and Exhibitions, showed me boxes and boxes of some of the shoes that are part of the AIHA’s collection.

Tammis explained  that, from a historical perspective, the primary part of the shoe to look at is its heel because that is the best indicator as to how shoe fashion has changed.

Warehouse of Treasures

So where are all of these treasures stored? Tammis and her team took me below to the museum’s warehouses which are three floors of compact storage.

These areas contain various environmental controls including one that makes sure that the air contains 55% relative humidity, gaseous filtration, and a filtration system to get rid of particles including those that we brought into that space.

These cabinets open by rotating the black levers seen above and below.

Other costumes were stored there as well.