Blanche Payne was born in 1897 in Thayer, Kansas. She earned a bachelor's degree in home economics from Kansas State Teacher's College in 1916 and a master of arts degree in clothing from Columbia University in 1924. Payne taught high school English and home economics classes in Kiowa, Kansas, and Lewiston, Idaho, before servng as a student nurse at Camp Lewis, Washington in 1918. In 1919 she joined the faculty at Arizona State Teachers College, where she taught classes in textiles and clothing. From 1924 to 1926 Payne taught clothing classes at high schools in New York City, studied draping with French designer Madame Geo, and started her own design business.
Payne joined the University of Washington faculty in 1927, where she taught costume and apparel design in the School of Home Economics. In 1929 she took a leave of absence to study flat pattern at the Mitchell School of Design in New York City, then extended her leave until 1930 to travel through Central Europe and the Balkans surveying folk costume in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia. Payne resumed her duties at the University of Washington in 1931 but returned to Yugoslavia in 1936 to 1937 for additional study. Her research focused on the regions of South Serbia (Macedonia), Croatia, Bosnia, North Serbia, and Dalmatia. In addition to exploring museum collections, Payne visited remote villages, markets, and festivals throughout the country to study and photograph peasant costumes. She also augmented her studies by drafting patterns from the clothing she encountered.
Payne's Yugoslav research failed to result in a full-length publication due to the prohibitive costs of publishing and the destruction of some of her color plates during World War II. However, in 1965 Payne published a textbook entitled
In addition to her intensive research on clothing and historic costume, Payne supervised work on the Textile and Costume Study Collection housed in the University of Washington School of Home Economics. As part of her studies of non-Western folk dress and embroidery technique, she collected original ethnic costumes along with textile and embroidery examples. She used her Balkan research as a valuable source for studying ethnic dress in its original context and to provide her students with primary source material for the study of modern costume construction and fine craftsmanship.
During the 1960s Payne consulted for the Brooklyn Museum, work that included a research trip to Europe to find costumes from the House of Worth for an exhibition. Payne retired from the University of Washington in 1966 and died in 1972.
The Blanche Payne papers consist primarily of materials used in research for her books as well as for instruction. While the collection includes materials that are known to date from 1932-1981, many of the materials are undated. Most of the papers are from the 1940s through the 1960s. The original purpose of much of the material is unclear. For example, extensive notes, photographs, and illustrations that Payne made during visits to museums may have contributed to her
The bulk of the correspondence in the papers is with museums and organizations from which Payne had requested illustrations of costume and seems to be associated with the
Source material and several copies of the manuscript for Payne's book about Balkan costumes are grouped in the Speeches and Writings series under the book's tentative title, "Some Costumes of Jugoslavia."
The Study Sets series is a group of visual teaching aids that Payne and others in her department assembled as resources for students. They consist of clippings and occasional descriptions of various elements of costume, and were originally kept in binders in the library of the School of Home Economics.
The pattern drafts are scale drawings that Payne made of costumes she saw in various museums. Some depict garments of historical significance, such as the wedding costume of King Frederick V, while others are simply examples of period or ethnic dress. The sources of most of these costumes are marked on the pattern drafts.
The photographs are mostly reproductions of paintings that Payne selected for their significant examples of costume. Many of these were used or considered for the
Drawings in this collection are mostly tracings or copies of needlework, although some appear to be sketches of specific garments. Similar drawings can be found among her notes, which cover a wide variety of subjects related to costume history. It appears that the photographs, drawings, and notes served a similar function in Payne's research.
These papers are open to all users.
The creator's literary rights have been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
Some of the material in Blanche Payne's papers was originally part of the Textile Collection at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington. The gallery collection was created in the University of Washington School of Home Economics but was disbursed after the school (reorganized as the School of Nutritional Sciences and Textiles in 1974) was dissolved in 1983. Some items were acquired by the Henry Gallery from the Seattle Museum of History and Industry before transfer to the University of Washington Libraries.
Other parts of the Costume and Textile Collection were transferred elsewhere. The historic costume book collection went to the University of Washington Drama Library, and the responsibility for the textile collection was assumed by the Henry Art Gallery.
These papers were acquired by the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries in various installments from Blanche Payne in 1972; from Judy Sourakli in 1983; from the Henry Art Gallery in 1988, 1994, and1998; and from John W. Sweet, trustee for the Payne estate, in 1991.
Processed by Lily Rajan in 2005.
22 prints, 6 negatives, 2 color transparencies, and 25 watercolor paintings were relocated in 2005 to the Blanche Payne Visual Materials Collection, PH Coll 380, also in the Special Collections division.
One carton of fabric samples and embroidery was transferred to the Costume and Textile Collection at the Henry Art Gallery in 1991.
Blanche Payne and others in the University of Washington School of
Home Economics collected the materials that make up the Fashion Plate
Collection, circa 1800-1910, which is housed in Special Collections. Selected
plates from this collection have been digitized and are
The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington, received over 400 costumes, textiles, and home furnishings from the estate of Blanche Payne in 1973.
The Costume and Textile collection from the University of Washington School of Home Economics is now housed at the Henry Art Gallery on the University of Washington Seattle campus. All of the Blanche Payne eastern European pieces were transferred from the Museum of History and Industry to the Henry Gallery in 1992.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Most complete copy.
A survey to be enclosed in a time capsule at Alki Point.
Includes both illustrations used and illustrations considered but not used in Payne's book,
Concerns a trip to the Balkan countries to collect doumentation on Balkan costume.