Brooklyn Museum. Department of Costumes and Textiles.

With the assistance of Stewart Culin, first curator of Ethnology, M.D.C. Crawford first brought retailers, manufacturers, and designers to the Brooklyn Museum during the First World War where they discovered a rich source of material in the Museum's vast collection. Stewart Culin's collaboration with M.D.C. Crawford provided the foundation for what would later become the Museum's Industrial Division.

The Industrial Division was officially established in November 1939 to enhance use of the Museum's costumes and textiles collections. In 1947 the Museum created a state of the art design laboratory to provide scientific and artistic research equipment for designers and technicians in all decorative arts industries. The lab, dedicated on 14 October 1948, was named in memory of Edward C. Blum, who died in November 1946, and whose work helped to make the Industrial Division a success.

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