American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Cold Hands, Cold Feet (Exhibition)
birth: 1956 January 25
death: 1956 March 4
Exhibition. Opened January 25, 1956 and closed March 4, 1956. Located in the Seventy-Seventh Street Annex. Cold Hands, Cold Feet at the American Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New-York Historical Society, and American clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch, illustrated the ways humans have kept their hands and feet warm from different cultures and periods.
Summary
Cold Hands, Cold Feet at the American Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New-York Historical Society, and American clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch, illustrated the ways humans have kept their hands and feet warm from different cultures and periods. The exhibition was drawn from the Museum's own collections as well of those of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New-York Historical Society, and the stock of Abercrombie and Fitch. It included articles such as boots, mittens, stockings, footwarmers, shoes, gloves, and muffs (1, p. 1). The exhibition was designed and executed by the Department of Exhibition under the supervision of Lothar P. Witteborg (1, p. 3).
Highlights (1, p. 2-3):
*Eskimo hand and footwear with photographs depicting the methods by which they are made
*French eighteenth-century high-heels with embroidered overshoes called pattens
*Huge thermometer with mercury at zero accompanied by larger-than-life-size cutout hung above entrance of a shivering Victorian child
*Prints and photographs of nineteenth-century Americans sledding and skating
This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.