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From ArtHist.net, with registration available at the University of Bern:

A History of Textile Cleanliness: Washing and Perfuming Fabrics

from the Medieval to the Modern Period

University of Bern / Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg, 27–29 May 2026

Organized by Moïra Dato and Érika Wicky

w e d n e s d a y ,  2 7  m a y

University of Bern, Hauptgebaüde, Kuppelraum

13.00  Arrival and coffee

13.30  Introduction by Moïra Dato and Érika Wicky

14.15  Panel 1 | Cultural and Social Attitudes to Cleaning and Textile Care
Moderation: Torsten Korte (Universität Bern)
• Isabella Campagnol (Istituto Marangoni) — Doing the Laundry in 18th-Century Venice: Washing in a City on Water, but without Water
• Marie Charvet (Nantes Université) — Whiteness vs Preservation: Laundresses and Housewives in 19th-Century Urban France Public Washhouses

15.30  Coffee Break

16.00  Panel 2 | The Scent of Cleanliness
Moderation: Érika Wicky
• Océane Fontaine Cioffi (Université de Tours) — The Scent of Clean: Perfuming Linen between Health, Sensuality, and Material Care in 16th-Century Europe
• Pauline Devriese (Universiteit Gent/Modemuseum Hasselt) — The Scent of Dress: Tracing the Separation of Scent and Dress in Daily Hygiene and Health Practices from the 16th to 18th Centuries in Western Europe
• Lucille Lefrang (Université Grenoble Alpes) and Olivier David (Institut Lavoisier/Paris Saclay) — The Contemporary ‘Toxic’ Smell of Clean: The Example of Galaxolide

t h u r s d a y ,  2 8  m a y

Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg

10.00  Panel 3 | Techniques and Practices of Textile Cleaning
Moderation: Jean-Alexandre Perras (Sorbonne Université / Cellf)
• Vendy Hoppe (University of Manchester/The Delmas Foundation) — Too Precious to Wash? The Care and Cleaning of Velvets in Early Modern Europe
• Audrey Colonel-Coquet (Université Grenoble-Alpes/LARHRA) — The Cleanliness of Gloves in the 19th Century: From Home Cleaning to Washable Gloves
• Eloïse Richard (Université de Genève) — Behind the White Coat: Cleaning and Sterilizing Hospital Textiles in the Early 20th Century

12.00  Lunch

13.30  Visit of the conservation workshop and storage of the Abegg-Stiftung

14.30  Panel 4 | Cleaning in Textile Conservation
Moderation: Regula Schorta (Abegg-Stiftung)
• Bettina Niekamp (Abegg-Stiftung) — Textile Cleanliness: Some Case Studies of Conservation/Restoration Treatments of Soiled Linen Damasks, Burial Textiles, Tapestries, and Liturgical Textiles
• Johanna Nilsson (Göteborg University), Jan Pettersson (Göteborg University), and Karin Tetteris (Armémuseum) — Traces of Environment and Humans: Interdisciplinary Studies of Dirt on Historical Textiles
• Anna Robinson (University of Lincoln) — In the Usual Fashion: Learning from and Deciphering 19th-Century Laundering Instructions

16.15  Coffee break

16.30  Visit of the permanent and temporary exhibition of the Abegg-Stiftung

f r i d a y ,  2 9  m a y

University of Bern, Hauptgebaüde, Kuppelraum

9,00  Panel 5 | The Actors and Knowledge of Cleaning
Moderation: Raphaël Morera (CNRS/EHESS)
• Olga Arenga (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata) — From Soap to Scent: Garment Care and Daily Labor in the Barberini Archive
• Sara van Dijk (Rijksmuseum) and Danielle van den Heuvel (Universiteit Utrecht) — White and Bright: Washing Linens in the Dutch Republic
• Santosh Kumar Rai (University of Delhi) — From Flowers to Chemicals: Textile Cleanliness and Changes in the Handloom Industry of Colonial North India
• Monica Klasing Chen (Universität Heidelberg) — Virtue or Science: Washing and Caring for Textiles in Early-Modern and Modern China

11.00  Coffee break

11.30  Panel 6 | Religious Rituals and Practices of Cleanliness
Moderation: Corinne Mühlemann (Universität Bern)
• Juliette Calvarin (Humbold-Universität zu Berlin) — ‘Lynin cloth of witlé coloure’: Veronica’s Veil, Linen Vestments, and the Laundress
• Patricia Blessing (Stanford University) — Textile Cleanliness in Islamic Law: From Hadith to Ottoman Fatwas

12.30  Lunch

14.00  Panel 7 | Dirt and the Absence of Cleaning
Moderation: Sasha Rossman (Universität Bern)
• Sylvia Houghteling (Bryn Mawr College) — The Soil of Dyes: Ground, Water, and Scent in the Making of Early Modern South Asian Textiles
• Léon Rochard (Sorbonne-Université) — ‘The world is like this cloth, misleading and fake’: Clean, Dirty Textiles, and the Question of Representation in the 17th-Century Netherlands
• Alison Matthews David (Toronto Metropolitan University) — Offenders: Cleanliness and the Scent of Crime
• Julia Guarneri (University of Cambridge) — Dry Clean Only: Dealing with Unwashable Clothing in the 20th-Century United States

16.00  Final discussion and closing remarks

Scientific Committee
• Olivier David (Institut Lavoisier / Paris-Saclay)
• Raphaël Morera (CNRS-EHESS)
• Corinne Mühlemann (Universität Bern)
• Helen Wyld (National Museum Scotland)