Historic Newton’s $135,000 in federal grant money, previously rescinded by the Trump administration, has now been reinstated. This means that their project to sort and better catalog their textile collection can now proceed as it was before.

No reason was given, but the funding reinstatement may be an unexpected result of the Department of Justice leadership shake-up in which Pam Bondi was removed as attorney general earlier this year. The administration had pledged last year to cut funding for “unnecessary bureaucracy” and included Historic Newton’s textiles in that category. New DOJ leadership has not re-rescinded the grants.

Apparently, that includes much of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and all of that textile preservation grant money.

Historic Newton, which runs the Jackson Homestead and the Durant-Kenrick House, owns a lot of textiles.

“Every nook and cranny is filled,” said Director Lisa Dady. Part of this comes from the Jackson Homestead’s origin story in the 1950s, when it was envisioned as a historic house museum showing how the Jackson family might have lived.

This meant mannequins, who needed clothes. This was also an era of museum collecting where voluminous amounts of items were purchased solely because they were old. Historic Newton wants to move away from that mentality, which means deaccessioning duplicates or less interesting items. “Our job is not to accumulate a lot of stuff. Our job is to accumulate the right stuff,” said Dady.

The collection includes, for example, hundreds of pieces of lace. But what’s more interesting is the lace sampler book that shows the possible variations in lacework.

“That tells a story,” said curator Sara Lundberg. There are also numerous baptismal gowns that have found their way into the collection, but there’s one gown, worn by generations of infants from one Irish-American family, where Lundberg was able to track down descendants and find photos of babies wearing it. There are plenty of other artifacts, however, where the provenance is uncertain.

This is in large part because the desire to collect items merely because they were old meant people were encouraged to donate whatever they could find.

“We have items that don’t have a Newton connection,” said Dady.

One was an embroidered cloth celebrating the owner’s graduation from Framingham High School, on which their friends signed their names and in some cases, embroidered their signature. Items like that will be sent to the appropriate historical society in the community they belong in, if it’s clear where they should go.

Historic Newton doesn’t buy everything it wants to display: sometimes it also borrows from other museums. Currently, they have several items that belong to historical societies elsewhere in Massachusetts on display. Likewise, Newton lends to other museums. The project also includes cataloging the collection, and having an organized collection means it’s easier for Newton to lend out items.

“We’re not selfish about this,” said Dady. One needlepoint of George Washington from 1818 is currently on loan to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. An online catalog means Historic Newton’s reach can be extended and other museums will know what Newton has. This also means more potential opportunities for Newton to borrow in the future.

Removing extra items and more carefully packing the existing collection to be smaller means there will be more space to grow the collection in new directions. “We can fill in the gaps,” said Dady. One area of interest is Jewish textiles. While the museum has a Statue of Liberty needlepoint created by a girl from a Ukrainian Jewish family, it doesn’t have any specifically religious Jewish textiles, and this is something they hope to expand into.

Dady and Lundberg are pleased that the museum can continue its work with the textile collections and further improve their ability to display Newton history. “It’s one of the most resonant collections. Clothing is very personal,” she said.

Those who have items they would like to consider donating can reach out to Historic Newton. Items can also be lent for specific exhibits and then returned to the owner.