Dr Cynthia E. Chin (Cynthia McGinnis Riddle Chin) is an art and material culture historian of #VastEarlyAmerica, specializing in dress, textiles, identity, and collecting.

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As a PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow, Cynthia examines collections of dress, textiles, and art 1600-1830 to understand how private collections, individual collectors, and museum acquisitions strategies shaped notions of  "early America". She explored these questions as a 2023-2024 Winterthur Fellow.

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As an advocate of replication as a valid research approach, she incorporates embodied methods of knowledge in her academic practice, focusing on early American dress in British North America –– and Scottish kilts and kilt-making. In 2024, after eight years of study, she recreated a gown owned by Martha Washington that was mended and cared for by seamstresses enslaved at Mount Vernon. The gown was on view in "New Nation, Many Hands" at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut from 2 July 2024 - 8 November 2024. A press release is available for institutions, museum professionals, and scholars. To request one, please use the contact form.

 

Formerly on staff at George Washington's Mount Vernon/The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, Cynthia was also a 2020-21 Research Fellow at the Washington Presidential Library. She earned her doctorate in early American material culture from Georgetown University in 2020 and holds an M.A. in poetry from The Johns Hopkins University. Her writing has been published in literary journals.

 

Adding a background of business to her academic and museum experience, Cynthia served industry and public sector clients as a strategy & analytics consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLC (Monitor Deloitte) and independently for PwC. She continues to consult for corporate clients, non-profits, and public-private partnerships.

 

When she's not researching, writing, or training in multiple forms of dance, you can find her building her community-focused small business and caring for her 1730s house with her husband.

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Header: hand-sewn reproduction by Cynthia based on Etienne Claude Voysard after Claude-Louis Desrais, Gallerie des modes et costumes français, 13e Cahier des Costumes Français, 7e Suite d'Habillemens à la mode. N77. 1778. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection, 44.1345.