Laura E. Johnson has joined Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library as the new Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles. Laura has a diverse, interesting background in both the science and interpretation of textiles, as well as textiles in design, said Eaton, the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw director of collections and senior curator of textiles at Winterthur. She is a valuable addition to our fine staff, and we are thrilled that she has come home to us. Dr. Johnson joins Winterthur from Historic New England, where she served as associate curator beginning in 2010 until her promotion to curator in 2018 while working on a wide range of projects for its 37 historic properties and permanent collections. Johnson curated two exhibitions: Mementos: Jewelry of Life and Love from Historic New Englands Collection and Head to Toe: Hats and Shoes from the collection of Historic New England. She also worked on several textile reproductions for Beauport, Henry Davis Sleepers iconic Gloucester home. Johnson holds a doctorate in the History of American Civilization from the University of Delaware, as well as masters degrees in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and in Public History from the University of Illinois at Springfield. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Archaeological Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining Historic New England, Johnson worked for 10 years as a contract archaeologist in Illinois, where her examination of fiber impressions in Late Woodland pottery led her to the interpretive and textile side of material culture. As an intern at the Illinois State Museum, Johnson worked on its Amish quilt collection. Mary Elizabeth Jane Colters interiors for the Fred Harvey Company introduced her to the importance of considering interior design and material culture holistically, allowing her to combine her archaeological and textile backgrounds. During her graduate studies at Winterthur, she examined the textile trade of William Penns provincial secretary, James Logan, and the role textiles played to create, reinforce, or sometimes break the connections between Euro-American and Indigenous groups in the early American Southeast. As a curatorial assistant, she curated the exhibition Made for the Trade, an examination of some of the pieces made by Indigenous artists in Winterthurs collection. She went on to complete a fellowship at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. I am honored and thrilled to return to Winterthur, stated Johnson. I plan on continuing Lindas outstanding work to make the collection a continual source of inspiration and education for all of Winterthurs students, members, and visitors. It is my goal to strengthen ties with our surrounding communities by listening to them and how our collections might interest them, reflect a broader range of Americans past and present, and reach new audiences through textiles. Its an honor to inherit the stewardship and care of such a world-class collection, one I accept with great humility. I am not the first to say this, but cloth is life.