 Frankie Welch collection
Collection DescriptionHistorical NoteFrankie Welch (Mary Frances Barnett), a noted 20th century Washington, D.C. area textile designer who hails from Rome, GA, designed and created scarves that were the height of fashion from the early 1960s to the late 1980s and beyond. Frankie Welch was honored by Betty Ford who chose her to design her Inaugural gown. It is now displayed in the First Ladies' Hall at the Smithsonian Institution. Working mainly out of Alexandria, Virgina, Welch designed more than 4,000 scarves for business, colleges, cities and individuals. Among those were the Cherokee Alphabet scarves for U.S. embassies overseas, and scarves for Time Life Books, the University of Georgia, National Geographic, McCormick Spice Company, and McDonald's first franchise outside the United States. Welch began her custom scarf designing in 1966 when Virginia Rusk, wife of then Secretary of State Dean Rusk asked Mrs. Welch to make a gift for visiting foreign dignitaries from the State Department. Administrative InformationCustodial HistoryThis collection is a teaching collection that belongs to the College of Family and Consumer Science. Preferred CitationFrankie Welch collection, HCTC014, Anne Barge Historic Clothing and Textile Collection, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Georgia. Related Materials and SubjectsSubject Terms | ||||||||||||||||||