Jeffrey A. Butterworth passed away on October 11, 2014 after a long battle with cancer. He was born and raised in Olympia, Washington.
Jeff was Professor of Theatre and English at the Community College of Rhode Island where he taught, among other subjects, theatrical costuming. Like others who teach at community colleges, he wore many hats. He was costume designer, technical director of the costume shop, director, choreographer, and faculty advisor to the College Players Club. He directed four shows every season.
Jeffrey received his Master of Science degree from the University of Rhode Island (URI) in 1998 with a concentration in textile and costume history and conservation. He arrived at URI with a Master of Fine Arts in theatre design from the University of Washington in Seattle, and two Bachelor of Arts degrees: one in drama and one in art history. Jeff’s master’s thesis at URI was entitled “Gentle Souls: Shoemakers in Seventeenth-Century Boston.” His research was inspired by an unusual shoe unearthed during Boston’s “Big Dig,” the Central Artery Project that reshaped Boston’s waterfront. Jeff conserved the shoes from several of the sites uncovered during that project. Jeff served CSA as a national board member in 1999 and 2000, and as president of Region I from 2001 to 2003.
Many may remember Jeff as the winner of the Stella Blum Grant in 1989 for his project “American Women’s Shoes: 1750–1950.” The grant allowed him the opportunity to study the history of shoes at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. His expertise in the history of footwear brought him interesting consulting work. He was guest curator for “Step Forward, Step Back: Three Centuries of American Footwear Fashion” in 1991 at the Essex Institute in Salem. He combined his knowledge of shoe history and theatrical costuming to create reproduction footwear for “Dressing Up: Children’s Fashions 1720–1920” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1996) and “Dress, Art and Society: 1750–1890” at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (1996).
Jeff published articles on the history of footwear, and on storage and display solutions for shoes. He wrote book reviews and encyclopedia entries. He contributed an article on a quilt printed with the American dyestuff quercitron in Down by the Old Mill Stream: Quilts in Rhode Island, edited by Linda Welters and Margaret Ordoñez. He researched that quilt in a material culture class at URI. It was exhibited along with seven other quilts at the Vermont Quilt Festival in 1994. In the accompanying photograph, he is shown conserving a quilt for that exhibition.
In addition to being an excellent scholar, Jeff was a lot of fun. He had a great sense of humor and a memorable laugh. He will be sorely missed by students, friends, and family. Jeffrey is survived by his parents, Fred and Ritajean Butterworth, and four brothers, Fredde, Dan, Tom, and Michael.
Linda Welters
Professor, University of Rhode Island