Matt Newsome,Director of the Scottish Tartans Museum, Franklin, North Carolina.
Matthew Newsome is the director of the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, NC, USA, where he has served since 1997. In 2004 he was invited into the Guild of Tartan Scholars and in December of 2009 agreed to join the board of Governors of the Scottish Tartans Authority. He has designed many tartans for families, individuals, and institutions, and publishes a monthly column on Highland dress in the Scottish Banner newspaper. He is also a kiltmaker, specializing in the style of the original tailored kilt of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century -- box pleated, containing on average four yards of cloth. He approaches Highland dress from the perspective of an historian, kilt maker, and a regular wearer of the kilt. His web site is www.albanach.org.