There's a fairly new digital museum around - the Digital Museum of Dress Accessories. As their first exhibition room, they are hosting a gallery about patch boxes (and, consequently, about patches) - a custom that came up in the 17th century.
If that sounds interesting to you, go head over to the DMDA website and have a virtual stroll through their gallery. I certainly found it interesting, even though it's way past the time I'm usually working on.