Penn Dry Goods Market Textile History Lecture Series

The Penn Dry Goods Market Historic Textile Lecture Series takes place on May 13 & 14, 2016 at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Montgomery County PA. This year's lectures will include presentations by Kim Ivey, Curator of Textiles at Williamsburg, Kathleen Staples, Independent Curator and Textile Historian, Susan Schloewer, Senior Curator at Mount Vernon among other superb quilt and needlework experts. See www.schwenkfelder.com/Penn-Market for details and registration for our fourth year of textile excellence!

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Registration/Program Schedule

The PENN DRY GOODS MARKET is an amazing opportunity to learn from noted experts in textile history. In 2016 we will be offering a superb roster of speakers on a potpourri of topics. Register early as seating is limited.

 

Friday May 13, 2016

9:00 am - 10:00 am

'In Pursuit of Lady-Like Arts': Needlework from the Early South

Kimberly Smith Ivey, Curator, Textiles and Historic Interiors, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The needlework created in the Antebellum South is as diverse as southern geography itself, reflecting the different cultures, religions, and education of the immigrants—both free and enslaved—who settled here during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Schoolgirl curricula, religious influences such as from the Society of Friends and Moravians, trade networks, and westward migration routes all influenced the look of needlework produced in the early South. This lecture presents these themes in an overview of Chesapeake, Back Country, and Low Country needlework. 
Orientation Room 

$25.00

 

10:15 am - 11:15 am

The History of Rughooking from an Artist's Frame

Susan Feller, Rughooking Artist

Surviving 19th century hooked work has something beyond its utilitarian purpose - design, interest, color, and a story to tell. Using examples from exhibitors and personal collections, the technique of how a rug is hooked will lead a discussion of who hooked/hooks. Introducing fine artists and artisans who used the technique in the 1900s, this lecture will conclude with Feller’s studio work and hooked rug patterns inspired by fraktur.
Board Room

$25.00

 

11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Grace Kelly: Icon of Style

Kristina Haugland, Le Vine Associate Curator of Costume & Textiles and Supervising Curator of the Study Room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia-born Grace Kelly (1929-1982) became a Hollywood star, royal bride, and celebrated princess—and one of the most admired women in the world. As a young actress, her unique style united good taste with glamour and perfectly epitomized the ladylike ideal of the 1950s. Her 1956 “fairy-tale” wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco set the standard for bridal elegance. Maintaining her style as Princess Grace of Monaco, she left a fashion legacy that includes the Hermès Kelly bag and classic gowns worn on red carpets and by thousands of brides, including Kate Middleton.
Orientation Room 

$25.00

 

12:45 pm – 1:45 pm

"This Work of Mine the World May View" — Shining a spotlight on New Jersey samplers, instructresses and students

Dan & Marty Campanelli, Authors, Researchers and Needlework Collectors

The Campinellis’ visual presentation covers the beautiful and varied schoolgirl embroidery created all over New Jersey up to about 1850, examining the celebrated sampler motifs of the state in detail. Teachers, schools, and their various methods of advertising will also be discussed, along with regional styles created under unknown and/or recently discovered preceptresses. Many personal stories of the stitchers, whether heartbreaking, happy or unique, will be revealed as well.
Orientation Room

$25.00

 

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Over 200 Years of the History of American Embroidery

Sheryl De Jong, Volunteer, Textile Collection, Smithsonian

This presentation reviews the history of embroidery in American with illustrations from the Textile Collection at the National Museum of American History. It starts with a piece of canvas embroidery done in 1744 in Connecticut and ends with a piece of crewel embroidery done in 1951 by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Orientation Room

$25.00

 

3:15 pm– 4:15 pm

"Old New England Quilts"

Pamela Weeks, Binney Family Curator of the New England Quilt Museum

This presentation covers the styles and fabrics that make early New England quilts unique. Regionality in design was easily recognizable in the first three quarters of 19th century quilt-making, and remained so until the widespread publication of patterns in newspapers and magazines late in that century. This lecture and trunk show includes information on home and industrial textile production, pattern styles and naming, and fads in design.
Orientation Room

$25.00

 

Saturday May 14, 2016

9:00 am – 10:00 am

Embroidered Evidence: 
Samplers in the Revolutionary War Pension Files at the National Archives

Kathy Staples, Independent Scholar

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., stores roughly eighty thousand files of applications and supporting materials submitted between 1818 and 1878 by veterans and/or their widows seeking Revolutionary War pensions. In the 1970s NARA began microfilming these pension files. Discovered among the millions of manuscript and typed papers were six embroidered samplers. These textiles-turned-texts had been accepted by representatives of the War Department as legal proof, equal in value to sworn depositions and court documents. This presentation explores the background stories of the samplers and their makers. Preview: five applicants were successful, but one was not! 
Orientation Room

$25.00

 

10:15 am –11:15 pm

"I shall soon have them done": Four Decades of Needlework by Martha Washington

Susan P. Schoelwer, Ph.D., Robert H. Smith Senior Curator, George Washington's Mount Vernon

Meet a Martha Washington you have not encountered on the pages of standard history books! A remarkably prolific and talented needle woman, she produced a rarely-matched body of work, including canvas work chair seats, silk embroidery, white work, netting, and quilts. Her surviving examples span four decades of her busy and unusually tumultuous life. This substantial corpus remains surprising little studied – despite being arguably as large a body of work known from any other 18th century American woman. Dr. Schoelwer presents an exciting progress report on her ongoing project of assembling information about Martha’s needlework.
Orientation Room

$25.00

 

11:30 am –12:30 pm

Patchwork Fever

Deborah Kraak, Independent Museum Professional

“Patchwork Fever” is a colorful exploration of an international, late-19th century textile fad. Geometric, floral, and figurative designs abounded, and were used in quilts, clothing, and furnishings. When the post-Centennial craze for patchwork prints hit the United States, merchants and quiltmakers in Pennsylvania were enthusiastic consumers of the novelty cottons. The talk also compares English and American patchwork trends, based on Kraak’s unpublished research of British-made patchwork prints, including those in the Board of Trade records in the National Archives, Kew. Bring your own examples of 19th century patchwork prints for a Show and Tell session.
Orientation Room - Sponsored by Lois Frantz McClintock

$25.00

 

12:45 pm -1:45 pm

Woolwork Samplers of the Lehigh Valley

Kathy Lesieur, Independent researcher

This lecture features the samplers made in the 1830s through the 1840s under the direction of Mary Ralston in Easton, Eliza Mason in Kutztown, and several related Pennsylvania schools. All feature fine detailed floral designs stitched in colorful wools. We will examine the connections, possible influences, and differences in these samplers, along with the lives of the teachers we know, and the girls they taught.
Orientation Room - Sponsored by Corinne Machmer

$25.00

 

2:00 pm -3:00 pm

The Apple Pie Ridge Star

Mary Robare, Independent Researcher and Author

Ever since the name “Apple Pie Ridge Star” became associated with one particular quilt block pattern, it has captured the imagination of quilt enthusiasts. This lecture will explore the origins of this unique name, the people who made mid-19th century quilts that included the pattern, and how the pattern probably evolved from a single fleur-de-lis variation. Robare’s findings are the result of tracking this pattern from the earliest known American example dated 1844 to 1937, when dozens of other documented examples occurred.
Orientation Room

$25.00