Deerfield Embroidery

by Margery Burnham Howe

Book Overview

Hardcover book This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684143771
• ISBN13: 9780684143774
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 2.39 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Book description

Softcover. Condensed from the preface: This is the story of what happened when two young women living in the 1890s discovered a few pieces of Colonial crewel embroidery in the local museum. Realizing that they represented a forgotten art, Margaret Whiting and Ellen Miller set about learning the stitches with the intent of reproducing the original moth-eaten pieces as a matter of record. Their interest eventually resulted in the formation of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework and also involved much of the town in a revival of other early crafts. In 1930 the author moved to Deerfield, next door to Margaret Whiting (Ellen Miller had died in 1929) and several years later Margaret Whiting began to show the author the patterns, embroideries, and the dyed linens and threads stored in a highboy in her wide front hall. These were what she called their backlog, pieces never intended to be sold but sent to the various exhibits at which they were asked to show their work. In 1906 the editor of the 'Ladies Home Journal' asked that Misses Whiting and Miller prepare six pages to appear in the magazine illustrating the patterns, but when they found out that he wished to make them available to the public, they canceled their agreement, not trusting the skill of the needlewomen of that time. In 1930 Margaret Whiting worked on a book about the embroideries but again decided not to publish it. The author has created this book from Miss Whiting's 1930 manuscript and many scrapbooks written in her vigorous hand. The books also contains a detailed history of Deerfield, MA in the 1890s and early 20th century, including black & white photos and stories of the town residents and the needlewomen and their work. Many color and B & W photos as well as diagrams of the embroidery and detailed instructions.