Fresh Perspectives on Woven Coverlets
Leslie LeFevre-Stratton, Curator, Historic Huguenot Street
It is hard to remember the first time I saw and was captivated by woven coverlets. Nor
do I recall when I first found out about coverlets and their significance as a group of
textiles informed by industrial history. Managing a large collection of artifacts with local
family provenance attuned me to the special challenges of interpreting objects whose
value and meaning was, more often than not, tied to tradition and pride of ancestral
ownership. At the point where I embraced serious scholarship surrounding the making
of woven coverlets, I became more and more intrigued (and admittedly, sometimes
exasperated) by certain notions and myths that were passed down about these bed
coverings. A typical entry in our old museum records reads: “Home-spun, blue and
white bed spread made by my great-great grandmother.” This kind of wording was an
instant tip-off that I was looking at a woven coverlet but it was also evidence that
lovingly cherished ideals attached to the past - chief among them the belief that
coverlets were normally woven at home by industrious, self-reliant women-folk –might
need revision. Yes, some types of coverlets were woven at home and yes, some were
woven by women, but technology in the eighteenth and nineteenth century that drove
rural mills, small factories, and workshops where a large part of the production of
textiles (including coverlets) took place, was in my mind, the more fascinating history to
focus upon. And because scholarship suggesting that very important industrial
innovations in textile production happened here in the lower Hudson Valley – in our
own back yard where so many of the coverlets in this exhibit originated – this group of
woven textiles becomes even more important to study and appreciate.
But there was more we wanted to explore. Woven coverlets are big artifacts, literally big
material culture. Like quilts, it is instructive to view them full front – as entire
compositions. Yet in the context of the historic house museum setting where they are
normally exhibited on beds, (as they were meant to be used and seen), it is difficult to
assess the real power of their graphic character. Up until the inception of this exhibit we
had never had the opportunity (or space) to photograph individual coverlets in their
entirety for comparative study. In the process of reviewing the total collection
(comprising 102 woven coverlets) for museum inventory purposes, we soon realized
that we wanted to expose them to the public—and to specialists—in a museum gallery
setting that would foster appreciation for their visual power. Most of these textiles had
never been displayed publicly or viewed by scholars. Our contemporary eyes were
intrigued – and entranced – by the optical complexities and pattern shifts that resulted
as we looked at the coverlets front and back and at different angles. Placed side by side
in various combinations to develop a visual rhythm for the exhibit, we discovered
relationships set off by design elements and motifs that most assuredly would have
gone unnoticed had these coverlets never left their historically flat position on the bed.
These are wonderful bed coverings. It has been a joy to study them and to reflect on
their unique place in our Hudson Valley culture. And, for me, that all-but-impossible-to-recall
moment when I was first so captivated by these coverlets will continue to
resonate as I and others continue to work with and study this remarkable collection of
textiles.
