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Margaret C. Whiting

Design for an Embroidered Bedspread

Description

Maker

Margaret C. Whiting (American, 1860 - 1946)
Ellen Miller (American, 1854 - 1929)

Culture

American

Title

Design for an Embroidered Bedspread

Year

ca. 1900

Medium

  • Paper and colored graphite

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Paper and colored graphite

Supports

  • paper

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Miss Margaret Whiting

Object Number

45.006.13

Type

  • Architectural and Design Works on Paper

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Works in Process
Jul 31, 2021 – Jan 23, 2022

Label copy

These drawings were likely made by Margaret Whiting or Ellen Miller, founders of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework in Massachusetts. The society’s mission was to revive the craft of needlework and create an industry to boost the local economy. Beginning in the 1890s, Whiting and Miller documented historical embroideries across the Northeast, making hundreds of sketches to preserve each textile and its methods of construction. Drawings were labeled with the embroiderer’s name and type of object. Some contained detailed notes about color, shading, and technique, as seen here.

These drawings were made from an embroidery by Ruth Culver Coleman, who also used similar motifs in embroidering this valance, which would have hung at the top of a four-poster bed. More than a century after Coleman’s death, her designs-as captured by Whiting and Miller-may have served as inspiration for the Deerfield Society needleworkers. [see also 44.684.2, 45.006.7, 45.006.12].

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Margaret C. Whiting (American, 1860 - 1946)
Ellen Miller (American, 1854 - 1929)
Design for an Embroidered Bedspread, ca. 1900
Paper and colored graphite
Gift of Miss Margaret Whiting 45.006.13

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We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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