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Margaret C. Whiting

Design for an Embroidered Bedspread, ca. 1900

Description

Maker

  • Unknown
  • Margaret C. Whiting, 1860 - 1946, American
  • Ellen Miller, 1854 - 1929, American

Culture

American

Title

Design for an Embroidered Bedspread

Year

ca. 1900

Medium

Paper and colored graphite

Materials/Techniques

Supports

  • paper

Type

  • Design,
  • Architectural and Design Works on Paper

Credit

Gift of Miss Margaret Whiting

Object Number

45.006.7

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Works in Process

July 31, 2021 - January 23, 2022

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, 45.006.12, 45.006.13].

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Design for an Embroidered Bedspread with the accession number of 45.006.7. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

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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