The National Museum of the American Coverlet

Yesterday was a sunny spring day. I had no appointments. I had paperwork that needed done. I did the only sensible thing; I gathered up Gladys and we took a trip to Bedford to the National Museum of the American Coverlet. (I tried really hard to make a clickable link. However, cut and paste http://www.coverletmuseum.org )

We expected this to be an interesting little place to add to our agenda that included stopping at Nothing But Purses, a few antique stores, and a nice dinner afterwards. We did have the nice dinner afterwards, but the museum turned out to be far more intriguing than we had anticipated. Coverlets, if you are unfamiliar with them, are woven bedcovers that evolved from home production on basic four harness looms during the late 18th century/early 19th century to the elaborate and incredibly beautiful jacquard woven coverlets. In the picture above, you'll notice that there is also a jacquard woven carpet on the floor, known at the time as Scottish carpet.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Melinda and Lazlo Zongor. The museum is based on their personal collection of coverlets and Melinda has authored several books on the subject of coverlets. Lazlo's department is charm, and he gave us a personally escorted tour of the museum.

We learned that most of the jacquard weavers were from Germany, England, and the Netherlands and you can tell which state the coverlets originated in by the design. Germans were very fond of including red and the British weavers loved the classic indigo and white combination, but this is by no means exclusive. We learned the jacquard coverlets were most extensively woven in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Zongors are currently working with the Indiana State Musuem in Indianapolis, assisting them with their coverlet collection. Many weavers wove their names, a date, place, and the name of the person the coverlet was woven for into one of the corners. The home weavers were women. The professional weavers were men. If there is a female name woven into the design, she is the owner, not the weaver. In the early 19th century, most of the buyers of woven coverlets were successful farmers who wanted a way to demonstrate their prosperity. Professional production of coverlets slowed considerably when the Civil War started because wool and cotton production went to soldiers' uniforms. After the Civil War, the railroads made consumer goods more available and the production of handwoven coverlets ended. I loved the older, home produced coverlets and the museum has old photos of women at their home looms. I try to imagine growing, spinning, dyeing, and weaving everything needed for a coverlet while cooking meals, raising children, undoubtedly doing some farm work, and cleaning house.
















The museum has a little collection of old looms and spinning wheels. I have tried my hand at weaving. Warping a loom is a two person, all day affair. I can appreciate the difficulty of warping a loom and passing each warp thread through those twisted strings on the loom above.

This coverlet was one of my absolute favorites. The old indigo dye colors are so beautiful and this design just flows so nicely. Coverlets were woven in two sections and sewn together in the middle. If you look at the far right of this picture, you can see the weaver cleverly designed this coverlet so that there is a nice stripe up the middle instead of having to match horizontal stripes.

Windham Fabrics has produced a line of quilters' cotton based on designs from the coverlets in the museum's collection. The museum shop has this collection as well as some other reproduction prints. I couldn't resist these two.


There is so much more fascinating information on coverlets. If you can't make it to the museum, check out Melinda Zongor's books, Coverlets and the Spirit of America: The Shein Collection and Coverlets at the Gilchrist: American Coverlets 1771-1889.

If you do make it to the museum, I hope you get the chance to talk with both of these fascinating people. Tell Lazlo I said, " Jo napot."