Image

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Ruth Culver Coleman

Valance

Description

Maker

Ruth Culver Coleman (American, d. 1801

Culture

American

Title

Valance

Year

late 1700s-early 1800s

Medium

Wool and linen

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Wool and linen

Materials

wool, linen

Geography

Place Made: probably; Place Made: Deerfield; Place Made: Massachusetts

Dimensions

256.5 cm (101 inches) (length)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

44.684.2

Type

Textiles

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 45.006.7, 45.006.12, 45.006.13].

These Golden Arts

Needlework by Women, 1688-1888

Jun 18, 1993 – Aug 14, 1993

Threads of Memory

Mar 29, 1982 – Apr 18, 1982

Needlework

Feb 19, 1982 – Apr 25, 1982

Use & Feedback

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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

Ruth Culver Coleman (American, d. 1801
d. 1801)

Valance, late 1700s-early 1800s

Wool and linen

256.5 cm (101 inches) (length)

Museum Works of Art Fund 44.684.2

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