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Weaving Social Change: Berea College Fireside Industries And Reform In Appalachia, Sarah Stopenhagen Broomfield

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Appalachian subculture of America is well known for its tradition of handcrafts, and Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, played a seminal role in promoting that tradition throughout its 150-year history. This study looks at the first five decades of Berea College’s renowned handweaving program, the beginning of what is known today as the Student Crafts program. It explores the connection between Berea alumnae and the settlement school movement that promoted social change in the Appalachian region, specifically the contribution of Berea College’s Appalachian Crafts Revival to reform in Appalachia.

The historical record is full of references to Berea College students …

Talking About Textiles: The Making Of The Textile Museum Thesaurus, Cecilia Gunzburger Anderson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The vocabulary for talking about textiles has always been rich and evocative, but at the same time quite varied based on many different factors, such as the specialties, nationalities, geographic foci, and professions of those involved in textile conversations. Textile artists and practitioners often use different terms than academic textile historians; researchers of European historical textiles use different terms than researchers of ethnographic textiles, who often introduce foreign terms into the discussion; and, even within the English language, North American textile specialists often use different terms than their British counterparts.

This bounty of terms can be exhilarating, but when it …

The Documentary Value Of Repairs To The Hwarot, The Korean Bridal Robe, Kisook Suh

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Hwarot is the most sumptuous bridal costume in Korea. Only noble ladies and members of the royal family wore this robe until the late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Later, commoners were allowed to wear the Hwarot and it is still worn in the contemporary wedding ceremony in Korea. Although the later Hwarot for commoners was plainer, it retained the same design and the structure of the early one.

The earlier Hwarot shows the excellence of gungsu (宮繡), the palace embroidery, of the royal workshop of the Joseon dynasty. Because of the delicate nature of the materials, not many of these …

Construction Of Social Relationships Through Clothes: Gender, Caste, And Inter-Religious Relationships In Kutch, India, Miwa Kanetani

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This study examines the manner in which the odhani—a head cover cloth used by women in the Kutch District, Gujarat State, India—is worn, in order to explain how clothes create social relationships, like gender, caste, and inter religious relations.

One of the limitations of previous studies on Indian Muslims is that this community -- a minority -- was discussed separately from Hindu society, which has a different social system and structure. However, in reality, both communities share a common culture to a large extent, and regularly interact with each other. Their clothes provide a new perspective for understanding the …

Swept Under The Carpet: Subtle Tales From The Back Room, Michele Hardy

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

According to Ruth Phillips, we are poised to enter the second museum age. For many years now museums has been the object of serious criticism. First Nations have critiqued museums’ authority to represent and possess culturally significant objects. There has also been a shift away from object-based research—undermining the very foundation of museums. They have been forced to re-evaluate who they are, whom they are for, and what to do with all that stuff in the storerooms. Since the mid-1980’s there has been growing responsiveness to indigenous peoples concerns, efforts to share authority, and a re-envisioning of museums as places …

The Troyes Mémoires: A Translation Of A Script For A Late Medieval Choir Tapestry, Tina Kane

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The subject of this essay is a late medieval French manuscript, comprising a set of written instructions for the iconographic program to be depicted in a set of a medieval choir tapestries. It is a rare piece of primary material that fills a gap in our understanding of how narrative programs for such tapestries were constructed. The manuscript is entitled: Mémoires provided to painters commissioned to design the cartoons for a tapestry, destined for the collegiate church of St. Urban of Troyes, representing the legends of St. Urban and of St. Cecilia.

These tapestries were to have hung over the …

Textile Narratives In Book Form, Robin E. Muller

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

I am a weaver and textile artist who has moved into working in the book form. As a teacher at an art college I have been looking for ways to explain this movement by myself and several other textiles artists, like the late Shereen Laplantz who wrote a book on book arts techniques after many decades of making plaited baskets. I have the pleasure of doing that today with three esteemed colleagues: Laura Strand, of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Susan Warner Keene, Toronto, Bronfman award winner, formerly at Sheridan College, and Pam Scheinman, artist and historian Montclair State University, …

Suellen Glashausser: Books As Revelation, Pamela Scheinman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Suellen Glahausser insisted she was a professional artist because she wasn’t suited for anything else. Just as she assigned herself a weekly day to see art in New York, packing a sandwich and apple so as not to waste precious time, Glashausser pushed her own work into new territory with each annual exhibit at Amos Eno Gallery, the cooperative she joined in 1976. Her titles were terse and descriptive: Mounds (1977), Stacks (1978), Fences (1979), Trestles (1980), Paper Shadows (1982), Columns/Wedges (1984), Gardens (1985), etc. They reflected her interest in structure, repetition and infinite variation. These concerns also appear in …

The Question Of Symmetry In Andean Textiles, Mary Frame

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Considering the various mathematical ideas we’ve been exploring briefly, how might these differ in textiles from ancient Peru?

In the ancient textiles that I study, Andean people seem to have made conscious use of the math embedded in textile processes for generating several kinds of graphic codes. You may have heard about a device called the khipu: it is a bunch of colored and knotted cords that looks like a string mop, but it is really an ancient record-keeping device. The knots stand for numbers in the base 10 system. Long knots were used for numbers from 2 to …

A Textile Narrative Through The Eye Of A Camera/Through The Eye Of A Needle, Jennifer E. Salahub

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

When I began to research needlework in the early 1980s the Library of Congress Catalogue directed me not to needlework, or even embroidery, but to the letter “W” – Women’s Work – the first step in a long and tangled journey. When I recently came across an 1890s photograph of a Canadian woman and her embroidery by Hannah Maynard all I had to do was turn to Google to be directed to the BC Archives. My first reaction was glee – my second dismay – with 300+ hits how could I not know Mrs. Maynard?

To date, Hannah Maynard (1834-1918), …

Nationalism: Pubic Voices, Private Lives, Jerry Bleem

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

For millennia fabric banners have served as indicators of political affiliation and national allegiance. Flags are steeped in the foundational mythology of a country, region, or group. Flags sum up moments of glory (while ignoring ignominious history). Flags foster a pride in identity that can unite people. Flags are the stuff of swelled chests and Independence Day parades.

But countries are composed of individuals who have private histories, relationships, hopes and dreams. Some people (or their ancestors) know firsthand their country’s failure to offer equality and justice to all its citizens. Most people use this national symbol to shade patriotism …

Changing Face Of Ottoman Imperial Image: Carpets Of Dolmabahce Palace, Turkiye, Elvan Anmac, Filiz Adigüzel Toprak

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

As a result of Westernization act within the State, flourishing from the end of 18th century, essential alteration took place in the social and cultural life in the Ottoman Empire. Western influence asserted itself intensively as soon as Sultan Abdulmecid (1839-61) was enthroned; it was Western style which was immediately imitated in State Governance as well as in every aspect of life, in architecture, architectural decoration, in furnishings, in clothing and home textiles such as upholstery fabrics and carpets used in Sultan Palaces. One of the most striking references of this alteration is the Dolmabahce Palace which was built in …

A Collaboration Through Academia Into Industry, Vita Plume

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This presentation is about two collaborative projects, Lees Carpets Funded Studio and Ameleon, of which I have had the honour to be a part. My involvement in these projects is a result of being on faculty in the Department of Art and Design at North Carolina State University.

I joined this University for several reasons. An important one among them was research. When I was hired, I understood this to mean the continuation of work on my artistic textile production. While I have in fact continued on this research line as well, in this paper I will discuss two collaborative …

Sustainability Of Handwoven Carpets In Turkey: The Context Of The Weaver, Kimberly Berman, Charlotte Jirousek

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Forms of Production

Past research, conducted mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, has identified three forms of production in which carpets are woven as commodities. These are petty-commodity production, the putting-out system, and workshop production.

Petty-commodity production involves weaving in the home, with the male head of the household or other male relatives selling the finished product to a carpet dealer or at a local or regional market (fig. 1). The family owns the loom and other weaving supplies, and family members purchase or prepare the yarn themselves. Under the putting-out system, the yarn, rug patterns and perhaps the loom …

Reading Prisoner Uniforms: The Concentration Camp Prisoner Uniform As A Primary Source For Historical Research, Lizou Fenyvesi

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

A uniform of any kind, whether worn by a fireman, a nurse or a soldier, is designed to inform us about the person who wears it; and the same thing holds true for a prisoner uniform. In this presentation I am examining textiles from recent history: the prisoner uniforms from Nazi concentration camps; I attempt to “read” the information they contain.

Most, but not all, of the prisoner uniforms were striped. Iconography, in this case the stripes, is the most readily interpreted aspect of a textile. But other aspects of the uniforms are also well worth exploring. Manufacturing details, such …

Colorful Messages: The Revival Of Natural Dyes In Traditional Cuzco Textiles, Andrea M. Heckman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Many weavers living near Cuzco, Peru are reviving the use of natural dyes in their traditional textiles. Since the introduction of chemical dyes in the late 19th century, the knowledge and practice of natural dyeing has declined dramatically for numerous reasons, including convenience, color preference, and environmental problems that have reduced the availability of natural dyestuffs. However, in the long heritage of Andean textiles, this epoch of chemical dyes is relatively short.

I began studying Andean textiles in the Cuzco region over twenty-five years ago. In 1979, I was a weaver/fiber artist when I visited Peru for the first time. …

Contemporary Hemp Weaving In Korea, Min-Sun Hwang

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Until the 1900s, hemp was one of four traditional textile fibers in Korea, the others being cotton, ramie, and silk. The production of hemp fabrics had traditionally been for family use, but since the 1950s, that tradition has ceased to exist. The present status of hemp production is, therefore, extremely limited to the rural regions, and practiced by only a small number of the elderly (fig. 1). Of the approximately thirteen hemp cultivation regions (fig. 2), the city of Andong developed a different technique in hemp fiber-making from the rest of the regions and this paper will cover hemp fabric …

The Narrative Scheme Of A Bengal Colcha Dating From The Early 17th Century Commissioned By The Portuguese, Barbara Karl

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In this article I analyse the iconographic programme of a large size embroidered textile dating from the early 17th century from the Hugli region in Bengal. The textile is part of subgroup (c) of the Solomon group. India has an extremely rich textile tradition. Every region has its peculiarities and techniques. Quilts were made all over the Indian subcontinent throughout the ages. Worn out clothes were not thrown away but were instead reused: Several layers of cloth were laid upon each other and were sewn together to be used in Indian homes. Most of them were very simple but some …

Symbolic Embellishment Of Ritual Textiles Used In Native American Burial Mounds, Harriet J. Taylor, Stephen A. Taylor

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Honouring the dead is a universal principle that has been evidenced since the dawn of time. Although burial of the dead has not been experienced universally, ritual burial practices have been widespread throughout millennia and it is through examination of burial sites that insight is gained into the manner in which tribute was paid to the dead. When humans became self-aware, understanding that there was a transition between life and the known world, to death and the unknown, those cultures that practiced burial rituals ensured that the dead were well equipped for what may lay ahead.

This paper discusses textile …

Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity In The Maya Of Chiapas - Some Next Steps, Patricia Marks Greenfield

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity in the Maya of Chiapas (2004) examines the impact of the economic transition from subsistence and agriculture to money and commerce on the transmission of weaving know-how, textile design, pattern representation, and the creative process of Zinacantec Maya weavers, following a large group of families in Chiapas, Mexico over a period of two decades. With the development of commerce, a relaxation of traditional "textile rules" and increasing innovation took place. Part of this process involved a shift in the definition of creativity from a community concept - in which the goal of clothing design was …

Author Biographies

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Textile Society of America

10th Biennial Symposium 2006

October 11–14, 2006

Harbourfront Centre

Toronto, Ontario

A-Z pp. 1-26

Copyright And Disclaimer

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Copyright and Disclaimer

Proceedings of the 10th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Inc.

© 2007, Textile Society of America, Inc.

ISBN 0-9645106-6-9

Copyright of individual papers remains with each author.

All rights reserved. Published 2007. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, except brief excerpts for the purpose

of review, without written permission from the Textile Society of America. Students and

researchers wishing to cite the work of specific authors are encouraged to communicate directly

with those individuals as many of these papers represent work in …

Review Of To Save The Wild Bison: Life On The Edge In Yellowstone By Mary Ann Franke, David Nesheim

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Mary Ann Franke investigates the recent controversy regarding the Yellowstone bison and the efforts to control their movements, the longer history of their management in the twentieth century, and a brief natural history of the species.

Redeeming The Time: Protestant Missionaries And The Social And Cultural Development Of Territorial Nebraska, Robert J. Voss

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854 formally opened a new region of the United States to settlers. Hundreds came with news of the creation of Nebraska Territory, but not in comparable numbers to the major western migrations that would follow after the Civil War. Instead, the initial small waves of Nebraska settlers would cling to the Missouri River and its settlements establishing communities on the eastern edges in the newly opened territory. These first settlers set the foundations for culture and society in Nebraska.

From 1854 until 1860, pioneers claimed lands near the Missouri, with few …

“Plain Broad Narratives Of Substantial Facts”: Credibility, Narrative, And Hakluyt’S Principall Navigations, Julia Schleck

Department of English: Faculty Publications

This article compares voyage narratives printed in Richard Hakluyt’s 1589 Principall Navigations to contemporaneous travel histories in an effort to contextualize the epistemological status of each group of texts and debunk the former’s reputation for greater factuality. It critiques the use commonly made of Hakluyt’s narratives in literary studies, arguing that the privileging of these texts over other sources results in postcolonial studies that ironically valorize a type of writing which promoted the colonial mindset these studies seek to expose.