American coverlets

Magazine Antiques, June, 1999 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

At the begining of the nineteenth century talented professional weavers in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany were among the thousands of Europeans to immigrate to the United States. Their arrival coincided with gradual but important technological advances in textile manufacture as a result of the industrial revolution. Improved methods of spinning cotton, for example, arrived in the United States in 1790 but were not in widespread use for another quarter century. The introduction of the Jacquard loom attachment in France about 1804 had a decided impact in the United States when it was imported in the 1820s. This device enabled weavers to use a series of punched cards that guided the warp threads so that an intricate predetermined pattern could be easily executed without the aid of assistants.

Recently Catherine and Davison Hawthorne of Delaware donated their wonderfully varied collection of eighty-five American Jacquardwoven coverlets to the American textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. Thirty-six of these, dating from the 1830s to the 1860s, are on view in an exhibition entitled And So To Sleep, which may be seen until July 31.

The Hawthorne collection is particularly strong in coverlets incorporating sophisticated designs and unusual colors. The weavers who have thus far been identified through the names woven in the corner blocks or along the edges (sometimes with the owner's names as well), represent fifteen states. The exhibition includes examples executed in several Pennsylvania counties, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana.

Information gleaned from census and other records confirms that weaving was often a family affair, with fathers joined by sons and later, grandsons. John Keagy, whose coverlet is illustrated on page 802 is a case in point. His father, Abraham, arrived in Morrison's Cove, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1813, and there established a woolen mill. By the time his son John took over, the mill was called the Globe Factory, and by 1850 the mill had three power looms and seven employees. It produced coverlets and, during the Civil War, blankets. In 1868 a larger mill was built, which John's sons Samuel and Abraham continued to operate.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which may be obtained by contacting the museum at 978-441-0400, or by fax at 978-441-1412.