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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "IN THEMSELVES A TEXTILE MUSEUM": THE FORMATION OF THE TEXTILE COLLECTION AT THE H.F. DU PONT WINTERTHUR MUSEUM

Jessica June Eldredge

Spring 1999

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "IN THEMSELVES A TEXTILE MUSEUM": THE FORMATION OF THE TEXTILE COLLECTION AT THE H.F. DU PONT WINTERTHUR MUSEUM

Jessica June Eldredge

Approved: Gary KulikP'Ph.D Professor in cnarge of thesis

Approved: Jaifieb C. Curtis, Ph.D. :tor, Winterthur Program in Early American hiltfure

Approved: _ .C John/b. Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Vide/Provost for Academic Programs and Planning

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following Winterthur staff members: Margaret Fikioris, former Conservator of Textiles, Charles Hummel, Curator Emeritus, Susan Swan, former Curator of Textiles, and John A. H. Sweeney, Curator Emeritus, for providing their first-hand recollections of the early days of the Museum and contributing their thoughts about the textile collection. Thanks also to Dilys Blum, Curator of Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who shared her knowledge of early textile scholarship and collecting.

I thank my advisor, Gary Kulik for providing direction and insight. I would also like to thank other Winterthur staff members who made this project possible, including Pauline Eversmann who supplied advice and assistance with early drafts of the work, Grace Eleazar and the Registration Division, Richard MacKinstry and Jeanne Solensky in the Downs Collection, and Heather Clewell of the Winterthur Archives. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Linda Eaton, Winterthur Textile Conservator, who encouraged me to undertake this thesis topic and provided endless enthusiasm and assistance with carrying it out.

1 1 1

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Finally, I would like to thank ray family, my friends, and my classmates. I would especially like to thank my husband, Gifford Eldredge, and it is to him that this thesis is dedicated.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES...... vi ABSTRACT ...... vii

INTRODUCTION...... 1

Chapter

1 FORMATION OF THE TEXTILE COLLECTION, 1923-1951----- 6

2 TEXTILE DEALER ALICE BALDWIN BEER...... 17

3 WINTERTHUR MUSEUM COLLECTION, 1951-1969...... 32

CONCLUSION...... 43

FIGURES ...... 45

APPENDIX A: TEXTILE DATABASE CATEGORIES...... 53 APPENDIX B: TEXTILE CATEGORY SUMMARY...... 55

APPENDIX C: TOTAL TEXTILE PURCHASES, 1923-1951...... 56 APPENDIX D: SOURCES FOR TEXTILE PURCHASES,1923-1951 ...... 57 APPENDIX E: TEXTILE PURCHASES FROM ALICE BEER...... 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 63

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1. Stereoscopic view, Walnut Room, 1935...... 45 FIGURE 2. Stereoscopic view, Dancing Room, 1935...... 46 FIGURE 3. Undated view of Blackwell Parlor...... 47 FIGURE 4. Side chair, 54.534...... 48 FIGURE 5. Settee, 59.1877...... 49 FIGURE 6. Fragments of a dress, 69.4700...... 50 FIGURE 7. Side Chair, 59.69...... 51 FIGURE 8. Fragments of a dress, 69.2481...... 52

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT

This paper examines the way that Henry Francis du Pont purchased and used textiles from 1923 until 1969, specifically considering such aspects as patterns of collecting and sources for these objects. The thousands of textiles acquired, now part of the Winterthur Museum, are widely acknowledged as one of the finest collections in the United States. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine the formation of the textile collection in the context of period scholarship and to begin to explore the relationship of the documentary evidence of these objects to the textiles that are in the collection today.

I have created a database of more than 1,800 textiles acquired by du Pont from 1923 to 1951 including such information as dates of acquisition, sources, prices and descriptions of the textiles. For these purchases, du Pont worked with nearly 250 different dealers and shops and I will examine du Pont's relationship with one individual dealer who specialized in textiles, Alice Baldwin Beer. I have also created a database of textiles accessioned by the Winterthur Museum between 1952 and 1969. Utilizing these databases and related correspondence, this paper discusses the nature of the textile collecting over the time period under cons ideration.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. There axe two currents in du Pont's collecting: the early acqusitions that reflect folk-inspired taste as demonstrated by hooked rugs and other objects deemed suitably "American," and the later purchases that display a tendency toward refined European textiles used to decorate rooms at Winterthur. A closer examination of the history of these European woven textiles reveals a shift in perception about their collection and use. As the Winterthur Museum came into being, a different type of activity and attitude regarding these objects began to emerge. Instead of recyclable commodities, textiles came to be seen as examples of material culture with intrinsic worth.

viii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION

On my first visit to Winterthur, I was presented with an intriguing bit of information. When my tour group arrived in the anteroom to the formal dining room, our guide pointed out a chair and told us that it was upholstered with fabric from an eighteenth-century dress and further, that the museum had in storage many dresses, otherwise intact, but with chair seats cut out of their skirts. The mental image created by this statement, of a gown with the shape of a chair seat missing from its skirt, was both disturbing and compelling. Like many other stories of Winterthur lore, this engaging tale raises several interesting questions. Did these objects actually exist? If so, how and why did this happen? This thesis is an attempt to move beyond the anecdotal approach to the textiles at Winterthur and toward a more documentary understanding of their history.

There is not a body of scholarship that deals with the genesis and development of collections of historic textiles

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in this country, either public or private.1 Traditionally, textiles themselves have not received as much scholarly attention compared to other areas of the decorative arts. They often cannot be tied to a definite maker, have been used and reused throughout their lives, and are generally dependent upon a context of other objects for their use. Adrienne Hood discusses the problem of textile scholarship in her article "Material Culture and Textiles: An Overview. "2 She argues that textile scholarship is either descriptive, focusing on objects without considering context, or is analytical, using documentary evidence about textiles, without considering the objects. Hood suggests a more integrated approach that uses both objects and documents to create a more complete understanding and I propose to employ this method in my project.

This paper examines the way that Henry Francis du Pont purchased and used textiles from 1923 until his death in

1 See Seth Siegelaub, "Introduction: Notes Towards a Critical History of the Literature of Textiles" in Biblioqraphica Textilia Historiae, New York:International General, based on the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles Library and archives, 1996. This essay reviews the history of textile scholarship. In the sense of a historic and/or artistic examination of the objects (rather than technical manuals), writing on textiles dates from the middle of the nineteenth century in Europe and the later part of the century in this country. In America, interest in a textile scholarship relates in part to the Colonial Revival and a desire to know the early American past through objects and also in part to the arts and crafts movement and the use of earlier periods of hand production as inspiration for designs and methods of working.

2 Adrienne Hood, "Material Culture and Textiles: An Overview," Material History Bulletin, Spring, 1990, pp. 5- 10. 2

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1969, specifically considering such aspects as patterns of collecting and sources for these objects. The thousands of textiles acquired, now part of the Winterthur Museum, are widely acknowledged as one of the finest collections in the United States. There are outstanding groups of printed cottons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and significant examples of early American needlework. The Museum is also a repository of historic silks and oriental carpets. Despite the exceptional nature of these objects, there has been very little investigation into the history of the textiles at Winterthur.3 The purpose of this paper is two fold: to examine the formation of the textile collection in the context of period scholarship and to begin to explore the relationship of the documentary evidence of these objects to the textiles that are in the collection today.

To begin, I have created a database of more than 1,800 textiles acquired by du Pont from 1923 to 1951, including such information as dates of acquisition, sources, prices and descriptions of the textiles. This data allows us to quantify the textiles at Winterthur and to examine the trends of du Pont's purchases. In the course of his textile collecting, du Pont worked with nearly 250 different dealers and shops. I will examine his relationship with one

3 There axe two important works about textiles from the Winterthur collection: Florence Montgomery, Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens. New York: Viking Press, 1970 and Susan Burrows Swan, Plain and Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1650-1850. Austin, Texas: Curious Works Press, 1995 (orig. publ. 1977). Other areas of the collection are largely unstudied and in fact many of the historic woven fabrics were only recently cataloged. 3

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. individual dealer who specialized in textiles, Alice Baldwin Beer. Du Pont purchased a great number of textiles from Beer and their correspondence is significant. Additionally, Beer's papers contained in the Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives provide insight into the broader context of the early twentieth century textile marketplace.

I have also created a database of textiles accessioned by the Winterthur Museum between 1952 and 1969. During these years, there was a different type of activity and attitude regarding textiles as the Winterthur Museum came into being. This is evidenced, in part, by the activities of both du Pont and Florence Montgomery, the Museum's first curator of textiles.

There are two trends in du Pont's collecting: the early years that reflect a folk-inspired taste as demonstrated by hooked rugs and other objects deemed suitably "American," and the later years that display a tendency toward refined European textiles. At the end of the twenties and into the thirties and forties, du Pont's purchases of historic woven fabrics such as European silks and printed cottons were substantial.

A closer examination of the history of these European woven textiles reveals a shift in perception about their collection and use. The transformation of textiles at Winterthur ultimately was not only a physical one, as suggested by the story of the dress and the chair seat. Instead of recyclable commodities, textiles came to be seen 4

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as examples of material culture with intrinsic worth. This change was expressed by du Pont himself when he made the following observation in the Instructions to the Executors of his wills "The curtains, upholstery, bed hangings and bedspreads at Winterthur are in themselves a textile museum."4

4 H.F. du Pont, Instructions to the Executors, p.60, Winterthur Archives.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1

THE FORMATION OF THE TEXTILE COLLECTION, 1923-1951

Henry Francis du Pont was born at Winterthur in 1880 and after schooling at Groton and Harvard, returned home to Delaware.1 He inherited the estate in 1927 upon his father's death and shortly after that, du Pont began plans to expand the house. From 1929 to 1931, he oversaw the creation of a wing that doubled the size of the original house. Du Pont had already begun assembling a collection of early American decorative arts for his house on Long Island called Chestertown. The inspiration for this collecting of American decorative arts came from a 1923 visit to the homes of his friend Electra Havemeyer Webb and Boston decorator Henry Davis Sleeper.

Electra Havemeyer Webb was also an important collector of Americana, whose interest in hooked rugs, quilts and printed textiles, influenced du Pont, particularly early in 1 For more information about Henry Francis du Pont and the history of Winterthur, see Jay E. Cantor, Winterthur. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Winterthur, 1997 (orig. publ. 1985); John A. H. Sweeney, Winterthur Illustrated. Winterthur, DE: Winterthur Museum, 1967; and Winterthur Portfolio One. The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1964.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. his collecting.2 Du Pont also saw Beauport, the home of Henry Davis Sleeper, with similar types of early American textiles as collected by Webb. The arrangements and use of objects at both houses proved influential on du Pont and his activities as a collector.

In addition to private collectors, American museums were also active in textile collecting at the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. There are several important museum textile collections in the United States, such as those at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Institute of Chicago.3 These textile collections, which have their roots in the late part of the nineteenth century, were formed to serve as examples for designers in the American textile industry. An important model for these collections was the South Kensington Museum in London, later the Victoria and Albert Museum. An 1876 catalog of this

2 For additional information about Webb's textile collecting see Celia Oliver, "Electra Havemeyer Webb and Shelburne's Quilt Collection" in On the Cutting Edge; Textile Collectors. Collections and Traditions, ed. Jeannette Lasansky, Lewisburg, PA: Oral Traditions Project, 1994.

3 See the following catalogs for further information about these collections specifically: Susan Anderson Hay, ed., A World of Costume and Textiles, Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1988; Catherine Kvaraceus and Larry Salmon, From Fiber to Fine Art. Handbook of the Department of Textiles, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1980; Dilys E. Blum, The Fine Art of Textiles: The Collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997; Christa C. Mayer Thurman, Textiles in the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago 1992.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. collection provides an introduction to early textile collecting and scholarship.4 The author notes that "collections of textile fabrics are of the highest value to the artist. There is none, anywhere, so rich or complete as that at South Kensington."3 In an American context, the Cooper-Union Museum had a similarly complete collection. Rudolf Meyer-Riefstahl wrote about this collection: "All great museums long ago formed collections of textiles. In the United States, the most important is probably the one given in 1903 to the Cooper-Union by the late J. Pierpont Morgan."6 Although these early collections demonstrate an interest in textiles on the part of scholars, it was the use of textiles in period rooms that is important to understanding the collecting activities of du Pont.

The period rooms at the American Wing in the Metropolitan Museum opened in 1924 and this example, in conjunction with his visits to Beauport and Shelburne Farms, solidified du Pont's interest in American decorative arts, displayed in room settings. In addition, the Brooklyn Museum had period rooms installed in 1919, and the Williamsburg Restoration began in 1926. These activities are contemporary with the beginning of du Pont's collecting, and suggest

4 Daniel Rock, Textile Fabrics. New York: Scribner, Welford and Armstrong (South Kensington Museum Art Handbook), 1876.

5 Rock, p . 109.

6 Rudolf Meyer-Riefstahl, "Early Textiles in the Cooper union Collection, Part One," Art in America. Vol. Ill, No. 5, August 1915, pp.231-33. 8

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. additional influences.

Du Pont had been active acquiring European antiques since the early twentieth century.7 However, his switch to American decorative arts, including objects made and used in America, dates from 1923 and it is in that year that day books recording his purchases began.* To evaluate du Pont's textile collecting habits, information from the day books was v culled and used to create a database of purchases.9 This database covers the years from 1923 to 1951, the year that du Pont converted Winterthur into a Museum. A second database was also compiled of Museum accessions from 1952 until 1969, the year of du Pont's death. Many of these accessions were

. < ■ > 4 - «C 1 r»<» T3i^n4- o i 1 oo «- ■ ■ f W t u V U U Balkan costumes during a 1911 trip to Europe. For more information on du Pont's early context and activities regarding decoration, see Margaret Lidz, "Dueling Identities: The Colonel, His Son and the Architecture at Winterthur," forthcoming M.A. thesis, University of Delaware. I would also like to thank Ms. Lidz for drawing my attention to many references about the history of textiles at Winterthur.

8 The origin of the day books is somewhat unclear. A former assistant to du Pont suspects that they were started by du Pont's assistant Mr. Otwell perhaps as early as the teens or early twenties. They most likely were moved to the museum after its opening along with du Pont's correspondence with dealers. It is not known if they were kept as purchases were made or if they were constructed later from receipts and other records. These daybooks also do not reflect every purchase made. A comparison with the correspondence of several of the dealers show some discrepancy between the two. However, the daybooks provide an overall sense of patterns of collecting. Further research to match correspondence to database would be necessary to create a more complete picture.

9 This database was assembled during the summer of 1998 using the day books contained in the Registrar's Office, Winterthur Museum. 9

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. gifts from du Pont and are also reflected in the earlier database.

Both databases are divided into the following category groups: Costume, Floor Covering, Windows, Furniture, Bedding, Bed Furnishing, Yardage, Needlework, Study Collection, Other and Undetermined, mainly valances and curtains that are not categorized as for beds or windows and thus could be for either.10 Because of the brief nature of the descriptions in the day books, it is often difficult to connect specific objects in the collection, particularly textiles, with the appropriate entry. This is the case not only for undetermined objects but for much of the yardage and bed furnishings as well. However, an examination of the database 1923-1951 yields a great deal of information about the nature of du Pont's collecting.

In the years 1923-51, a total of 1,886 textiles were purchased. Du Pont paid as little as one dollar for a piece of linen purchased in 1926 to as much as $30,000 for a 30 foot oriental carpet in 1928. The total amount spent on textiles during these years was $680,634.56.11 There were two years when du Pont was particularly acquisitive. In 1928 he spent $112,101.88 on 100 textile purchases including $50,000 on two oriental carpets. In 1930 he spent $112,889.95 on 113 textile purchases with $20,000 spent on a To See Appendix A for list of database sub-categories and Appendix B for a list of total number of purchases for each category. See Appendix C for a breakdown of total amount purchased each year. 10

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. group of hooked rugs. Du Pont also purchased a great deal of early needlework, including 35 samplers and 45 embroidered pictures. While this may seem like a great deal of money, it is not in consideration of du Pont's collecting overall. For example, in 1928 du Pont spent $156,200 on 38 furniture purchases in the month of January alone.

A closer examination of the textile purchases demonstrate two trends of collecting. The early acquisitions were for Chestertown, which was du Pont's main residence from 1923 to 1927. Many objects from Chestertown were moved to Winterthur, and of course, many more were purchased specifically for Winterthur after 1927. The early purchases, the first ten years of collecting, reflect a more folk- inspired taste for American decorative arts as expressed in many purchases of quilts and hooked rugs. Later purchases include many more refined objects such as yardages of European silks, and show a leveling off of collecting of the other types of objects.

According to the day books, the first textile purchased by du Pont was a white quilt, bought on November 8, 1923 from Mrs. Louisa Spangler. These white quilts and coverlets were of great interest to collectors. Alice van Leer Carrick wrote a chapter on "Old White Counterpanes" in her 1919 book Collector's Luck. Her chapter relates stories of other collectors of white quilts of many varieties, and concludes with a story about her own search for a candlewick spread. She is offered one that was "too large" which she rejects,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with seemingly no thought to adjusting it to fit.12 She also comments on the importance of having the right textiles for her furniture:

My coverlet and my Empire bed are about the same age, and they will go "companionably" together. I've worked so hard to dress the bed properlyl You see, so many quite charming old beds suddenly lose this charm of theirs because the right things are not put on them; sometimes a counterpane makes the bed look as if an old lady were masquerading in her granddaughter' s clothes.11

Beyond this somewhat whimsical observation, there were other writings on this subject. In fact, du Pont annotated his copy of the Magazine Antiques which had an article on white quilts. He highlighted the second paragraph of this article on padded and corded quilting from November, 1924.“ He clearly wanted to know more about the objects he was collecting: du Pont purchased a total of 30 white quilts and bedspreads from 1923-1951. The majority were purchased in the twenties, at a wide range of prices, with one of the most expensive costing $350.00. On June 10, 1927, du Pont purchased thousands of dollars of furniture from the firm of Collings & Collings. Among those purchases was also one white bedspread. A 1935 view of the Walnut Room (Fig. 1)

12 Alice Van Leer Carrick, Collector's Luck. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1919, p.157.

13 Carrick, p.137.

14 Helen Bowen, "Corded and Padded Quilting," The Magazine Antiques, Vol. 6, pp.250-53.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. displays a white quilt in a room setting at Winterthur.

Another type of object collected by du Pont in great number and at great expense early on was the hooked rug. This quintessentially "American" object was popular not only with du Pont but with many other collectors as well. There was a significant literature about the collecting and manufacture of hooked rugs at this time. Among the many books about hooked rugs written at this time are Anna M. Laise Phillips, Hooked Rugs and How to Make Them. 1925; Ella Shannon Bowles, Handmade Runs. 1927; Elizabeth Waugh and Edith Foley, Collecting Hooked Rugs. 1927; and William Wentworth Kent, The Hooked Rug. 1930. As noted before, du Pont purchased a group of hooked rugs for $20,000 in 1930 from F.W. Ayer. In total, du Pont acquired 80 hooked rugs between 1923 and 1951. Some were purchased at modest prices from smaller local dealers and several were purchased for thousands of dollars from Tiffany Studios. The profusion of hooked rugs and their arrangement by du Pont can be seen in a view of the former Dancing Room, now the Tappahannock Room (Fig. 2). Like the white quilts, du Pont's purchases of these objects diminished as time progressed.

From the late 1920's onward, du Pont's collecting began to shift from objects such as hooked rugs toward more refined textiles. The Collecting of Antiques. written in 1926 by Esther Singleton, discusses the difference between collecting the more rustic as demonstrated by objects like hooked rugs

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and collecting European textiles.15 In her preface, she targets her audience as advanced collectors who "sometimes like to read about what they already know" as well as "beginner-collectors. "1S Though she does not discriminate between her readers, she does distinguish between the types of things they ought to collect. She is interested in objects that

belong to the Decorative Arts, while such types as belong to the Industries of a nation are not represented. This will explain the omission of Sandwich Glass and Hooked Rugs, which although enjoying present popularity with some collectors of Americana, cannot possibly be classed with beautiful objects de luxe able to pass all the canons of elegant and fastidious taste.17

This distinction is expressed in the collecting of du Pont and the shift that took place during the thirties. Her chapter on textiles notes that they provide "an interesting field for collecting," that they are easy to care for and store, evocative and interesting in terms of color and suggestive in terms of connections to the past. She focuses

For other early works on antique collecting see Walter Dyer, The Lure of the Antique. New York: The Century Co., 1910 and N. Hudson Moore, The Collector's Manual. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1905. However, neither work specifically discusses collecting antique textiles.

16 Esther Singleton, The Collecting of Antiques. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1926, p.vii.

S ingleton, p .vii.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. on silks, brocades, velvets and damasks.18

Du Pont's purchases of these types of fabrics were substantial. The largest group of textiles acquired between 1923 and 1951 was yardage with 549 purchases recorded in the day books. However, unlike hooked rugs and quilts, these objects were obtained to be made into curtains, bedcovers and upholstery. This large amount of yardage purchased coincides with the extensive building of the wing that du Pont added to Winterthur in these years. An August 16, 1929 letter from du Pont to his upholsterer Ernest Lo Nano gives further evidence of the need for such quantities of textiles:

I would imagine that I will have fully 100 side chairs to cover; 8 or 10 sofas; from 8 to 10 wing chairs and as many arms, and there would be about 40 pairs of curtains to be made, lined, etc. etc. I shall want some of your best and most careful workmen, as these materials are all epoch pieces, extremely rare and valuable and I could not afford to have any of them badly cut or put on, or cut for the wrong chair.19

The increased activity in collecting of these "epoch pieces" is- She also deals with chintzes and toiles and writes: "Of late years many collectors have been specializing in toiles de Jouy and other examples of early chintzes, particularly those bearing American subjects. Among the most extensive and comprehensive is the collection of Mr. Francis P. Garvan of New York." p.271.

19 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Ernest Lo Nano, August 16, 1929, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. Du Pont purchased many textiles directly from Lo Nano who in addtion to his upholstery business, also sold materials. For additional information about Lo Nano's activities see Jeni Sandberg, "Re-covering the Past: Ernest Lo Nano and Upholstery for Historic Interiors," paper delivered at Bard Graduate Center Symposium Uncovering the Past: New Research on Historic Upholstery, 1600-1850, October 16-17, 1998.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. is further explained by the fact that du Pont was decorating these rooms not just once but often two or three times for seasonal changes of textiles.20

As du Pont moved further into the thirties and forties, he expanded his purchase of old yardage as a way to express both aesthetic concerns and historic concerns in the rooms at Winterthur. To explore this further, it is helpful to look at one source for these objects. A discussion of a textile dealer who worked with du Pont reveals a great deal about both his taste and the marketplace for historic textiles at this time.

20 There were two to four textile changes for many rooms. These changes were eventually codified in 1946 in textile change books compiled by du Pont.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 2

TEXTILE DEALER ALICE BALDWIN BEER

From 1923 to 1951, du Pont acquired textiles from nearly 250 different sources.1 The majority of the sources were general antique dealers, and most of the transactions were limited in terms of number of objects. Major antique dealers such as Ginsburg & Levy, Israel Sack and Joe Kindig sold antique textiles to du Pont, in addition to furniture and other objects. Du Pont also purchased textiles through his upholsterer Ernest Lo Nano, as well as from decorating firms such as French and Company and Tiffany and Company.2 In addition to these sources, du Pont made many important purchases and had sustained relationships with several

See Appendix D for a complete list of dealers. According to "H.F.du Pont and the Evolution of the Museum Collection," a Special Subject Tour prepared under the Direction of Peter H. Hammel, head, Education and Public Programs Division and Coordinated by Pam Smith, Senior Guide, du Pont dealt with over 800 dealers. Thanks to Pauline Eversmann for sharing this document with me.

2 The dealers from whom du Pont purchased the greatest number of textiles were: Alice Beer, Francis Brinton, Anna de Spiridon, Ginsburg and Levy, French and Co., Lloyd Hyde, Joe Kindig, Ernest LoNano, Charles w. Lyon, Elinor Merrell, Wilmer Moore, Amy Pleadwell, Arthur Sussel, Tiffany Studios and Winsor White.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dealers who specialized in textiles including Alice Baldwin Beer, Josephine Howell, Elinor Merrell, and Any Pleadwell.3

While all four women are important in terms of the objects they handled and their relationship with du Pont, Alice Baldwin Beer is of particular interest. The types of objects that she handled reflect du Pont's shift in textile collecting interest. From 1930 to 1944, she sold 49 textiles to du Pont and even visited Winterthur with Amy Pleadwell.4 An examination of the types of textiles she sold and the way that she worked with du Pont provides a fascinating glimpse into the way that textiles became a part of Winterthur. It also illustrates the ways in which collectors, dealers and scholars interacted with one another. After her career as a dealer ended, Beer became the textile curator at the Cooper- Union Museum and maintained a connection to Winterthur through her relationship with Florence Montgomery, the Museum's first curator of textiles.

Beer, Howell and Merrell were all located in New York and Pleadwell was in Boston. Though all four knew one another, the Beer papers at Yale contain only correspondence between Beer and Pleadwell and none between Beer and Merrell or Howell. Merrell wrote to du Pont in April of 1930 that she provided fabrics for the restoration of the Hammond Harwood House in Annapolis, as well as Williamsburg restoration and that "old fabrics were used throughout for curtains and furniture coverings." She noted that she has old fabrics suitable for "early American houses." Of the four, Merrell was the most widely known as a textile dealer.

4 For comparison, according to the database, du Pont purchsed 15 objects from Merrell, 22 objects from Howell and 43 from Pleadwell. See Appendix E for a listing of du Pont's purchases from Beer.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Alice Baldwin Beer was born in 1887 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her family moved to Yonkers, New York where she was raised. A 1910 graduate of Vassar College, Beer was involved in a variety of activities before turning to the antiques business, including theatre work and assembling her family papers including information about her brothers Thomas Beer, a writer and social historian and Richard Beer, an artist. These papers are now at Yale University.5

Beer provided an explanation for why she became a textile dealer in a letter to Florence Montgomery:

That I ever became anything so silly is such a long idiotic story I cant (sic) go into details, but my "career" in that capacity does ultimately mesh into the rising interest in what for brevity let us call Americana. I think I became a dealer because of my desire for an excuse to return to Spain where I had been on a long trip with my mother in - I think - 1928. I knew there were wonderful materials to be found in Spain so I plunged.®

Beer began her career as a general "Foreign Antiques" dealer, as her early letterhead indicated and she eventually specialized in antique textiles. Her correspondence reveals many interesting aspects of how she built and maintained her business from around 1928 to 1944.

5 Biographical information from Textile Department files, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Thanks to Barbara Duggan for providing me with this information.

6 Letter from Alice Beer to Florence Montgomery, September 4, 1973, Florence Montgomery papers, Winterthur Archives.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Beer's individual clients were located in cities up and down the east coast including Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.. People on her mailing list included Mr. and Mrs. Maxim Karolik, important collectors of American decorative arts, John Russell Pope, Washington, D.C. architect, and George Hewitt Myers, founder of the Textile Museum. Her records indicate that she targeted women's clubs as potential clients for mailings. She attended the American Association of Museums meeting in 1935, as well as the College Art Association meeting, for both scholarship and networking opportunities. Beer also used a New York Post article from January 6, 1937 that included a list of people with "huge salaries."7 Her clients also included many decorators who worked with wealthy individuals as well as "churchmen" looking to furnish their churches.

Beer dealt with a wide range of museums including Springfield Library and Museums Association, Huntington Library, Lyman Allyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of City of New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., and Colonial Williamsburg. In her correspondence with museums, there is a passage that suggests that they were perhaps of greater interest to her than her individual clients. A letter from Beer to the Albany Institute of History and Art from May 27, 1935 states:

7 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box 142.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I am far less interested in the commerce of antique textiles and much more interested in their history, I cannot resist absorption in my collection from time to time."

Beer was interested in scholarship, and she often did research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about objects in her stock. She also took a class in 1935 on historic textiles at New York University in the Department of Interior Decoration.

Beer worked on the Stratford Hall restoration and there is much correspondence regarding the committee's desire for documented 18th century fabric for beds. This work led to an opportunity to share her knowledge about textiles, in her papers are "Notes for a Discussion of Textiles Used in American Homes 17th Century to 1800." Beer led a general discussion of the topic at a gathering held in April, 1942. The point of this gathering was to share information about historic textiles and documentary evidence regarding their use.*

8 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box 133.

9 Florence Montgomery makes reference to this gathering in Textiles in America r Hazel E. Cummin did research in the late 1930's for restoration of Stratford Hall. "Miss Cummin's findings stimulated the interest of dealers, among them Mrs. Lawrence Ullman, who invited her to address a group of antiquarian friends at the Ullman home in Tarrytown, New York." p. 130.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Much of Beer's stock was on consignment, sometimes from other dealers such as Any Pleadwell.10 She often cooperated with other dealers in locating objects for clients, including Los Angeles dealer Adolph Loewi.11 She also had things of her own, primarily from Europe. In her papers cure lists of purchases made on buying trips to places in Europe such as Paris, Madrid and Baden-Baden. On December 6, 1934, Beer wrote to European dealer Margarita Mateu in Mallorca regarding difficulty of setting up shop, and requesting consignments from her. This letter is interesting in that it directly refers to period taste in textiles:

What is in demand in New York City (is) pale blue, yellow and green, especially pale rose, peach, apricot... of ten asked for white damask, lampas or cream white silk. Embroideries used for bed hangings, the draperies for dressing tables, window curtains or pillows.11

She goes on to request only large quantities of damask in yellow or green but not red. "I know a museum where they need enough 18th century damask in yellow to hang four windows that are 9 ft. long, this would be an amount from 45 _ Beer also had at least one item on consignment from du Pont, some "antique green wool" which failed to sell before Beer closed her business.

11 For further information about Loewi see Sandra L. Rosenbaum, "The Role of a Dealer in the Development of Collections: Loewi-Robertson, Inc., A Case Study," CIETA Bulletin 67, 1989. This article is also interesting in terms its attempt to connect objects to their sources and establish stronger provenances for textiles. I am grateful to Linda Eaton for sharing this source with me.

12 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box, 128.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to 50 yards and where will one find such a quantity today?" Further she wrote: "I must truthfully state that the sale of antique textiles is a slow thing here in New York, but I know from experience that if I announce new shipments, clients will always come in, something sells."13 Du Pont conformed to this taste, expressed not only in terms of his own purchases of the types of items described by Beer but also in terms of what another dealer had to say. Anna de Spiridon, wrote to du Pont on May 6, 1930 that she "received a shipment of very choice materials from Italy...these few pieces are in the colorings you are interested in and so admire, various shadings of yellow in the background with floral designs in complimentary colorings of the pastel shades. "14 She goes on to offer them to du Pont first, telling him she has not yet put them on display.

Beer also dealt in limited amounts of modern materials and worked with Mrs. G. Howard Davidson, Interior decorator, and Walter T. Daub, who provided "Air brush decorated fabrics." Beer clearly kept a sense of humor about her work, writing to Amy Pleadwell in 1944 "thousands, yea millions of people don't know what "antique textiles" are...thousands of people are bored by materials."15

13 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box. 128.

14 Letter from Anna de Spiridon to Henry Francis du Pont, May 6, 1930, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

15 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Manuscripts and Archives, Box 130. 23

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. One person not bored by materials was H.F. du Pont. Beer worked directly with du Pont, to locate for specific objects for him. Their correspondence indicates that du Pont visited Beer's shop, sometimes with his friend and collaborator Mrs. Bertha Benkard who also collected decorative arts. Objects were often sent to the various du Pont residences on approval, often on du Pont's truck that made frequent trips between Winterthur and New York. The first letter in Beer's correspondence with him dates from February 25, 1930:

Early in January at the suggestion of Mr. Cornelius, I sent you a small package of antique damasks which you were good enough to look over. I now wish to let you know that I have recently received some new fabrics, among them a large piece of silk and wool brocatelle. If you are need of any silk, perhaps you will let me know.1*

It is interesting to note that she sent materials to du Pont unsolicited, as did many others, and further, that she had a connection to Charles Cornelius of the Metropolitan Museum.17 The next letter, sent a few weeks later on March 18 continues:

I have just received a small parcel of things from abroad, long delayed in coming, and among them is a lot of very handsome yellow silk which I believe you might like to see...three curtains and canopy with double valences... about 33 yards. This would

Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, February 25, 1930, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

17 Du Pont engaged Cornelius to write a catolog of the objects at Winterthur in 1932, yet Cornelius never completed this project. 24

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be a marvelous silk around which to build a room.18

This passage indicates she also has an understanding of what du Pont was doing with textiles at this point and her suggestion that textiles can be the centerpiece, strong enough "around which to build a room" is one which du Pont often agreed with. In fact, another letter from their correspondence discusses the way in which du Pont built rooms:

The reason I am so slow about deciding is that my room has not yet been installed and I have to try out these pieces in another room with similar light, which means taking out the furniture in one room, and trying out the materials, so you see it is rather a difficult matter to decide. Furthermore, I am not sure if I am going to get another sofa for the room, which would mean a difference in the yardage of material X would require.18

Beer responded "Please don't worry about keeping the materials to help you to decide about the color scheme. I am sure it is a complicated matter and that you need time."20

She was not quite as understanding regarding Mrs. Benkard. In a July, 1943 letter to Amy Pleadwell, she observed the following:

18 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, March 18, 1930, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 19 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Alice Beer, June 8, 1939, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

20 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, June 12, 1939, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I am going to write her and say firmly I cannot hold the stuff any longer out of circulation and must know what she wants... I think she hopes I will find some more green of her color to go with it which she will only have to pay $8 or $10 per yard for. I am not going to tramp the hot streets of NY looking for green damask and sell for a song, when it is getting scarcer all the time.”

Beer did "tramp the hot streets of New York" for du Pont and let her exasperation show a bit in the following passage from May 27, 1939: "I have only found one piece of brocade in the city of New York that meets your requirements of color and quantity for the covering of your wing chair."22 in addition, Beer had other people looking for textiles for du Pont, commenting in one letter from August 21, 1939 that a friend had "visited ten different places" in Paris looking for silk for du Pont.

One can begin to sense how demanding du Pont was not only in terms of the types of objects but also the price:

Is there any way of getting the price down on the $975.00 piece? It seems to the one color which I need badly in the room, but I do think the price is beyond anything in the world, and I cannot imagine anyone ever paying such an amount as that for the material. Should I take all these pieces you sent, would there be any way of making some reduction on the lot?23

Beer responded to du Pont on June 15, 1939 that she was 21 Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Manuscripts and Archives, Box 130.

22 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, May 27, 1939, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 23 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Alice Beer, June 12, 1939, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. selling this object for another shop and they did not want to come down in price. Subsequent correspondence suggests that du Pont did not in fact buy this fabric, a rare occasion where money was the issue for him.

Cost was infrequently a factor in terms of how du Pont made choices about his textile purchases. Generally, decisions were made based on color and on the intended "use" for an object. On October 9, 1939, he rejected a satin as "not yellow green enough." In a letter dated May 16, 1939, du Pont wrote: "I find that the material is just about the right color, and the little touch of pink which is still showing is also the right shade of pink."24 The following year, Beer wrote to du Pont on the subject of dimity: "You are I know aware of the research done on the subject (dimity) by Mrs. Cummin. As a kind of by-product of that activity I have some here..."23 She stated that she knew of enough of this fabric to hang a bed. Du Pont was not interested, perhaps an indication of his move away from these types of more early American objects. His taste was shifting toward the more elegant expression found in the "large cover of apricot satin brocaded in cream and blue" which he bought from Beer on June 5, 1939. The 12 yards four inches of fabric cost $490, and on the bill du Pont scribbled "Keep it"

24 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Alice Beer, May 16, 1939, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

25 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, July 10, 1940, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and "Blackwell Room curtains."2* These curtains, now retired because of their condition, are visible in a view of the Blackwell Parlor (Fig. 3). Beer also tried to tempt du Pont with textiles similar to others in Museums. She wrote to him that she had a red stamped wool velvet "very like the covering of the American Empire sofa in the Metropolitan outside the entrance to the Van Rensselaer room." She indicated that it was "taken off a sofa", and would be enough to do some chairs. Du Pont chose not to buy this textile but he was aware of what museums had, and often competed with them for objects.27

In a letter from 1941, du Pont wrote to Beer:

I am very much disappointed you did not let me know about the deep blue toile which you let the Brooklyn Museum have. I have been collecting it for years and need some more in the worst way. If you ever get any more of it, I hope you will advise me.28

Du Pont's was in competition with Museums for textiles. More important however, is his comment that he was collecting this type of textile, and still had a need for more. Beer wrote to du Pont regarding another object that he did purchase, instead of the museum that was also considering it:

26 Bill in Registrar's Office files., Alice Beer file.

27 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, January 13, 1942, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum.

28 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Alice Beer, October 16, 1941, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 28

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The two panels of signed printed linen belonging to the lot of "tree" design you already have on memorandum from me will go off to you today. I found that they had been sent to the Metropolitan for consideration. Mrs. Little had asked me to say that if you should decide to take the lot and wanted also the signed panels, the museum would appreciate it if you would allow them to photograph the signature.”

Because of the nature of the description, it is difficult to match this information with an object in the collection. However, research in the Registrar's files suggests that this textile ended up as a seat cover for a Connecticut side chair (Fig. 4).

Ultimately, these purchases were intended for the sort of use seen above and Beer relates an interesting aspect of this in a 1944 letter to Amy Pleadwell. They were organizing a show together of their wares and Beer suggested types of things for Pleadwell to bring. She wrote that there was still a great demand for silk but not for chintzes glazed or flowered:

Mrs. Benkard and I had a serious talk on this matter. She says it does not pay to use them as they don't last. That means that she and the whole du Pont circle are off them.”

Even at this early date, there was an awareness that historic textiles in room settings "did not last" and that certain types of textiles, such as the heavier silks, were

29 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, December 12 1937, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 30 Alice Baldwin Beer papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box 130. 29

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. more durable than others. This practical fact, as well as a change in taste toward the more refined objects, had an impact on what textiles du Pont purchased and what he did with them at Winterthur.

Alice Beer ended her career as a textile dealer in 1944 and became curator of textiles at the Cooper-Union Museum in 1947.“ During her tenure, she wrote a catalog entitled Trade Goods; A Study of Indian Chintz in the Collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design Smithson Institution. This work includes essays about printed textiles and a catalog of the exhibition that reflects a sophisticated level of scholarship. Alice Beer became Curator Emeritus in 1972 and died in 1991 at age 94. Alice Beer' s colleague Milton Soiiday, Research Curator at the Cooper-Hewitt recalled that she was an outgoing personality whose interest in printed textiles flourished during her years as curator and her enthusiasm and generosity were well- known.”

Du Pont clearly was important to Beer not only as a client, but also in terms of his activities as a collector and leader in the field of decorative arts. In a letter to

31 This move was precipitated by the loss of her gallery space. She comments on this circumstance in a letter to Amy Pleadwell of February 7, 1944 "For really, I think that going on in this highly specialized business, with no capital to buy stock, and that is so hard to find, is just crazy." Alice Baldwin Beer papers, Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives, Box 130.

32 Phone interview with Milton Sonday, March, 1999.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Florence Montgomery, Beer wrote about her then current effort to write a history of Cooper Union and the switch to Cooper Hewitt: "What inspired me was really my rage when a young man who is assistant in the Library asked dreamily one day 'Who was Harry du Pont?'... I announced that it was time someone put on paper some of our past history."” Du Pont was in fact instrumental in saving the museum and arranging its stewardship by the Smithsonian. Before she ended her career as a dealer, Beer visited Winterthur with Amy Pleadwell in 1944. She wrote to du Pont: "You may understand that the opportunity to see your house was particularly interesting to me, because of my odd specialization in old textiles, and to see them used so beautifully and with such knowledge was a delight."” The opportunity to visit Winterthur soon would be available to a wider audience.

Letter from Alice Beer to Florence Montgomery, June 17, 1976, Florence Montgomery Papers, Winterthur Archives.

34 Letter from Alice Beer to Henry Francis du Pont, March 31, 1944, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 31

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 3

WINTERTHUR MUSEUM COLLECTION, 1951-1969

It is unclear precisely when du Pont decided to make Winterthur a museum. However, the idea of transforming his home this way is one which he entertained early in his collecting of Americana. In a letter of June 21, 1927 du Pont wrote to Henry Davis Sleeper:

Could you give me some idea of the manner in which Mrs. Jack Gardner's house in Boston was left as a museum?... I am thinking of doing something similar with the Southampton House — not that I think that it is in a class with Fenway Court.1

This interest in her home suggests that du Pont was familiar with Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection of historic European textiles and her use of them. Isabella Stewart Gardner was an early collector of lavish European woven fabrics, laces and tapestries, as well as her better known

1 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Henry Davis Sleeper, June 21, 1927, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 32

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. activities as a collector of paintings.2 While du Font's early collecting was much more in the vein of his contemporary Webb, he ultimately shifted his collecting to the types of textiles favored by Gardner. However, unlike Gardner who was using the textiles to create European period rooms, du Pont used the refined materials in an American setting. It is interesting to further explore the use of these, and other textiles in the context of the Winterthur Museum collection.

The database compiled for the years 1952-1969 indicates accessions by the Museum. Some of these accessions were gifts from du Pont, and these are items reflected in the database covering the years 1923-1951. There were also a significant number of gifts to the Museum from a variety of sources, including many of the dealers who du Pont had patronized. Gifts also included 61 donations to the study collection, demonstrating Winterthur's new role as an educational institution.

When the Museum opened in 1951, the Magazine Antiques published a special issue about Winterthur. In this publication, curator Joseph Downs wrote an essay entitled "The Meaning of the Museum." This essay discussed the Museum

2 See Aline Saarinen, The Proud Possessors New York: Random House, 1958 and Morris Carter, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Her Fenwav Court. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925 for additional early accounts of Gardner's life and collecting. Pauline Eversmann also notes the importance of Gardner's role in the history of development of the period rooms within private collections in Discover the Winterthur Period Rooms. Winterthur, DE: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1998, p.4. 33

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. overall and he devoted significant specific commentary about the textiles:

Not only is the principle furniture of the rooms contemporary with the backgrounds, but the fabrics of upholstery and window hangings match in date or are earlier. All are hand-sewn with infinite care, to follow original designs gleaned from old paintings, engravings, or sketches. Every known material once used in American houses, whether it be Italian velvet, Spanish brocatelle, French brocade, English printed cotton, or American needlework and linsey-woolsey, is adapted to its former use. The textiles alone provide an inexhaustible field of study, inasmuch as the hangings of the rooms are changed each season, following an old custom. During "rest" periods hangings and carpets cure stored in air-conditioned rooms on sliding tracks for easy access. There, too, are displayed bedspreads — woven, embroidered, quilted and appliqued.3

This detailed account of the types of textiles indicates the richness of the collection. It also emphasizes two important aspects for understanding the museum collection: use of period design sources for curtains and upholstery and awareness of conservation issues for textiles. As noted above, Joseph Downs was the first curator at Winterthur. Downs had been a curator at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His secretary at the Metropolitan from 1944 to 1946 was Florence Montgomery. Montgomery later came to Winterthur as well with her husband Charles Montgomery, Winterthur's first director. Florence Montgomery became the first curator of textiles at the Museum and her activities with the collection during these years reflect the changing attitude toward textiles at Winterthur.

3 Joseph Downs, "The Meaning of the Museum," The Magazine Antiques, Vol. 60, November, 1951. 34

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Du Pont had a steady interest in period design sources for textile arrangements, from a letter to Henry Davis Sleeper discussing his research in 1930 to a letter dating from 1967 to Florence Montgomery again requesting information about period sources. In a letter to Sleeper of November 12, 1930, du Pont wrote:

For this house I shall want some exact reproductions of some old print or picture, and I shall have to ask you to make exact drawings for each window... I am paying attention even to the epoch of the fringes... I am very clear in my mind about the curtains and general line of coloring for several of the rooms...4

When Sleeper did not provide the requested drawings, du Pont complained. Writing on February 21, 1931 about Sleeper's lack of assistance, du Pont indicated that he had to do this work himself: "Therefore I had to spend a great many hours of time in research looking through the Metropolitan Museum, and public library books, in addition to having the illustrations photostated, etc." Du Pont had earlier expressed in a letter toSleeper written on October 12, 1928 that though it was "very hard to get old stuff," he would like to have "old materials" to make these modern interpretations of period sources.

Almost forty years later, du Pont again requested information about period design sources for textiles, this time from Florence Montgomery. In her response to him she wrote: 4 Letter from Henry Francis du Pont to Henry Davis Sleeper, November 12, 1930, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. 35

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I was pleased to have your request through George Colman for a list of design sources for window curtains and bed hangings in the Museum. This has prompted me to assemble a detailed bibliography both for primary sources, such as design books in the Library, and secondary sources, such as Joseph Downs's articles in periodicals and the American Wing Handbook.5

These period sources were not only consistently of interest to du Pont, they were a point of pride in his view of the collection. He wrote:

The way the materials are draped, upholstered, etc., carries out the best tradition of a museum of decorative arts. Many, many hours have been spent looking at paintings, engravings and books to find the correct models for the period of each room, and their execution has taken countless hours of hand- sewing. The accurate and minute details of the fringes, tape bindings, tassels, etc., and the ingenuity in making too short a yardage go in a certain place, the infinite details of the so- called tailoring of curtains and bed valences, have taken endless hours.®

Though very concerned with the arrangement of furniture in the period rooms, du Pont gives his executors leave to replace the furniture with better pieces if they become available and regarding the textiles he wrote: "The Director is at liberty to buy rugs, fabrics and every kind of antiques, the placing of which will not change the arrangement of the furniture."7 Regarding the purchase of textiles after his death, du Pont was emphatic: 5 Memo to H.F. du Pont from Florence Montgomery, September 12, 1967, Florence Montgomery Collection, Winterthur Archives.

6 H.F. du Pont, Instructions to the Executors, pp.60-1, Winterthur Archives.

7 Ibid, preface. 36

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. From time to time if an old piece of brocade, damask, etc., is offered to the Museum and it is similar in color, design and texture to the material on hand in reserve in the carpet and bedspread rooms or actually used in the house as curtains or furniture covering, I think it would be wise of the Museum to buy it and put away for future use, particularly if there is a large yardage. It will be expensive, but buy it." This attitude results in part from the limited amount of material available. Du Pont was not always able to find the eighteenth-century materials he preferred throughout his period of active collecting: There are some 19th century materials in the house, of which I am fully aware. There are also a few pieces of new fringe here and there, and some materials are wrong side out. This has been done deliberately, and I am writing this simply to assure the Director and members o£ the Board that. I have not been hoodwinked but that it was the best thing to be done under the circumstances.9 Circumstances changed however, and du Pont's pride in his ingenuity was later questioned by Florence Montgomery. The idea of "making too short a yardage go" or purchasing "an old piece of brocade" for "future use" would no longer be acceptable. In her essay, "Textiles for the Period Room in America" Montgomery provides a summary of the changing use of historic textiles in period rooms from the early part of the twentieth century forward and also comments on Winterthur

8 Ibid, p.65.

9 Ibid, p.50.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. specifically.10 She notes that the textiles at Winterthur are among "its great glories and the pride of its founder" and acknowledges his role in assembling them. She also comments on his designs for textile storage facilities which were followed by other institutions as well.11 Despite these admirable acts, Montgomery is less impressed with the way in which textiles were sometimes altered:

Over the years as Mr. du Pont furnished the rooms at Winterthur, he also supervised repairs made to textiles at Ernest Lo Nano' s workrooms in New York. No records were kept of the treatment they received. Sometimes new braid was applied and even entire sections of the original background material of a crewelwork bedspread were replaced. Of course this would no longer be acceptable practice among textile conservators.11

This shift in attitude about how to use Deriod textiles is further expressed in a letter from Florence Montgomery to Winterthur staff member Susan Swan. Swan had contacted Montgomery with a question regarding a design source for curtains at Winterthur. Montgomery responded: "So many limitations were imposed by the amount of old material available that I think it would be very difficult to find any sources which were followed at all accurately." Further, Montgomery wrote:

10 Florence Montgomery , Textiles in America 1650-1870. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1984.

11 For additional information about conservation of textiles at Winterthur, see Margaret Fikioris, "Charting the Future: Conservation Principles of H.F. du Pont," American Chemical Society, 1986.

12 Montgomery, p. 135.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. From here on, all Museums should start afresh with print sources. Now that reproduction material is being used the curtains should be much more accurately copied from specific sources, although of course they must in most cases be English.13

This passage reveals a significant change in attitude about the use of historic textiles in Museums. Instead of trying to make period textiles into sometimes less than accurate interpretations of period designs, museums are now expected to use reproduction fabrics. There was also a change in the way that the objects themselves were used to discover clues about interpretation in the museum collection. Though du Pont purchased many curtains and bed coverings in their original eighteenth-century configurations, he apparently did not look at them as sources.14

It is in this context that we can consider the story of the dress with the missing seat. Denise Magnani and Robert Trent offer the following observation on du Pont's activities:

A practice that was popular then but is frowned upon today was the dismantling of antique dresses to reuse the silks for upholstery covers. Although some dress silks survived in the form of uncut bolts, most had been made into dresses, and the cloth displayed the faded, soft colors that

Letter from Florence Montgomery to Susan Swan, December 21, 1972, Registrar's Office files, Object 57.1362.1-2, Winterthur Museum.

14 The Textile Conservation Department is currently identifying and assessing original construction objects in the collection.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. attracted du Pont's eye.13

Florence Montgomery also comments on the use of these sumptuous materials in the museum setting, noting that "quantities of eighteenth-century ladies' dresses and gentlemen's vests and coats also provided fabrics for upholstery" and that coverlets were used as upholstery for country easy chairs, and patchwork quilts were cut up for bed valances.16 Charles Montgomery in his book on the federal furniture at Winterthur makes reference to an 1810 letter that states "I have purchased a brocade gown for your soffa for thirteen dollars exactly Such a one as Rebecca Pierce gave fifteen for."17 Du Pont was not the only one cutting up dresses, historically speaking. He also altered many other objects in the collection including historic architecture and lighting fixtures.

Despite this evidence, there was an awareness of these objects as important in their own right. Alice Morse Earle's Costume of Colonial Times provides an essay on the history of colonial costume and a glossary of terms, including textile

Robert F. Trent and Denise Magnani, "An Arranged Marriage" in The Winterthur Garden; Henry Francis du Pont's Romance with the Land. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995, pp.120-22. is Montgomery, p .13 3. 17 Montgomery, Charles, American Furniture of the Federal Period, 1788-1825. Winterthur, DE: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1966, p.305.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. terms.18 For example, she defines "damask" and indicates that good examples of the fabric can be seen at the Boston Art Museum where "the gorgeous gowns of Peter Faneuil's sister...are preserved in cases."19 There were other efforts to deal with woven fabrics as objects worthy of study, most notably Nancy Andrews Reath's The Weaves of Hand-Loom Fabrics: A Classification with Historical Notes. Her analysis of techniques provides a framework for more scholarly investigation of these textiles.

During the years 1923 to 1951, du Pont purchased 17 dresses and from 1952 to 1969, four more dresses were acquired. There are other examples of dress materials or even actual dresses that were purchased by du Pont. However, they are difficult to track as dresses per se because of the way they were cataloged. There are two examples of furniture upholstered with dresses where a connection has been made between the furniture and the remains of the dresses (Figs.5- 6 and Figs.7-8).20 While this does not account for the status of all dresses or dress fabric acquired by du Pont, this preliminary investigation has shown some evidence of the practice of using costume fabric for upholstery on a limited scale and within a context of overall use of all types of

7i Alice Morse Earle, Costume of Colonial Times. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. Du Pont owned a copy of this book.

19 Earle, p.98. 20 The connection between Figures five and six was discovered by Dennis Carr. See object folder 69.2481, Registrar's Office, Winterthur Museum. 41

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. historic textiles for decoration. This attitude has changed dramatically from the time of du Pont's death in 1969 to the afternoon almost thirty years later when I first began to contemplate the role of textiles at Winterthur. Today it is widely held at Winterthur and elsewhere that, as Florence Montgomery concluded, "Antique textiles are too precious to be used up."21

Montgomery, p. 138. 42

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONCLUSION

At the end of his life, Henry Francis du Pont wrote in the Instructions to the Executors of his will his motive in establishing the museum: My purpose in leaving Winterthur as a Museum to the public is to afford all those interested an opportunity to view and to study the conditions surrounding the early American home life. Therefore, as it is my desire to keep the building in such a way that it will retain its charm, nothing shall be roped off. The reason for this is that the beauty of colors and upholsteries, lies in the infinite details.. .l

He clearly valued the textiles as he noted "the beauty of the colors and upholsteries" and their "infinite details" important to the experience of viewing the collection. Though the period rooms at Winterthur are not interpreted as historically accurate, there is one correlation with the past that is correct; in early America, textiles denoted wealth and the textiles at Winterthur are an excellent illustration of the modern wealth behind this collection. Muchlike the eighteenth-century Americans who fascinated du Pont, he used

1 H.F. du Pont, Instructions to Executors, p.l, Winterthur Archives. 43

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. textiles to create beautiful environments and impress visitors. The rooms at Winterthur were meant to be admired, and studied as well.

The goal of this project has been to assemble documentary information about the history of textiles at Winterthur and begin the process of connecting these documents with the textiles. Because of their transformation once acquired and used at Winterthur, it is challenging to match textile entries from the day books with textiles currently on display or in storage. The information assembled in the database can serve as a source for further analysis and allow continued work into recovering information about these objects. As Winterthur seeks to interpret du Pont's vision, continued investigation into the history of textiles is merited.

Du Pont's textile collecting reflected period interests in both the folk-inspired objects of his early years of activity, and in the move toward a more elegant interpretation of the American past as expressed in the many yards of tasteful silk and printed cottons. The change in attitude toward these objects in the museum further illustrates the evolution of ideas about the collection and use of historic textiles. By the end of du Pont's lifetime the textiles at Winterthur were no longer just background material; they became "in themselves a textile museum."

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 1. Stereoscopic view, Walnut Room, 1935. Robert Brost, Photographer, Winterthur Archives.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 2. Stereoscopic view, Dancing Room, 1935. Robert Brost, Photographer, Winterthur Archives.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 3. Undated view of Blackwell Parlor. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 4. Side chair 54.534. Upholstered with French printed textile. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 5. Settee 59.1877. Upholstered with fragments from dress 69.4700. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 6. Fragments of a dress, 69.4700. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced Figure 8. Fragments of a Dress, 69.2481. Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix A: Textile Database Categories

I . Costume II. Floor Covering apron carpet bag european bandanna hooked blouse mat bonnet oriental cap rug cape runner chasuble coat III. Windows cope curtain costume drapery dress window hanging duster window valance fan garters IV. Furniture gloves bureau cover gown chair seat handbag cushion handkerchief cushion cover hat fire screen jacket lamp shade mittens sconce nightgown seat cover petticoat slip cover pocket upholstery pocketbook purse V. Bedding robe bed bolt scarf bed tick shawl blanket shirt bolster shoes mattress cover skirt pad sleeve pillowcase smock sheet socks stomacher VI. Bed Furnishing suspenders bed cover trousers bed curtain vest bed drapery waistcoat bed hanging wallet bed panel

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. bed set: VIII. Needlework bed spread crewel work bed strips drawn work bed valance embroidery canopy needlework comfort picture counterpane sampler cover coverlet crib cover IX. Study Collection head cloth fragment lining printing block palampore sample quilt sample book spread tester X . Other valance applique banner VII. Yardage bell pull bourette border brocade case brocatelle cloths broche grain bag 1 -5 hallu WajTuSr camelet lace check napkin chintz needle case cotton oil cloth damask panel dimity patchwork droguet pot holder fabric quilted strip gauze table cloth haircloth table cover homespun table mat imberline table rug lampas table runner linen towel moire moreen mouseline mull satin shally silk taffeta toile twill velvet wool

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix B: Textile Category Summaries

Textile Purchases, 1923 - 1951

Costume: 138

Floor Covering: 286

W indows: 15

Furniture: 38

Bedding: 93

Bed Furnishing: 452

Yardage: 549

Needlework: 125

Study Collection: 3

Other: 100

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix C: Textile Purchases, 1923—1951

YEAR t o t a t . s p e n t Number of Purchases

1923 78.00 3 1924 15,362.00 54 1925 13,149.54 135 1926 38,258.20 136 1927 33,589.00 88 1928 112,101.88 100 1929 27,574.00 104 1930 112,889.95 113 1931 85,109.75 135 1932 5,557.00 46 1933 4,229.83 26 1934 4,134.65 35 1935 13,671.68 58 1936 11,370.00 53 1937 8,152.00 51 1938 2,674.30 14 1939 15,433.00 27 1940 12,933.90 60 1941 11,408.76 60 1942 3,771.40 19 1943 13,433.35 93 1944 11,000.90 59 1945 14,872.47 72 1946 17,366.50 61 1947 24,999.50 75 1948 21,254.50 50 1949 17,978.25 76 1950 20,020.25 65 1951 8,260.00 18

TOTALS: $680,634.56 1,886

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix D: Sources for Textiles Purchased, 1923-1951

1750 House Corse, E.F. Adams, Mary Costantino, R.T. A h e m , W.S. Creamer, Warren Allis, Mary Curran, Jas. American Art Associations Curry, Douglas Anderson Galleries Dalva Brothers Andrews, Mary Davenport, Mildred Arons, George Davidson, James Arons, Harry Dawes, J. Ashley, A. De Spiridon, Anne Ashley-Kent De Sherbinin, Michael Ayer, F.W. Dilley, Arthur Bacchi, Victor R. Dodge, Mary Baldwin, William C. Dougherty, Marion Barclay, I. Edwards, Clara Barrre—Caswell Bartlet, Margaret Ekisian, H. Bartlett, Maude Elsberg, H.A. Baugh, C.L. Engel, N.L. Baugh, L.D. Erwin, H.G. (Estate of) Beer, Alice Farr, Dan Beesom, C.F. Flayderman, Harry Benjamin Franklin Antique Shop Fletcher, Edna Benkard, Bertha (Estate of) Force, Albert Benson-Glick Franklin Studio Bergman's Antique Shop Fraser, E .S. Brinton, Francis Freeman Auctions Brown, Dorothy French and Company Bruce, Mrs. Friedenberg, R. Brunner, R.S. Gardiner, R. Bullard, Alfred Farland, O.D. Burgard, Louisa Gause, Jean Burnham, R.V. Gilbert, L.J. Carey, T.v. Gins burg and Levy Chase, Catherine Glebe House Church, Philip Glick, Alice Clarke, J.B. Graham, Viola Collings and Collings Graves, Susan Colonial Antique Shop Griscom Gallery Condon, R.E. Grossman, H. Cookerow, Catherine Guest, H.W. Cooper-Union Museum Haberbush, A.H.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hackman, M. Levin, N.D. Haddon, M.L. Lewis, Son and Munves Haggard, Flora Little Indian Antique Shop Hall, Margaret Lives ey, George Hall, R.G. LoNano, Ernest Harding, Mrs. W. Loudonville Exchange Hayden Company Louis and Company The Hayloft Lyon, C.W. Healy, Sumner MacCarthy, F. Heberger, M.H. MacCoy, Mrs. L. Heffner, C.M. MacLellan, C.A. Helft and Company Maine, Florence Hinden and Son Mallory's Antique Shop Holden, Agnes Mason, A.M. Hollander, David McCarty, Frank Holmes, Lydia McClelland, Nancy Hostetter, Mrs. A.K. McCreedy, Thomas Howe's House of Antiques McGrath, Ann Howe, E.C. McKearins Howell, Josephine McMullen, Frank Hurry, R.C. McNally, J.P. Hurry, R.w. Merrell, Elinor Hutchinson, J.S. Missemer, D.B. Hyde, Lloyd Montague, M.L. Ives, C.W. Montgomery, C.F. Ives, Frances Moore, Roland Ives, G.F. (Estate of) Moore, Wilmer Jackson Schuyler Morford, Peter Jacobs, Beulah Morgan, Martha Jacobs, I . Morrell, F.C. Jacobs, M.S. Musselman, C. Janse, Rose Myers Auction Johnson, M.w. Nadelman, E. Johnston, F.J. New England Attic Joyce, Adeline Nichols, Mrs. F . Kaiser, K.R. Nolan, Mrs. C. Kegerreis, S. Norris, Frank Keller and Funaro Old Country Store Keller, H.B. Old Print Shop Kennedy, Lallie Old Stone House Kindig, Joe Osborne, Mabel King Hooper Mansion Oxbow Antique Shop Kipper, Katrina Palmite, R.H. Knittle, E.J. Park Square Furniture Mart Knodle, Edward Parke-Bernet Knudsen, A.O. Partridge, F. Koones, F.C. Patchwork House LaTourette, Mrs. Pauly, R.P. Leath, J•E . Pennypacker, A . J. Lent, Mary Peters, Fred

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Pine Cupboard Weagant, I.L. Pleadwell, Amy Weil, H.v. Porter, Lee Wellens, A.F. Ramsey, W.G. Wetherstine, H .H . Rand, E. and E. (at auction) Whitbread and Ulmer Reed, Ira White, Winsor Reeves, Martha Williams, Lenore W. Renner, M.I. Willis, K. Rice, A.H. Winick, I. Robinson, M.P. Worster, H.P. Rogers, Mabel Yesteryear Roosa and Shierding Zimmerman, E.D. Rosenbach Company Sack, Israel Sattig, R.G. Schernikow, Mrs. Schmitt, Dorothy Schubart, Dorothy Searing, Mrs. E.A. Secord, W.R. Shanaman, D.N. Sheeley, W.F. Spangler, Louisa Staniar, Ethel Stauffer, C.R. Stockwell, David Stony Batter Antiques Exchange Strong, M.R. Sullivan, Mary Sussel, A.J. Sutton, S.R. Syrie, Ltd. Temple, Samuel Thacher, Thurston Tiffany Studios Tilden, G.L. Tower, D.M. Traver, C.M. Ullman, Mrs. Urich, R.R. Van Houten, C.W. Van Houten, C.M. Van Rensselear, S. Village Green Shop Wa l e s , K . Wall, Mary Wall, R.G. Wanamaker, J. Washington, L.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix E: Textile Purchases from Alice Beer

DATE Description

12/13/32 Cover and valance, tan and green silk and linen damask, late 17th to 18th Cent. 12/13/32 Cover, Antique green damask 12/13/32 Cover, chair seat two larger squared 12/13/32 Cover, half rounded (for Empire chairs?) 12/13/32 Cover, small piece of chair seat 12/13/32 Covers, 3 small square yellow satin for Empire chairs 12/13/32 Damask, 3 pieces of Ant. purple 12/13/32 Faille, 2 piece of brown and white 18th C. 12/13/32 Valance, Ant. Linen, printed or blocked 12/24/32 Bed cover, apricot satin brocade 10/04 /OO 0-5 1 U O C -lTr/>¥nr t.tV> A 4-o e a f in c+*ri tnoH X £ / 6*1/ UXXiVf ^ jruo • j ww w 10/22/34 Bed cover, blue & white hand woven 12/7/34 Chintz, piece glazed, rose and morning glory pattern, blue, pink, brown, etc. 1/9/35 Brocade, small lot green flower pattern and fur meander L XV, 3 pcs. 1/9/35 Cover, of coral raw silk, simple geometric weave. Also strip 2 yds. 33" same, but faded 1/9/35 Cover, of light red wool and "pita" brocade 18C 10/16/36 Cover of golden rose colored raw silk, abt 7 3/4 yd 10/16/36 Cover of green raw silk, Valencian, 18th cen. 5 yd. 10/16/36 Cover of light blue raw silk, Valencian, 18th centy. 5 yd. 21" 10/16/36 Velvet, lot of pale yellow wool with tiny green and tan dot 12/23/36 Curtains, 2 of grey green damask, Spain 18th C., 6 yds. 12" in the 2 5/24/37 Needlework, long narrow strip of fine muslin embroidered in floral design in silk point de chainette in shades of rose, blue, etc. 6/21/37 Cover, quilted of printed cotton, floral design in henna, yellow and white 6/21/37 Silk, Piece of light blue brocaded in design of flowers and ribbon meander, between shaded rose and green stripes

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11/22/37 Cotton, lot of printed, large flower & tree pattern, in purples, reds, brown & blue. Design shows strong Indian influence. 2 curtains ea. 4 yd. 27"; 1 gath. valance, abl yd. 18", some frag 12/1/37 Cotton, 2 panels printed, large scaled flower & tree pattern. Each panel has a sig. of the maker at the end. 2 3/4 yd. piece, 2 yd. piece 5/8/39 Cotton, piece of violet glazed, about 2 yds. 5/8/39 Cover, large of white linen with allover quilted design, 18th century 6/21/39 Cover, large, of peach brocade, 12 yd. 4" 6/21/39 Textile, 11 yd. 18" cream silk brocaded in floral pattern 9/6/39 Spread, large, of green satin edged with silk fringe to match. 12 yds. 20" 18th Cen. 1/10/40 Curtain, large of peach satin brocaded in flower pattern in blue, cream with some pale green. About 8 yd. 24" of 21" width material 2/3/40 Cover, of bluish green damask symetrical floral design 2/24/40 Textile, 2 pcs. pale yellow silk brocaded in design of flower clusters and lacy meander in blues 3.5 yds. 5/23/40 Cover, large of cream silk painted in delicate Chinoiserie design of personages, animals and flowers 6/17/40 Mats, 3 small of pale pink silk brocaded in flower and lacy meander pattern in cream 6/25/40 Muslin, small cover of, delicate floral design painted in various colors 1/8/41 Quilt, of homespun woolen, soft faded green on one side and cream on the other, quilted in star pattern in green woolen 4/19/41 Needlework, lot of American crewel, fine cream colored linen, worked in 2 shades of blue and white, Lot contains 2 curtains, each about 2 yds. long and three valances 7/18/41 Bed cover, of fine ecru linen embroidered in colored wools 10/7/41 Textile, panel wool velvet, large scale design of sun flower and other flowers & vines, Deep cream color, 2 3/4 yds long, 21 " wide 1/25/43 Chasuble, of light yellow-green velvet 1/25/43 Textile, banner of blue-green velvet 1/25/43 Textile, Panel of green wool velvet 1/25/43 Textile, small piece of yellow & white striped satin embroidered in blue 3/3/43 Textile, 4 3/4 yds. antique printed line vine design in plum reds 5/5/44 Needlework, lot of crewel embroidery

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5/5/44 Quilt, large, of printed flowered cotton, with yellow silk border. Lined with greyish mauve printed percale 5/5/44 Textile, lot of yellow silk bourette

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources:

Alice Baldwin Beer Papers, Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives. Database of textile purchases compiled from day books 1923 - 1951, Registrar's Office, Winterthur Museum. Database of textile accessions compiled from accession records, 1952 - 1969, Registrar's Office, Winterthur Museum. Dealer Correspondence, Registrar's Office files, Winterthur Museum. Du Pont, H.F., Instructions to the Executors, Winterthur Archives.

Secondary Sources:

Beer, Alice Baldwin, Trade Goods: A Study of Indian Chintz in the Collection of the Cooper-Hewittt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.Washington. D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970. Bernabo, Russell, Henry Francis du Pont's Interior Design Aesthetic and Winterthur's Flock Room. M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1989. Bowen, Helen, "Corded and Padded Quilting," The Magazine Antiques, November, 1924, Vol. 6, pp.250-53.

Bowles,Ella Shannon, Handmade Rugs. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.,1927. Blum, Dilys E ., The Fine Art of Textiles: The Collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997. 63

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cantor, Jay E., Winterthur, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997 (orig. publ. 1985). Carrick, Alice van Leer, Collector's Luck. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1919. Carter, Morris, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Her Fenway Court. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925 Cavallo, Adolph S., Textiles: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston: Published by the Trustees of the I.S. Gardner Museum, 1986. Clouzot, Henri and Frances Morris, Painted and Printed Fabrics .New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1927. Joseph Downs, "The Meaning of the Museum," The Magazine Antiques, November, 1951, Vol. 60. Dyer, Walter A., The Lure of the Antique. New York, The Century Co., 1910. Earle, Alice Morse, Home Life in Colonial Davs. New York and London: The Macmillan Co., 1898. , Costume of Colonial Times. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. Eversmann, Pauline K., Discover the Winterthur Period Rooms, Distributed by University Press of New England, Winterthur, Delaware: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1998. Fikioris, Margaret, "Charting the Future: Conservation Principles of H.F. du Pont," American Chemical Society, 1986. Finley, Ruth E., Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1929. Flemming, Ernst and Renate Jacques, Encyclopedia of Textiles. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1958 (orig. publ. 1927). Gordon, Beverly, Domestic American Textiles: A Bibliographic Sourcebook. Pittsburgh, PA: Center for the History of American Needlework, 1978. Hall, Eliza Calvert, A Book of Handwoven Coverlets. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1912. Harris, Neil, Winterthur and America's Museum Acre. Winterthur: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1981.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hay, Susan Anderson, ed., A World of Costume and Textiles. Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1988. Hood, Adrienne, "Material Culture and Textiles: An Overview," Material History Bulletin, Spring, 1990. Hunter, George Leland, Decorative Textiles: An Illustrated Book on Coverings for Furniture. Walls and Floors. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1918. Kaplan, Wendy Joan, R.T.H. Halsev: An Ideology of Collecting American Decorative Arts. M.A.thesis, University of Delaware, 1980. Kent, William Wentworth, The Hooked Rug. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1930. Kvaraceus, Catherine and Larry Salmon, From Fiber to Fine Art. Handbook of the Department of Textiles. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1980. Lidz, Margaret, "Dueling Identities: The Colonel, His Son and the Architecture at Winterthur," forthcoming M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1999. Little, Frances, Early American Textiles. New York: The Century Co.,1931. Lord, Ruth, Henry F.du Pont and Winterthur: A Daughter's Portrait, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. Meyer-Riefstahl, Rudolf, "Early Textiles in the Cooper Union Collection, Part One," Art in America. Vol. Ill, No. 5, August 1915, pp.231-33. Montgomery, Charles, American Furniture of the Federal Period in the Henrv Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. New York: Viking Press, 1966. , The Henrv Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. A Guide to the Collections. August 1962, revised July 1966. Montgomery, Florence, Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens, New York: Viking Press, 1970. , Textiles in America 1650-1870, New York: W.W.Norton and Co., 1984. Moore, N. Hudson, The Collector's Manual. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1905.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nylander, Jane C., Fabrics for Historic Buildings, Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1990. Oliver, Celia, "Electra Havemeyer Webb and Shelburne's Quilt Collection" in On the Cutting Edge: Textile Collectors. Collections and Traditions, ed. Jeannette Lasansky, Lewisburg, PA: Oral Traditions Project, 1994.

Phillips, Anna M. Laise, Hooked Runs and How to Make Them. New York: MacMillan and Company, 1925. Reath, Nancy Andrews, The Weaves of Hand-Loom Fabrics: A Classification with Historical Notes. Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Museum, 1927. Roberts, Kenneth L., Antiouamania, New York: Doubleday, Doran, & Company, Inc., 1928. Rock, Daniel, Textile Fabrics. New York: Scribner,Welford and Armstrong (South Kensington Museum Art Handbook), 1876. Saarinen, Aline, The Proud Possesors, New York: Random House, 1958. Sandberg, Jeni, "Re-covering the Past: Ernest Lo Nano and Upholstery for His^crxc Interiors," paper delivered at Sard Graduate Center Symposium Uncovering the Past: New Research on Historic Upholstery, 1600-1850, October 16-17, 1998. Schorsch, Anita, The Art of the Weaver. New York: Universe Books, 1978. Siegelaub, Seth, ed., Biblioaraphica Textilia Historiae. New Yorkinternational General, based on the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles Library and archives, 1996. Singleton, Esther, The Collecting of Antiques. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1926. Stillinger, Elizabeth, The Antiauers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. Swan, Susan Burrows, Plain and Fancy; American Women and Their Needlework. 1650-1850. Austin, Texas: Curious Works Press, 1995 (orig. publ. 1977). Sweeney, John, A.H., Introduction by Henry Francis du Pont, The Treasury of Early American Rooms. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1963. ., Winterthur Illustrated. Winterthur, DE: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1963. 66

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. , Henry Francis du Pont: Observations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, May 27, 1980, Winterthur, DE: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. Thurman, Christa C. Mayer, Textiles in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1992. Trent,Robert F. and Denise Magnani, " An Arranged Marriage" in The Winterthur Garden: Henrv Francis du Pont's Romance with the Land, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Waugh, Elizabeth and Edith Foley, Collecting Hooked Rugs. New York: Century Company, 1927. Winterthur Portfolio One, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1964. "H.F.du Pont and the Evolution of the Museum Collection," Special Subject tour prepared under the Direction of Peter H. Hammel, head, Education and Public Programs Division and Coordinated by Pam Smith, Senior Guide, The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur DE, 1986.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.