“THE LOVE OF RESEARCH AND THE GIFT FOR NEW WEAVINGS”
THE WORK, COLLECTIONS, AND LEGACY OF
MARGUERITE PORTER DAVISON
by
Sara A. Jatcko
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.
Spring 2007
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Copyright 2007 by Jatcko, Sara A.
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“THE LOVE OF RESEARCH AND THE GIFT FOR NEW WEAVINGS”
THE WORK, COLLECTIONS, AND LEGACY OF
MARGUERITE PORTER DAVISON
by
Sara A. Jatcko
Approved: ______Linda Eaton, B.A. Hon., D.T.C. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee
Approved: ______J. Ritchie Garrison, Ph.D. Director of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture
Approved: ______Thomas M. Apple, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Approved: ______Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The story of Marguerite Porter Davison is, at its basic level, about a woman who loved to weave. However, she is one of a larger group of weavers who found their expression in art, and her legacy is part of a larger continuum of work. I hope that this study will help encourage others to look into the stories of the craft revival though the study of both the careers of its participants and the objects these individuals made and collected.
This research project has been a fascinating part of my life since it began in
April of 2006. First, I’d like to thank Linda Eaton, Curator of Textiles at the
Winterthur Museum and my adviser, for introducing me to Davison’s work. Her guidance, knowledge, and encouragement have been of great help in shaping this paper.
I am also indebted to Mrs. Sue Davison Cooley, Marguerite Porter Davison’s daughter, for connecting me with objects and documents in her collection. By inviting me to visit her and allowing me to conduct an oral history interview, Mrs. Cooley has enriched this work and helped me gain another layer of understanding her mother’s life and work. Mrs. Cooley’s assistant, Jeanne Becker, has also been helpful and informative.
iii Those who studied Davison and her collections in the past have also greatly contributed to the thesis. Among these individuals is Mrs. Elizabeth Cooley, Sue
Davison Cooley’s husband’s sister-in-law, whose interest in Davison has informed my work. I’d also like to thank the handweavers who responded to my call for questionnaire responses for their input. The Handweaving Study Group that catalogued Davison’s Collection of Pennsylvania Linens at Winterthur has also provided me with information to interpret, and deserve thanks for their contributions.
Among the other institutions that helped this research are the Millersville
University Ganser Library Special Collections Department in Millersville,
Pennsylvania and the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center in Clayton, New York.
These institutions generously allowed me access and photographic privileges concerning their materials.
The faculty, staff, and my fellow fellows at the Winterthur Museum also deserve thanks; these teachers and colleagues have been a constant source of inspiration. Finally, thanks to my spouse, family, and friends for their untiring encouragement.
iv
DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to my spouse, Robert Winkeler. His thoughtful feedback and editing assistance throughout this project was invaluable. His support and friendship over the past ten years is a precious gift.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES...... vii ABSTRACT ...... ix
Chapter
1 INTRODUCTION...... 1 Defining Phases of the Handweaving Revival ...... 3 Review of Literature on the Handweaving Revival...... 4 Goals of this Study ...... 8 Organization of Thesis ...... 10
2 THE HANDWEAVING REVIVAL IN AMERICA: INFLUENCES, INDIVIDUALS AND PHASES...... 11 Influence: The Arts and Crafts Movement...... 11 Influence: The Colonial Revival ...... 15 Participants in the Handweaving Revival ...... 18 Phases of the Handweaving Revival ...... 20 The Traditional Phase...... 21 The Transitional Phase ...... 28 The Modern Phase...... 33 Conclusions ...... 37
3 THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OF FAMILY ...... 38 Family Background ...... 38 Berea College and the Beginnings of Davison's Design Philosophy...... 41 Changes and Travel...... 49 Home in America ...... 54 Conclusions ...... 55
4 BUILDING A COLLECTION AND BUILDING A CAREER ...... 57 The Love of Research...... 57 Collecting Historic Woven Objects...... 60 Acquiring the Laura Allen Collection...... 75 Craftsmanship and New Weaves from Old...... 76
vi Exhibiting Her Weavings ...... 81 Conclusions ...... 84
5 SHARING HER KNOWLEDGE AND WRITING HER LEGACY...... 86 Teaching Others to Weave ...... 86 Early Writing...... 89 Writing A Handweaver's Pattern Book...... 99 Becoming a Publisher and Promoting Her Books...... 107 Laura Allen and A Handweaver's Source Book ...... 114 Conclusions ...... 116
6 CONCLUSIONS AND DAVISON'S LEGACY TODAY...... 117 Survey of Weavers ...... 117 Conclusions ...... 127
Appendix
A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HANDWEAERS ...... 131 B FIGURES 1-24...... 133
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 158
PERMISSIONS ...... 167
vii LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Page from the Scrapbooks of Laura Allen: Popular Mechanics, Mar.1919: “Reviving Handicrafts in America.” ...... 134
Figure 2: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the Associated Handweavers: project I 4, Twill by M. Lord 1/15/49 ...... 135
Figure 3: “Kivers” Sold by Berea College’s Fireside Industries, 1912-1913 ...... 136
Figure 4: “Rose in the Wilderness” a design by Anna Ernberg woven by Marguerite Porter Davison, from page 180 of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book...... 137
Figure 5: Image of Photo of the Porter Family from Marguerite Porter’s wedding to Waldo Davison...... 138
Figure 6: Inventory Book 2000.0007.116, written by Marguerite Porter Davison, pages 10-11...... 139
Figure 7: Hand Towel 2000.0007.0021...... 140
Figure 8: Plain woven linens (left to right: 2000.0007.095; 2000.0007.076; 2000.0007.072; 2000.0007.074) ...... 141
Figure 9: Table Cover 2000.007.046...... 142
Figure 10: Tablecloth 2000.007.025 ...... 143
Figure 11: “Goose-Eye Blocks,” page 36 in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book ...... 144
Figure 12: Tablecloth 2000.007.017 ...... 145
Figure 13: Napkins woven by Marguerite Porter Davison...... 146
Figure 14: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the Associated Handweavers: project 1/7, by Marguerite Porter Davison...... 147
Figure 15: Image of Photograph of Marguerite Porter Davison at the loom ...... 148
viii Figure 16: Image of a photograph of a runner woven by Marguerite Porter Davison, at the first annual exhibit of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen ...... 149
Figure 17: No. 8: a white and brown linen napkin by Marguerite Porter Davison.... 150
Figure 18: No. 7: a brown, cream, and blue linen towel by Marguerite Porter Davison...... 151
Figure 19: Linens and pattern draft by Marguerite Porter Davison, page 29 of Little Loomhouse Country Fair, 1945-1946...... 152
Figure 20: Coverlet sampler woven by Marguerite Porter Davison ...... 153
Figure 21: Image of a Coverlet, from the final page of Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns ...... 154
Figure 22: “Modified Twills,” page 22 of the first edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book...... 155
Figure 23: Photo portrait of Marguerite Porter Davison, 1950 ...... 156
Figure 24: “Pioneer Trail” diagram, page 10 of the first edition of A Handweaver’s Source Book ...... 157
ix
ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the life and work of handweaver, author, collector, and scholar Marguerite Porter Davison. It explores how Davison played a key role in the American Handweaving Revival of the 20th century by contextualizing her career and examining the objects she made and collected. The paper also examines the wider American Handweaving Revival by defining three phases of activity: a traditional, a transitional, and a modern phase. As a member of the transitional phase, Davison is compared to her predecessors and her contemporaries. Active between 1914 and 1953, Davison was educated at Berea College in Kentucky, a handweaving center in the Southern Highlands area. There, she developed an interest in collecting weaving pattern drafts that would continue throughout her life. Throughout her career Davison collected both historic and contemporary literature on handweaving and historic pattern woven linens and pattern drafts. From these materials Davison wrote several articles, two booklets, and two books on handweaving. Her most influential book, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, is considered to be one of the best repositories of traditional four-shaft weaving patterns, and is still used to teach handweaving today. Although Davison studied and collected historic pieces, her career focused on propelling the craft forward through experimentation with structures, treadling, and materials. Davison’s own weaving production, and the philosophy she presents in her books, demonstrates how the transitional weavers pushed the ideas of what weaving could be, a key step towards the widespread recognition of weaving as an art form that occurred in the 1960s.
x Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Marguerite Porter Davison was a weaver-artist, teacher, author, and scholar whose work played an influential role in the early twentieth century Handweaving
Revival. Perhaps best known for her work as the author of A Handweaver’s Pattern
Book, a collection of patterns for four-shaft looms that has continuously been in print since 1944, Davison continues to be a well-recognized name among those who weave and those who study handweaving both in America and abroad. Born on July 13,
1887, Davison worked during a time of growth for the craft of handweaving. Her career as a weaver spanned from about 1912 until her sudden death on February 20,
1953. While the Handweaving Revival took place internationally, this thesis examines Davison’s career as an American case study and contextualizes her career in the greater scope of the American Handweaving Revival.
Davison’s career was multidimensional; it merged her own creative work with a strong desire to educate others about the history and practice of her craft. First and foremost, Davison was an artist-craftsperson working in a woven medium. Davison designed new patterns and exhibited her own weavings in various exhibitions of contemporary craftwork during the final years of her career. Yet education was also of great importance to Davison. Educated as a weaver by Anna Ernberg, the longtime
1 director of Fireside Industries at Berea College, an influential weaving center of the
Southern Highlands region, the foundation of Davison’s career lay in traditional methods of handweaving. This background would influence not only Davison’s approach to craftsmanship, but also the focus she would take in her own original research on Swedish, Pennsylvania German, and other ethnic weaving traditions. As an educator, she corresponded with those who used her pattern books, and she taught weaving in the communities where she resided.
Her work as a collector of historic textiles, an educator, and a scholar led to her writing four books. Among these works were two authoritative books featuring weaving patterns and instruction: A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and A Handweaver’s
Source Book, as well as two pamphlet-style books on the weavings of the
Pennsylvania Germans. During Davison’s lifetime and today, A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book has been used as a teaching tool and repository of historic patterns.
Through all of Davison’s writings, many of which were illustrated with pieces from her historic collections and personal weavings, Davison made designs of the past accessible for modern handweavers. Her career as an author led Davison to work as a businesswoman as well as a craftsperson; she published and marketed her two pattern books and two books by other authors.
2 Defining the Phases of the Handweaving Revival
This thesis will focus on Marguerite Porter Davison’s role in the American post-industrial Handweaving Revival1, a movement concerning both art and handicraft that in this paper will be defined as beginning in the late 1880s and ending around
1960.2 Through defining three phases, a traditional (or early) phase, a transitional phase, and a modern (or late) phase, this thesis will help clarify the differences between the weavings and ideas taking place throughout this movement. Although these phases are roughly chronological, there is some overlap between them; they should be viewed as being composed of groups of weavers who shared similar ideas about their craft. As such, each phase will be discussed in terms of its adherents and their philosophy in the first chapter of the thesis. The overall goal of this thesis is not only to define these phases but also to define Davison’s place and contributions within the greater Handweaving Revival. Davison is an important figure within transitional phase of the Handweaving Revival, and this paper examines how her own weaving,
1 After this point, the term “Handweaving Revival” will be exclusively used to denote this period.
2 The dates of this handweaving revival are fluid, as various handweaving groups experienced drastic changes in membership, materials, and philosophies beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s largely due to the influence of the “Back to Earth” movement. For an in-depth regional study of handweaving trends, see Marie A. Gile and Marion T. Marzolf’s Fascination with Fiber: Michigan’s Handweaving Heritage. (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006), p. 81-91. The 1960 ending date has also been recognized by the popular handweaving publication Handwoven as a moment of weaving transition.
3 her collection of historic pattern-woven textiles, and her writings demonstrate the transitional viewpoint.
A Review of Literature on the Handweaving Revival
The Handweaving Revival, and the wider craft revival that began at the end of the 19th century and continued through the mid-20th century, is a developing field of scholarly study. A small, but growing number of books, theses, and articles have recently begun to examine the American Handweaving Revival as a social movement, an artistic movement, and a craft movement. This paper is possibly the first scholarly piece to define and examine the Handweaving Revival in terms of phases; it is also the first to closely examine Davison.
Published scholarship is focused on figures who worked in what I define as the traditional, first phase of the Handweaving Revival. There is one work contemporary to the Handweaving Revival that is particularly rich in its information and scope. This work, Allen H. Eaton’s Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands, provides an overview of the settlement schools, people, and craft activities that were ongoing from the 1890s until it was published in 1937.3 Eaton was a scholar of both handicrafts and immigrant contributions to American life, and his writing on the craft revival remains definitive. There are also recent studies of hand craft movements. Phyllis Alvic’s
3 Allen H. Eaton. Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands. (New York: The Russell Sage Foundation, 1937). For information on handweaving, see Part II, Chapters I-VI. The book also covers quilting, furniture, basketry, woodworking, music, and pottery, among other crafts. It also discusses crafts and education in Part III.
4 2003 book Weavers of the Southern Highlands, closely examines the social philosophy attached to teaching impoverished peoples to weave. Alvic builds on
Allan Eaton’s Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands by looking at the history of
Appalachian Craft Revival at Fireside Industries, Arrowcraft, and Penland.4 Amy
Gallagher’s 2003 master’s thesis Educating Through the Loom also focuses on the
Handweaving Revival, but it mainly examines the role of Laura M. Romaine Allen, an early weaving educator and collector of patterns. Gallagher also examines weaving as a means to change or improve the quality of people’s lives, particularly through social aid and occupational therapy.5 Marie A. Gile and Marion T. Marzolf, in their 2006 book Fascination with Fiber: Michigan's Handweaving Heritage, discuss the impact of the Handweaving Revival in Michigan throughout the state’s history, including pre and post-revival times. They examine different organizations dedicated to weaving, such as educational communities like Cranbrook and individual handweaving guilds.6
As well as briefly discussing the forces behind the national revival of handweaving,
4 Phyllis Alvic. Weavers of the Southern Highlands. (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2003), 50
5 Amy Gallagher Educating Through the Loom: Arts and Crafts Movement Ideals, Laura Allen, and the Handweaving Revival in America. (MA thesis: Fashion Institute of Technology, 2003), 4
6 Marie A. Gile and Marion T. Marzolf. Fascination with Fiber: Michigan’s Handweaving Heritage. (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006).
5 this book particularly looks at the role of Mary Meigs Atwater’s national handweaving guild, The Shuttle-Craft Guild, and Harriet Tidball, Atwater’s successor.7
There have been a few limited studies of individual handweavers working during the early revival. Isadora M. Safner’s 1985 book The Weaving Roses, focuses on pre-revival weaver William Henry Harrison “Weaver” Rose, a collector and friend of Laura Allen. Safner examines the correspondence and pattern drafts of this Rhode
Island weaver. Rose’s work serves as a link between the first phase of the
Handweaving Revival and the traditional weaving practices at use in America before the mass mechanization of weaving.8 Olivia Mahoney’s 1985 museum catalog and essay Edward F. Worst: Craftsman and Educator examines the role of this first phase weaver, teacher, and author. The essay is biographical, and traces Worst’s career as it relates to the ideals of modern education and the ideals of the arts and crafts movement.9 Mary Jo Reiter’s 1992 Weaving a Life: The Story of Mary Meigs
Atwater tells the story of Atwater’s personal and professional life, based on her letters, papers, photographs, and family history. It offers Atwater’s insights into several areas of the handweaving revival, including the role of weaving in occupational therapy and
7 Ibid, 16.
8 Isadora Safner. The Weaving Roses of Rhode Island. (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1985).
9 Olivia Mahoney. Edward F. Worst: Craftsman and Educator. (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1985).
6 her role as the founder of the Shuttle-Craft Guild, the first national handweaving guild.10
The career of Marguerite Porter Davison, however, has received no scholarly examination. While she has been called “one of the leading authorities on handweaving” in the United States, no previous work has examined her professional life or how her book grew to be one of the most respected compilations of patterns for four-shaft looms. 11 The published material on Davison’s life and career has been limited to short articles included in magazines and newsletters aimed at the handweaving community. Davison’s profile was included in a short, two-page article in Handwoven magazine’s May/June 1990 issue “Personal Stories: Handweaving in
America between 1920 and 1960.”12 This profile was based on an interview with
Davison’s son John Alden Davison. The publication Warp and Weft also featured a small biographical article entitled “A Way of Life: A Tribute to Marguerite P.
Davison” in its September 1992 issue.13 The Spring 1958 issue of Handweaver and
10 Mary Jo Reiter. Weaving a Life: The Story of Mary Meigs Atwater. (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1992).
11 Quote from dust jacket from: Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book . 1971 printing
12 Katy Bright Banks and Louise Bradley. “Profile: Marguerite Porter Davison” Handwoven. May/June 1990; p. 67-68.
13 Wiley, Joseph “A Way of Life” Warp and Weft (Vol. 45, Number 7)
7 Craftsman featured an article on Davison’s collection of historic linens, and their former home at the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland.14
Goals of this Study
This thesis broadly examines the handweaving revival of the late 19th and early
20th centuries, and the complex cultural and artistic forces that impacted Davison and her contemporary weavers. These forces include the colonial revival aesthetic, the focus on the virtues and pleasures of creating handmade goods that supported the arts and crafts movement, nationalistic fascinations with “folk art” and the primitive, and the development of modern art. This study will examine both Davison’s weaving career and the relationship between her historic collections, personal weavings, and weaving research to her influential A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. While this study will add to the existing biographical material on Davison, it will also be the first academic study to closely examine the objects she made and collected.
Through examining Davison’s career as a weaver-artist, teacher, scholar, and collector, this thesis will focus on how Davison’s work bridged the gap between the first, traditional phase of the Handweaving Revival and the revival’s later phases.
Along with the products and publications of other second phase weavers, Davison helped lay the groundwork for professional weaving’s transformation from decorative to fine art. Through her accessible weaving drafts and clear prose, Davison also
14 Frances Fruniss. “Heirloom Linens” Handweaver and Craftsman (Spring 1958), 11- 13, 53.
8 enabled amateur weavers to gain a better understanding of the craft. To illuminate
Davison’s place in the Handweaving Revival, this thesis will address the following questions: What is Davison’s role and position in the Handweaving Revival? How did her collection of historic textiles, pattern drafts, and secondary literature on weaving influence her work? Why is Davison so influential among handweavers today?
Several bodies of primary evidence are utilized in this thesis to help answer these questions. The 118 examples of pattern-woven linens in the Marguerite Porter
Davison Collection of Early Pennsylvania Textiles at the Winterthur Museum will be used to examine Davison as a collector and scholar. Davison’s personal library survives in the Special Collections department of the Ganser Library at Millersville
University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, which includes 319 publications, manuscripts, and scrapbooks on weaving and hand crafts of all kinds. Many of these publications are annotated in Davison’s hand. This collection is used to discuss Davison’s scholarly pursuits and the process of writing her books. Another primary collection used in this study is the Laura M. Romaine Allen scrapbooks at the Handweaving Museum and Arts
Center in Clayton, New York. This collection was acquired by Davison after Allen’s death, and acts as a tangible connection between the first and second phases of the
Handweaving Revival. An oral history interview conducted on October 20, 2006 with
Davison’s daughter, Mrs. Sue Davison Cooley, provides a base of evidence about her mother’s weaving, together with family correspondence and textiles woven by
Marguerite Porter Davison in her daughter’s collection. Finally, questionnaire responses
9 by present-day weavers are used to help understand the continuing legacy of Davison’s work as a weaver and a teacher.
Organization of Thesis
This thesis is organized into six chapters. The next chapter, chapter two, contains a close examination of the Handweaving Revival and the individuals and cultural forces that shaped it. This will help contextualize Davison’s career by identifying the movements and ideas that happened before, during, and after her period of production. The third chapter is biographical, and examines Marguerite
Porter Davison’s education and early life. It also looks at Davison’s career as a teacher of weaving for purposes of both physical therapy and pleasure. The fourth chapter examines Davison as an artist, craftsperson, and connoisseur by discussing the textiles and patterns that she collected and created. The fifth examines the Davison’s writings in books and magazines, focusing on how she used her collections and knowledge of the craft to educate others. This chapter also discusses her life as a businesswoman and publisher of two books by other authors. The concluding chapter contains responses to Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book from handweavers working in 2006. This will help illuminate the continued legacy of this publication, as the data collected from this questionnaire deals with who is weaving today, what books they use, and how these individuals have interacted with A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book. The concluding chapter also presents my conclusions regarding
Davison’s legacy and position in the transitional phase of the Handweaving Revival.
10 Chapter 2
THE HANDWEAVING REVIVAL IN AMERICA: INFLUENCES, INDIVIDUALS, AND PHASES
To better understand and contextualize the career of Marguerite Porter
Davison, this chapter will address the history of the Handweaving Revival. The complex combination of cultural forces contributing to this handicraft movement are first explored. Three major phases of activity in the Handweaving Revival are defined, and the major figures contributing to the weavings going on in each phase are discussed.
Influence: The Arts and Crafts Movement
The American Handweaving Revival has origins in broader cultural forces that led to a widespread craft revival throughout many western cultures in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Partly as a response to widespread industrialization and mass production, many people rediscovered an interest in traditional designs and production methods. This desire for a return to skilled handiwork was a contributing factor in the popularization of the Arts and Crafts movement in America. The Arts and Crafts movement began in England during the 1870s. Its founders, John Ruskin and William Morris, were progressive social critics and tastemakers who believed that
11 art and labor could be reunited through craftsmanship.15 The movement, while primarily associated with a distinct style or design aesthetic championed by Morris and Ruskin, has broadly been defined as more than that. It is also “an attitude toward the making of objects” that includes “all those who shared its goals of rationalizing, simplifying, and unifying work and environment.”16
It is through that definition that that one can approach the diversity of expressions encompassed in the American side of the Arts and Crafts. The movement grew into a larger revival of handicraft that went beyond the Morris aesthetic. Ruskin even advocated that “labor be permitted only when it gave pleasure to the worker.”17
While this philosophy did not lead to a labor revolution, in America and elsewhere it did lead to handmade, “folk” objects rising in popularity. This focus on how hand work could be both a creative outlet and a contribution to the quality of human life particularly holds true for the various groups of handweavers in America throughout the revival period. Handweaving was featured in Arts and Crafts publications like The
Arts and Crafts Bulletin, The Craftsman, and The Philistine as well as women’s publications between the 1880s and 1920s. While the main period activity of the
15 Eileen Boris, Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the Craftsman Ideal in America. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), 3-4.
16 Wendy Kaplan. “The Art that is Life”: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920. (Boston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1987), 52.
17 John Ruskin. “The Nature of Gothic” (from The Stones of Venice) in John D. Rosenberg, ed. The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writing (Boston, London, and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980), 180-181.
12 American Arts and Crafts movement occurred between 1890 and 1910, the ideology taught during this period influenced a generation of artists and craftspeople. They carried on the Arts and Crafts perspective on handiwork throughout the early 20th century.18
This leads to the question: what happened in American life that would lead to the persistence of handweaving and other areas of craft production (i.e. needlework, basketry, woodworking, etc.) well into the mid-twentieth century? The Arts and
Crafts movement led to a major shift in the way American students were educated.
One of the cultural byproducts of the growth of Arts and Crafts societies and progressive era thinking was the addition of manual and applied art training to the
American public school curriculum. As individuals embraced hand work in their professional and personal lives, educators saw possibilities in teaching the arts from an early age. The industrial and applied arts movement began with the work of two main figures: John Dewey and Colonel Francis W. Parker. Working separately, both spearheaded curricula where children learned by doing, an educational philosophy that dovetailed with the craftwork approach of the Arts and Crafts movement. Parker, called the father of educational reform, focused on teaching children through connecting concepts rather than through memorization and recitation.19 Dewey was a
18 Wendy Kaplan. “The Art that is Life”: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1875-1920. (Boston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1987), 52.
19 Olivia Mahoney, Edward F. Worst: Craftsman and Educator. (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1985), 11.
13 professor at Columbia University and the founder of the University of Chicago’s progressive Laboratory School, which had been teaching Arts and Crafts as part of its curriculum since the mid-1890s.20 His theory of experiential education made instructional practice flexible and based on doing rather than learning through lecture alone.21 Notably, weaving played a large role in some manual arts curricula; Dewey was especially supportive of weaving, citing textile work as a way for children to develop social and historical awareness. This could be achieved through learning not only about the creation of cloth, but also the study of the materials, tools, and processes used in its creation, and linking these concepts to the study of history and geography. 22
Manual and applied art education was a highly influential movement, and it became a staple in many American educational programs by the early 1900s.23 Even after the zenith of the American Arts and Crafts period, some of the children impacted by these educational methods continued to create artwork in their everyday lives.
These children of the manual education movement, Marguerite Porter Davison among them, would continue their interest in handiwork throughout the first half of the
20 Boris, 89.
21 David I. Macleod. The Age of the Child: Children in America, 1890-1920. (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998), 73. See also John Dewey et al. Art and Education: A Collection of Essays. (Merion, Pennsylvania: The Barnes Foundation Press, 1954).
22 John Dewey. The School and Society (New York: McClure, Phillips, & Co, 1900), 22.
23 For more on Arts and Crafts in schools, see Boris, 82-98.
14 twentieth century, blending this philosophy with changing aesthetics that would include both the Colonial Revival and modernist movements.
Influence: The Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival is another cultural force that helped to shape the reappearance of hand weaving and the greater American craft revival.24 This cultural movement was closely allied to the Arts and Crafts movement in that it hearkened to the pre-industrial age where artisans created objects that were perceived as beautiful in their simplicity.25 This movement became a widespread cultural phenomenon after the 1876 centennial celebration and the corresponding World’s Fair held that year in
Philadelphia. The Colonial Revival underwent several phases, the first taking place between the centennial and the 1890s, where objects like handwoven coverlets were displayed along with other historic objects associated with the American colonial and early republic time periods. In the second phase, from about 1890 until 1920, decorative arts objects began to be viewed as works of art that also functioned as domestic objects. The third phase lasted from 1920 through 1930s, and it was during this time that the popularity of collecting decorative arts reached its zenith. 26 The
24 The American Colonial Revival is similar to the nationalist movements that focused on the folk aesthetic that were occurring in Europe during this time.
25 For more discussion of the Colonial Revival see Alan Axelrod, ed. The Colonial Revival in America (New York and London: W.W. Norton and Co, 1985), particularly Kenneth L. Ames’ Introduction essay, 1-14.
26 For more on objects associated with the Colonial Revival see Elizabeth Stillinger’s The Antiquers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), Part III: “American Antiques as Art.” And for more on collecting antique decorative arts, see part IV: “All-American
15 Colonial Revival acted as a powerful cultural force in public spaces and museums, but it was also influential in domestic settings. 27 While in many cases Colonial Revival décor was seen as the realm of women, men, like Charles P. Wilcomb, collector and curator of colonial kitchen period rooms at the Golden Gate Park Museum in San
Franscico, also helped make the Colonial Revival aesthetic popular in the American consciousness.28 Other influential figures include the antiquarian Wallace Nutting,
Henry Sleeper, founder of Beauport, and collector and interior designer Henry Francis du Pont of Winterthur. 29
The Colonial Revival is connected to both American nationalism and “folk” pride. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the influence of
World’s Fairs permeated Western culture. At these fairs, ethnological exhibits along
Midways and Pikes presented by various nations and peoples highlighted these groups’ traditional crafts.30 A rise in nationalistic pride became associated with the
Antiques for All Americans.” As a point of reference, phases of the Colonial Revival and quilts are discussed in Linda Eaton’s Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2007), Chapter 7.
27 Beverly Gordon. “Spinning Wheels, Samplers, and the Modern Priscilla: The Images and Paradoxes of Colonial Revival Needlework.” Winterthur Portfolio Volume 33 (Summer-Autumn 1998), 163, 164.
28 Melinda Young Frye. “The Beginnings of the Period Room in American Museum: Charles P. Wilcomb’s Colonial Kitchens, 1896, 1906, 1910.” in Alan Axelrod, ed. The Colonial Revival in America. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1985), 218.
29 Eaton, 164-167.
30 These exhibits were also explicitly racist and hierarchical, with critics assembling hierarchies of ethnic production. For more information on these exhibits, see Robert
16 simple, “folk” aesthetic associated with these handmade objects. A parallel movement to America’s Colonial Revival was the European movement to collect peasant and regional textile collections. Throughout Europe “traditional” and “folk” objects were being collected to serve various purposes (both political and ideological) since the
1850s, but the International Exhibitions in America and Europe were an important catalyst for collectors who had an interest in obtaining objects that depicted regional folk life.31 Americans also sought out objects, symbols, and images of the past to reflect and define a distinct American identity. In America, handwoven objects were one medium where Americans could express their identity through connecting both to pre-industrial processes and to a national, colonial identity. This could also be seen as a connection to pre-colonial emigrant roots via weaving patterns that were traditionally German, Huguenot, or Swedish in origin.
Early participants in the Handweaving Revival often shared an interest in this
“folk” aesthetic, as seen in the books and collections of traditional revival teachers like Edward F. Worst and Laura M. Allen. Perhaps these early objects and patterns were popular due to the fact that they were the most commonly available pieces at the
W. Rydell’s book on the subject: All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984).
31 For more information on interpretations of the “folk” aesthetic in European textiles, please see Lou Taylor’s book Establishing Dress History, chapter 6: “Establishing collections of European peasant and regional dress” (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2004) specifically see page 203-210 on collecting and World’s Fairs.
17 beginning of the handweaving revival. However, the Colonial Revival was a powerful cultural force that encouraged the preservation of these important early weaving artifacts. In any case, handweaving and the Colonial Revival shared a similar vocabulary of images and meanings, due to an emphasis on re-connecting with the past.
Participants in the Handweaving Revival
The Handweaving Revival reached a nationwide audience and all levels of
American society. The majority of new weavers took up the craft either as a form of recreation, a form of rehabilitation, or as a business venture. Most new weavers were women with leisure time, disposable income, and a do-it-yourself attitude. This philosophy had been advocated in advice books written for women since the mid-19th century.32 Middle class women who subscribed to periodicals like House Beautiful,
Ladies Home Journal, and Modern Priscilla could find articles on weaving on a regular basis beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.33 Influenced by the aesthetics of the Colonial Revival on domestic interiors, these women could find patterns and photographs that suggested handwovens as a fashionable and appropriate
32 This do-it-yourself philosophy is found in many advice books written for a female audience. Interior designers and lifestyle advisers wrote books on how to save money through making your own furnishings and decorative objects since the mid 19th century. See the 1867 Six Hundred Dollars a Year: A Wife’s Effort at Low Living Under High Prices. (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867) for an early example. An example contemporary to the Handweaving Revival is interior designer Candace Wheeler’s How to Make Rugs. (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1902), a publication owned by Marguerite Porter Davison.
18 furnishing. Some men did participate, particularly soldiers who were taught weaving as a form of occupational therapy during and after the First World War. As a result of the success of these programs, weaving was also taught in schools for the blind, hospitals, and mental institutions.34 Those who wove for profit were mainly southern mountain women who wove for settlement schools.
These schools in the Appalachian Mountains were sponsored by women’s networks of arts organizations, charitable organizations, and church groups. These centers in the Southern Highlands were primarily sponsored by northern charities.
They trained mountain women to weave as a way of saving or reviving the lost art of weaving. Simultaneously, these centers attempted to provide the women with paid work, as wealthy patrons would buy their wovens through catalogs that discussed the virtues of weaving. These programs were the adult-focused, continuing education facet of the manual and applied arts educational movement that was going on in public schools.
Many of the Southern Highlands centers were supported by Protestant religious groups and social service agencies. One hundred and fifty such craft schools were identified in the early 1920s.35 The earliest of these centers was Berea College’s
Fireside Industries in Berea, Kentucky, which will be discussed further in Chapter 2 as
33 Gallagher, 56.
34 Gallagher, 48.
35 John C. Campbell. Southern Highland Schools Maintained by Denominational or Private Agencies. (Russell Sage Foundation, 1921), 3-14.
19 it was an influential part of Davison’s education. Other major schools include the
Appalachian School in Penland, North Carolina, and Arrowcraft at the Phi Beta Phi
Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.36 While these centers mainly wove from historic designs, the colorways were often adapted “in order that their products might be more saleable for the American Home.”37 These weaving establishments mainly supported the women of mountain communities, but they also trained weavers who would go on to teach or work from other weaving centers.38
Phases of the Handweaving Revival
To better understand the trends ongoing throughout the American
Handweaving Revival, I find it is best to divide the movement into three phases of activity. I have defined these phases, which are composed of groups of weavers who shared ideas about the craft rather than strict chronologies, as the boundaries of some phases of activity overlap. This section will briefly examine some of the major figures throughout the movement and how they influenced the Handweaving Revival. In many cases, the work of these weavers (many of whom were authors and teachers)
36 Alvic, 1-17.
37 Bonnie Willis Ford, The Story of the Penland Weavers (1941), 17.
38 Among these weavers are figures like Lucy Morgan, who was trained at Berea and then founded and directed the women at Penland Weavers and Potters, and Lou Tate Bousman, a friend of Marguerite Porter Davison, collector of historic and contemporary weaves, and founder of the “Little Loom House” in Kentucky. For more on weavers educated at Berea see Alvic, Weavers of the Southern Highlands, chapter 3.
20 would influence their peers, and in the case of weavers who published books on the craft, generations of future weavers as well. Their inclusion here is largely based on the amount of material or scholarship extant on their careers; this is a non-exhaustive sampling meant for purposes of illustration.39 As the primary goal of this thesis is to examine the career of Marguerite Porter Davison, comparisons to her work are included when applicable.
The Traditional Phase
The first, traditional phase of the Handweaving Revival was occupied by weavers who were the first to be influenced by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts
Movement and the Colonial Revival. These early weavers sought to revive the craft through a variety of methods. Some wove professionally as artists, while others applied the craft to charitable work, such as teaching mountain women to support themselves by weaving or by teaching people with physical ailments weaving as a means of rehabilitation. Weaving was not seen as a hobby by these weavers, although they were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement’s focus on applied art as a part of daily life.
The majority of first phase weavers sought an early American aesthetic that was informed by patterns and color schemes used in colonial times. They were primarily concerned with preserving and telling the history of America’s weaving
39 Amy Gallagher identifies the work of several weavers in her 2003 thesis Educating Through the Loom. Also see Handwoven Magazine’s May/June 1990 issue that identifies and briefly profiles a number of weavers.
21 heritage. Both men and women were at work during this period; men often taught.40
While many women also numbered among handweaving teachers, women were also doing much preservation work and research with the craft. To preserve handweaving’s heritage, many first phase weavers actively collected handwovens and pattern drafts from the colonial era and the first half of the nineteenth century. These traditional handweavers were the first to consider the formation of guilds for the purpose of promoting handweaving—their successors, the transitional weavers would continue their work through spreading guild activity. The work of several first phase weavers is outlined below. Their activities reflect what was going on in a greater national context by lesser-known individuals, and their activities highlight and exemplify the beginnings of the Handweaving Revival.
The earliest figure associated with the American Handweaving Revival is
William Henry Harrison “Weaver” Rose (1839-1913).41 In the case of Weaver Rose, handweaving was a family tradition that never really disappeared with the onslaught of the machine age. As his family was continuously weaving in the old ways, Rose was not so much a Revival figure but an historical anachronism who was still weaving patterns of the past that had been passed down through generations of family weavers.
40 The greater Handweaving Revival (and particularly its first phase) contains both male and female active figures. While women seem to predominate over men, there is much that still needs to be researched on issues of gender and class relating to handicrafts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
41 Isadora Safner. The Weaving Roses of Rhode Island. (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1985), 3.
22 He was considered an eccentric who for the most part lived apart from the world at his farm, choosing to preserve the past through both his lifestyle and his collecting.
While maintaining continuity with the past through continuing to weave family patterns, he also collected hundreds of patterns from historic drafts and weaves.42
Rose, along with a small group of friends, formed a small organization called “The
Colonial Weavers Association” on September 2, 1912. This organization, comprised of Weaver Rose and his sister Elsie, Laura M. Romaine Allen, Mr. E.D. Chapman,
Mrs. Arnold Talbot, and a Mrs. Wallace, could be called the earliest weaving guild of the Handweaving Revival, although it only met for one meeting.43 Guild-formation was not common in the traditional phase. However, this guild would act as an inspiration for the transitional weavers as they formed organizations that would focus on educating weavers and chronicling the history of the craft.
Weaver Rose’s friend, the educator and collector, Laura Allen (1866-194?)44, also did much to collect information on handweavings of the past. As the director of
Weaving in the Mechanics’ Institute in Rochester, New York from 1911-1918,45
Allen augmented her understanding of weaving through collecting a variety of
42 Safner, 41. For images of the pattern drafts see p. 47-128.
43 Safner, 15.
44 Amy Gallagher Educating Through the Loom: Arts and Crafts Movement Ideals, Laura Allen, and the Handweaving Revival in America. (MA thesis: FIT 2003), 15. Gallagher was unable to find a definite death date for Allen, and this is why her life dates are listed as (1866-194?).
45 Safner, 1.
23 materials on weaving. Not limiting her collections to the wovens and pattern drafts of the past, she also collected material on handweaving in the present. These materials were used to fill scrapbooks that covered all areas of handiwork: from basketry to needlepoint to weaving. By clipping articles from newspapers, settlement school publications, women’s magazines, and other sources, she compiled a history of the craft revival. These books, carefully arranged by type of craft and chronology, might have been used in her work as a teacher of weaving and basketry. [See figure 1: Page from the Scrapbooks of Laura Allen: Popular Mechanics, Mar. 1919: “Reviving
Handicrafts in America.”]. 46 In this photo one can see that Allen was not only collecting materials on weaving, but she was also critiquing the loom set-up in the image in the bottom right corner. The keeping of scrapbooks was a common pastime for women in Victorian America, but Allen’s scrapbooks, with their content representing articles on weaves past and present, exhibits on weaving, and even individuals she marked as “interested” in weaving (including the famous ballerina
Anna Pavlova and presidential wife Eleanor Roosevelt) demonstrates that she was writing her own history of the early Handweaving Revival.47 Allen could have
46 Popular Mechanics, Mar. 1919: “Reviving Handicrafts in America.” accession number 99-6-27: #3: Hand Weaving 1921-1923, page 57, The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York.
47 See Allen Scrapbook (1930) Accession #99.6.28 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York.
24 presented these scrapbooks as sources of inspiration and information for her students at a time when there were very few books about handweaving on the market.
Allen collected a great variety of those available works. Due to the fact that
Marguerite Porter Davison acquired Allen’s book and document collection, there are many extant books from Laura Allen’s collection. Among them are publications from
England, such as Luther Hooper’s 1910 Hand Loom Weaving, Plain and Ornamental, and publications from Scandinavia like Jenny La Coeur’s 1915 Vaevebog for hjemmene.48 There are a few publications by Americans, namely Edward F. Worst’s
1918 Foot-Power Loom Weaving, and Mary M. Atwater’s 1922 Shuttle-Craft Course in Card Weaving and Garter Weaving. Allen planned on writing her own book, a collection of pattern drafts of the past for handweavers, but the book was never completed before her death. As a collector of pattern drafts, Allen acquired pieces from a variety of sources, including many of Weaver Rose’s pieces. Many of her pattern drafts were edited and transcribed by Marguerite Porter Davison, and some of these materials were incorporated into A Handweaver’s Source Book, which upon publication in 1953 completed a goal shared by both weavers.49
48 These two books are just examples of Allen’s early library, most of the early books are of Swedish origin. The books passed from Allen to Davison after Allen’s death. They were acquired in 1953 by the Page and Normal Literary Societies for Millersville University from the estate of Marguerite Porter Davison.
49 The Laura Allen Scrapbook Collection and many of the materials acquired by Davison from Allen is at the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center in Clayton, New York. There are 13 boxes in the collection
25 Allen’s friend Eliza Calvert Hall (1856-1935) was another member of the traditional phase of handweavers. Hall, a feminist, poet, and author of “local color” fiction, took an interest in studying and collecting weaving through her examination of handwoven coverlets.50 Hall added to available scholarship on woven coverlets, entering as she called it, “the jungles of ‘original research’” through writing A Book of
Hand-Woven Coverlets, published in 1912.51 Unlike Allen, Hall was able to take her research and turn it into a publishable book. Hall’s goal was not teaching others to weave, but collecting and sharing information on weaving. By helping people understand what kinds of coverlets they had in their own family or personal collections, Hall helped write the history of weaving. The book makes an attempt to unpack the names of various coverlet patterns, trying to tie them to regions and people. Hall published color illustrations of several coverlets, enabling her audience to use her book as both a history of coverlets and as an easy visual reference. She encouraged her readers to collaborate with her in the act of collecting and “rescuing” old coverlets, by providing blank pages at the end of her book where readers could write the history of their own coverlets.52 The importance of such collaborations was very evident to Hall, who worked with several important early handweaving revival
50 Western Kentucky University. “Eliza Calvert Hall” (September 3, 2002) http://www.wku.edu/Library/onlinexh/lco/index (March 1, 2007).
51 Eliza Calvert Hall. A Book of Hand-Woven Coverlets. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1912), 5.
52 Hall, 10.
26 figures. These individuals included teachers like Katherine Pettit at the Hindman
Settlement School, Jennie Lester Hill, the predecessor of Anna Ernberg at Berea
College’s Fireside Industries, and Laura Allen, as well as other figures, whose importance in some cases has yet to be identified.53
Another major traditional figure was the author, loom designer, and educator
Edward Worst (1866-1949).54 A Chicago teacher of manual and applied arts, Worst studied with Colonel Francis W. Parker, and Worst applied many of Parker’s own theories of manual education to his own practices. Worst studied weaving in Sweden, and introduced textile courses to several schools in Chicago.55 His book, Weaving with Foot-Power Looms, with drafts for over 285 traditional patterns was published in
1918. It expanded his audience to both homes and schools, going through several editions.56 Moreover, it was among the first major American weaving publications designed for beginners, and contained American colonial patterns and various patterns from Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish designs. Later in his career, Worst collaborated with Lucy C. Morgan (1889-1981), the founder of the Penland School of
Handicrafts, to teach a three week weaving course at the school every summer from
53 For a comprehensive list of those contributing to Hall’s book, see Hall, 6-7.
54 Olivia Mahoney. Edward F. Worst: Craftsman and Educator. (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1985), 10.
55 Mahoney, 16-23.
56 Edward F. Worst. Weaving with Foot-Power Looms with drafts for over 285 traditional patterns. Sixth ed. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1924)
27 1929 until 1946. Morgan, another traditional phase weaver, was, like Davison, trained at Berea College’s Fireside Industries. Worst also brought attention to the crafts made at Penland by organizing a display of traditional weaves and their production methods at Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress Exposition.57
The Transitional Phase
The second, transitional phase includes weavers who were highly influenced by the traditional, Colonial Revival inspired weaving of their predecessors, but who also encouraged experimentation in their handweavings. Weavers of this phase shared similar social values with the founders of the revival; they can be viewed as the second generation of the Arts and Crafts movement, and were educated in the manner of the traditional, first phase of the revival. As the products of this movement, they were the beneficiaries of modern education where art was considered a part of the curriculum, and craftwork was perceived as an integral part of daily life. However, the transitional weavers were the first to expand on the conventions of older design through experimentation with both synthetic and natural fibers and by changing the appearance of patterns through varying treadling order. These weavers utilized traditional patterns as a building block to push weaving into the future. They also encouraged everyone to weave: from hobbyists to professionals. The transitional weavers were the first to consider the possibility that handweaving could be art for
57 Mahoney, 36-37.
28 art’s sake, although they firmly believed that handweaving was also a craft with traditions of education and workmanship that needed to be maintained.
The transitional weavers had careers with similar characteristics. Many in this group, including Mary E. Black and Marguerite Porter Davison, worked as occupational therapists, using weaving to help others re-develop physical skills.
Many of the transitional phase weavers, like the traditional weavers, founded and were members of guilds, which were increasing in membership and overall number beginning in the 1920’s and until the 1950’s. Guild expansion is a key shared trait of the transitional weavers; Among these pioneering guilds were Mary M. Atwater’s national Shuttle-Craft Guild, Lou Tate Bousman’s Kentucky Weavers Guild, and The
Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, where Marguerite Porter Davison was a founding member, and the New York Guild of Handweavers, where Berta Frey was a founding member. Transitional weavers also shared an interest in collecting and adapting historic patterns, which were often shared with others through books. During the transitional phase there was a great proliferation of books on weaving. Davison,
Boussman, and Frey, among others, wrote books based on historic research and patterns, books that act as bridges between the collecting ongoing in the traditional phase and handweaving’s future. The publications written by these weavers have been the most enduring works on learning to weave from throughout the duration of the Handweaving Revival. This phase is the main focus of this thesis, as it is the
29 space occupied by Marguerite Porter Davison and her contemporaries, whose careers and contributions are outlined below.
One of the most widely-recognized figures in the Handweaving Revival was
Mary Atwater (1878-1956)58, founder of the Shuttle-Craft Guild—the first national handweaving guild. Atwater is a figure whose work overlaps both the traditional and transitional phases. She shares the transitional characteristics of guild expansion and sharing traditional research, but she did not focus as much on experimentation with materials. She began weaving in 1916, after hearing of the handweaving operations at
Berea and other southern schools. Viewing the craft as “interesting and practical,” she began a weaving operation in Basin, Montana and started doing design research in
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in museums, libraries, and private collections.59
As founder of a national guild with a national publication, The Shuttle-Craft Guild
Bulletin 60 Atwater both insisted on standards of workmanship, as in the case of medieval guilds, but also promoted the sharing of information so that weaving could be open to all who had interest.61 Atwater also taught weaving as occupational therapy to veterans of the First World War, believing that “we never doubt the reality
58Mary Jo Reiter. Weaving a Life: The Story of Mary Meigs Atwater (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1992).
59 Reiter, 140-141.
60 The Bulletin began in 1924.
61 For more on Atwater’s role as founder of this guild, see Gile and Marzolf, 41.
30 of what we feel with our fingers or hold in our hands. Thus, handicraft is a powerful curative”62 Atwater took her research and experiences and incorporated this knowledge into several books, including the 1925 A Book of Patterns for Hand-
Weaving: Designs from the John Landes Drawings in the Pennsylvania Museum, and the influential 1928 The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving, revised in
1950, and last re-printed in 1986.63 Atwater’s legacy was continued through her friend
Harriet Colburn Tidball (1909-1969), who purchased the Shuttle-Craft Guild from
Atwater in 1946 and continued to run it until her own death in 1969.64
Mary E. Black (1895-1988) was a Canadian author, occupational therapist, and weaver. Black was director of the Handicrafts Division of the Department of Trade and Industry for Nova Scotia, Canada. She spent most of her professional career in the United States; she knew Harriet Tidball and briefly owned the Shuttle-Craft Guild in 1959.65 Her time conducting research in early developmental occupational therapy at Michigan State Hospital led to her writing Key to Weaving in 1945, a textbook that covers from two-harness to eight-harness weaves.66 Black’s philosophy on teaching
62 Reiter, 149.
63 Reiter,160.
64 Gile and Marzolf, 17-21.
65 Gile and Marzolf,18.
66 Biographical material on Mary E. Black is from: Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists. “Mary E. Black” (2007)
31 weaving mirrors that of other transitional weavers, as stated in the forward to Key to
Weaving:
the tendency among present-day hand weavers is toward originality and self- expression. This is as it should be, yet the weaver must thoroughly understand the mechanics of his loom, the basic structures of his web, the correct ratio between his threads, and something of the historical development and source of his techniques before he can compose and weave his own patterns.67
This philosophy helps sum up the transitional weaving mindset: to build the modern from an understanding of the historic. It is a mindset shared by Marguerite Porter
Davison, and it will be further discussed in Chapter 2. Black’s book, along with
Davison’s Handweaver’s Pattern Book continues to be a popular book in the libraries of weavers today.68
Berta Frey (1898-1972) was an occupational therapist, weaver, and author.69
Like many other transitional weavers she began to weave as an occupational therapist at Walter Reed Hospital during the First World War. Frey’s work as an author includes her contributions to the national handweaving publication Handweaver and
Craftsman, and her book Seven Projects in Rosepath, published in 1948. Seven
Projects in Rosepath aimed to inspire weavers to play with traditional weaving structures. [See figure 2: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the
67 Mary E. Black. Key to Weaving. 2nd edition (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1949), vii.
68 See Chapter 6 for questionnaire data on the legacy of the publications of the handweaving revival.
69 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center. (2005) “The Berta Frey Textile Collection Goes Digital”
32 Associated Handweavers: project I 4, Twill by M. Lord 1/15/49].70 This example swatch, from Marguerite Porter Davison’s collection of books and papers, illustrates how weavers could use Frey’s projects to experiment with a diversity of modern colors and fibers as well as new pattern drafts. In 1951, Frey traveled throughout the
United States, promoting weaving and making connections with other guilds. Frey also was among the few weavers that in 1969 founded the national Handweavers
Guild of America. 71 This guild continues to publish the magazine Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot and hosts the bi-annual conference Convergence to the present day.
Frey’s career serves as an excellent example of the transitional weavers, as does her philosophy about the potential of handweaving: “if we place it [handweaving] in the field of art, it needs no further justification than its own existence.”72 This mindset would exemplify the handweaving revival’s movement into a modern phase.
The Modern Phase
The third, modern, phase includes weavers who often were familiar with, but not widely using, the traditional weaving designs used and popularized by the early and transitional period weavers. Rather, these handweavers were craftspeople whose
70 Sheet in Seven Projects in Rosepath. “1/4 M. Lord twill, 1/15/49.” MS257, Box 8, folder 10. Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
71 Biographical Material on Berta Frey is from: Diana Kirschner. “History of the New York Guild of Handweavers.” (April, 2003)
33 products were influenced by the Bauhaus Movement, where “there is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman.”73 The weavers in this phase acted as both handweavers and machine weave designers, harnessing the power of the machine as a designer’s tool for greater artistic expression. The movement began in Germany and gained momentum in America after the transplant of Bauhaus figures after they left Germany to flee Nazi rule in 1933.74 While their work was often rooted in handweaving tradition, this tradition was not necessarily American or influenced by the international folk revival, like the traditional and transitional weavers.
Weavers active in America during this phase, such as German expatriates Anni
Albers (1899-1994)75 and Else Regensteiner (1907-2003)76 brought the principles of the Bauhaus to their own weavings and teachings. In 1933, Albers accepted a teaching position in North Carolina at Black Mountain College, where she taught and wrote about weaving concepts. Albers wrote extensively, but her books, the 1963 On
72 “A Midcentury Viewpoint” Handwoven (May/June 1990); quote from Berta Frey, Handweaver and Craftsman (April 1950)
73 Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius, and Ise Gropius, editors. Bauhaus 1919-1928 (Boston: Charles T. Branford, 1959; first copyrighted by The Museum of Modern Art, New York: 1938), 10.
74 Sigrid Wortman Weltge. Women’s Work: Textile Art from the Bauhaus. (San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1993), 163.
75 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. (2003) “Chronologies”
76 Gary Wisby. “Else Regensteiner, textile designer, weaver.” The Chicago Sun- Times. January 30, 2003
34 Weaving and the 1965 On Designing are her most well known publications. These discuss historic and modern structures from an artist’s and a designer’s perspective, rather than explaining techniques to beginners as was the case in so many early weaving textbooks. Albers also acted as an industrial designer, creating fabric designs for upholstery that while functional, experimented with materials and structure. As a consummate modern weaver, Albers’ work extends beyond craftsmanship and into art.
Else Regensteiner, another modern weaver, studied weaving at the School of
Design in Chicago, where she learned the Bauhaus principles advocated by weavers like Anni Albers. While teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1945-1971,
Regensteiner wrote three books on weaving and art, and espoused a weaving standpoint similar to that of the transitional weavers, where the weave should first be approached from a technical point of view, but “a creative approach can be very well paired” to the practicalities of weaving.77 Her work follows an aesthetic close to
Albers’ aesthetic, utilizing modern materials and modern weaving design to create custom fabrics used by architects and interior designers. Function and sustainability for mass production guided her handweaving as much as creative design principles.
Regensteiner helped to establish the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Certificate of
Excellence in Handweaving, a program to give handweavers credentials. As a modern phase weaver, Regensteiner encouraged artistic weaving, but did not believe that
77 Ann Walker Budd. “Profile: Else Regensteiner.” Handwoven (May/June 1990), 70.
35 artistic skill alone was required for a handweaver to obtain credentials from the
Handweaver’s Guild of America.78
American designer Dorothy Liebes (1899-1972),79 like Anni Albers and Else
Regensteiner, created weavings that were suitable for machine mass production that moved beyond traditional expectations of weaving. Liebes’ studied weaving at Jane
Addams’ Chicago settlement home Hull House during the summer of 1920.80 Liebes stands apart as a modern weaver in her intense use of “California Colors,” a color palette that mixed exotic shades with deep contrasts and metallics. Her career as a weaver took off after she opened her first studio in 1930, where she created custom hand-woven fabrics until 1958. By working with mixes of natural and synthetic fibers and vivid colors, Liebes built a career that moved into industrial design consulting for both the du Pont Corporation and Sears, Roebuck and Company.81 She inspired young weavers, many of whom worked in her studio before going on to careers in art weaving or weaving education.82 As a weaver firmly rooted in a nontraditional aesthetic, Liebes’ work demonstrates the two main areas modern weaving: industrial design that flows from handmade origins, and creative use of materials.
78 Budd, 72.
79 Smithsonian Archives of American Art (July 5, 2002) “Dorothy Liebes Papers.”
80 Nell Znamierowski. “Dorothy Liebes.” Handwoven (May/June 1990), 54.
81 Znamierowski, 58.
82 Znamierowski, 57.
36
Conclusions
While participants in the Handweaving Revival shared several characteristics, there were distinct phases of activity during the movement. The traditional weavers acted as the collectors of materials and the instigators of the revival. By spreading weaving as a facet of modern education, the traditional weavers sparked a passion for the craft that would continue throughout the twentieth century. The transitional weavers built on the collecting that was ongoing throughout the traditional period.
They played a key role in developing guilds and keeping the craft alive after the industrial and applied arts movement faded. By honoring the traditional methods of weaving but experimenting with fibers and aesthetics in the craft, the transitional weavers helped lay the groundwork for the fiber art movement to come. While working along a partially overlapping timeline with the transitional weavers, the modern weavers also contributed to the developing fiber art movement. Through fiber and structure, the modern weavers brought craftsmanship techniques to the masses through industrial design while fostering a new respect for weaving as a fine art. By the 1960s and 1970s, the perception of an unbreakable link between handweaving and art had become a reality.83
83 For more on this topic, see Theo Moorman’s Weaving as an Art From: A Personal Statement. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1975), 7.
37 Chapter 3
THE ROLE OF EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OF FAMILY
This chapter examines Marguerite Porter Davison’s educational background, other influences on her work, and the origins of her philosophy on weaving. It looks further into her education as a weaver at Berea College in Kentucky, and her continuing self-education through her accumulation of a larger personal library. It also recounts her time raising a family and helping her husband’s educational mission for the YMCA in Brazil.
Family Background
To better understand why art and craftwork was such an important part of
Marguerite Porter Davison’s life, her family life must first be examined. She was born on July 13, 1887 in Scotland, Ohio. Her father, Charles Hamilton Porter was a principal of a manual and applied arts high school in Cincinnati. Her mother, Caroline
Pemberton Porter, was a landscape painter who had attended the Cincinnati Art
Institute.84 Young Marguerite would have been highly influenced by her father’s
84 Elizabeth Cooley, “Laura M. Romaine Allen, Marguerite Porter Davison: Their Stories” Unpublished manuscript with notes by Sue Davison Cooley. (Candiaugua, NY: 1990). Note: Sue Davison Cooley is Marguerite Porter Davison’s daughter. Elizabeth Cooley is Sue Cooley’s sister-in law, as each married a Cooley brother. Elizabeth Cooley is not related to Marguerite Porter Davison, but is a weaver who became interested in her life and who acquired some of Davison’s collections from the Davisons’ friend Dr. Donnell B. Young, a friend of the Davison family, in 1984.
38 hands-on educational philosophy and her mother’s artistic background. Marguerite painted as a hobby, a love that she passed on to her daughter, Sue.85
Education was one of the most important pursuits for the Porter family. After high school Marguerite attended the University of Cincinnati, taking business courses which enabled her to briefly work as a secretary to an architect by the name of
Fleisheimer.86 The Porters had eleven children that grew to adulthood, 87 so sacrifices were needed to allow all of their children, Marguerite, Mary, Harold, Dwight, Susan,
Donald, William, John, Robert, Ruth, and David to have the option of a college education. Berea College in Berea, Kentucky offered free tuition, and the Porters viewed this as a great opportunity for many of their younger children. Although widely-known for its weaving program, Berea College offered general education in the liberal arts as well. In 1912 Caroline moved eight of her children to Berea.
Marguerite, as the eldest, came to help her mother by bringing in income to support
These collections acquired by Elizabeth Cooley were donated to the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center in Clayton, New York in 1990. Elizabeth Cooley’s manuscript was written to accompany this collection. It was edited by Sue Davison Cooley for accuracy.
85 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
86 Sue Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her daughter, Sue Cooley to the Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild” Unpublished manuscript. (March, 1990), 1.
87 One of Marguerite Porter’s siblings died early in childhood.
39 the family. The youngest of Marguerite’s siblings, David, was only two at the time of this move.88
In a letter of 1915, Caroline wrote her sister Ella about the challenges of managing her large family at Berea. Although both Marguerite and Caroline would have liked to go back to Ohio to visit family, Caroline writes, “I am decidedly uncertain about my visit to you and Cincinnati, and if you had 6 boys to leave behind you would know the reason.”89 Still, Caroline saw the value in the many educational opportunities Berea offered for her daughters as well as her sons, discussing how busy
Marguerite was with her work as an assistant to Anna Ernberg, the director of Berea’s
Fireside Industries. Caroline also discusses the social opportunities presented by their
Berea connections, since her daughter Sue might attend a Chautauqua over the summer with other “Berea People.” Caroline was also busy with Berea people, as she also helped Ernberg with small jobs, which would have provided extra income to support the family while the children were receiving an education. 90
88 United States Federal Census Records, for the Porter Family; Year: 1910; Census Place: Columbia, Hamilton, Ohio; Roll: T624_1195; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 294; Image: 568.
89 Caroline Pemberton Porter to Ella Pemberton Simcox, Berea, Kentucky May 26, 1915, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. From the ages of the Porters’ children from a 1910 United States Federal Census, and this letter, it can be inferred that Mary stayed behind in Cincinnati to help her father. One of the seven sons, probably the 21-year old Harold, stayed behind as well.
90 Ibid.
40 This focus on education led to a variety of career choices for the Porter children. Marguerite’s youngest brother, David Porter, became a lawyer, and spent much of his career as a United States District Court judge in Ohio. 91 Not all of the professions of Marguerite’s other siblings are known. According to the recollections of Marguerite’s daughter, Sue Davison Cooley, their occupations included work in physical therapy, nursing, work as a doctor, home economic, and one was employed by the Pure Oil Company in Pennsylvania.92 From this grouping of occupations a trend towards service of others becomes clear.
Berea College and the Beginnings of Davison’s Design Philosophy
At Berea, twenty-five year old Marguerite Porter found employment as the secretary to Berea College’s business manager, supported by her business experience from working in Cincinnati. However, Marguerite’s love of artistic pursuits drew her towards weaving at Berea. She soon took an interest in the weaving ongoing at
Fireside Industries, the work-study folk hand craft program at the college. Marguerite transferred to a position as the assistant to Fireside’s manager, Anna Ernberg, and began weaving by 1914.93
91 Rita F. Wallace, Court Historian, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. (No Date Given) “History of the 6th Circuit: David Stewart Porter”
92 Sue Davison Cooley. E-mail to Sara Jatcko, 2 March 2007.
93 The date of 1914 is not confirmed in a document written by Davison; this date is cited in an article by her friend Dr. Burl N. Osburn: “In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison.” The Pennsylvania Craftsman (April, 1953), 1.
41 Ernberg, a Swedish weaver and loom designer, began supervision of the weavers at Fireside Industries one year before Davison’s arrival, in 1911. She was selected by Berea’s President, William Goodell Frost. Frost was instrumental in founding the weaving business at Berea, as he began offering mountain women tuition money for their children in exchange for coverlets. Ernberg trained as many as three hundred weavers per year during her time teaching at Berea.94 It was under her charge that Fireside expanded, with sales increasing tenfold from 1911 until 1921.95
[See figure 3: “Kivers” Sold by Berea College’s Fireside Industries, 1912-1913].96
She “found a market, making friends and securing introductions among the donor class,” along with setting a standard of excellence for her weavers.97 However,
Ernberg was also somewhat of a controversial figure, called both a charming speaker and fundraiser by some and brusque and querulous by others. Marguerite Porter
Davison was aware of the tensions between Ernberg and other Handweaving Revival weavers, mentioning in a letter to her sister that either Laura Allen or Eliza Calvert
94 Eileen Boris, “Crafts Shop or Sweatshop? The Uses and Abuses of Craftsmanship in Twentieth Century America,” Journal of Design History, Vol. 2, No. 2/3. (1989), 178.
95 Alvic, 48.
96 “Kivers.” Advertisement for the sale of Coverlets from Berea College. From the Laura Allen Scrapbook Collection, with notes in Laura Allen’s hand. Box 7 of 13, 99- 6-24: Hand weaving #1—1910-1921
97 Alvic, 46.
42 Hall disliked Ernberg.98 Despite any controversies surrounding her person or management style, Ernberg continued to run Fireside Industries until her retirement in
1936. She passed away on April 1, 1940.99
Regardless of others’ opinions of Ernberg’s reputation, Marguerite held the greatest respect for Mrs. Ernberg as her teacher and mentor. Ernberg introduced
Marguerite to other weaving teachers and institutions during their two-year working relationship. In one letter Marguerite mentions that Ernberg encouraged her to go teach weaving over the summer of 1915 at Pine Mountain, another settlement school in Kentucky with a Miss Pettit. Katherine Pettit, who visited Berea in March of 1915, apparently “sang old ballads and old-time hymns” during the evening of her visit, which ended up “by having Mrs. Ernberg sing some Swedish songs, accompanied by me [Marguerite, her emphases] on the fiddle. It was fun.” 100 Pettit would have been an important connection for young Marguerite, as she was the founder of the Hindman
Settlement School in Kentucky in 1902 as well as the founder of Pine Mountain in
1912. Both schools were similar to Berea in their progressive ideas and programs for
98 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , January 29, 1953. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York. Whether or not Hall or Allen did not get along with Ernberg is unclear because of the phrasing Davison uses in this letter. For more on Ernberg’s personality, see Alvic, chapter 3.
99 Alvic, 50.
100 Marguerite Porter to Ethel Simcox, Berea, Kentucky, March 3, 1915, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
43 both students and local women who wove.101 Pettit was also well connected among the greater national group of American handweavers, as she was a friend of coverlet collector and scholar Eliza Calvert Hall.102
While no extant correspondence mentions whether Marguerite Porter did go teach at Pine Mountain for that summer, the letter shows that even early in her weaving career, Marguerite had a desire to educate others. That desire would carry through her life, and she would always credit Ernberg as an influential teacher. A letter from Davison to her sister Mary in 1952 states that “I got my start with Mrs.
Ernberg and she was a good one who set a standard little appreciated today, but you know the ideals she had for her work. I have no reason to change those ideals.”103 In
A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Davison acknowledges that her “years of work with
Mrs. Anna Ernberg at Berea College, and her high standard for handiwork, laid a foundation on which it was possible to build with security.”104 Davison’s final book, A
Handweaver’s Source Book, is dedicated to Ernberg as well as her mother Caroline
101 Alvic, 116.
102 Hall, 10.
103 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York.
104 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 1.
44 Pemberton Porter, the two women that encouraged her during her time at Berea and throughout her life, “whose spirits move through the book.”105
Davison’s weaving interests certainly were shaped by her early experiences learning under, and working with, Anna Ernberg. This influence is particularly present in Davison’s interest in Swedish patterns, as manifested in her personal library collection. There, about twenty-five percent of her overall book collection pertains to
Scandinavian weaving and other craftwork.106 The majority of Marguerite Porter
Davison’s books on weaving published before 1930 are by Swedish or other
Scandinavian authors. This can be attributed to two major factors. Ernberg was
Swedish, and it is most likely that any books that Davison used while learning to weave (if she did use any published books during that time), were Scandinavian in origin. Davison even used pattern drafts from Ernberg and other Swedish sources throughout A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.107 [See image 4, “Rose in the Wilderness,” a design by Anna Ernberg woven by Marguerite Porter Davison, from page 180 of A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book.]. The second possible reason that Davison owned so many Swedish and Finnish weaving books was that the majority of books on weaving
105 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Source Book. (Swarthmore, PA: The Estate of Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1953), v.
106 This percentage comes from an examination of Davison’s 319 piece library collection. 79 books were of Scandinavian origins, most are weaving books written in a language other than English. Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
107 See Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, for Ernberg patterns see pages 56, 79, 136, 141, 147 180, 182; for discussion of Swedish patterns see page 109,
45 had been published in Scandinavian countries. These nations had been interested in collecting and preserving their textile heritage from the 18th century onwards, and were producing many books about making traditional textiles in the early 20th century, with Swedish authors at the forefront of this subject.108 Many of these books were published within ten years of the turn of the twentieth century. Language would not be a barrier, since pattern drafts are written in their own pictorial language. Davison had no problem with understanding pattern drafts in books written in other languages; she was quoted in a 1946 issue of Little Loomhouse Country Fair saying “hand weaving is a common language in all parts of the world.”109 Although Davison studied American weaving, her interests lay in understanding the commonalities and variations of pattern and sharing this knowledge with others rather than in studying
American exceptionalism. Her own A Handweaver’s Pattern Book was marketed to an international audience as follows: “weavers appreciate the simple diagram in which
108 Why were Scandinavian books more widely available? This question leads to a complex argument about Scandinavian costume and textile history with several possible answers. Swedish textiles had been preserved in an archeological context due to cold temperatures. Also, there was a continuation of hand craft traditions that only became more popular with the rise of nationalism at the end of the 19th century. Also see: Emile Von Walterstorff’s Swedish Textiles (Stockholm: Petterson bokindustriaktiebolag, 1925). British weaver and author of several books on weaving Luther Hooper wrote the introduction to this book, showing an international awareness of the importance of Swedish pieces in the field of textile history. For more on Swedish textiles in a 19th century historical context, see Lou Taylor’s Establishing Dress History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), Chapter 6.
109 Davison is quoted in: Lou Tate, “Contemporary American Handwoven Textiles: Seventh Season 1945-1946” Little Loomhouse Country Fair (1945/1946), 29. MS257,
46 the directions for duplicating the designs are recorded. It is intended for visual guidance, even to those who do not read English.”110
Her library included early English-language books on weaving were published in Britain, such as Luther Hooper’s Hand-Loom Weaving, Plain and Ornamental
(1910); the most notable exception to this trend was Edward F. Worst’s Foot Power
Loom Weaving of 1918. 111 The widespread publishing of American pattern or instruction books on handweaving did not occur until the 1920s, years after Davison left for Brazil. Although she owned books in her personal library that are contemporary to her time at Berea, there are no purchase records to determine when or from whom she acquired them. The 319 books, scrapbooks, and other materials at
Millersville University’s Ganser Library represents most, but not all of her library.112
series 8, box 03/10. Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
110 Marguerite Porter Davison, ed. A Handweaver’s Source Book. Condensed edition. (Swarthmore, PA: The Estate of Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1953), inside back cover.
111 Davison’s bibliography at the end of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book lists many of the books in her library—the earliest books (written before 1925) are largely not American. See Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 203-208.
112 This collection is at the Archives & Special Collections Department of the Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Millersville University in Pennsylvania. Davison’s collections were divided after her death. Some are extant, like her library and linens, others are not, like her coverlet collection that was sold shortly after her death, or her correspondence with weavers in the 1940s that is for all practical purposes, lost. Parts of her book and scrapbook collection that pertained to Laura M. Romaine Allen were acquired by her daughter Sue Davison Cooley’s sister- in-law, Elizabeth Cooley. This collection was given to the Handweaving Museum of Clayton, New York, where it resides today.
47 She had a book agent, Howard Jenkins, who helped her acquire rare weaving books beginning in the 1940s. He helped her procure Laura M. Romaine Allen’s book and scrapbook collection after Allen’s death.113 While she had acquired some early weaving books on her own, many of the early-dated texts are inscribed with Laura M.
Romaine Allen’s name as well as Marguerite Porter Davison’s, showing that Davison did not begin to collect most of her library until at least after her return to the United
States in 1929.
Family history says that Davison began collecting pattern drafts while at Berea under Ernberg. Many patterns in the book are attributed to Anna Ernberg, or contain a reference to Berea, such as the large overshot pattern related to a Barley Corn weave pattern called “Berea Sunflower.”114 The collection of pattern drafts had been an ongoing operation at Berea since Ernberg’s predecessor, Jennie Lester Hill, who reported to President Frost that the weavers at Berea were finding pattern drafts that
“had been kept in families for over one hundred years.”115 Davison’s own pursuit of historic drafts would very likely have been influenced by her early educational experiences. She would continue to collect pattern drafts throughout her life.
113 Elizabeth Cooley, 4.
114 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite Porter Davison, Publisher, 1971), 138
115 Alvic, 40.
48 Changes and Travel
Marguerite Porter met her future husband, Waldo Davison, while working at
Berea. Waldo was a student in Latin and German at the college who came for the free tuition. They married in the garden of the university president116, after his graduation in 1916. [See Figure 5: Image of Photo of the Porter Family from Marguerite Porter’s wedding to Waldo Davison].117 According to their daughter, Marguerite wove the white linen fabric for Waldo’s wedding suit.118 Soon after their marriage, the couple volunteered to be missionaries for the Young Men’s Christian Association in Brazil.
While the organization was religious, the Davisons were sent by the YMCA not as traditional religious missionaries, but to work to improve the educational situation in that nation. Their interest in this work flowed from the charitable nature of the educational work ongoing at Berea, where poor youths could receive a free education that included manual training. This progressive philosophy was shared by other
American craft settlement schools in the early twentieth century, but was just
116 While Davison family history states that the Davisons were married in the garden of President William Hutchins, Hutchins was not president of Berea until 1920, four years after the marriage. The pair was married at Berea, so if they were married in the President’s garden it would have been that of President William Goodell Frost.
117 Photograph courtesy of the collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Waldo is not pictured.
118 Sue Davison Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her daughter, Sue Cooley” Unpublished manuscript for Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild talk, March 1990.
49 beginning in places like Brazil. By August 29, 1916 they were on their way to their new home: Aurora 55A, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
During their early time in Brazil, Marguerite was learning Portuguese and adjusting to her new life as a married woman, far from home. While living there,
Marguerite spent her time assisting Waldo, keeping house and looking after their growing family. As he tried to set up schools, Waldo also was doing advocacy work, and Marguerite would assist him through entertaining at their home.119 During this period of her life, Marguerite gave birth to five children, John Alden, Elizabeth,
Charles, Sue, and Carter. Charles was born on a visit home, but the others were all born in Brazil. Of the five, four survived; Marguerite had become sick with yellow fever and rheumatic fever at different points in her pregnancy with Elizabeth, and the child died at birth.120 While weaving might have been on Marguerite’s mind during this time, she did not actively pursue it. John Alden Davison remembered that his mother brought her loom with her to Brazil, but he never recalled it being set up, as she was too busy.121 His sister Sue remembers that it was destroyed by bugs while in storage in Brazil.122 There is no mention of her weaving or collecting pieces in her
119 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
120 Elizabeth Cooley, 2.
121 ibid
122 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History
50 family letters from this time. Marguerite does mention writing to Mrs. Ernberg in her correspondence to family, so she did keep in touch with her mentor.123
Marguerite was also busy helping her husband, who was under a great deal of pressure due to the many projects ongoing in his YMCA educational work. Their eldest son, John Alden Davison, recalled that his father’s job was to establish a junior college in Rio de Janeiro during their thirteen year stay.124 Marguerite often mentioned Waldo’s work and health in her letters; in one she says he was “in such a state that nothing but a breakdown can result unless he gets a rest.”125 Marguerite took a great interest in the details of Waldo’s job, going on visits with her husband to meet local educators, including the State Superintendent of Schools. She wrote home to her father Charles H. Porter in Ohio to inform him about the educational operations ongoing in Brazil, saying that “The class of people with which they deal need just what you are giving….Things like Domestic Science and Manual training are unthought of, but so badly needed.”126 As her father was responsible for starting
audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
123 Mentioned in: Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth Porter (“Mary Jane”), Pernambuco, Brazil, November 27, 1916, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
124 John Alden Davison to Louise Bradley, contributing editor of Handwoven, May 21, 1989, Laura Allen Collection Box 66, #1, the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Collection, Clayton, New York.
125 Marguerite Porter Davison to Ella Pemberton Simcox. Pernambuco, Brazil, January 13, 1918, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
126 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mr. Charles H. Porter, Pernambuco, Brazil, December 18th Postmarked 1918, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
51 vocational training programs in the Cincinnati school system, this form of progressive education and its “hands-on” approach would have been both familiar and important to Marguerite.127
In one letter Marguerite’s writings show a fascination with colonial America.
Her first son, John Alden Davison, was named after the famous John Alden, pursuer of Priscilla Mullins. This legendary colonial couple was made famous in the
Victorian era through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1858 narrative poem “The
Courtship of Miles Standish.” In a letter to her cousin Ethel Simcox (here called
“Aunt Simmy,” since young John Alden was Ethel’s new nephew) Marguerite Porter
Davison seems to make her own genealogical connection to the Alden family, calling her son “the 12th generation from the original John and Priscilla and he is descended from the son John of their son John.”128 Davison goes on to discuss how she and her husband Waldo were doing a bit of historical tourism, possibly on their honeymoon, shortly before their move to Brazil. She writes “when we were in Plymouth we saw many relics of John and Priscilla, though we did not get to go to their house, of which we have a picture where the Alden family holds a reunion every August.”129 These
127 Sue Davison Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her daughter, Sue Cooley” Unpublished manuscript for Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild talk, March 1990.
128 Marguerite Porter Davison to Ethel Simcox, Pernambuco, Brazil, August 27, 1917, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. The Alden family link comes through Waldo Davison’s genealogy, not Marguerite Porter’s, according to Sue Davison Cooley.
129 Ibid.
52 patriotic colonial stories and images were a large part of the popular psyche in the early 20th century, and Marguerite shared this love for the American past.
The Davisons remained in Brazil until 1929, when, according to family history, the YMCA could no longer finance their mission in Brazil due to monetary difficulties in the agency, attributed to the slowing global economy. A letter from
December 30, 1928 shows that the Davisons knew they were leaving Brazil prior to the events in America credited with starting the Great Depression, such as the Stock
Market Crash of October 1929. The letter discusses where the Davisons aspired to go after they left, with Marguerite writing, “we would love to go to Berea, but not to do most anything…Nappy has quite definite ideas as to what he would want to do. Our second choice would be New England—student work.”130 Despite these preferences, the Davisons’ plans changed after being assigned to a YMCA in Muskogee,
Oklahoma. During the return trip to America from Brazil, the Davisons took the “long way around,” traveling up the Straits of Magellan and along the west coast of South
America. Along the way, whenever the ship stopped at ports, Davison’s daughter Sue recalled that her mother studied native fabrics of the different areas and spent much of her time on the ship recording and interpreting the designs.131
130 Marguerite Porter Davison to Ethel Simcox, Pernambuco, Brazil, December 30, 1928, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
53 Home in America
Davison began teaching again in the 1930s, shortly after returning to the
United States. Like many other transitional-phase weavers, particularly Mary Meigs
Atwater and Mary E. Black, Davison taught weaving as occupational therapy.132
Working in the Veterans’ Hospital in Muskogee brought Davison in contact with mostly male students who would use weaving to regain coordination in their limbs.
An August 16, 1931 article in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix describes Davison’s personal work and mentions that her loom was set up in a back shed or garage at their home.133 The Davisons moved to Buffalo, New York after Waldo quit his YMCA position to work for the Wyandotte Chemical Company in 1933. The family remained in Buffalo for three years, moving when Waldo was transferred to Philadelphia to work in the position of area manager. The Davisons settled in Swarthmore in 1936, where they would remain until Waldo retired. In Swarthmore, Marguerite and Waldo rented a large house, where Marguerite was able to devote large amounts of both space and time to her weaving work.134 The entire third floor of their home became her weaving studio, which held four or five looms of all sizes, her library, and her
131 Elizabeth Cooley, 3.
132 For more on the occupational therapy aspect of weaving, see Amy Louise Gallagher, Educating Through the Loom.
133 Elizabeth Cooley, 2.
134 At the time this thesis was written, the Swarthmore address, or Davison’s address in Lancaster was still not known to the author.
54 weaving supplies. Davison used this space to teach others to weave, a topic that will be further addressed in Chapter 4. At some point between 1948 and 1953, the
Davisons would leave this home and move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.135 Davison was also creating her own weaves and collecting historic woven cloth during her time in Swarthmore and Lancaster. Her Lancaster home would have been much closer to friends who shared an interest in Pennsylvania German life. It was in Lancaster that
Davison would die suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 20, 1953.136
Conclusions
The circumstances of Marguerite Porter Davison’s education and early life, show not only the high value she and her family placed on education, but also why weaving would become the focus of her professional career. Her fascination with the
American colonial past would eventually lead to a study of that history as a collector and interpreter of historic weaving. The influence of Anna Ernberg shaped young
Marguerite Porter’s evolving ideas of what design and weaving would mean in her life. It is important also to note that this mentor and student did have different conceptions of what weaving should and could be, however. Ernberg, perhaps influenced by the structure of European guilds, believed that an interest in weaving instruction was a “fad” and that weaving could never be a leisure-time activity that
135 There is no move date specified in Davison’s letters or family recollections. By February 2, 1953, Davison writes her sister, asking her to make the trip to Lancaster.
136 Dr. Burl N. Osburn. “In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison.” The Pennsylvania Craftsman (April, 1953), 1.
55 would be enjoyed by those other than professional weavers.137 However, Davison, like other transitional-phase weavers, marketed her book to anyone who desired to learn the craft, appealing to both professionals and hobbyists.138 By marketing to an expanded audience, Davison and her contemporaries went beyond a traditional perspective on the craft. These educational experiences would prepare Davison for her life’s most significant work, the writing of her books. The legacy of those writings within Davison’s lifetime and today will be discussed further in Chapters 4 and 5.
137 Alvic, 49.
138 See Lou Tate Boussman, Weaving is Fun. (Louisville, KY: Lou Tate, 1946). Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
56 Chapter 4
BUILDING A COLLECTION AND BUILDING A CAREER
Weaving was a scholarly pursuit, a collecting passion, and a personal art to
Marguerite Porter Davison. This chapter examines how Davison collected material on weaving in both historic and contemporary contexts. This applies to collections she owned, such as her extensive collection of Pennsylvania woven linens, and the research she gathered during her visits to scholarly institutions. It also examines the objects Davison collected, created, and used as source material for her books.
The Love of Research
Davison’s love of researching historic materials on weaving is rooted in her early experiences with the craft at Berea College. As Berea had been collecting historic pattern drafts since before Davison’s time there, it is likely that her own pursuit of historic patterns stemmed from this educational experience. Davison’s education under Anna Ernberg at Berea taught her both an appreciation for historic weaves and historic craftsmanship techniques that persisted throughout her life. Most of the weaves in Davison’s books come from historic pattern sources, or are inspired by traditional patterns. Many of the pieces she made for her family or personal use, as seen in the sampling of weaves in the collection of her daughter, Sue Davison Cooley, are related to historic pattern sources.
57 To discover and preserve traditional weaving Davison traveled throughout
Southeastern Pennsylvania to gather research materials, going to several museums to view and copy patterns from historic weaving sources. According to the Bibliography of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Davison went to the Franklin Institute and the
Philadelphia Museum of Art to view their weaving manuscripts by Johann D--, John
Hutchison, John Landes, Johann Schleelien, and Johann Ludwig Speck.139 In an article in Weaver from 1942, Davison writes about discovering “New Patterns from
Old Manuscripts,” patterns that were found in the aforementioned five Philadelphia
Museum of Art manuscripts.140 According to Davison’s daughter Sue Davison
Cooley, her mother also went to the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Swedish-
American Museum to look at historic pieces and pattern drafts.141 These research trips provided source material for many of Davison’s designs. This is supported by the presence of the “Friendship Twill” and “Princess Ingrid Table Cloth” pattern drafts from the Swedish-American Museum in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.142
139 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 212.
140 Marguerite Porter Davison. “New Patterns from Old Manuscripts.” Weaver. Vol. 7, No. 2, (July 1942), 26-32. Handweaving.net Digital Archive on Weaving, Textiles, Lace, and Related Topics (2006) http://www.handweaving.net/DAHome.aspx (March 20, 2007).
141 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
142 Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 39, 80.
58 Davison sought out scholarly funding for her research. She applied for a
Guggenheim fellowship in the early 1950s to subsidize further research and organization of her collection of materials on Laura Allen, but did not receive the grant. Davison wrote to her sister that “I do not know what I would have done with it,” citing the amount of material and complications of placing the research in a permanent location, as required by the Guggenheim foundation.143 They had been granting research fellowships since 1925, and received applications from all fields of research. However, between 1948 and 1953 the Guggenheim did not award any fellowships for the study of weaving or textile history. Many women received fellowships from the Guggenheim during this period for writing biography, fiction, or non-fiction, but none were given for the study of what might be defined as traditional
“women’s work.” The act of applying for a research fellowship does not make
Davison unique. However, it shows the value she placed on conducting her research, and the importance she placed on completing the Allen project. To Davison, the study of handweaving ranked alongside the study of those projects that were awarded grants: studies in theater, philosophy, anthropology, and chemistry to name a small sample.144
143 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
59 Collecting Historic Woven Objects
Marguerite Porter Davison traveled around southeastern Pennsylvania to study manuscripts on weaving, but she also was looking at historic weaves in other peoples’ collections, as she simultaneously built her own collection. Among the visits made during Davison’s local research travels, she went to visit Mr. Henry Landis. Landis was a collector of objects, expert on Pennsylvania German culture, and founder of the
Landis Valley Museum, an institution that focused on farm life in the 18th and 19th centuries.145 Landis founded this eclectic institution as a museum with his brother
George in 1941. As a collector, he gathered over 200,000 objects relating to
Pennsylvania German life, holding the belief that “this is the time to salvage from general ruin these things which properly belong in a museum.”146 As Landis collected fabrics for his museum he would have been in competition with Davison and other collectors.
During the period between 1930 and 1950, many collectors and museum collections focused on Pennsylvania German objects, often frequenting the same small group of dealers. One example was Mrs. Louisa Spangler and Miss Elizabeth
144 The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. “1950: Program Foundation Fellows.” (January 11, 2007) http://www.gf.org/50fellow.html (March 20, 2007).
145 Marguerite Porter Davison, Home Craft Course in Pennsylvania Dutch Home- Weaving Patterns. (Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, Publisher, 1943), 9. Collection MS257, series 22, box 08/03, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
146 Nadine A. Steinmetz. Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley in A Triad of Lancaster County History. (Ephrata, Pennsylvania: Science Press, 1985), 55-56.
60 Spangler’s antique shop in Ephrata, frequented by both Marguerite Porter Davison and private collector Henry Francis du Pont. Du Pont was collecting in many areas of
Pennsylvania German objects, including architecture, pottery, glass, metalwork, furniture, fraktur, and textiles.147 He was particularly seeking “unusual colored” linens for his family country estate, Winterthur, and he acquired many pieces from the
Spanglers.148 Davison was also seeking linens from the Spanglers, and did have colored checks in her collection. However, her main focus was on collecting linens for variety of woven patterns.
It is important to recognize that many individuals and institutions were collecting Pennsylvania German objects during Davison’s lifetime. Locally, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art had been collecting objects pertaining to Pennsylvania
German life since 1891, under curator Edwin Atlee Barber. During and after Barber’s tenure at the museum (he was Director from 1907-1916), the PMA encouraged many donors and trustees to collect Pennsylvania German art and decorative arts. Textiles began to come into that museum’s collection after noted collector Mrs. William D.
Frishmuth gave the museum her textiles, tools, implements, and books in 1916.
Collectors in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including PMA trustee J. Stogdell Stokes
147 See Scott T. Swank, ed. Arts of the Pennsylvania Germans. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1983).
148 Spangler correspondence with H.F. du Pont. Dealer Files, Box AD 55, Winterthur Archives.
61 and philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont, were actively competing for Pennsylvania
German objects throughout the first half of the twentieth century.149
Davison’s collection materials are a compliment to and part of her greater research. Information provided by Davison’s daughter, Sue Davison Cooley, shows that Davison gathered two types of materials in her collection of historic wovens. Her linen collection contained towels, table coverings, and napkins. She also had a collection of woven coverlets, the content of that collection is not known today since it was sold and dispersed after her death.150 There is one written description of a coverlet in Davison’s collection that she acquired in 1952. As the coverlet’s condition is described it can be assumed that Davison is referring to an antique piece: “I picked up a gorgeous coverlet in Quebec which I would like to have printed in color and the design is very unusual. It is dark leaf green and madder rose, beautifully made and in good condition.”151 The only remaining visual evidence of this coverlet collection is seen in two of Davison’s pamphlets on the weavings of the Pennsylvania Germans, where images of her collections pieces are shown.152
149 Beatrice B. Garvan. The Pennsylvania German Collection. (Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982), ix-x.
150 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
151 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
152 See Pennsylvania German Home Weaving (1947) and Home Craft Course in Pennsylvania Dutch Home Weaving Patterns (1943). Any piece without outside
62 Davison’s linen collection is now known as the Marguerite Porter Davison
Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. It is a diverse gathering of 118 objects, including Davison’s handwritten inventory of her collection from March 12, 1952. This record, with few discrepancies,153 lists what she had, its measurements and pattern, and sometimes notes on a piece’s quality. [See
Figure 6: 2000.0007.116, Inventory Book written by Marguerite Porter Davison, pages 10-11.] 154 This catalogue of her pieces was done soon before or after her move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While it might have been part of a wider house cleaning associated with this move, it also shows an effort to organize her pieces with their future as a collection in mind. Less than a year later, on February 3, 1953, Davison wrote about her collection and where she wanted to deposit it when she no longer had a need for it. Her sentiment was not to place it with Berea College because of their weaving department’s shift to the art department. She creates an inventory in this letter to her sister, saying “I am not ready to place it anywhere for the present, but I have both eyes open. Linen collection; my note books, Allen graphs, scrap books,
credit featured in these booklets can probably be assumed to be a former part of Davison’s collection.
153 Davison’s 1952 inventory only lists 104 items.
154 Accession 2000.0007.116 , Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
63 craft books of all kinds, and related information.”155 This weaving collection covered two generations of the handweaving revival, as it pertained to both Allen and Davison.
In the linen collection, there is one bedcover, four bolster covers, one bolster tick, one handkerchief, one mat, one napkin, one sheet, sixty-one table cloths and table covers, twenty-six towels (including fancy Pennsylvania German hand towels, also known as door towels or show towels)156, and twenty-two other fragments and lengths of cloth. All are woven in linen, with some combination linen and cotton pieces. The majority of the pieces are woven in a various twill patterns. There are also many huck-a-back and plain weave objects, along with a few in M’s and O’s, Barleycorn,
Overshot, and Damask patterns. The weaves vary from pieces in plain weave woven on simple looms to more complex pattern weaves created on twelve, sixteen, or twenty shaft looms. The quality of weaves varies greatly; Davison refers to one tablecloth in plain weave as “very fine, firm weaver”157 while other objects have no comments on quality listed.
155 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , February 3, 1953. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York. Five years later, in Spring of 1958, Sue Davison Cooley deposited this collection in the Arts and Crafts Society of Portland’s collection, where it remained until being moved to the Winterthur Museum in 2001.
156 There are many terms for fancy Pennsylvania German towels. Current scholars prefer the term hand towel over show towel or door towel, so I will use hand towel to refer to this throughout this paper.
157 Marguerite Porter Davison. Accession 2000.0007.116, page 4. Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum. Davison is referring to object 2000.0007.0036.
64 One example of a rare object in Davison’s linen collection is an embroidered complex-weave Pennsylvania German hand towel, woven on sixteen shaft loom. [See figure 7: Hand Towel 2000.0007.0021]. Object 2000.0007.0021 features a very fine twill diamond with dots pattern, and is embroidered with the marking “Sara Hibner, den elften martz, 1832.” The piece is not described as rare by Davison, although about ninety percent of these door towels were made using a plain weave that would be more suitable to free-form embroidery.158 Referred to in her inventory as “all linen, beautiful work, 16 x 50,” Davison refers not to the embroidery that would have been valued by many collectors, but to the fine quality of the weave.159 There is no corresponding design to the pattern on this towel in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, although it is similar to “Landis Valley Linen.”160
The linen collection contains pieces of varying complexity. Many pieces are simple check designs, such as the four objects in figure 8. [See figure 8: Plain woven linens (left to right: 2000.0007.095; 2000.0007.076; 2000.0007.072; 2000.0007.074)].
Other individual pieces, like 2000.0007.046, a double faced twill table cover fragment in the pattern “cat track and snail trail” are complex weaves. [See figure 9: Table
158 Ellen J. Gehret. This is the Way I Pass My Time: A Book About Pennsylvania German Decorated Hand Towels. (Kutztown, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1985), 17. The rarity of pattern woven door towels is also clear from examining the collections at the Winterthur Museum and the Pennsylvania Museum of Art.
159 Marguerite Porter Davison. Accession 2000.0007.116, page 3. Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
160 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition, 21.
65 Cover 2000.007.046]. This cotton weft, linen warp piece was woven on a 16 shaft loom in blocks of 3:1 and 1:3 twill.161 Davison used this historic piece to compare with other instances of this pattern, finding it in Weaver Rose’s work, but also in historic sources like the books of Johann Ludwig Speck (1723), Johann Michael
Kirschbaum (1771), Johann D—(1766), and Johann Schleelein (1823).162 This pattern would later be “translated” into a four shaft pattern for A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book called “Wandering Vine.”163 It appears that as part of her pattern translation process, Davison condensed many small nuances of the design but retained the overall elements.
In some cases, Davison’s collection contains dated linens. Piece
2000.0007.025 is a tablecloth marked with the date 1797. [See figure 10: Tablecloth
2000.007.025]. This twill was made on a multi-shaft loom. In her inventory, Davison lists it as “Table Cloth. Very fine all linen, similar to one shown in Paul Rodier’s book, from Huguenot section of Pennsylvania, marked 1797 BS, twill combination pattern, 2 strips, 65x52, a very rare cloth.”164 Davison also had two other examples of
161 Accession 2000.0007.046, Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
162 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 166, 212.
163 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 166: “Wandering Vine.”
164 Marguerite Porter Davison. Accession 2000.0007.116, inventory # 25, page 4. Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
66 weaves she identified as Huguenot in design origin.165 Again, Davison used this historic source as inspiration for her Handweaver’s Pattern Book. A similar design is found in the pattern “Goose-Eye Blocks.”166 [See figure 11: “Goose-Eye Blocks,” page 36 in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.]
Few examples in Davison’s collection have provenance materials attached.
One piece, dated between 1825 and 1835 has a linen weft and cotton warp in a huck-a- back block design. It is not mentioned in her inventory, but rather in the book Home
Craft Course in Pennsylvania German Home Weaving, where Davison describes pieces from this source, a Miss Spangler who dealt in textiles during the 1940s.167
[See Figure 12: Tablecloth 2000.007.017]. The weave has a note attached that states that the linen of the piece was spun by the mother of Mrs. Spangler and woven by
Weaver Lee of Berks County, Pennsylvania.168 Again, Davison used this piece as a source for her writings, as the pattern corresponds to treadling #1 and threading #11 of the “Huck-A-Back Blocks” pattern in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. 169 While many
165 See objects 2000.0007.063 and 2000.0007.058 in the Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
166 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 36.
167 Marguerite Porter Davison. Home Craft Course in Pennsylvania German Home Weaving. (Kutztown, Pennsylvania: Mrs. C Naaman Keyser, 1947), 6-7, Collection MS 257, Series 22, Box 08/02, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
168 Note attached to 2000.0007.017 in the Marguerite Porter Davison Collection of Pennsylvania Textiles, 1750-1850, The Winterthur Museum.
169 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 82.
67 patterns in the book cite a written draft source and person associated with a pattern, just as many do not have this information.
Davison’s collection of handwoven linens, for the most part, does not have any provenance material associated with it. Davison collected these linens for what they could tell her about the history of handweaving rather than just the aesthetic merits or rarity of each piece. By selecting objects with patterns both familiar and rare, she was able to uncover information about the craft that could not be found in pattern drafts.
She encountered few 18th and early 19th century manuscripts on weaving, but these written materials alone provided an incomplete picture of the history of her craft.170
The objects themselves held information on technique, pattern modification, and pattern transmission in America. Through her knowledge of Scandinavian weaving,
Davison could also connect American weaving to a greater international context.
While Davison never explicitly stated why she studied the weavings of “The
Pennsylvania Dutch,” there are a few possible explanations. Since she lived so geographically close to southeastern Pennsylvania, she could easily travel to conduct research on the culture and weavings of this ethnic group.171 Records, books, and
170 Davison used historic pattern books dating form Johann Ludwig Speck’s 1723 book to John Hutchison’s 1816-1823 book. See A Handweaver’s Pattern Book page 212 for a complete list.
171 Although not known in Davison’s time, scholarship today has shown that there were both domestic and imported fabrics in this area, making Davison’s collection illustrative of what was owned in Southeastern Pennsylvania, not just what was made. See Adrienne Hood, The Weaver's Craft: Cloth, Commerce, and Industry in Early Pennsylvania. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).
68 fabrics survived in great numbers, and could be easily viewed or purchased.
Davison’s decision to focus on Pennsylvania German patterns could be seen as relating to her education at Berea. At Berea, the weaving department collected materials from local individuals of non-English backgrounds. Perhaps Davison liked the study of immigrant materials, influenced by her friend Allen Eaton. Eaton wrote
Immigrant Gifts to American Life, a book that paid tribute to the gifts of foreign citizens in American culture; Davison owned this book.172 It is also probable that
Davison chose to study the regional weavings of the Pennsylvania Germans as part of her larger, transnational interest in weave transmission. In Pennsylvania Dutch Home-
Weaving Patterns, Davison discusses how one weave would pass “from weaver to weaver through the years to central Europe, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, England, and to America.”173 It is possible that through the study of weaves and patterns,
Davison not only sought to find the new, but also to discover the origins of historic drafts. The linen collection is a sampling of weaves from a distinct area, and has deep research value as a comparative source to other geographically contained
172 Allen Eaton. Immigrant Gifts to American Life. (New York: The Russell Sage Foundation, 1932), Collection MS 257, Series 07, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
173 Marguerite Porter Davison. Home Craft Course in Pennsylvania Dutch Home- Weaving Patterns. (Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 4. Collection MS 257, Series 22, Box 08/03, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
69 contemporarily dated groups of wovens, such as weavings from the Southern
Highlands, New England, or Europe.
Davison’s motivations for collecting historic textiles can be seen as diverse.
Like other weavers, her collection can be seen as a preservation effort. By identifying and collecting pieces with rare patterns, use of color, or high quality craftsmanship,
Davison’s efforts collecting fabric can be seen as a counterpart to her collection of pattern drafts. As Davison wanted to make these historic weavings accessible, having historic pieces to use as teaching materials in her own weaving classes was a way that she could share her passion with others. Her enthusiasm for collecting was shared by and passed on to those she taught and her fellow craftspeople in the Pennsylvania
Guild of Craftsmen. Davison lists her fellow researchers and friends, like Mr. and
Mrs. George Schobinger and Dr. George E. Pariseau in the Acknowledgments of A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book 174 While Davison collected much of the research that went into her books on her own, there were many cases, such as Pariseau and the
Schobingers, where Davison’s connections to others in the weaving community added to her materials.
As the curator of her own collection, Davison’s interests appear to mainly focus on pattern variety. Her trained eye could identify what was rare and the skill of the weaver who made an object. As one of Davison’s main interests was identifying
174 For a list of the weavers and researchers that shared Davison’s interests see A Handweaver’s Pattern Book page 1, “Acknowledgements.” She lists 48 separate people and organizations, not counting her husband and family.
70 new treadlings of old patterns, actively seeking out antique weaves could help her identify when she had discovered something rare or created something new. Because of this wide pattern focus, Davison’s collection contains pieces of varying condition.
Her desire to collect materials pertaining to historic weaving gave her a different set of collecting standards than someone who might have been collecting for aesthetic value or museum quality. The act of collecting old coverlets, towels, quilts, and other fabrics was quite popular in the United States during the Colonial Revival style and decorating period, ongoing throughout the time that Davison was gathering her collection of wovens and other materials pertaining to weaving. Davison did not collect these textiles for their decorative qualities, although she did collect antiques to decorate her own home, as her daughter recalled that they “just about filled every corner in the house.”175 Davison’s home was a showcase for her own weavings, as evident in the collection of her daughter, Sue Davison Cooley.
It is important to note that Davison’s efforts to study pattern were complemented by the efforts of other weavers and scholars. Transitional phase weaver Mary Meigs Atwater published A Book of Patterns for Hand-Weaving by John
175 Sue Davison Cooley quoted in Russell Groff and Joseph Wiley. “A Way of Life: A Tribute to Marguerite P. Davison,” Warp and Weft. Vol. 45, No. 7 (September, 1992), Laura Allen Collection, Box 66, #1, The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center. Note: this article is conversational in tone and cites few references to information from family members. However, Groff and Davison were friends so many of the recollections featured could be very credible.
71 Landes, from Drawings in the Pennsylvania Museum in 1925.176 This book featured images of Landes’ manuscript along with corresponding pattern drafts by Atwater.
Another important figure was Nancy Andrews Reath, who worked at the Pennsylvania
Museum (which would later be re-named the Philadelphia Museum of Art) as cataloguer of textiles and acting registrar from 1921-1925 Reath also served as a textile curator from 1926-1936. As curator, Reath published The Weaves of Hand-
Loom Fabrics in 1927, a book that presented “a definite classification of early hand- loom fabrics.” The volume classified pieces “on the sole basis of the weave so that every piece may be precisely indexed, and public collections thus become of more practical value to the student as well as more instructive to the connoisseur.”177
Davison’s own work can be connected to Reath’s, as The Weaves of Hand-Loom
Fabrics is present in Davison’s book collection, and she signed this book “Marguerite
P. Davison, Swarthmore, Pa. 1942—May 12th.”178 The date of this inscription leads to the conclusion that Davison acquired this book only two months before publishing
176 Mary Meigs Atwater. A Book of Patterns for Hand-Weaving by John Landes from Drawings in the Pennsylvania Museum. Reprint. (Hollywood, CA: Southern California Handweavers’ Guild, Inc., 1977).
177 Nancy Andrews Reath. The Weaves of Hand-Loom Fabrics. (Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, 1927), 5.
178 Nancy Andrews Reath. The Weaves of Hand-Loom Fabrics. (Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, 1927), 5. Z1033.A84. D38. D382x 1953. Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
72 the article “New Patterns from Old Manuscripts” in Weaver, an article that utilized historic sources in the Pennsylvania Museum collection.179
Davison’s skills as a connoisseur of weaving are recorded not in her commentary on historic pieces, but rather in her library notes. Notes in her books show that Davison knew when a loom in a picture was warped too loosely or an object had defects. Davison particularly was fond of making critical notes on her 1933 copy of Mary Meigs Atwater’s The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving. On page 17, for example, Davison points out defects at the top of an image of a coverlet in the “Tennessee Trouble” pattern. Later in the text, when Atwater states that “the slight irregularities of hand work” are what can “give character to the design,”
Davison writes a large “X” next to the statement and scribes “Nonsense. Not much of an ideal.”180 From these comments it is clear that Davison held other weavers contemporary to her to high standards of knowledge and craftsmanship. Through this statement, Davison is also directly challenging part of the Colonial Revival aesthetic: that handmade or “folk” objects must be rustic and irregular to have character.181 As
179 Marguerite Porter Davison. “New Patterns from Old Manuscripts.” Weaver. Vol. 7, No. 2, (July 1942), 26-32. Handweaving.net Digital Archive on Weaving, Textiles, Lace, and Related Topics (2006) http://www.handweaving.net/DAHome.aspx (March 20, 2007).
180 Mary Meigs Atwater. The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving. (New York: Macmillan, 1933), 110-111. Collection MS257, series 22, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa
181 For an example of a Colonial Revival, “imperfect” linen weaving, see object 1964.0890 at the Winterthur Museum. As the aesthetic of imperfection in Colonial
73 this book was published in 1933 it is possible that it was among the first books that
Davison purchased after returning to the United States from Brazil and resuming teaching. This could help account for the quantity and spirited quality of her remarks.
The notes show that she was actively dialoguing with how other weavers wrote the history (and future) of weaving through questioning the standards that her contemporaries set for the craft. These comments help demonstrate Davison’s thought process about weaving, which influences how she wrote her books.
Why would standards of craftsmanship play such a large role in Davison’s own weaving and in her collections of antique wovens? As a teacher, Davison was imparting the knowledge that she learned from her teacher, Anna Ernberg. Ernberg imposed strict standards of craftsmanship on her weavers at Berea, and as Ernberg’s assistant, Davison was taught to uphold those standards. But this focus on craftsmanship goes beyond Davison’s background, as it extends into the wider
American weaving community. With the resurgence of hand crafts, guilds were also experiencing a renaissance in America. While these guilds did not serve the same function as their pre-industrial counterparts, they still stressed the support of craftspeople and rigorous standards of craftsmanship. The main difference was that these organizations also served the function of promoting learning crafts.
Revival textiles has not been discussed in the literature on that style period, I am citing an object rather than scholarly writing.
74 Acquiring the Laura M. Romaine Allen Collection
Davison did not own the Allen collection of books and scrapbooks when she first wrote A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. However, she was clearly familiar with
Allen’s work. There is no evidence to suggest that Davison ever met Allen, but clearly Davison knew of her work as an early handweaving collector. After Allen’s death, Davison sent her purchasing agent, Howard E. Jenkins, to help her acquire any materials he could find relevant to Allen’s career as a weaver, teacher, and collector.
Through his efforts and those of Mrs. Armin S. Baltzer, who was presumably a local woman in New York who knew the Allen family, Davison was able to purchase the
Allen’s books, scrapbooks, and collection of pattern drafts.182 According to Sue
Davison Cooley, who at times helped her mother with some of her weaving projects, the pieces that Davison acquired from Allen’s estate were numerous and disorganized, filling eighteen or twenty tomato boxes.183 The scrapbooks and pattern drafts in these tomato boxes were numerous, and in some cases, in very poor condition. However,
Davison set about the task of sorting through drafts so that she could systematically transcribe them for use by modern weavers. Also in the Allen collection were several books, which Davison sometimes signed alongside Allen’s name.
Allen had collected this material in the hopes of writing her own book someday, but died before the materials could be organized. Davison knew this since
182 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Source Book, 1.
75 she was reading the correspondence of Eliza Calvert Hall, Allen’s close friend and author of the 1912 A Book of Hand-Woven Coverlets. According to a letter of January
29, 1953, Hall and Allen were very close, and Davison was thinking about dedicating
A Handweaver’s Source Book or as she called it, Laura Allen: Her Book to Allen’s friend Hall. In this letter Davison also notes that Mrs. Ernberg and Hall did not like each other, so she could not co-dedicate the book to the pair.184 Davison saw the writing of this book as continuing or completing Allen’s research. Acquiring Allen’s collection gave Davison a perceived responsibility for Allen’s legacy, which was passed on to her family when Davison died shortly before the book’s completion.
Davison’s unexpected death helps explain why A Handweaver’s Source Book was published in its “edited” form in February of 1953.
Craftsmanship and New Weaves from Old
The creation of new weaves from old was a primary concern in Marguerite
Porter Davison’s own personal work. There is a visual, stylistic connection between
Davison’s own weaving production and the pieces she collected. However, one of the goals of her research and weaving was to create new patterns and variations on patterns that could have co-existed with the historic pieces she treasured in her own
183 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
184 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth Porter (Mary Jane). Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , January 29, 1953. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York. It is not known whether the Allen-Hall letters were part of the Allen collection, but they do not remain with it today.
76 collections. Comparatively, her own pieces show her skill as a craftswoman, which is comparable to the quality of weaving on the fine pieces in her collection. Davison knew how to work with more complex weaving equipment than four shaft looms—she is called “thoroughly competent in the use of multiple-harness looms,” according to A
Handweaver’s Source Book.185 So why did she write for simpler looms? Focusing on four shaft looms made a great variety of patterns available that were not too complex for the majority of handweavers, thus expanding her audience.
Davison wove pieces for her family and friends, and for guild weaving exhibitions. The collection of her daughter, Sue Davison Cooley, consists of forty-five pieces that were made during her mother’s lifetime. Both pieces intended for exhibition and those made for everyday use are included in this collection. The majority of the pieces are linen napkins, of which there are thirty. However there are also pieces like a blue and cream colored cotton woven purse, a multicolored linen and wool table cover with a variety of patterns, and a fringed cream colored-cotton/ light blue wool table cover in a rose design.186 These linen napkins show a very even, straight selvedge, a mark of fine craftsmanship that takes a great amount of practice and skill to attain. [See Figure 13: Napkins woven by Marguerite Porter Davison].
Other pieces in Sue Davison Cooley’s collection are those that her mother wove for
185 Marguerite Porter Davison, editor. A Handweaver’s Source Book: A Selection of 224 Patterns from the Laura M. Allen Collection. (Swarthmore, PA: The Estate of Marguerite Porter Davison, 1953), 1.
186 There are thirty linen napkins in the collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
77 herself: “experimental” scrap pieces that use different materials. One story states that she worked on these experiments and other weavings during the daytime, saving design work for the early morning hours; she never wove at night so that her family would not be disturbed while they slept.187 Sue Davison Cooley recalled her mother trying out different warp and weft materials to determine what would yield the best pattern pictures for A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.
Davison’s woven collection has two dimensions, a traditional and a modern.
The majority of the extant pieces are traditional weaves. This is telling about not only
Davison’s own design and aesthetic preferences, but to her audience’s preferences as well. This “colonial” or “antique” aesthetic was still very important to weavers during this time.188 Regarding the weaves Davison made for her family, the sampling of pieces in Sue Davison Cooley’s personal collection offer interesting insights into
Davison’s own preferences. The color palette of this collection of Davison’s family pieces is distinctly colonial revival, with frequent use of creams, blues, pinks, and greens. The materials are natural fibers, mainly linen, cotton, and wool. However,
187 Russell Groff and Joseph Wiley. “A Way of Life: A Tribute to Marguerite P. Davison,” Warp and Weft. Vol. 45, No. 7 (September, 1992), Laura Allen Collection, Box 66, #1, The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center. Note: this article is conversational in tone and cites few references to information from family members. However, as Groff and Davison were friends the recollections featured are not without basis.
188 For examples of pieces in the Neo-colonial aesthetic, see image 109: Berry College Weavers, “Whig Rose” Pattern sample (detail) in: Virginia Gardner Troy. The Modernist Textile: Europe and America, 1890-1940. (Burlington, VT: Lund Humphries, 2006), 55-57.
78 through trying to discover new weaves from old pattern drafts and designs, Davison was experimenting and creating pieces that matched her contemporary tastes, even if her weavings have more of a traditional aesthetic than a Modernist aesthetic.
The pieces in Davison’s collection that appear distinctly modern come from her work with the Associated Handweavers, an elite guild organization which had fifty members nationwide. This guild undertook an experimental project focusing on Berta
Frey’s Seven Projects in Rosepath, and Davison collected her fellow weavers’ samples in a binder on November 13, 1948. Her samples were pasted in the book alongside those of other weavers.189 All of the pieces were labeled according to maker and project at one point, but some of the tags and samples have been lost; only one of Davison’s modern samples survives in this book.190 This remaining design, a weave of black ribbon, pink ribbon, and a loosely spun yellow fiber is identified by
Davison as 1/7. [See Figure 14: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the Associated Handweavers: project 1/7, by Marguerite Porter Davison]. These samples can be seen as experimental and exceptional instances of Davison’s weaving.
Her own family wovens do not feature these combinations of mixed materials (ribbon,
189 As many of the tags associated with these woven scraps are missing, only a few other weavers can be identified: M. Lord and M. Gavetti.
190 Berta Frey. Seven Projects in Rosepath. Collection MS257, Series 22, Box 08/10 Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
79 loosely spun synthetic yarn, gold lame synthetic fibers, etc), although the Rosepath pattern project is a very traditional in terms of weaving drafts.
Davison believed that it was through building off of the traditional work that she studied and understood that the craft could be led into a new aesthetic.191 Yet modern design fascinated Davison since she saw it as the future of her craft. While the pieces in Sue Davison Cooley’s collection appear very traditional, Davison was known to weave modern pieces as well. There is one image of Davison weaving a modern piece at her loom. [See Figure 15: Image of Photograph of Marguerite Porter
Davison at the loom]. The photograph shows Davison in the mid-1940s with a textile in three shades with a loopy, thick weft. It can be inferred that the image was taken in
Davison’s third floor studio at her home in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, as there is a large library collection behind her in the photograph. Davison had as many as three or four looms set up in this converted Ballroom space in her home, enabling her to have several weaving “experiments” going on at once.192 Having this set up gave Davison the ability to teach out of her home as well. This helped reinforce close connections with other Swarthmore weavers like her friends the Schobingers, who helped contribute research to her Handweaver’s Pattern Book.193
191 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth Porter (Mary Jane). Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York
192 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
193 Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 1.
80
Exhibiting Her Weavings
Davison also created new weaves specifically for guild and craft exhibitions.
These craft exhibitions took place in museum settings and through other weaving organizations, and some of these exhibitions had published catalogues. Davison is mentioned in at least three exhibition publications during the 1940s. She was a founding member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, an organization whose mission was “to encourage the practice of and nurture excellence in heritage and contemporary crafts. We do this through education, advocacy and support of the practicing craftsmen.”194 Davison was present at their first meeting on October 17,
1941, and when the Guild held its first annual exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Alliance,
April 15 through May 5 of 1946, she contributed her own weavings. 195 The pieces
194 The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. “History of the Guild” (2005)
195 The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. “History of the Guild” (2005)
81 she displayed included a woven coverlet and a woven table runner. This table runner, seen in Figure 16 [See Figure 16: Image of a photograph of a runner woven by
Marguerite Porter Davison, at the first annual exhibit of the Pennsylvania Guild of
Craftsmen] shows a pattern of a squares and wheels design not found in A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book. 196 In Sue Davison Cooley’s collection, there are also pieces that were featured in yet unidentified exhibits. These three pieces have old numbered paper tags attached. [See Figure 17: a white and brown linen napkin, and
Figure 18: a brown, cream, and blue linen towel]. As these tags are still attached to the pieces, it is possible that they were shown at the end of her life.
Examples of Davison’s work were also included in the “Contemporary
American Handwoven Textiles” exhibit for the JB Speed Memorial Museum in
Kentucky. The exhibit was on display from May 7 to May 21, 1939. Author and teacher Lou Tate, another transitional phase weaver, was the organizer of the exhibit.
In that exhibition, Davison contributed one object, a “Governor’s Garden Coverlet in rose wool on white cotton,” and she is listed as “weaver, teacher; first weaving assistant to Mrs. Ernberg at Berea College; has taught in Brazil, Muskogee, Okla.,
Buffalo, and Swarthmore, Pa.” 197 In this exhibit, Davison found herself in the
196 Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, Arts and Crafts of Pennsylvania. (Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, 1946), Pamphlet in the Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
197 The J.B. Speed Museum. Contemporary American Handwoven Textiles. (Louisville, Kentucky: The J.B. Speed Museum, 1939), page 5, #91-3-3, Collection of the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York. It is of note that no
82 company of Berea weavers, Hindman Settlement School weavers, and her student
Mrs. George (Helen) Schobinger among others. The exhibit’s ninety objects came from weavers from all over the United States who were professionals, apprentices, and amateurs.198
Tate also was publisher of the Little Loomhouse Country Fair, which was a companion publication to a juried exhibit at her Little Loomhouse in Kentucky. In the issue titled “Contemporary American Handwoven Textiles Seventh Season 1945-
1946” Davison and her work are featured. Page 29 shows a contemporary weaving by
Davison, a place mat and napkin in a huck-a-back pattern. Underneath the picture of the two weavings there is an associated pattern draft. [See Figure 19: Linens and pattern draft by Marguerite Porter Davison, page 29 of Little Loomhouse Country
Fair, 1945-1946.] Later in this issue, a small section on Davison describes her interests as “in both early Pennsylvania weaving and in modern folk art growths as attested by the interesting unpublished drafts she very generously sent for the
COUNTRY FAIR catalogue.”199 Davison’s presence in this publication helped her establish a reputation among weavers as a scholar and craftswoman. This exposure in
further evidence exists suggesting that Davison taught weaving in Brazil, and that family memory contradicts this listing.
198 Ibid.
199 Lou Tate, “Contemporary American Handwoven Textiles: Seventh Season 1945- 1946” Little Loomhouse Country Fair (1945/1946), 64. MS257, series 8, box 03/10, Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
83 guild exhibits and other juried selections would help her gain the respect of the weaving community. These exhibits also would have given Davison the satisfaction of seeing her work placed alongside that of her contemporaries. Through this exposure and presence in national publications, Davison could gain a wider audience for her books.
Conclusions
In the opening of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Davison made a statement that would define her feelings about art and craftsmanship through the words of the
President of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, C. Valentine Kirby. 200 The statement, titled “What Art Means to Me,” reads, “I feel within an impulse, perhaps that divine impulse which has moved all races—in all ages and all climes, to record in—enduring form the emotions that stir with-in.”201 Weaving became something more than a craft to Davison; she agreed with her fellow Guild member Kirby that if a creation is good an honest and true, “then will my creation be Art whether I be poet or painter, blacksmith or cobbler, for I shall have labored—honestly and lovingly in the realization of an ideal.”202
200 Davison is listed as an Associated Hand Weavers member on the front inside cover of the second edition of A Handweaver’s Source Book (Swarthmore, PA: The Estate of Marguerite Porter Davison, 1953). She is also listed as a member in her obituary: Burl N. Osburn. “In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison” The Pennsylvania Craftsman. (April, 1953).
201 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971),v.
202 ibid.
84 Through collecting artifacts of weaving history and creating new pieces
Marguerite Porter Davison acted as a curator and historian of her craft. Davison saw the past, present, and future of weaving in the historic weaves in her collection. She collected these pieces, not so that they could be copied, but so that they could be preserved to inspire future weavers. While only Davison’s students had contact with the actual wovens within her lifetime, Davison’s collection would have a lasting legacy through the inclusion of pictures and pattern drafts in her books. And at the
Winterthur Museum, Davison’s textile collection is still available, both to modern weavers and scholars.
85 Chapter 5
SHARING HER KNOWLEDGE AND WRITING HER LEGACY
This chapter examines Davison’s teaching career, and her work as an author and publisher. Publishing materials on handweaving was a way for Davison to share her knowledge of and passion for the craft. Davison took her experiences as a weaver and teacher, her opinions of contemporary books on weaving, her research on historic weaving patterns, and information from her own collections of historic fabrics and utilized this information to write two books, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book and A
Handweaver’s Source Book and two booklets on Pennsylvania German hand weaving.
She also became the publisher of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, starting her own business that would grow as she also published two books on handweaving by other authors.
Teaching others to Weave
During much of the time that Davison was researching and writing, she also taught weaving in her home, opening her doors to local Swarthmore residents.
Influenced by her father, Davison found continuing vocational, art, and manual education important to her throughout her life. Her home weaving group consisted mainly of wives of professors at Swarthmore College, but she also taught continuing education classes in weaving at Swarthmore High School. According to Sue Davison
86 Cooley, her mother also continued to work in occupational therapy, working with fellow Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen member and therapist Katherine Wellman in nearby Philadelphia. 203
During her years in Swarthmore, Davison kept up with the activities at Fireside
Industries at Berea, as well as trends in the wider world of weaving.204 In a letter from September of 1952, Davison wrote to her sister about the legacy of Berea and her feelings about the future of her craft. Davison believed that the ideals she was taught had not been upheld in Anna Ernberg’s absence, writing that “Berea deserted a standard by not stressing and going on with the vocational and art work.”205 She thought that the weaving going on in California, where she was to go on a speaking tour, was pushing educational work forward better than the centers where the
Handweaving Revival began.206 Citing the work of Dorothy Liebes as an example of
203 Sue Davison Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her daughter, Sue Cooley” Unpublished manuscript for Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild talk, March 1990.
204 Fireside Industries was mainly producing coverlets, counterpanes, and rugs during its years of production.
205 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
206 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
87 the possibilities of weaving education in California (Liebes went to the University of
California at Berkeley),207 Davison praised this modern work. Davison calls Liebes
responsible for the modern trend and is a wonderful person deserving it all. It is all moving along. It is not too late for Berea to change, but I do not believe it will be in the hands of academic leaders and I do knot know where the vocational leaders are going to come from. It goes around in circles. It all boils down to the awakening to the fact that traites [sic] that are inherent, have helped differentiate us from animals have been crowded out by machines, and we have to find a new way of life and happiness in adjusting ourselves to new conditions. That is my sermon. The traditional is not to be despised but studied and used as a base on which to build.208
Davison’s work as a teacher extended beyond her home and the classrooms where she taught through her publications and speaking tours, which impacted a much wider audience of weavers. The Handweaver’s Source Book describes the scope of her teaching as follows:
Her extensive correspondence with weavers at home and abroad included beginners who asked and received elementary help, and advanced weavers whose letters testify to the esteem in which they held her work. She counted many authors among her friends and correspondents.209
Unfortunately this “extensive correspondence” is no longer extant. However there is some evidence of the weavers Davison met with during her lecture tours to sell her book. During a West Coast lecture tour in 1952, Davison traveled with weaver
207 Nell Znamierowski, “Dorothy Liebes” Handwoven (May/ June, 1990), 54.
208 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
209 Davison, A Handweaver’s Source Book, selection written by unidentified author, probably by Burl N. Osburn or Waldo Davison, 1.
88 Russell Groff, author of 200 Patterns for Multiple Harness Looms: 5 to 12 Harness
Patterns for Handweavers.210 They met in 1949, when a friend introduced them, prompting Russell to speak to the Philadelphia Weavers Guild. Groff, like Davison, had an interest in Swedish handweaving.211 Even though the evidence of Davison’s correspondence is mostly lost, her books acted and continue to act as an educational legacy. In an obituary in The Pennsylvania Craftsman by Dr. Burl N. Osburn, he writes that the Handweaver’s Pattern Book “has been widely accepted” among the weaving community.212
Early Writing
Writing books was natural progression in Davison’s teaching career.
Beginning in 1940, Davison’s writing career spanned approximately 13 years.213 Her earliest writing is a document that discusses her own creative process, revealing how she tried out different combinations of patterns and treadlings. The first article, titled
210 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
211 Katy Bright Banks, “Profile: Russell Groff” Handwoven (May/June 1990), 80-81.
212 Dr. Burl N. Osburn. “In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison.” The Pennsylvania Craftsman (April, 1953), 1.
213 The 1940 article in Weaver is the earliest Davison article as identified by this author.
89 “Coverlet Samplers” was published in 1940 in the publication Weaver.”214 Following this piece, Davison also wrote three other articles at six month intervals for Weaver between 1941 and 1942. All of these articles follow a format where Davison presents a short article detailing her work process, followed by a series of woven samples and corresponding pattern drafts. The article “Monk's Belt and Kindred Designs” in
Weaver discusses the possible origins of this common pattern, and features seven threadings for the design.215 The next article, entitled “Texture Variations—Treadle
Manipulation” explores five pattern draft designs alongside images of weaves from these patterns to explore texture.216 The final article “New Patterns from Old
Manuscripts,” Davison discusses her experiences collecting patterns at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. She uses the manuscripts of Johann D—and Johann
Schleelien as source material, formatting their patterns for modern use in Weaver.
Some of the designs she discusses would later show up in A Handweaver’s Pattern
214 Marguerite P. Davison, “Coverlet Samplers” Weaver Vol. 5 No. 1 (January- February 1940), 22-24. The On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics (September 2, 2006) http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/topic_coverlets.html (March 12, 2007)
215 Marguerite Porter Davison. “Monk’s Belt and Kindred Designs.” Weaver. Vol. 6, No. 3 (July-August 1941), 15-24, 31. Handweaving.net Digital Archive on Weaving, Textiles, Lace, and Related Topics (2006) http://www.handweaving.net/DAHome.aspx (March 20, 2007).
216 Marguerite Porter Davison. “Texture Variations—Treadle Manipulation” Weaver. Vol. 7, No. 1 (January-February, 1942), 10-19. Handweaving.net Digital Archive on Weaving, Textiles, Lace, and Related Topics (2006) http://www.handweaving.net/DAHome.aspx (March 20, 2007).
90 Book. These articles both provided practice for Davison’s later book writing, allowed her to experiment with drafts included in later work, and helped spread her name and expertise within the national weaving community.
The “Coverlet Samplers” article is particularly revealing. In it Davison approaches her subject through a craftsmanship and design perspective, focusing on the creative process, rather than an historic perspective that discusses the history of her patterns. Revealing how she enjoyed experimenting with patterns, the article features three coverlet samplers woven by Davison, who discusses how she learned about the concept from a friend.217 In each “coverlet sampler” multiple patterns are woven within the same cloth. Davison describes her creative process for the reader. A friend studying weaving in Switzerland gave her the idea of making a sampler so that she could create multiple designs in one cloth. Davison’s other inspiration was the diversity of patterns featured in Lou Tate’s Kentucky Coverlet Book. Davison selected six patterns for her first sampler, seen in Figure 17, left to right: “Flourishing Wave,”
“Double Diamonds,” details from “Snowball” patterns, “Wheel of Fortune,” and
“Governor’s Garden,” and “a small block design…the unnamed simple pattern on page eighteen.” She wove each pattern in a separate, yet harmonious color that would flow into the next. She describes the weaving process as “I wove the first…according to its draft. The other five patterns had to follow this treadling, of course, and the
217 While weaving samplers with multiple patterns is a common practice with weavers today, this idea was new to Davison in 1940.
91 illustration shows the outcome of this.” As an experiment, Davison called the project a success, with combinations “I am sure do not appear in any coverlets.” She hung the sampler up, “as a panel on my weaving room wall” and as a source of inspiration.
Davison then describes the process of creating two other coverlet samplers and “offers them as a suggestion to other weavers who may not have used this method and have the same problems of accumulated ideas, and the lack of time to prove their practicability.” 218
The first coverlet sampler featured in this article has been identified in the collection of Sue Davison Cooley. [See Figure 20: Coverlet sampler woven by
Marguerite Porter Davison]. This surviving woven piece is made of linen warp and wool weft, of fine quality work, with very even selvedges. Sue Davison Cooley referred to it as one of her mother’s “experiments.”219 The article and this related woven sampler reflect a creative idea that might have been new to many handweavers in the early 1940s, and it also says much about what Davison and her peers might have liked to weave. The overshot patterns used in the samplers were mostly intended for large coverlets: projects that would have been very time-consuming. The article also shows that Davison was pulling from a variety of source materials as inspiration for
218 Marguerite Porter Davison. “Coverlet Samplers,” 24. The page eighteen she refers to is in Tate’s book, not Weaver.
219 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
92 her own projects, from Lou Tate’s book to her own “book of unproven drafts.”220 It is possible that this draft book, which has not been located at the time of this thesis, held much of the source material that Davison collected over her career. While this draft book has not been found, it is likely that the material it held provided much of the source material for A Handweaver’s Source Book.
Davison’s other early writings are related to her collecting and research interests in Pennsylvania German objects.221 Through collecting textiles from this region, Davison developed an expertise in weaving in this ethnic community. During this time, Davison became acquainted with Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, the publisher of the Pennsylvania Home Craft Course series. Keyser was known throughout the craftsman community for her work publishing booklets on Pennsylvania German crafts, and worked as an occupational therapist at the Valley Forge General
Hospital.222 Like many occupational therapists, Keyser had an interest in weaving.
However, her interests went well beyond that subject within the scope of the study of
Pennsylvania German craft. At least 25 titles of her Home Craft Course series on
Pennsylvania German objects were available for purchase from the series in 1947.223
220 Marguerite Porter Davison. “Coverlet Samplers,” 24.
221 See Chapter 3 of this thesis for more information on collecting Pennsylvania German weavings.
222 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. First edition, (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1944), outside back dust jacket.
223 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania German Home Weaving. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, Publisher, 1947), 36.
93 Davison’s collection of the booklets included Pennsylvania German Illuminated
Manuscripts (fraktur), Decorating the Pennsylvania German Chest, Pennsylvania
German Splint and Straw Baskets, Pennsylvania German Quilts, a Pennsylvania
Dutch Design Stencil Packet, and the booklet that Davison would write: 1943
Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns and its 1947 counterpart, Pennsylvania
German Home Weaving. 224 These books were aimed at admirers of 18th and 19th century Pennsylvania German culture who both collected and had an interest in re- creating the aesthetics of these objects. They show the range of activities that hobbyists were pursuing in the greater handicraft revival, and they illustrate the range of scholarly and collecting activity that accompanied the creation of 20th century objects reflecting the past. Davison was highly influenced by Keyser, calling her
“godmother to the child” that was A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, saying “she was the heart of the present-day Pennsylvania Craft Movement.”225
Davison’s first work for the Home Craft Course series was the 1943 booklet
Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. It featured a small essay on weaving in
Pennsylvania German communities. It consists of an essay, images of antique woven pieces, and images of contemporary wovens with associated pattern drafts. In the essay, Davison discusses a religious symbolism that she saw as relevant in the pieces;
224 Davison had copies of all of these booklets in her personal library. See the Marguerite Porter Davison Collection at the Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
225 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, revised edition, 1.
94 for example, she says that patterns in a “Goose Eye” weave were called “Dove’s Eye,” at the time, a reference to the Song of Solomon.226 She also discusses how many common colonial-era patterns go by several names; patterns called “Whig Rose,”
“Lover’s Knot,” and “Wheel of Fortune” are essentially minor variations on the same pattern.227 By discussing this naming process Davison builds off of the early research done by traditional phase weaver Eliza Calvert Hall in her Book of Hand-Woven
Coverlets.228 Davison also relates Pennsylvania German patterns to similar patterns found in both contemporary and historic weaving sources. For example, she relates a structure Mary Meigs Atwater calls “Bronson Weave” to a pattern in Edward F.
Worst’s How to Weave Linens. She then discusses the pattern’s Pennsylvania German counterpart, a five to eight harness weave called “Barley Corn,” that resembles the
“Huck-A-Back” pattern. Davison demonstrates a deep knowledge of the structure, identifying a woven piece in this pattern on a five shaft loom in 1760s, noting that there is little difference between the early structure and a comparable, modern, four
226 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943).
227 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 4.
228 The concern over naming patterns seems to be a 20th century one. Particularly with textiles like wovens and quilts, connoisseurs and scholars became interested in naming and interpreting the names of patterns based on motifs. While to some extent, this was a practical way of classifying patterns for collectors, period naming of patterns is more rare than common. This concern with naming and classifying pattern fits in with Victorian ideals of classification, and perhaps says more about the culture and shared ideas of those assigning these names than those who wove the original piece.
95 shaft pattern.229 Davison also makes note of characteristics of Pennsylvania German pieces, such as the typical quality of spun yarn and the color of linen wefts (gray flax is uncommon, for example).230 The essay is more significant in terms of Pennsylvania
German historiography than in terms of noting the origins of pattern names. However, through pointing out similarities between weaves of varying pattern names, Davison created a resource useful for both weavers interested in design and collectors interested in identifying their woven textiles.
The patterns featured in the booklet are designs similar to those featured in A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and many come from the same historic pattern draft sources. For this publication, Davison builds off of her earlier research cited in the article “New Patterns from Old Manuscripts” in Weaver through citing the pattern draft books of Johann D--, Johann Schleelein, Johann Ludwig Speck that she examined in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 231 There are twenty- three patterns featured in the booklet, and in some cases, Davison gives images of multiple treadling results, showing weavers how to achieve more visual variety from the same loom threading. It is likely that Davison wove all of the samples whose
229 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 6. Worst’s How to Weave Linens was published in 1926.
230 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 8.
231 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 22-26.
96 images are associated with each draft, as this is the case in her other articles and books, and there is no credit given regarding the source of the images.
The illustrations are mostly of woven samples of patterns in the book.
However, three images are of historic pieces; two of the three images are from the collections of others, and one has no credit line. This last illustration is presumably from Davison’s collection. It is an antique coverlet that was probably woven on a hand loom featuring an attached, Jacquard type automated patterning device. This piece is unusual within the context of Davison’s other known collections, as it has a repeating design of large flowers in a border of trees and birds, signed “Made for P.H. by P. Snyder, L.M.H. Bethel, 1839,” and called “a woolen and linen coverlet of exquisite texture,” was probably part of Davison’s coverlet collection. The reasons
Davison might have had for inclusion of this coverlet are debatable as her booklet does not discuss complex pictorial weaves. Perhaps it could have been a favorite object, or something she saw as illustrative of religious symbolism in Pennsylvania
German textiles. Below the image is a verse from the Song of Solomon that she deemed an appropriate caption. 232 [See Figure 21: Coverlet, final page of
Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns]. It is one of only a few images and descriptions of Davison’s coverlet collection that survive today, since the collection was sold and dispersed shortly after Davison’s death.
232 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania Dutch Home-Weaving Patterns. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, 1943), 27.
97 After two printings of this booklet, Davison revised its content. The new booklet was published in 1947 under the title Pennsylvania German Home Weaving.
It features many more images of historic pieces, mostly from the collections of others.
The essays in this booklet expanded upon the essay in the 1943 edition, this time discussing the influence of new technologies like the Jacquard loom. 233 Throughout the booklet, different forms are explored, such as coverlets, decorated hand towels,234 and tablecloths. Like the 1943 edition, Davison gave pattern drafts with some contemporary woven examples to accompany her essay. In the revised pamphlet, however, the text and drafts are more integrated. Another change of format in this edition is that Davison used far more examples of contemporary applications for historic patterns—such as making a table runner, a placemat, or napkins. Davison uses a placemat and napkin in the pattern “Pennsylvania Dutch Twill” to demonstrate how patterns could be used for luncheon sets, popular table dressings in the first half of the twentieth century. Several napkin sets were made by Davison for her own family’s use, although not in a pattern from Pennsylvania German Home Weaving.
[See Figure 13: Napkins woven by Marguerite Porter Davison]. Davison also
233 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania German Home Weaving. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, Publisher, 1947), 4.
234 For more on the significance of Pennsylvania German decorated towels, see Ellen J. Gehret, This is the Way I Pass My Time: A Book About Pennsylvania German Decorated Hand Towels. (Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1985).
98 suggests that the patterns can be adapted for modern use in upholstery or draperies.235
The patterns featured in these Home Craft Course pamphlets are distinctly traditional.
However, the presentation of the material shows that Davison was interested in enabling her readers to put the patterns to contemporary use as well as achieve a better understanding of the history of Pennsylvania German weaving.
She advertised the revised Pennsylvania German Home Weaving booklet in a brochure marketing all of the books she wrote and/or published as lesson for modern weavers. It is listed as giving “illustrations of the source material with directions for reproducing many of the weavings. Simple forgotten techniques are found among the textiles made by early master craftsmen.” 236 At the cost of one dollar, the booklet was available by mail order, and like many of her books was advertised to an audience that could order these weaving publications sight unseen.
Writing A Handweaver’s Pattern Book
A Handweaver’s Pattern Book is Davison’s most significant contribution to the American Handweaving Revival. It is also her most complex and enduring writing project. The book was first published in 1944 and went through three printings before being revised in 1950. The original, 1944-1947, edition was shorter and Davison did
235 Marguerite Porter Davison. Pennsylvania German Home Weaving. (Plymouth Meeting, PA: Mrs. C. Naaman Keyser, Publisher, 1947), 11.
236 Marguerite Porter Davison. Advertisement for the re-printing of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and other works by Marguerite Porter Davison. No date is given but the advertisement was probably published c. 1950. The Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
99 all of the pattern draft drawings and page design layouts herself. [See Figure 22:
“Modified Twills,” page 22 of the first edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book]. As a result of Davison’s revisions, the book expanded from 128 pages to 218 pages, allowing Davison to add many more patterns along with an extensive bibliography.
For the new version, Davison hired a Charles C. Denzler, a commercial artist and weaver, to do the layout. Davison believed Denzler’s design work made “the new edition a more pleasing composition to the discriminating reader. His skill places it in a higher rank as a book; his care as a meticulous weaver has eliminated errors in transcription.”237 Because the revised edition is the book had the widest distribution and most editions, it is arguably the most influential. Still widely available, the most recent printing of the revised edition was done by the firm John Spencer, Inc. in 2002.
The examples that follow all come from the revised edition.
Exactly when Davison began to write A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, is unknown, as no documentary evidence has been uncovered that would attribute a date.
However, it can be assumed that this process began sometime soon after Davison moved to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania since assembling the patterns and laying out the pages could have taken Davison several years. The process of writing the first
Pennsylvania German weaving booklet and the Weaver article would have been
237 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 1.
100 helpful preparations for A Handweaver’s Pattern Book in terms of source material, scope, and style.
The desire to write a book did not come solely from a desire to create a book that would teach students to weave at home; these books were already widely available. Particularly popular and widely available books were Edward F. Worst’s
Foot Power Loom Weaving in 1918 and Mary Meigs Atwater’s 1928 Shuttle Craft
Book of American Hand-Weaving. These books, along with several other books on weaving instruction in her collection would have certainly influenced Davison’s writing style and design. Davison’s main concern in writing A Handweaver’s Pattern
Book was not to teach beginners everything from warping a loom to common patterns like Mary Black or Edward F. Worst’s work, but to share four-shaft weaving patterns.
She chose to focus on four-shaft patterns because “the loom in use by the average handweaver is the four-harness loom, whether it is a table loom or a floor model. It is the simplest loom.”238 Davison was not alone in focusing on four-harness patterns;
Mary Meigs Atwater mainly uses four-harness patterns in her writings, and Edward F.
Worst and Mary E. Black also used them, along with more complex weaves.239
238 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. . (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), vi.
239 Atwater mainly focuses on four-harness looms in The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving. (New York: Macmillan, 1933). Worst gave instructions for weaving on up to ten-harness looms in Weaving with Foot-Power Looms with drafts for over 285 traditional patterns. Sixth ed. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1924), 178. Black gave instructions for two, three, four, five, six, and eight
101 Choosing a less complicated loom allowed Davison to sell her book to a wider audience than if her focus was on just six or eight shaft patterns. Also, these comparable publications show that there were already books that had a wide-ranging focus.
Experimentation with and use of a diverse range of pattern drafts seems to be
Davison’s main goal in publishing the book. In the Introduction to the revised edition, she comments to her readers on the importance of both past design and future experimentation:
It is hoped that the active mind will go beyond the study to the invention of new patterns. This does not pretend to be a complete collection of patterns; in fact that could never be. Inventive designers will build on this foundation, but the foundation was necessary for the building. A long view into the past brings also a long view into the future from the high point handweavers have reached today.240
By building off of historic design, Davison, like other transitional weavers, created a continuum between weavings past and present. While many of the patterns featured in the book come from historic sources, many other designs are of Davison’s creation.
These original designs come from a variety of inspirations, from daily events to experimenting with already known structures.
harness looms in: The New Key to Weaving. 2nd edition (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1949), vii-x.
240 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition, . (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971),vii.
102 Structure and design were particularly important to Davison. Her daughter,
Sue Davison Cooley, recalled her mother getting design inspirations from events in her everyday life. She recalled that the “Ginny’s Coat” modified twill pattern on page
30 of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book was inspired by the coat of her friend Ginny
Yerkes. Davison saw Ginny in front of her while on line at the Post Office in
Swarthmore, and she admired the tweed pattern on Ginny’s overcoat. To remember the pattern, Davison began to write out a draft for it on a scrap of paper.241 Reflecting on this incident, it shows that Davison could quickly recognize pattern draft variety, and that she had the practiced skill to quickly visualize how a pattern draft could correspond to the cloth. Weaving drafts are complex structures that require the author to be able to visualize the mathematical side of loom tie-ups and treadling order.
Recognizing a great variety of weave structures, and how one tie up can produce multiple patterns that can change the face of a cloth would require a strong visual memory.
A Handweaver’s Pattern Book shows that while there are several basic varieties of patterns, including twills, huck-a-back, overshot patterns, block designs, and diamonds among others, the combinations could be extensive. When examining either the original 1944 or any revised, post-1950 edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern
Book, Davison’s skill with pattern variation is evident. There are 98 named patterns in
241 Sue Davison Cooley, interview by Sara A. Jatcko, 20 October 2006, Oral History audio recording, Collection of Sara A. Jatcko.
103 the first edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. There are 377 named patterns, not including 44 basic twills, and 16 different threadings in the Bird’s Eye (or Rosepath) pattern in the revised edition. These threadings could be used for hundreds of different weaves: one source states approximately 1200 weaving directions.242
In some cases, Davison used historic textiles from her own collection as the complex structural source material for simplified four-shaft patterns. This was sometimes, but not always the case, as Davison also had many four shaft pieces in her historic collection, and not every collections piece corresponds to a pattern. In cases of four shaft patterns being translated from complex weaves, Davison would use historic pieces as primary source material. To again reference Figure 9, [See figure 9:
Table Cover 2000.007.046], Davison used this complex, multi-shaft weave as a source as inspiration for the pattern “Goose-Eye Blocks” that is found on page 36, as seen in
Figure 11. 243 In other cases of weaves in Davison’s collection there is a close correlation between the historic weaves and those in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.
One example is a linen tablecloth (2000.0007.013) in huck-a-back weave that closely relates to the “Joseph France Huck-A-Back” pattern. In other cases, Davison was looking at pieces like the twelve shaft linen warp/cotton weft tablecloth
(2000.0007.026). This piece, woven in a Barley Corn diamond weave would have
242 Russell Groff and Joseph Wiley. “A Way of Life: A Tribute to Marguerite P. Davison,” Warp and Weft. Vol. 45, No. 7 (September, 1992), Laura Allen Collection, Box 66, #1, The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center.
104 contributed to her historic understanding of this general pattern. Davison notes that this pattern “hard enough to weave on four harnesses,” so the appearance of it on a multi-shaft loom “speaks for the skill” of the historic weavers.244
Davison listed the origins of a pattern whenever she had an historic or contemporary reference source. She also did this when she adapted a pattern from another collector’s historic piece. In the case of historic manuscripts containing weaving drafts Davison’s task was formatting these four-shaft patterns by writing them in a notation system that could easily be understood by contemporary weavers.
Such is the case in those patterns that have sources listed underneath their name, like the pattern “Indian March” from Weaver Rose.245
Often in her own writing, Davison credits the research of others. In many patterns in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book she cites her contemporaries and predecessors, whose work she knew well. By listing the contributions of other weavers in her own work, Davison’s writing helps illuminate another transitional phase weaving trend: sharing research. In her chapter on “Block Designs,” in A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book Davison credits Evelyn Neher, a collector of old linens
243 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 36.
244 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 92.
245 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 38. This pattern is listed as “Weaver Rose #56.”
105 and researcher in New Canaan, Connecticut, for the pattern “New Canaan Check”246
She gives credit to Weaver Rose for “China Leaves.”247 Although Davison had no direct contact with the Rose family, she received his patterns through the efforts of
Emily Borie Beals, who transcribed Rose’s drafts.248 The “Large Overshot” pattern
“Double Irish Chain” is courtesy of her contemporary Lou Tate, listed as her no. 31, from Kentucky Coverlets.249
Many of the patterns in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book are of Davison’s original design. Some of pattern drafts have a traditional aesthetic alongside distinctly nontraditional names. These were inside references to her friends and family. The
Ginny’s Coat modified twill pattern discussed earlier is an example of naming a piece after a friend (in this case, a friend of her daughter Sue). The Swarthmore Twill pattern on the same page probably came from one of her in-house weaving experiments at her home.250 Others are named after obvious family members like
“Carol Porter” or people she thanks in the book’s acknowledgements like “Caroline
King’s Pattern.” There is even a reference to her husband, Waldo, in the “Nappy’s
246 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 65,118.
247 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 142.
248 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 1.
249 Marguerite Porter Davison, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, 152.
250 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), 30.
106 Butterflies” overshot novelty pattern. 251 By adding these names to traditional designs, Davison wrote her own history in these weaving patterns. As her work in the
Pennsylvania German Home Weaving booklets was, in part, tracing names of similar designs, it is both interesting and appropriate that she would give these patterns personal meanings.
Becoming a Publisher and Promoting Her Books
The process of writing did not end with the completion of Davison’s manuscript. After writing A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Davison had to find a publisher. Since she was trying to publish during the Second World War, Davison encountered difficulties finding a publisher willing to devote the capital and materials for the book. Although there was clearly an interest in handweaving books, due to the presence of so many in the market, she could not find a publisher willing to devote the cost for expensive printing plates.252 To accomplish her goal, Davison took out a small business loan. She needed the loan to pay for a printer—since she would publish this book herself, Davison retained both the copyright and any profits coming from the work. The first printer that she worked with was Schlecter’s in Allentown,
Pennsylvania. Davison’s daughter, Sue Davison Cooley recalled traveling with her
251 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1971), Carol Porter is on page 144, Caroline King’s Pattern is on page 138, and Nappy’s Butterflies is on page 144.
252 Printing plates from the mid-1940s contained zinc, a strategic material that was both limited and expensive during wartime. Unfortunately, there is no letter or list of
107 mother from Swarthmore to the printer’s on the “Toonerville Trolley” to visit
Schlecter’s to discuss printing the book.253 Davison mailed out invitations to buy her book at the cost of $7.50 to her wide mailing list of weavers.254 Those who wanted a copy would send payment to: Box 299 Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
Davison would soon learn how her business venture would pay off. As she already had connections within the national weaving community through her research, there was a ready audience for the book. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book was extremely well received, and through this response it became clear that weavers saw a need for a pattern book featuring historic sources. After sending out the first copies, she began to get mail from all over the country. Weavers from New York, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, California, Michigan, Vermont, Louisiana,
Iowa, Kentucky, and Davison’s home state of Ohio wrote in with their praise.
Comments from twenty-five individuals and organizations are listed on the back of the dust jacket to the third printing of the first edition of the book. This page, is in a sense, a snapshot of Davison’s place in the American Handweaving Revival, as it
publishers that Davison took her manuscript to that has been identified at the time of this writing.
253 Sue Davison Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her Daughter, Sue Cooley to the Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild.” Unpublished speech. March 1990.
254 Marguerite Porter Davison. Advertisement for the re-printing of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and other works by Marguerite Porter Davison. No date is given but the advertisement was probably published c. 1950. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
108 connects her to a variety of professions whose work involved handweaving, including teachers, occupational therapists, scholars, professional weavers, and artists.
Her first reviewer was Allen Eaton, from the Russell Sage Foundation, a scholar of both immigrant contributions to American life and the handicraft revival.
He calls her book “practical, clear, thorough, and very attractive,” saying “it is sure to answer the need we felt it would when we talked it over at length long ago.” Lucy
Morgan, the director of the handicraft settlement school Penland commented on the local North Carolina response to the book, saying “your books are selling so fast that we would like to have you send an additional twelve at once.” Professional organizations like Craft Horizons: American Craftsmen’s Cooperative Council said
“the directions are so plain that they may be read by the initiated as a musician reads a score. Mrs. Davison is a member of The Associated Handweavers and we are proud to recommend this book.” Such a review from a national organization would certainly help Davison’s sales. So would the final review listed on the page, that of Anni
Albers. Albers, a Bauhaus, modernist weaver who was teaching at Black Mountain
College at the time said “I have found many interesting subjects in it.”255 Through the inclusion of this variety of comments, it is possible to see how the people working in different phases of the Handweaving Revival overlap. Davison’s transitional work that focuses on the study of structure is taking place at the same time as Albers’,
255 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. First edition, (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1944), outside back dust jacket.
109 modern phase work. While Davison and Albers were doing different kinds of weavings, there was still a connection between their activities where these weavers understood each other’s interests and context, possibly seeing connections between their own work and the variety of activities in the overall movement. It is very fitting that Allen Eaton’s comment begins the reviews, as his work Handicrafts of the
Southern Highlands is considered the first major scholarship on the handweaving revival. Albers’ comment at the end shows the promise of the future of handweaving, as it is her work and that of other modern weavers that fundamentally changed perceptions of weaving from handicraft to fine art.
The positive response to A Handweaver’s Pattern Book enabled Davison to invest her profits by continuing to publish other projects. The first thirteen years of her marriage, Davison was devoted to her family and helping her husband in his work.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1944, Davison’s children were grown, and she was able to devote her time to weaving. The next nine years would be spent expanding the scope of that career. She her business by publishing books by other handweavers, while working on a revision of her own book. In 1947, she published Edith Huntington
Snow and Laura L. Peasley’s Weaving Lessons for Hand Looms, 256 and sold the book for $2.50 per copy.257 The illustrations for the volume were drawn by Davison’s
256 Edith Huntington Snow and Laura L. Peasley. Weaving Lessons for Hand Looms. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1947).
257 Marguerite Porter Davison. Advertisement for the re-printing of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and other works by Marguerite Porter Davison. No date is given but the
110 daughter, Sue.258 In 1948, Davison published Roger Millen’s Weave Your Own
Tweeds,259 acting as both publisher and distributor, selling the book at the price of
$4.00.260 By the time that these books were being published, Marguerite Porter
Davison’s husband, Waldo, had retired from his job at the Wyandotte Chemical
Company. As both publisher and as distributor of these books, Davison was able to augment her household income while pursuing her passion. The process of becoming a publisher was both profitable and personally fulfilling for Davison, but the stress of running a business certainly kept her busy. In a letter to her sister, Davison writes that although writing and publishing did present certain problems, the process was still worthwhile:
I know that many people have been helped by what I have done, and that seems to be enough, aside from the financial income. The cost of production is so high now that the profit is less, just when it should be most. No more
advertisement was probably published c. 1950. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
258 Sue Davison Cooley. “Story of Marguerite Porter Davison as told by her Daughter, Sue Cooley to the Salem, Oregon Weavers’ Guild.” Unpublished speech. March 1990.
259 Roger Millen. Weave Your Own Tweeds. (Swarthmore, PA: Marguerite P. Davison, Publisher, 1948).
260 Marguerite Porter Davison. Advertisement for the re-printing of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and other works by Marguerite Porter Davison. No date is given but the advertisement was probably published c. 1950. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
111 expensive bills for plates and setting it up, yet the standard of the book has just become what I want it to be, and all charges are more for producing it.261
While it was not exceptional within the handweaving community for a married woman of comfortable means to go into her own business, it was still quite an undertaking at a time in America’s history when the popular perceived ideal was that a woman’s place was firmly rooted in the home. 262 Yet this demonstrates a different movement in women’s work that questions that preconception. Handweaving became a way for many women to pursue a career in a craft they enjoyed within the realm of home and family.
Through the process of networking within the national weaving community,
Davison had acquired a long list of teachers and businesses relating to her craft. She compiled one of the most comprehensive lists of weavers and weaving supply companies in the United States to help sell her books. She shared much of the information she collected in 1948 in a small booklet called A Weaver’s Directory, published for the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Published for a craftsman audience, the listings contain information on where to buy looms, loom parts, and accessories, yarns, loom cord, weaving instruction, spinning instruction, periodicals, and the names and addresses of publishers and craft book dealers. Many of Davison’s
261 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , February 2, 1953. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, Clayton, New York. She died 18 days later.
112 friends’ businesses are listed in the book. Contributors to A Handweavers Pattern
Book like Kathryn Wellman (handweaving instruction) and Burl N. Osburn (spinning instruction) are listed. Davison also lists the textile dealer Miss Elizabeth Spangler as a spinning instructor.263
As Davison ran her small, but expanding business, she also traveled to promote her handweaving books. Since Davison still sold the majority of her books by mail order, traveling and speaking to weavers would expand her audience. Those weavers that already owned her book would have been familiar with the symbol of
“the Weaver’s Knot” stamped on the cover of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. This knot, both the symbol of Davison’s craft and the symbol of her business, was often worn by Davison, and those weavers who saw her speak might have seen it in the form of a pin on her blouse. [See figure 23: Photo portrait of Marguerite Porter
Davison, 1950]. She gave at least one lecture tour, selling books and speaking to guilds. In 1952, Davison began a tour in Los Angeles, California on October 4. She then traveled on to Santa Barbara on the 15th, and San Anselmo on the 17th. Davison writes about speaking in Oregon as well: Portland on the 20th, then Salem on October
262 Davison’s contemporary weavers, like Lou Tate Boussman, Mary Meigs Atwater, and others also were starting businesses. See Chapter 2 for more on women working in the Handweaving Revival.
263 Marguerite Porter Davison. A Weaver’s Directory. (The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, 1948), 6. The Collection of Sue Davison Cooley.
113 21, Albany on the 22nd. Her schedule ends with a speaking tour in Washington State, giving talks in Seattle, Bellingham, Yakima, and Spokane within a five day period.264
Laura Allen and A Handweaver’s Source Book
Sometime in the mid 1940s, probably after publishing A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book,265 Davison acquired the collection of Laura M. Romaine Allen, a first phase weaver, teacher, and collector of historic pattern drafts.266 The project began by sorting out Allen’s disorganized collection of pattern drafts—pieces that she had collected over 50 years of research. Allen had created some graphs on paper showing what selected historic drafts would look like when woven, but there was still much work to be done. Davison wrote about this process of organization to her sister in
1952:
I have put into shape over two hundred of the graphs of the patterns with the drafts. There will be about fifty more to make a rounded collection. Some of the graphs can be turned over to the artist as Mrs. Allen made them; some need only new drafts for the threading, and some need to be done over completely, which means hours of work.267
264 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
265 Davison probably obtained the Allen collection after 1944, as no information from it is included in the first edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.
266 For more information on Allen and her collection, see Chapters 1 and 3 of this thesis.
267 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
114
By taking up this task, Davison was assuming responsibility for Allen’s legacy. The scale of the project was so large, that the patterns for Laura M. Allen: Her Book, as
Davison called it, were presented as graphs of each finished weave design along with a small diagram explaining threading and treadling order. The process of completing
Allen’s book to the same level of finish as A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, with photographs of multiple woven samples and histories of patterns, was too much work.
Davison called herself editor, attributing the artwork and layout to Charles Denzler’s skill.268
Unfortunately, Davison was in the final stages of editing the Allen book when she suddenly passed away due to a cerebral hemorrhage on February 20, 1953.269 The
Allen book was published by her estate as A Handweaver’s Source Book later in 1953, with Davison being listed as editor. The finished work probably resembles what
Davison had envisioned, as her friend from the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Burl
N. Osburn assembled the final copy. However, in some cases the pattern drafts included are Davison’s, not Allen’s. For example, “Pioneer Trail” on page 10, is a
Davison draft. [See Figure 24: “Pioneer Trail” diagram, page 10 of the first edition of
A Handweaver’s Source Book]. Although not listed as such in the front pages of the
268 Marguerite Porter Davison to Mary Elizabeth (Mary Jane) Bankhardt, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania , September 4, 1952. Box 1 The Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Archives, Clayton, New York.
269 Burl N. Osburn. “In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison” The Pennsylvania Craftsman. (April, 1953).
115 edition, a second, shorter edition of the book was printed soon after. This condensed the book from 228 pages and 224 patterns to 128 pages and 146 patterns that featured
“patterns which give a broad scope of design.”270 While this book never had the resonance or widespread appeal of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, it contains a wide variety of previously unpublished patterns. Out of print today, the book that Davison intended to be a memorial to Allen’s legacy became the memorial to her own.
Conclusions
Through teaching, Marguerite Porter Davison impacted the lives of many individual weavers, as she taught weaving to diverse groups, from war veterans in
Muskogee, Oklahoma to continuing education classes at Swarthmore High School.271
Through becoming an author and publisher Davison was able to reach a wider audience. She was also able to create new and strengthen existing connections among
American handweavers. She actively created a legacy for herself and for Laura M.
Romaine Allen through organizing and transcribing the patterns featured in A
Handweaver’s Source Book. The writings published during Davison’s lifetime can be seen as her educational and academic legacy. She was interested in preserving the weaves of the past, but through sharing her own knowledge, she was also shaping the future of the craft. Through this, she created a legacy that was recognized by her contemporaries.
270 Marguerite Porter Davison, editor. A Handweaver’s Source Book. (Swarthmore, PA: The Estate of Marguerite Porter Davison, 1953), inside back cover.
116 Chapter 6
CONCLUSIONS AND DAVISON’S LEGACY TODAY
This chapter examines Marguerite Porter Davison’s lasting legacy through examining her impact on handweaving in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. My conclusions address Davison’s role as a transitional phase participant in the Handweaving Revival. Davison’s legacy with handweavers today is addressed through responses to my questionnaire research.
Survey of Weavers
Part of understanding Davison’s lasting influence involves understanding trends in handweaving today. Phyllis Alvic, in her article “Weaving” in American
Folklore: An Encyclopedia, discusses the makeup of the overall weaving community in the late 20th century. She says that the typical contemporary weaver, “is in her late forties, married to a professional man, mother of two children, holds a degree, and has done some graduate study.” This weaver is not unlike Davison, as she was only able to devote her time to weaving after her children were grown. Alvic also discusses
Davison’s lasting legacy in this article, stating that “by the mid-20th century most
271 Elizabeth Cooley, 3
117 handweavers owned a copy of Marguerite Porter Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern
Book.” 272
To further assess Davison’s role in weaving today, I prepared a questionnaire that asked weavers of all skill levels how they have had contact with Davison’s books.
The questionnaire was targeted at a few geographic areas that included weavers taking courses at the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center and Syracuse University in New
York state, members of the Harmony Weavers’ Guild, and individual weavers in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Eighteen weavers responded—a small sampling of those working in the craft. The importance of these responses is anecdotal rather than statistical. Also, as these responses are personal statements, they show the individual legacies of Marguerite Porter Davison’s work; although some responses illuminated trends in how her book is still used today, not every response contains universally applicable information on Davison’s legacy.
While the pool of answers was small, those that did respond provided a variety of perspectives, and were at different points in their careers: teachers, beginners, professionals, and recreational weavers. Both men and women responded, but of the eighteen weavers, only two are male. The questionnaire asked for responses to ten questions about how a weaver learned to weave, what books they used, and why they
272 Phyllis Alvic, “Weaving” in Jan Brunvand, ed. American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 1551, 1996), 750.
118 thought A Handweaver’s Pattern Book was a relevant publication today. See
Appendix A for a copy of the questionnaire.
Responses from beginning weavers, in this case, a group of students in Sarah
Saulson’s Introduction to Floor Looms class at Syracuse University, provided information on the role A Handweaver’s Pattern Book continues to play in the education of student weavers. This group consisted of four twenty to twenty-two year old women. While one student was learning to weave for fun, others were required to take the course as part of a textile design major. One weaver, here identified as
Weaver 1, states that learning to weave using A Handweaver's Pattern Book has consisted of using “it just to try out new patterns at this point,” as she worked with traditional patterns.273 Another student, Tessa Steuerwalt, said that “A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book is the only book I’ve looked at about weaving,” and that it was “still relevant today” because it showed classic designs.274 Even though she was using A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book, Steuerwalt discussed how she “liked to experiment more than keeping to the classic weaving. I like to use hand painted warps with varying colors,” a response much in keeping with modern and transitional weaving thought.
Another student, Phoebe Moulthrop, echoed that process in her response, saying “I like to start with a pattern idea from the Pattern Book, and then change things like the
273 Weaver Number 1. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 7, 2006. All weavers who are referred to by number rather than name asked that their names be withheld for this paper.
274 Tessa Steuerwalt. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 7, 2006.
119 tie up to fit my habits and experiment with different colors and fibers.”275 Beginning weaver Julia Wilson, who in response to the “who and what inspired you to become a weaver?” question, stated “I love fiber structure in general,” believed that A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book was “a classic.” She states that it features the “best overall information” as she works to design her own patterns “using traditional structure/techniques.”276
A variety of perspectives on the craft and A Handweaver’s Pattern Book are found among the three teachers who responded to the questionnaire. This is particularly evident in terms of age: two respondents are between the ages of seventy- five and eighty-five, and two are between the ages of fifty and sixty. The elder group of teachers consists of two women who have taught extensively at the Handweaving
Museum and Arts Center in Clayton, New York. These weavers, Ruth Holroyd and
Weaver Number 2 (a teacher and former curator at the HMAC), both learned to weave in the middle of their lives, at ages 37 and about 40, respectively. Discussing how weavers learn and the influence of Davison’s books, Holroyd states “I do not believe anyone can properly learn weaving, or the beginning skills of any craft, from books.”
She goes on to say “it is better to learn one method from a good teacher and then, after having learned the basic principles, experiment with others from books or elsewhere to create one’s own.” Holroyd cites Davison’s books as “part of the beginning of my
275 Phoebe Moulthrop. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 7, 2006.
120 weaving education because at the time there were very few reference books.”
Holroyd, a weaver-author, has a personal library collection of over 530 weaving books that she has accumulated since she began to weave. Commenting on the relevance of
A Handweaver’s Pattern Book both as a weaver and a teacher, Holroyd states that it is relevant
today because of it’s [sic] variety of weave structures and patterns; however there are now other texts that teach the same thing with more technical information; in fact, Mary Meigs Atwater and Harriet Tidball made it more understandable in their publications.277
This perspective on the variety of books available today is echoed by Weaver Number
2. Like Holroyd, she has an extensive library (over 200 books), and finds that “I have no one book that I prefer—each book has a preferred section.” She also cites that
“newer books are better illustrated, that is appealing,” but “older books deal with technical aspects of weaving more ‘instructionally.’” This weaver attributes the relevance of Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book to its strengths both
“technically and as a point of reference.” She believes that this contributes to its widespread use among handweavers, saying that “over the years many weavers have used MPD’s books,” including the local Watertown, New York guild, where at a weaving workshop “everybody weaves a small item from M.P.D.’s Pattern Book.”278
276 Julia Wilson. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. No date listed on survey, but contextually, the response can be dated November 7, 2006.
277 Ruth Holroyd. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. December 4, 2006.
278 Weaver Number 2. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. October 27, 2006.
121 The younger group of weavers who teach, Marjie Thompson and Deb
McClintock, both learned at a younger age, at 31 and 27, respectively. Both women weave professionally and teach. Interestingly, both women were captivated by the craft at a young age: Thompson’s first contact with handweaving was “a piece of float work coverlet on a dry sink at my grandparents, and the first loom and weaver I saw at age 4.”279 McClintock became aware of weaving in third grade, when “our Houston school took a bus field trip to Huntsville, Texas to the Sam Houston Museum. They had a fiber day and were demonstrating weaving.”280
Both women also consider their weaving education to be comprised of classroom learning, self-taught experience, and the utilization of books and magazines. Each, however, had different experiences with Davison’s work.
McClintock cites three authors “Davison, Debbie Chandler and Peter Collingwood” as her tutors through books. She calls A Handweaver’s Pattern Book “a great teaching resource as it enables beginners with minimum knowledge to explore many different weaving structures. This book was very helpful to me when I started.”281 Thompson utilized Mary Black’s New Key to Weaving and Davison in her beginning weaving classes with teachers Katie Schmidt and Marguerite Schrieber. However, Thompson had a different experience than McClintock, as Thompson “found Davison difficult
279 Marjie Thompson. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 26, 2006.
280 Deb McClintock. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 27, 2006.
281 Deb McClintock. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 27, 2006.
122 because it is written for sinking shed, not the rising shed used for most looms today.
The scale in the book is also difficult for a beginning weaver because the book samples are done in sewing thread and no beginner starts with that!!”282
These teachers’ responses show that while individual weavers learned better from different authors’ approaches to handweaving, there are common books that were used to introduce weavers to the craft. From Holroyd’s first classes in 1958 to
McClintock’s first weaving class in 1983 and subsequent self-teaching with A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book, this work has been a classic present in many weavers’ introduction to the craft throughout its history of publication.
The other weavers surveyed ranged from those who identified as professional weavers with no other occupation, weavers who occasionally sold their work, and weavers who primarily wove for recreation. All were familiar with A Handweaver’s
Pattern Book, and the majority of respondents used it in their early years of weaving.
Weaver Naomi Cannon used the book on her first day of class, in 1989. Her instructor, Doris Boyd, “presented me with A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, and asked me to pick out a pattern I liked. I picked Swedish Rosepath…I bought my own copy of MPD (as we familiarly call it) [soon after].” While this book was an early
282 Marjie Thompson. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 26, 2006. A note on this comment: While Davison sometimes used quite fine materials, most beginners today do use yarns much larger in diameter than sewing thread. Also Davison believed that her patterns “may be adapted to other materials” than those shown in her book, and provided recommendations for selecting yarns of varying weights; see A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Revised edition, pages vii-x.
123 influence, Cannon uses A Handweaver’s Pattern Book “if I’m planning an overshot project,” and states that “practically every weaver I have encountered at various workshops either has a copy or is familiar with it.”283 Wendy Cooper, the current curator at the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center, calls the book “the first weaving book I looked at. It is still relevant for its clear instruction on reading drafts and working with patterns—very helpful.” Cooper cites Deborah Chandler’s 1995
Learning to Weave as the book she consults most frequently.284 Other weavers surveyed, like Deborah Lewis-Idema, and Kathleen J. King also cite Chandler’s book as an early influence in their weaving. Lewis-Idema, who considers herself a self- taught recreational weaver, cites Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book as what
“turned me on to overshot patterns.” While she primarily uses an 8-shaft loom today, she used Davison’s work while learning 4-shaft weaving.285
These responses collectively shed light on how Davison’s work, along with the books of other transitional weavers, still have a lasting influence on weaving today.
From an examination of the overall survey results, only one weaver was not familiar with Davison’s work. It is also clear that A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, rather than A
Handweaver’s Source Book or either of Davison’s Pennsylvania German weaving pamphlets, is Davison’s most influential publication. From the survey it is also clear
283 Naomi Cannon. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 13, 2006.
284 Wendy Cooper. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 9, 2006.
285 Deborah Lewis-Idema. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 7, 2006.
124 that the publications of transitional weavers are very enduring as teaching tools. The other transitional phase weaving book that continues to impact weaving today is Mary
Black’s New Key to Weaving. It is cited by weavers Marjie Thompson, Mickey Irr, and Charles Haddley Blanchard as their first book. Weaver Kathleen J. King lists three influential transitional publications: Black’s New Key to Weaving and Mary Meigs
Atwater’s The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Handweaving, along with A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book as the first books she purchased when she learned to weave in 1978.286
Regarding Davison’s legacy today, some weavers made dramatic comparisons, some quite personal, to illustrate how they feel her work remains relevant. Gregory
Potter compares Davison, saying “Davison probably is to weaving as Vesallius or
Gray is to the study of anatomy.”287 Naomi Cannon, upon visiting Davison’s collection of Pennsylvania Linens at Winterthur, called the experience “a great thrill, somewhat akin to a golfer viewing St. Andrews.”288 Karen Donde says A
Handweaver’s Pattern Book is “still relevant because of the wide variety of patterns, many classics, are still as beautiful and fun to weave as ever…We are very lucky that these beautiful designs were deciphered and saved for generations of weavers to
286 Kathleen J. King. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 15, 2006
287 Gregory Potter. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 5, 2006.
288 Naomi Cannon. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 13, 2006.
125 come.”289 Mickey Irr, who helped catalog Davison’s collection of Pennsylvania
Linens called the experience educational, saying:
After seeing some of these wonderful textiles, I wanted to set up my loom and explore those patterns that I had never considered before….Wish I had known MP Davison. The many weavers who recommended her books considered her an authority and her collection of patterns unequaled. Her books will be used for many years to come.290
The way in which weavers use A Handweaver’s Pattern Book is also interesting. Respondent weavers cited a variety of influences as their first contact with handweaving, but a love of making things was a lasting inspiration. It is of note that out of the eighteen respondents, nine noted that they have traveled to conferences, exhibits, or Convergence meetings. There is also a trend in the questionnaire results showing the lasting legacy of guilds: eleven of the eighteen weavers were guild members or had attended guild meetings at some point in their careers as weavers. If the beginner weavers are discounted as exceptional, the proportion of experienced weavers in guilds is made even higher. Since encouraging the founding and growth of guilds was a key transitional weaving trait, these responses illustrate yet another way transitional weavers shaped the future of their craft.
289 Karen Donde. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. December 12, 2006.
126 Conclusions
Marguerite Porter Davison, as a member of the second, transitional, phase of the Handweaving Revival, made a lasting impact on the craft of handweaving.
Through her perspective on education, her collections, and her books, Davison contributed to a movement to propel weaving towards a phase of experimentation and creativity where the craft could be considered a form of art. Through focusing on weaves for simple looms and preserving a wide variety of pattern drafts, Davison and her transitional contemporaries created a continuum between weaving in the past and the present. Moreover, this widespread dissemination of pattern drafts gave average handweavers more pattern variety than any of their predecessors would have had available. Davison’s work has a particular influence on changing the craft as she made patterns from her contemporaries and her forbearers available and understandable. She combined the work of Swedish, Pennsylvania German, and
Southern Highlands Mountain weavers in her book, finding commonality in the designs of these geographically distinct areas. In a sense, Davison helped create new
American weaving traditions, as her pattern book is a melting pot of design. It reinforces her philosophy that “American life is made up of all nations coming together, blending their traditions, and bringing something equally beautiful out of
290 Mickey Irr. Questionnaire Response to Sara Jatcko. November 27, 2006.
127 it.”291 By encouraging experimentation with treadling with these patterns, Davison helped weavers create objects of more variety than ever before. Through their work with pattern and structure, transitional weavers fundamentally changed the craft, spurred by innovation in design and respect for the past.
While the questionnaire responses show that Davison’s most lasting legacy is her compilation of patterns in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, her career shows that she also made significant contributions to the Handweaving Revival as a collector, craftsperson, and educator. Davison was a product of her time; as a young woman educated in the 1880s-1910s period, her career echoes themes inherent in the manual and applied arts movement, the Colonial Revival in America, and the Arts and Crafts
Movement. However, like her transitional contemporaries, Davison did not focus on strictly following a Colonial Revival or Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Rather, she used these art and folk movements as inspiration for her own creative work, like weavers today.
The importance of education was a lasting legacy in Marguerite Porter
Davison’s career. By examining her educational experiences, four factors emerge that influenced her future career. Davison had writing skills and an understanding of people’s educational needs, artistic skills to create something new, craftsmanship skills to create objects of high quality, and business skills to understand the processes
291 Frances Furniss. “Heirloom Linens” Handweaver and Craftsman. (Spring 1958), 53.
128 of running a small business and publishing her books. Her focus on education, particularly through hands-on training, shows the legacy of her father’s career as a leader in the manual and applied arts movement. Excellence in craftsmanship can be attributed to the influence of Anna Ernberg, her first weaving teacher at Berea
College. Marguerite’s artistic, creative side as the author of new pattern drafts can be seen as her own, inner talents, and the combined the legacy of all of the creative, artistic (and here unnamed) weavers that Davison met and worked with throughout her career. The last contributing factor, skill at business, is the result of Marguerite’s business classes at the University of Cincinnati, and her organizational skills gained from managing a large family throughout her life.
Davison’s career as a collector is also significant among the collections of the museums and individuals contemporary with her. In terms of pattern and structural variety, Davison gathered an important collection, comparable to the collections of nearby institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As Davison was collecting pieces, particularly those made in Southeastern Pennsylvania, she was acting as a preservationist and historian. Through using these textiles and patterns as teaching tools and as inspiration and source material for her writings, this collection reached a wide audience. Through acquiring Laura M. Romaine Allen’s collection of patterns and scrapbooks, Davison not only acted as a bridge between the traditional and transitional weavers, but also made the greater national weaving community more
129 aware of Allen’s work. By organizing and planning to publish Allen’s collection,
Davison fulfilled Allen’s dream of writing a book.
As an author and scholar, Davison is not exceptional within the wider group of transitional weavers. It is important to remember that she was one member of a growing group in the 1940s and 1950s who shared common ideas about the importance of developing guilds to encourage weaving, the importance of making weaving accessible and understandable, and the value of researching the craft and preserving its traditions for the future. In her inscription in her 1946 book Weaving is
Fun, Lou Tate, another transitional phase weaver and author writes “To Marguerite
Davison—one of those rare friends who share the love of research and the gift for new weavings.”292 The significance of this comment is that Davison shared this love with others, creating a group of weavers whose work would enable weavers today to still create new weaves from old traditions.
292 Lou Tate Boussman. Weaving is Fun. (Louisville, KY: Lou Tate, 1946). Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
130 Appendix A
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR HANDWEAERS
1) When did you first learn to weave? Please list the year (or approximate year). How old were you then? Where did you learn to weave? Today, do you weave professionally or for recreation?
2) Who and what inspired you to become a weaver? A friend or relative? Or were you inspired by woven objects—such as pieces you saw at an arts fair or museum exhibit?
3) Are you a self-educated weaver, or did you learn through taking weaving classes? If you taught yourself, what texts did you use and what was your experience learning weaving from a book? What aspects of weaving did you find easy to understand, and what were the more challenging things to learn? If you learned in a classroom setting, who was your teacher? Did your instructor recommend any particular books to help you learn? Did you learn to weave using A Handweaver’s Pattern Book? What aspects of weaving did you find easy to understand, and what were the more challenging things to learn?
4) What kind of loom did you learn to weave on, and what kind of loom do you use today?
5) How has consulting books about weaving helped you improve as a weaver? What book was your first weaving book and which books do you consult most frequently? Do you still use the books you used as a novice weaver now that you are more experienced?
6) What weaving books and periodicals do you keep in your personal library? Please list titles, authors, and publication dates. What books do you reference most often? How do you use them for inspiration?
7) How have the publications of Marguerite Porter Davison (A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, A Handweaver’s Source Book, and Pennsylvania German Home Weaving) particularly influenced your own work? Do you have colleagues, friends, or relatives who use these books? Was A Handweaver’s Pattern Book an early influence in your work? Why do you think this book is still relevant to weavers today?
131
8) Marguerite Porter Davison was very interested in both historic design, the designs of her contemporaries, and the use of non-traditional fibers. Do you incorporate historic design in your own weaving? If you have books like A Handweaver’s Pattern Book or A Handweaver’s Source Book that contain that re-published historic weaving drafts, how do you use them in your work? Do you like to create pieces that reference historic weaves? Or do you experiment with treadling order, materials, etc. to “modernize” these patterns?
9) Marguerite Porter Davison said that “hand weaving is a common language in all parts of the world.” Have your experiences as a weaver ever called for you to travel in the United States or abroad? Have you ever attended the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence Conference? Do you ever find inspiration in weaving books not printed in the English language?
10) If there is any other information about your experiences as a weaver that you would like to share, please feel free to do so here. As my thesis focuses on Marguerite Porter Davison, I am particularly interested in hearing any stories that you, or your friends or relatives, may have about Davison, her books, or her collections.
132 Appendix B
FIGURES 1-24
The following images come from a variety of sources. Credits are listed with each individual figure and are listed as follows:
Figures 1, 3: From the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Collection. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
Figures 2, 14, 19, 21: Courtesy of: Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
Figures: 4, 11, 22, 24: From works published by the descendants of Marguerite Porter Davison. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
Figures 5, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko
Figure 23: Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Roger Russell.
Figure 6: Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko
Figures 7, 8, 9, 10. Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Robert Di Franco.
Figure 12: Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Linda Eaton.
133
Figure 1: Page from the Scrapbooks of Laura Allen: Popular Mechanics, Mar.1919: “Reviving Handicrafts in America.” From the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Collection. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
134
Figure 2: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the Associated Handweavers: project I 4, Twill by M. Lord 1/15/49. Courtesy of: Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
135
Figure 3: “Kivers” Sold by Berea College’s Fireside Industries, 1912-1913. From the Laura M. Romaine Allen Scrapbook Collection. From the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center Colllection. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
136
Figure 4: “Rose in the Wilderness” a design by Anna Ernberg woven by Marguerite Porter Davison, from page 180 of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
137
Figure 5: Image of Photo of the Porter Family from Marguerite Porter’s wedding to Waldo Davison. Left to Right, back row: William, Charles H. (father), Susan, Harold (Charles H. Jr.), Marguerite, Dwight, Caroline Pemberton (mother), Mary Elizabeth, Robert, John. Front row: Donald, Ruth, David. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography of image by Sara A. Jatcko
138
Figure 6: Inventory Book written by Marguerite Porter Davison, pages 10-11, Accession 2000.0007.116, Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
139
Figure 7: Hand Towel 2000.0007.0021, Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Robert Di Franco.
140
Figure 8: Plain woven linens. Left to right: 2000.0007.095; 2000.0007.076; 2000.0007.072; 2000.0007.074. Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Robert Di Franco.
141
Figure 9: Table Cover 2000.007.046, Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Robert Di Franco.
142
Figure 10: Tablecloth 2000.007.025, Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Robert Di Franco.
143
Figure 11: “Goose-Eye Blocks,” page 36 in A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
144
Figure 12: Tablecloth 2000.007.017, with attached note, Courtesy, Winterthur Museum. Photography by Linda Eaton.
145
Figure 13: Napkins woven by Marguerite Porter Davison. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
146
Figure 14: Swatch from Seven Projects in Rosepath as woven by the Associated Handweavers: project 1/7, by Marguerite Porter Davison. Courtesy of: Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
147
Figure 15: Image of Photograph of Marguerite Porter Davison at the loom, Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
148
Figure 16: Image of Photograph of a runner woven by Marguerite Porter Davison, at the first annual exhibit of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
149
Figure 17: No. 8: a white and brown linen napkin by Marguerite Porter Davison. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
150
Figure 18: No. 7: a brown, cream, and blue linen towel by Marguerite Porter Davison. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
151
Figure 19: Linens and pattern draft by Marguerite Porter Davison, page 29 of Little Loomhouse Country Fair, 1945-1946. Courtesy of: Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
152
Figure 20: Large coverlet sampler woven by Marguerite Porter Davison. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
153
Figure 21: Image of a Coverlet, from the final page of Pennsylvania Dutch Home- Weaving Patterns. Courtesy of: Archives & Special Collections, Ganser Library, Millersville University, Millersville, Pa. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
154
Figure 22: “Modified Twills,” page 22 of the first edition of A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
155
Figure 23: Photo portrait of Marguerite Porter Davison, 1950. Private Collection of Sue Davison Cooley. Photography by Roger Russell.
156
Figure 24: “Pioneer Trail” diagram, page 10 of the first edition of A Handweaver’s Source Book. Photography by Sara A. Jatcko.
157
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