New York Public Library centennial

Left Entrance. Right Lego lion, by Nathan Sawaya.

In January Jay and I went to New York, to see offspring before they became busy with their academic studies.  Research interests took us to the business and mid-town branches of the New York Public Library.  We also visited the mother ship itself: the famous New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street.

Extended through March 4, 2012, the library presents a centennial show of the library's history, Celebrating 100 Years. For FREE, you can see, among other things, a Gutenberg Bible, a manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence, and e. e. cummings' typewriter, which does indeed have a shift key. Learn more here: http://www.nypl.org/, and look under menu heading "Classes and Events".

There is a self-guided tour brochure available.

Grand lobby. A Beaux-Arts Palace for books and people.

McGraw Rotunda.

One of the stations on the self-guided tour is the McGraw Rotunda, home to four realist murals painted by Edward Lansing as part of the Work Projects Administration program for artists. The oversize wall paintings were unveiled by Mayor LaGuardia in 1940.  If the theme of the murals - the history of the recorded word - were continued, what would any murals depict today? Jeff Bezos holding a Kindle? My husband, who himself has a dozen high-tech patents, ready to toss his Mac out the window as he confronts yet another bug in Microsoft's Word?

Medieval Scribe, Edward Lansing.

The library continues to collect all manner of artifacts, including contemporary prints, many of which are on display.

Details of prints by (left to right) Blanche Lazell, Ryan McGinness, and Sonia Delaunay.

Reading room with paintings of publishing headquarters, such as the Time building.

The library was built at a time when the phrase "aspirational consumption" applied to public buildings - by erecting such a rich environment for knowledge and learning, New York society sought to establish that it valued not just remunerative pursuits, but those of the mind as well.  The NYPL is an unusual entity, as it is funded through a combination of both public and private sponsorship. Fortunately a number of modern philanthropists have stepped up to the plate in recent times, meeting the demanding capital and maintenance needs of such a structure.  If only the access to the materials matched the excellence of the collection.

Quilters' Connection workshop

Lots of activity in the lower level of St. Brigid's church.

On January 14, my quilt guild continued its wonderful tradition of Free Winter Workshops.  Members share their skills and knowledge with each other, and it's one of the reasons this guild is so special. Workshops  included  scarf making, free motion machine quilting, beading, thermofax screen printing and even a session on Ursula Kern-style paper piecing, taught by someone who'd taken Kern's workshop last year.  Organizing all of this - from eliciting workshop listings in October, to sign-up in November, to final clean-up after the event - is quite a challenge, but worth it, and not just for the free lunch also on offer.

I've fallen in love with sashiko stitching; this and a guilty feeling that I haven't contributed enough to my guild, propelled me to volunteer to teach an afternoon session on basic sashiko stitchery.  Of course, not having taught adults since 1983, when I led an inter-session quilting class at MIT, I'd forgotten how much time is takes to prepare materials, especially for a first-time class. As I stitched samples, photocopied page after page for my handouts, and made frantic emails to my sashiko supplier, I began to wonder if it was all worth it.  When surrounded by my fellow guild members, however, the answer became an emphatic "yes!"

We learn about sashiko materials.

Stitching samples and student work in progress.

 Special thanks to class participants Laura, who brought a power strip with a lengthy cord, so we could plug in our Ott lamps, and Barbara, who helped me lug all my items from my car.

We learn, but also connect, at the workshops.

My contribution to sashiko pedagogy.

We used the pre-printed hemp pattern as our class project. As the stitching sequence directions that come with Olympus patterns are a bit cryptic, I stitched a color-coded sample to delineate the optimal stitching sequence.  Participants also received a black and white line drafted pattern, which they color-coded with Sharpie pens I provided. 

Students color-code their stitching diagrams.

 I decided against making color copies of the pattern, partly due to the expense (workshop leaders are not reimbursed); additionally I hoped that students would really grasp the concepts behind the stitching pattern if they colored it in themselves. Whether or not the samplers are finished, each participant will perhaps have a better appreciation of the process involved in the creation of any sashiko stitching she may view at a show or exhibition.

Demonstrating pattern transfer onto plain fabric.

As is usually the outcome when teaching, I learned as much, if not more, from my fellow guild members, and am very grateful to them for their support and good humor.

Medieval Art: The Lewis Chessmen at The Cloisters

 Several of the Lewis Chessmen.

 Image source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/the_lewis_chessmen.aspx

On January 19, spouse, daughter and I went to The Cloisters, an outpost of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located at the very northwestern tip of Manhattan. There are many reasons to visit The Cloisters, but on this occasion we were on a mission to see the Lewis Chessmen, medieval chess pieces from the British Museum.  Formally titled The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis, the display of these amazing survivors from the twelfth century, carved from walrus ivory, ends April 22, 2012.  More info on The Cloisters can be found at http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/ 

 Photography of the chess pieces was not allowed, 

so this is my only onsite special exhibit image.

Note that for those with stamina, your paid admission to The Cloisters also entitles you to same-day admission to The Metropolitan's main museum, and if you buy an audio guide at The Cloisters, as we did, save the receipt and get an audio guide for free at the Met.

King chess piece.

Image source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/the_lewis_chessmen.aspx

The artisan(s) who made these pieces modeled the drapery of robes and tunics with care on both seated and standing figures; even the horse trappings have a sense of weight and fluidity.

If these pieces look vaguely familiar, it may be because they inspired the chess pieces used by Ron Weasley and Harry Potter when Ron instructs Harry in Wizard's Chess at Hogwarts. The set designers cannily adapted existing, historical objects to create props and this authenticity of the source material assists the movie-goer in suspending disbelief.  

The story of the Lewis chessmen, so-called because they were dug up by a Scottish crofter on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, is a tale with a bit of mystery and intrigue.  James Robinson, curator of medieval collections at the British Museum, recounts the tale of the seventy-eight known pieces in a concise, profusely illustrated book The Lewis Chessmen, a volume of the British Museum Objects in Focus series. (ISBN 978 0 7141 5023 9)

Ron introduces Harry to Wizard's Chess in  

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone.

Ron's set is based on the Lewis Chessmen.

Image source: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizard%27s_Chess

Reproduction chess set. Image source:

http://www.ncsxshop.com/cgi-bin/shop/KYD-HPC01.html

Painted Wooden Box, 1200 - 1225, Southern France.

The wooden box above features warriors with colorful helmets and shields similar to those sported by the chessmen; there is speculation that some of the chessmen were painted red, as shown in the reproduction set and in the Harry Potter film.

Pink marble colonnade from the Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa 

monastery in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Of course, a highlight of The Cloisters, is, well, the medieval cloisters, abandoned structures painstakingly removed from their European homes, imported to America, and reconstructed on a Hudson River palisade, courtesy John D. Rockefeller and his architect Charles Collens.  

So, having admired the chessmen, we viewed other products of the medieval imagination, including these fantastical carved capitals in the Cuxa Cloister, above, including imagery of mermaids, and of lions devouring hapless mortals.

 Column capital, St.-Guilhem Cloister, details.

Left, the mouth of Hell. 

Right, above, sinners in chains.

Right, lower, eternal torment.

We also strolled through the St.-Guilhem cloister, originally from Montpellier, France.  Most of the column capitals here were adapted from Roman prototypes, and feature foliate motifs recalling acanthus leaf Corinthian capitals. However, a few of the capitals are representational narratives, such as the sculpture above.  My daughter, enrolled in an MBA program, is enduring job interviews for summer positions, so we nick-named this capital "Recruiting Season."

 

 Unicorn in captivity. 

Image source: http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/70007568

Perhaps the best-known treasure of The Cloisters is the Unicorn tapestry series, late medieval (1495-1505) masterpieces whose colors still glow and enchant.

After I posted this entry, it was brought to my attention that replicas of some of the chess pieces are available from the shop of the National Museum of Scotland, http://shop.nms.ac.uk/categories/Gifts/Lewis-Chessmen/Replica-Pieces/ and from a retailer in Bath, England, http://www.regencychess.co.uk/

Utility Clothing - Style in War-era Britain

 Left Rayon dress, 1945.

Center Wool, design by Norman Hartnell, 1943.

Right  Linen, design by Moygashel, 1945

For my last post of the year, my husband and I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, to experience an exhibit: Beauty as Duty, Textiles and the Home Front in WWII Britain. This small display, on view through May 28, 2012, fills one room with apparel and accessories - particularly scarves - manufactured to serve the goals of utility, propaganda and fashion.  Food rationing is widely depicted in period books and cinema, and the smuggling of black market foodstuffs is a popular plot device - one of my favorite movies is A Private Affair, with Maggie Smith as a British housewife who goads her husband, played by Michael Palin, into kidnapping a plump contraband pig. 

Less well known, though, is that many types of clothing were also rationed, as well as regulated, beginning in 1941; the name of this restricted apparel is Utility Fashion. The German blockade meant that imported fibers, such as cotton, were in short supply; in addition, silk was needed for parachutes. Hence the rising popularity of synthetics such as rayon and acetate.

While manufacturers switched to new fibers, fashion designers, such as Norman Hartnell, confronted limits on the amount of fabric that could be used in a garment, as well as rules about apparel components such as buttons and trims. The dresses on the left and right in the first image above, however, show that cheery and colorful prints were popular, sending a message that the women of Britain maintained a positive outlook no matter the hardships.  Some of the prints are quite literal in their patriotism, as shown in the dress below, with its print of flags of the Allies.

Rayon dress, 1945. 

Victory fabric designed by Arnold Lever.

The dress in the image above was worn by a 20-year-old woman, who worked at the Ministry of Food, to a V-E day party. She purchased the fabric using six coupons, of her annual allotment of thirty-six coupons, so this was clearly a special dress.  Featured in the print are the flags of the Allies, including Britain, France, the USA, and, this being before the Cold War, the USSR and China.

The designer of the Victory fabric, Arnold Lever, also designed most of the scarves on display. Some of these feature motifs that, even for propaganda purposes, seem to be a bit of a stretch for adaptation to textiles. Winston Churchill's image would not seem to lend itself to feminine headgear, yet here he is in all his cigar-chomping glory.  Did someone actually wear this on her head? More than once?

 Scarf, manufactured by Filmyra Fabrics about 1943, rayon.

Some of the scarves on display were so colorful as to be almost gaudy to modern eyes, and, in spite of the persuasive tone of the curators, it's clear that the multiple goals of propaganda, utility and fashion did not always mesh so comfortably.  The exhibit states that many of the scarves were marketed to GI's as souvenirs, so these objects may have been displayed in homes state-side, rather than actually worn. 

Detail, The American Forces in London, 

Jacqmar, 1943, design by Arnold Lever.

 Wall of scarves.

Most of the scarves were designed by Arnold Lever and manufactured by the luxury accessories company Jacqmar, founded by Joseph (Jack) and Mary Lyons in 1932.

Les Lauriers de la Victoire, 

Jacqmar, designed by Arnold Lever.

Some of the designs are delightful, such as the victory bouquet above, with floral shapes adapted from Allied flags.  The historical importance of the flag as symbol is underscored by the exhibit.

London Wall, wool scarf, 

Jacqmar designed by Arnold Lever about 1942.

Do click on the above image, London Wall, to enlarge the image and read all the "posted bills". This design was also available by the yard, and was featured in British Vogue, April 1942, with Vivien Leigh modeling clothing in propaganda prints.

More scarves.

Details, Time Gentlemen, Please, Jacqmar, about 1943, 

Arnold Lever design.

The scarf above features vignettes of pub activity, with US and British servicemen hobnobbing genially with local regulars. Names of London pubs border the scarf.

Battle of Britain, commemorative lace panel, and details.

Dobsons & M. Brown & Co., Ltd. 1942 - 1946

During the war Britain's fabled lace industry was limited to making mosquito and camouflage netting.  Rather than let the skills of their craftsmen and designers become rusty, one Nottingham manufacturer designed and made thirty-eight of the 15' by 5' 6" lace panels pictured above. This masterpiece of machine-made lace was woven on a modified Jacquard-type loom, with thousands of sequenced, punched cards controlling the loom. The designer of the panel, Harry Cross, was seventy-three when he began his work on this object.  Almost all the lace manufacturing has gone overseas, but there exists at least one British manufacturer, Cluny Lace, http://www.clunylace.com/index.htm

It's a bit difficult to see the images woven in the lace - a brighter colored background would have been better, perhaps -  but the center image is a fighter pilot, and the image on the right depicts the Old Bailey, with debris from bombing.

 Queen Elizabeth and King George VI, September, 1940. 

Getty Images.

Buckingham Palace was bombed and the photo above, an iconic image featured in a large blow-up at the exhibit, shows Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) and the King climbing over rubble.

The exhibit also included contemporary brochures, including "Make Do and Mend," a tipsheet of darning hints, and even one girdle,  but I wish that there had been more period photographs or drawings, showing actual civilians wearing their patriotic attire.  Even with a digital archive, such documentation can be time-consuming and costly to locate, but the absence of that material made the exhibit feel more like an uncritical episode in the history of  propaganda rather than an authentic record of ordinary Londoners at an extraordinary time.

Queen Elizabeth favors colorful scarves. Photo source;

 http://promo.luckymag.com/blogs/luckyrightnow/Crushable-06.jpg

If only we could find a historic photo, along the lines of the image above, of a plucky Londoner wearing that Churchill scarf! 

Further reading: The book Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan, Britain and the United States 1931-1945, includes two chapters on British propaganda prints, both written by Pat Kirkham.  ISBN 9780300109252

Quilts at Newark Museum

Sunburst, made about 1840-1860, maker unknown.

In November, Jay and I were in New York City, paying calls on offspring. While in the Tri-State area, we ventured to the Newark Museum, a short drive from Manhattan. I learned about this exhibit at the American Quilter's Society website, a good source for the latest happenings in the quilt world. The AQS calendar of events can be found here: http://www.americanquilter.com/quilt_world/

Patchwork From Folk Art to Fine Art is an exhibit of 30 quilts drawn from the Newark Museum's collection of 150 quilts, an unusual number for a small municipal museum. The museum's founder was a socially progressive polymath named John Cotton Dana, a sort of anti-Babbitt. Many thanks to the Librarian at the Newark Museum, Dr. William Peniston, who made me aware of a new biography of Dana, A Matter of Class: John Cotton Dana, Progressive Reform, and the Newark Museum, by Carol G. Duncan, and published by Periscope Publishing, Ltd., in 2009.

The exhibit runs through December 31. Learn more about the Newark Museum at http://www.newarkmuseum.org/

Left: the buildings that comprise the Newark Museum.
Right: interior details.

Wedding album quilt made in 1864 for
Mary Nevius Potter, Pottersville, New Jersey.

Quilts are material objects reflective of the time and place in which they were made. In the Potter Album quilt, above, a pieced and applique flag fits proudly, if somewhat incongruously, with conventional album blocks made by a community of women related in some way to the bride. The flag indicates their solidarity with the Union cause; these women couldn't vote, but they made their views known nonetheless. The blocks are not as fine or fancy as Baltimore album quilts; this may reflect a certain wartime pragmatism.

Left: Delectable Mountain, made between
1840 and 1860, maker unknown.
Right: Princess Feather variation,
made between 1840-1850, Catherine Fitzgerald.

Dana purchased the quilt on the left above in 1919, as he build up the Newark collection with objects made by ordinary, but gifted, people who were outside the Western fine arts academy tradition.

Hurley Family Album, 1867, members of the
Hurley farming family of Monmouth, New Jersey.

The central wreath of the Hurley Family quilt features small ink cartouches with the names of the six Hurley children. I wonder if it was a gift to their mother for a special birthday, or some other occasion.

Detail, Crazy quilt, ca. 1920, Mrs. Barbeau, Louisiana.

The quilt above was purchased by the Museum in 1998, and was made by an African-American woman who embroidered the names of her three sons, Alex, George and Henry, on the quilt. The elephant image, with its three-dimensional ear, is just one of the imaginative motifs on this quilt.

Detail, Chanticleer, 1935, made by Anna Phelps, New Jersey.
Pattern by designer Margaret Hays.

According to the exhibit label, the quilt was made from a commercial pattern purchased for ten cents from The Newark Evening News. Mrs. Phelps made this quilt, and matching sham, for her daughter's childhood bed; the daughter donated the ensemble to the museum. It would be interesting to track down the original pattern for comparison and to see if Mrs. Phelps personalized the design - she did a great job with the colors of those animated roosters.

Star quilt, 1984, Nellie Two Bulls.

I have read about the introduction of quilting by Anglo-American settlers to Native American women in mission schools, but hadn't seen a tribal quilt in person until this show. The women of the Sioux/Lakoda nation turned cultural imperialism on its head, and incorporated the pattern Star of Bethlehem into the Lakoda tradition of depicting stars in beadwork and paintings on animal hides. The star, an important symbol in Lakoda iconography, is a gift from the Great Spirit. Star quilts can be seen (and purchased) at websites such as http://shopping.aktalakota.org/browse.cfm/star-quilts/2,14.html

Child's quilt, Bibijan Ibrahimsahib,
India, 2004-2005.

The curator, a man with the wonderful name Ulysses Grant Dietz, has included two quilts from India made by members of the Siddi ethnic group, people descended from African immigrants to India. This underscores the international scope and pervasiveness of quilting. The quilts are made from sari and other scraps, and the actual quilting on these pieces suggests a less formal version of Japanese sashiko stitching, which also evolved from a tradition of fabric re-use. Find more information about the history of Siddi quilts at http://handeyemagazine.com/content/stitching-history

Phantoms in a Chinese Restaurant, Debbie Lee,
New Jersey, 1991-2.

The exhibit included contemporary quilts by Michael James and Teresa Barkley, and the quilt above, by Debbie Lee, a piece evocative of the Chinese restaurants in which so many immigrants worked upon their arrival in America. The back of the quilt, which is meant to be seen, utilizes a large rice grain sack as part of the composition. It was refreshing to see a quilt which depicted and celebrated the experience of working people, as do the murals of Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Left: Kitchenette. Right, top: Kefi,

Right, bottom: Sated diners.

Of course, art wasn't the only item on the menu, so to speak, during our trip, and I can recommend two new (to me) restaurants: Kitchenette (we ate at the one in Battery Park City) whose diner-style comfort food everyone likes, and Kefi, a Greek restaurant on the Upper West side. Kefi's Greek cuisine is not the stick-to-your-ribs slab of moussaka style, but lighter and quite good.

Kitchenette, http://www.kitchenetterestaurant.com/home.html

Kefi, http://kefirestaurant.com/

Streamlined Irons

Image from http://www.arthursclipart.org/

I call this image "The Indoctrination."

Unless the family wardrobe consists solely of knitwear, sooner or later someone has to break out the iron and companion board. Ironing is one of those tasks that does give immediate gratification, as shirts are transformed from rumply and wrinkled to smooth and crisp. Mostly I use my iron these days for patchwork, as the iron is an essential tool in quilt-making. I still iron a few shirts too.

After electricity arrived in American homes the electric iron wasn't far behind. In this day and age, when everything is Made in China, it's good to have a reminder that our shores used be home to hundreds of appliance manufacturers, from national behemoths like General Electric to now-defunct regional firms, including several in my hometown of Detroit.

On October 31, DH and I attended a fascinating lecture at the Newton Free Library. Presenter Jay Raymond gave an illustrated talk on streamlined irons, appliances manufactured from about 1934 to the mid 1950's. Many examples from his collection were on display in hallway cases for the month of October. (Most of the irons have lost their original electric cords.)

Ultramatic, made in France by Novex-Siebert.
The invention of bakelite, an early plastic,
made curvaceous styling easier.

Streamlined design was in part an effort to entice consumers to buy newer, more modern models, even when their old cars or irons were perfectly functional. It was also a response to the embrace of progress, and the idea that faster and sleeker meant better. No iron was going to race in a Grand Prix, but the aesthetic was almost universal and hence applied to objects like irons, which did at least move during use, as well as to completely stationary appliances such as toasters.

In this early attempt at a practical home steam iron
the water reservoir also functions as the stanchion for the handle.

As steam irons became more popular, the need for a larger water reservoir increased the bulk of the appliance, but designers were still able to create reasonably streamlined profiles.

The Feather Way #130 steam iron.
(From the book.)

Irons on display at the library.

The Knapp-Monarch company produced many intriguing designs,
with great appeal for iron collectors,
of whom there are more than you might guess.

Mr. Raymond, speaking at the library.

Mr. Raymond, an enthusiastic collector and meticulous researcher, has produced an excellent book, Streamlined Irons, ISBN 978-0-615-25656-6. The book features gorgeous photography, by James B. Abbott and Jay Texter, of almost 200 irons, an excellent essay on the streamlined aesthetic and even a section on early electric irons, for comparison. It's a must read for anyone interested in the history of American design and manufacturing, or in object-centered material culture, or just curious about those everyday items we use in our homes.

Streamlined Irons, by Jay Raymond.

Mr. Raymond also has an informative website at: http://www.streamlinedirons.com/