Textiles in America, 1650-1980

This course will survey the wide array of textiles used and made in America from the early Colonial period through the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on the Metropolitan Museum’s rich collection, it will take place at the Ratti Textile Center at the Met. Each week’s class will be structured to include a lecture, class discussion, and textile examination in the storerooms. Experts in specific topics will be brought in on occasion. The class will begin with the earliest textiles imported into the colonies, and then continue both chronologically and thematically through to the late twentieth century. The focus will be primarily on furnishing textiles rather than textiles for fashion, although there will be a class on textiles and the slave trade, which will, among other aspects of the trade, discuss the fabrics used to clothe slaves in North America and the Caribbean. Early in the semester, one of the classes will concern learning to identify textile weave structures, dyes, and printing techniques. There will be a two classes specifically on home furnishings; one on upholstery and another on beds, curtains and carpets. We will spend time studying quilts, coverlets, and embroideries, some the strengths of the museum’s American textile collection. There will be a class on women and textiles in the nineteenth century, examining the lives and careers of the young women who ran the looms in the mills of New England as well as designers like Candace Wheeler, who helped forge a new profession for women. The importance of textiles in late-nineteenth and early twentieth century interiors will be examined in a class on textiles of the Aesthetic Movement, Colonial Revival, and the Arts and Crafts Movement. The 1920s through 50s will primarily be represented by artist-designed printed and woven textiles, and the final class will be on textile art produced by artists such as Lenore Tawney and Sheila Hicks. There will be a short (5-10 page) mid-term research paper on an object from the museum’s collection, accompanied by a ten minute-long class presentation on the object. The final paper (approx. 20 pages) will be drawn from an aspect of American textiles that the student is particularly intrigued by—the topic will be formed in consultation with the professor. 3 credits.