Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery
Encyclopedia
The Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery is an exhibit space at Shelburne Museum
in Shelburne, Vermont
which houses quilt
s, hatboxes, and various other textiles.
The name "Hat and Fragrance" refers both to Electra Havemeyer Webb
's collection of hatboxes and to the fragrant, herbal sachets used to preserve textiles. In 1954, Shelburne Museum was the first museum to exhibit quilts as works of art; prior to this exhibition quilts were only shown as accessories in historic houses.
. Harrington, who owned and operated a nearby inn, used the building as a distillery
to produce spirits to serve at his inn. The building later served as the Shelburne town barn but, after a period of disuse, the town gave the building to the Museum in 1947 when the Museum moved it to its present site.
Constructed of hand-hewn timbers and rough planks, the Museum used the building as a storage and workshop space for several years while deciding how to renovate it as a textile gallery. Adopting the name “Hat and Fragrance,” which refers to the Museum’s collection of hatboxes and herbal sachets used to preserve early textiles, the Museum paneled the interior walls with maple, birch, and beech veneers in decorative patterns. The original structure still maintains this decorative paneling. The museum later built four additional rooms to provide further exhibition space.
were made of thin sheets of bent wood or pasteboard and covered with decorative printed papers. Serving as an inexpensive form of luggage for men and women, the boxes carried and stored hats, collars, cuffs, and other finery. Their use increased in the 19th century as new roads, steamboats, and steam locomotives encouraged more people to travel.
Shelburne Museum
’s collection of over two hundred hatboxes and bandboxes is one of the largest and most comprehensive on public display in the country. The collection represents the wide variety of box sizes and forms, paper colors, and designs and is particularly rich in rare, early papers.
Most hat-and-bandbox factories were located in larger cities such as New York
, Boston
, Philadelphia, or Hartford
. However, many individuals operated small companies to make and sell hatboxes to local markets. One of the best known of these craftspeople is Hannah Davis (1784–1863) of Jaffrey, New Hampshire
, whose work is well represented in the Museum’s collection.
Early boxes were covered with printed and handpainted paper imported from England
and Europe
. Wallpaper from American printers became available in the 19th century and was quickly adopted by hat and bandbox makers.
Patterns and colors for the papers were influenced by current decorating styles. The images of classical architecture
, griffin
s, and chariot
s pulled by birds were inspired by the mid-19th century interest in Greek
and Roman
history. Common and exotic creatures such as cow
s, beaver
s, anaconda
s, and giraffe
s were inspired by zoos, traveling animal exhibitions, illustrated bestiaries, and geography books. Finally, hatbox makers often copied illustrations of American city and rural scenes, historic landmarks, new modes of transportation, or important people and events published in popular books and magazines. Popular papers include the New York City Deaf and Dumb Asylum, a duck hunt, a sidewheel steamboat, President Harrison’s log cabin and a balloon ascension.
bed-rugs and blankets, coverlet
s, and quilt
s were a critical necessity in poorly heated early American homes. The making of bedcovers provided women with an important creative outlet and often served as the primary source of decoration in sparsely furnished 17th- and 18th-century homes. As America’s economy grew in the 19th century, the increase in leisure time and the availability of inexpensive factory-woven cloth encouraged thousands of women to embroider, sew, and quilt bedcovers for their families and friends.
Shelburne Museum
was one of the first institutions to collect and exhibit American textiles which possess bold graphic patterns, clarity of line, intense colors, and the imaginative combinations of human figures, animals and vegetation which is often whimsical and out of scale.
The still-growing collection at the Museum is remarkable in its size and quality. Over seven hundred quilts, coverlets, blankets, and bed-rugs from the 18th and 19th century illustrate the different types of bedcovers, the diversity of designs and fabrics, and the many methods of manufacture used by creative men and women. Although the collection predominantly represents New England and the northern states, it also includes examples from the southern and mid-western regions as well as from such distinctive groups as the Amish
, Pennsylvania Dutch
, and native Hawaii
ans.
Bed-rugs, a traditional northern European bedcover, were brought to America from northern England and widely used until the early 19th century. Now quite rare, these thick, heavy bedcovers were embroidered with handspun and dyed yarns on wool fabric to create a dense pile surface similar to that of an Oriental rug
.
Hand-woven blankets, treasured for their warmth and durability, often were embroidered with colorful handspun wool yarns. Women embroidered swirling vine, floral and shell patterns on plain blankets and filled squares of window-pane-checked blankets with stars and flowers.
Single and double coverlets, hand-woven in bold, geometric patterns from the mid-eighteenth to mid-19th centuries were considered more decorative than plain or plaid blankets. While most were woven in blue and white, some weavers chose to emphasize the patterns by combining two or more colors. Jacquard
coverlets, introduced in the early 19th century became immediately popular because of their elaborate floral, mosaic, figural, and patriotic patterns. Professional weavers advertised them as fancy coverlets to differentiate them from hand-woven coverlets with geometric patterns.
Quilts are made by joining layers of cloth – usually a decorative top, warm filling of either raw wool or cotton, and plain backing – and sewing or “quilting” them together. The method by which the quilt top is made, pieced, appliqué
d, or plain, determines the nature of the design.
The first quilts made in America followed English and European traditions. Early plain whole-cloth quilts were made from lengths of imported, highly glazed, richly colored wool fabric. The stitches used to secure the layers followed decorative swirling vine and floral patterns similar to those used in embroidery or in painted decorations on furniture and walls.
The earliest pieced quilts were made by sewing or “piecing” small geometric pieces of fabric together in simple honeycomb or triangle patterns. As American women perfected the art of quilt making in the early 19th century, they developed more complex patterns often requiring hundreds of thousands of tiny pieces. Geometric star, flower, and figural patterns were pieced together in small blocks and then sewn together to make a quilt top.
The first American appliquéd quilts, made in the 18th century, used the broderie perse, French for Persian embroidery
, technique of cutting entire motifs from imported printed fabric, then sewing them on a plain fabric background. 19th-century quilters continued this tradition adding their own twists, they followed patterns printed in ladies’ magazines, copied from a friend, or designed their own.
Occasionally women also stenciled, painted and embroidered fabrics to imitate elaborate quilt of coverlet patterns. Other bedcovers were knit
ted or crochet
ed in elegant patterns.
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds...
in Shelburne, Vermont
Shelburne, Vermont
Shelburne is a town in southwestern Chittenden County, Vermont, United States, along the shores of Lake Champlain. The population was 7,144 at the 2010 census.-History:...
which houses quilt
Quilt
A quilt is a type of bed cover, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting. “Quilting” refers to the technique of joining at least two fabric layers by stitches or ties...
s, hatboxes, and various other textiles.
The name "Hat and Fragrance" refers both to Electra Havemeyer Webb
Electra Havemeyer Webb
Electra Havemeyer Webb was a collector of American antiques and founder of the Shelburne Museum.-Biography:Electra Havemeyer was born on August 16, 1888 to Henry O. Havemeyer and Louisine Elder, their youngest child...
's collection of hatboxes and to the fragrant, herbal sachets used to preserve textiles. In 1954, Shelburne Museum was the first museum to exhibit quilts as works of art; prior to this exhibition quilts were only shown as accessories in historic houses.
History
Captain Benjamin Harrington built this structure about 1800 in Shelburne, VermontShelburne, Vermont
Shelburne is a town in southwestern Chittenden County, Vermont, United States, along the shores of Lake Champlain. The population was 7,144 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. Harrington, who owned and operated a nearby inn, used the building as a distillery
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
to produce spirits to serve at his inn. The building later served as the Shelburne town barn but, after a period of disuse, the town gave the building to the Museum in 1947 when the Museum moved it to its present site.
Constructed of hand-hewn timbers and rough planks, the Museum used the building as a storage and workshop space for several years while deciding how to renovate it as a textile gallery. Adopting the name “Hat and Fragrance,” which refers to the Museum’s collection of hatboxes and herbal sachets used to preserve early textiles, the Museum paneled the interior walls with maple, birch, and beech veneers in decorative patterns. The original structure still maintains this decorative paneling. The museum later built four additional rooms to provide further exhibition space.
Hatboxes and Bandboxes
Hatboxes and their smaller relation the bandboxBandbox
Bandbox may refer to:*The Band Box or bandbox, a nickname for the Baker Bowl and subsequently also for other small baseball fields*Bandbox, a novel by Thomas Mallon*Bandbox Plot, a 1712 attempt on the life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford...
were made of thin sheets of bent wood or pasteboard and covered with decorative printed papers. Serving as an inexpensive form of luggage for men and women, the boxes carried and stored hats, collars, cuffs, and other finery. Their use increased in the 19th century as new roads, steamboats, and steam locomotives encouraged more people to travel.
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds...
’s collection of over two hundred hatboxes and bandboxes is one of the largest and most comprehensive on public display in the country. The collection represents the wide variety of box sizes and forms, paper colors, and designs and is particularly rich in rare, early papers.
Most hat-and-bandbox factories were located in larger cities such as New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Philadelphia, or Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
. However, many individuals operated small companies to make and sell hatboxes to local markets. One of the best known of these craftspeople is Hannah Davis (1784–1863) of Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Jaffrey, New Hampshire
Jaffrey is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,457 at the 2010 census.The primary settlement in town, where 2,757 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Jaffrey census-designated place and is located along the Contoocook River at the...
, whose work is well represented in the Museum’s collection.
Early boxes were covered with printed and handpainted paper imported from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Wallpaper from American printers became available in the 19th century and was quickly adopted by hat and bandbox makers.
Patterns and colors for the papers were influenced by current decorating styles. The images of classical architecture
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
, griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
s, and chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
s pulled by birds were inspired by the mid-19th century interest in Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
history. Common and exotic creatures such as cow
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
s, beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
s, anaconda
Anaconda
An anaconda is a large, non-venomous snake found in tropical South America. Although the name actually applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species in particular, the common or green anaconda, Eunectes murinus, which is one of the largest snakes in the world.Anaconda...
s, and giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
s were inspired by zoos, traveling animal exhibitions, illustrated bestiaries, and geography books. Finally, hatbox makers often copied illustrations of American city and rural scenes, historic landmarks, new modes of transportation, or important people and events published in popular books and magazines. Popular papers include the New York City Deaf and Dumb Asylum, a duck hunt, a sidewheel steamboat, President Harrison’s log cabin and a balloon ascension.
Quilts and Bedcoverings
EmbroideredEmbroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
bed-rugs and blankets, coverlet
Coverlet
A coverlet is a fabric covering, usually for a bed.Specifically, the term "coverlet" may refer to a:*Woven coverlet, a bed covering used in the United States from the colonial period to the mid-19th century*Quilt...
s, and quilt
Quilt
A quilt is a type of bed cover, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting. “Quilting” refers to the technique of joining at least two fabric layers by stitches or ties...
s were a critical necessity in poorly heated early American homes. The making of bedcovers provided women with an important creative outlet and often served as the primary source of decoration in sparsely furnished 17th- and 18th-century homes. As America’s economy grew in the 19th century, the increase in leisure time and the availability of inexpensive factory-woven cloth encouraged thousands of women to embroider, sew, and quilt bedcovers for their families and friends.
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum is a museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds...
was one of the first institutions to collect and exhibit American textiles which possess bold graphic patterns, clarity of line, intense colors, and the imaginative combinations of human figures, animals and vegetation which is often whimsical and out of scale.
The still-growing collection at the Museum is remarkable in its size and quality. Over seven hundred quilts, coverlets, blankets, and bed-rugs from the 18th and 19th century illustrate the different types of bedcovers, the diversity of designs and fabrics, and the many methods of manufacture used by creative men and women. Although the collection predominantly represents New England and the northern states, it also includes examples from the southern and mid-western regions as well as from such distinctive groups as the Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
, Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
, and native Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
ans.
Bed-rugs, a traditional northern European bedcover, were brought to America from northern England and widely used until the early 19th century. Now quite rare, these thick, heavy bedcovers were embroidered with handspun and dyed yarns on wool fabric to create a dense pile surface similar to that of an Oriental rug
Oriental rug
An authentic oriental rug is a handmade carpet that is either knotted with pile or woven without pile.By definition - Oriental rugs are rugs that come from the orient...
.
Hand-woven blankets, treasured for their warmth and durability, often were embroidered with colorful handspun wool yarns. Women embroidered swirling vine, floral and shell patterns on plain blankets and filled squares of window-pane-checked blankets with stars and flowers.
Single and double coverlets, hand-woven in bold, geometric patterns from the mid-eighteenth to mid-19th centuries were considered more decorative than plain or plaid blankets. While most were woven in blue and white, some weavers chose to emphasize the patterns by combining two or more colors. Jacquard
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...
coverlets, introduced in the early 19th century became immediately popular because of their elaborate floral, mosaic, figural, and patriotic patterns. Professional weavers advertised them as fancy coverlets to differentiate them from hand-woven coverlets with geometric patterns.
Quilts are made by joining layers of cloth – usually a decorative top, warm filling of either raw wool or cotton, and plain backing – and sewing or “quilting” them together. The method by which the quilt top is made, pieced, appliqué
Applique
In its broadest sense, an appliqué is a smaller ornament or device applied to another surface. In the context of ceramics, for example, an appliqué is a separate piece of clay added to the primary work, generally for the purpose of decoration...
d, or plain, determines the nature of the design.
The first quilts made in America followed English and European traditions. Early plain whole-cloth quilts were made from lengths of imported, highly glazed, richly colored wool fabric. The stitches used to secure the layers followed decorative swirling vine and floral patterns similar to those used in embroidery or in painted decorations on furniture and walls.
The earliest pieced quilts were made by sewing or “piecing” small geometric pieces of fabric together in simple honeycomb or triangle patterns. As American women perfected the art of quilt making in the early 19th century, they developed more complex patterns often requiring hundreds of thousands of tiny pieces. Geometric star, flower, and figural patterns were pieced together in small blocks and then sewn together to make a quilt top.
The first American appliquéd quilts, made in the 18th century, used the broderie perse, French for Persian embroidery
Persian embroidery
Persian embroidery is one of the many forms of the multi-faceted Persian arts.The motifs used in the Persian embroidery are mostly floral, especial Persian figures, animals, and patterns related to hunting....
, technique of cutting entire motifs from imported printed fabric, then sewing them on a plain fabric background. 19th-century quilters continued this tradition adding their own twists, they followed patterns printed in ladies’ magazines, copied from a friend, or designed their own.
Occasionally women also stenciled, painted and embroidered fabrics to imitate elaborate quilt of coverlet patterns. Other bedcovers were knit
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
ted or crochet
Crochet
Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands using a crochet hook. The word is derived from the French word "crochet", meaning hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by...
ed in elegant patterns.
See also
- Shelburne MuseumShelburne MuseumShelburne Museum is a museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds...
- Shelburne, VermontShelburne, VermontShelburne is a town in southwestern Chittenden County, Vermont, United States, along the shores of Lake Champlain. The population was 7,144 at the 2010 census.-History:...
- Electra Havemeyer WebbElectra Havemeyer WebbElectra Havemeyer Webb was a collector of American antiques and founder of the Shelburne Museum.-Biography:Electra Havemeyer was born on August 16, 1888 to Henry O. Havemeyer and Louisine Elder, their youngest child...
- QuiltQuiltA quilt is a type of bed cover, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting. “Quilting” refers to the technique of joining at least two fabric layers by stitches or ties...
- History of quiltingHistory of quiltingQuilting, the stitching together of layers of padding and fabric, may date back as far as ancient Egypt.-Europe:In Europe quilting appears to have been introduced by Crusaders in the 12th century , in particular in the form of the aketon or gambeson, a quilted garment worn under armour which later...
- QuiltingQuiltingQuilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...