I’ve been wanting to see this exhibit of jacquard coverlets since it opened in early February. FINALLY last weekend I made the two hour trip up to Indianapolis for the Indiana State Museum’s special exhibit, “Woven Together“. It was fabulous. Thirty-two examples of jacquard coverlets made by some of Indiana’s finest weavers. Informative interpretive panels, a touch-and-feel table of fiber samples, a mock jacquard loom experience. A video of a real jacquard loom in action. Colors. Textures. Amazing.
We hit the jackpot in terms of ticket price – FREE in celebration of Juneteenth + discounted parking! There were lots of people enjoying the diverse diplays, and I wished we had more time for an in depth exploration since it had been a while since our last visit. But my focus was on coverlets, so I spent my time in the third floor gallery surrounded by the woven masterpieces. The exhibit comes to a close on June 30th, but there is one final opportunity to “Meet the Collector” on Sunday, June 23rd, 1-3pm. I’m hoping I can swing a second trip to Indy for it!
After spending five days beginning to learn the Appalachian art of hand-weaving at North Carolina’s Crossnore Weaving School in 2021, I became familiar with plain weaving (which I did) and pattern weaving (which I observed). I loved my weaving experience, but I had no knowledge or understanding about the Jacquard loom that made it possible for professsional weavers to create such intricate patterns – birds, flowers, buildings – and words. There’s a big difference between the shuttle loom (see video) like I used and the Jacquard loom (see video) used to make these incredible coverlets. Think of those IBM punched cards from the 1970s… Jacquard loom punched card patterns moved above the weaver’s “loom cage” and made it possible for professional weavers (predominately men) to produce goods in record time.
One of Indiana’s coverlet weavers featured in “Woven Together” is Thomas Crantson, a Scottish immigrant who lived in Shelby Township, Jefferson County, near Madison. The church he attended was a stones throw away in neighboring Switzerland County. Locally the Jefferson County History & Art Center and Historic Madison, Inc. in Madison, and Switzerland County Historical Society in Vevay, own lovely examples of his work.
The Gallery Guide provided by the museum was excellent, and you can download it here. They also had a fun “Seek and Find” activity to discover several of the motifs included in the array of coverlets.
According to the Gallery Guide, “Most Indiana Jacquard coverlets have a centerfield, side borders, and a bottom border with a weaver’s block on each side.” The beauty and complexity of these weaver blocks was astounding. Although each coverlet – design and colors achieved through selected dyes – was amazing as a whole, I think I enjoyed studying the weaver’s blocks the most. I’ll leave you with a collection of the majority of those blocks in the displayed coverlets. Download the Gallery Guide to identify the weavers of these blocks and corresponding coverlets!
If you have a chance to get to Indianapolis and experience “Woven Together” before the end of June, let me know what you enjoyed the most!
23 June 2024 UPDATE: Well, I DID drive back up to Indy to “Meet the Collector” at Indiana State Museum’s “Woven Together” coverlet exhibit. I had a wonderful time speaking with Mr. Simmermaker about his jacquard coverlet collection – the pieces included in the exhibit and gifted to ISM, and the +/-500 pieces still held privately. AMAZING! It was a pleasure to thank him for his generous gift to the Museum.
I had the opportunity to ask him about weaver Thomas Cranston and coverlets in local collections in Jefferson and Switzerland County. He was interested in what information local history organizations could share regarding coverlet provenance. He expressed willingness to visit Southeast Indiana, take a look at the Cranston coverlets, and share feedback on patterns, motifs, and any outstanding features they may display. I look forward to future information sharing between organizations!
I also had the privilege of meeting Emily Barth, Curator of Saint Vincent College’s McCarl Coverlet Gallery in Latrobe, PA. Like the Indiana State Museum’s gift of 128 jacquard coverlets from the Simmermakers, Saint Vincent College received a likewise wonderful gift of 115 jacquard coverlets from the McCarl family. As an ongoing project of the McCarl Coverlet Gallery, Emily is creating The Coverlet Index, “a compendium of 19th century handwoven coverlets and their weavers…to serve as a collaborative common resource for researchers and collectors of these antique textiles.” What an undertaking!
It was an inspiring afternoon indeed!
[…] a great-great-grandson of Thomas Cranston, Ed Beveridge of Montana, contacted me after reading my blog post on the Woven Together exhibit. After several months, our email exchanges resulted in his gifting his treasured family coverlet […]
[…] antique woven coverlet to the History & Art Center here in Madison, Indiana. When I wrote the Magnificent 19th Century Coverlets by Indiana Weavers blog post last June, I never dreamed it would reach a direct descendant of one of those weavers, […]
I would SO love to share with you about Thomas Cranston……………he was the grandfather of my maternal grandmother, Gladys Fern Cranston Anderson 1904-1998 (John Cranston 1878-1966 who I knew until I was 12) and her first cousin, Lavonne Marguerite Cranston Monroe 1906- 2011 (Sterling Robert Cranston 1868-1955) who had no children and lived to nearly 105. I a copy of that house pic, but yours is much better quality. I also have a family pic of his widow Ann Glen Cranston with all of her children and at the time both Fern and Lavonne when they were little girls. My grandmother’s family moved to Sandpoint, ID when she was very young. Ann stayed behind in KS. their sister, Agnes Cranston 1874-1954, died in KS hours before I was born Sept 6, 1954. Anyway, Agnes left 3 of Thomas’s red dyed coverlets to my mom’s sister, Shirley Anderson Hardy, but I have never heard an answer from my cousin Jim, what ever became of those coverlets. I offered to buy them from him at one point. Sadly, they may be gone. However, Lavonne had a blue one that came down to my mom and then me long before my mom, Maxine Anderson Beveridge 1928-2018 passed. I have always desired to place the coverlet in some sort of collection as I have that booklet depicting many of the Indiana weavers back in his time. I loved learning about how he made the dyes etc. I would love to exchange some pics and more info with you or one of the collection holders you note in your article. I would dearly love to have one of those brochures of the exhibit I am so disappointed to learn that I just missed in June this year. please tell me how to share my contact with you privately.
Edward E Beveridge
PS my oldest son is named Dane Cranston Beveridge in honor of our Cranston patriarch.
Oh my – I’m a tad speechless after reading your comment. YES I want to learn more about Thomas Cranston from you! Let me reach out to the collector and try to put you in touch. History organizations in Southeast Indiana hope to meet with the collector and eventually have an exhibit of local Cranston coverlets.
Thank you for reaching out. I’m excited!