Handmade Books

These handmade books of vintage linens and hand stitching, part of a series To Contemplate What Lies Behind Us, investigates the concept of trousse [to wrap or bundle, to parcel a collection of items as a sign of wealth and social standing] within American Victorianism. Folded pleats and stitched seams form surface structuring for the pages, while speaking of the elaborate trousseau as a symbol of femininity and hidden restraints.

………………………………………

Aurora Leigh, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1864

….By the way,

The works of women are symbolical.

We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,

Producing what?….

And sleep, and dream of something we are not,

But would be for your sake. Alas, alas!

This hurts most, this . . that, after all, we are paid

The worth of our work, perhaps……

Browning’s poem speaks to the marginalized and devalued textile handiwork accomplished by Victorian women, with rigidly defined social roles. Women were to please, adorn and refine – and restrained within their domestic sphere.

For southern households, embellished keepsake trousseau items became prized heirlooms and remained in family hands. Author Kathleen Curtis Wilson states that “Appalachian women, rich and poor, became custodians of scraps of fabric, woven, knitted, crocheted, stitched and tatted by their foremothers” in her book Uplifting the South: Mary Mildred Sullivan’s Legacy for Appalachia.

I call those smoky mountains my ancestral home. I can open most any of my closets or trunks, and find an accumulation of inherited linens and lace. Local salvage stores also bestow discarded linens – still starched and pressed. So many in a ruined state from wear, insects, heat/humidity – yet too precious to discard. After reading Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy, I was inspired to develop a bound “palimpsest,” retaining material traces beneath the surface, capturing the notion of memory and fragility. A discarded box, recovered with an aged stained tablecloth and collaged scraps, houses a codex bound book that fans open to reveal staggered pages. Flax slurry pulp embeds the textile scraps of linen and thin cotton – which still retain their hand. Layered surfaces buckle, rough edges “crisp” due to internal sizing, subtle eco-dyeing combines with minimal imagery to showcase decorative handwork of knotted lace, embellished seams and pleats. Hand-printed/stitched hydrangea blossoms on thin handkerchiefs reference flirtatious Victorian coquettes. Scraps float on/within mica cleavage sheets – laboriously decorated fragments of textiles: pillowcase, handkerchief, tablecloth, a child’s dress – combine with “fancy needlework” lace samples [repurposed from a 1913 home economic department lace project by Mary Thomas produced for the University of Chicago. The notebook was found discarded at Meredith College – and given to me in lieu of the garbage.].

Hopefully –  as I repurpose these threadbare, stained and unraveled embellishments – I respectfully remember their makers.

Research Works Cited

“The Beholding Eye.” The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays, by Donald William Meinig and John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Oxford University Press, 1979.

Forsythe, Pamela J. . “Philadelphia Museum of Art’s ‘Little Ladies: Victorian Fashion Dolls and the Feminine Ideal’.” Considering Robert Frank | Broad Street Review, 30 Nov. 2018, www.broadstreetreview.com/museums/philadelphia-museum-of-art-little-ladies-victorian-fashion-dolls-and-the-fe.

Jacobs, Laura. “’Little Ladies: Victorian Fashion Dolls and the Feminine Ideal’ Review: An Era’s Expectations in Miniature.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 17 Nov. 2018, www.wsj.com/articles/little-ladies-victorian-fashion-dolls-and-the-feminine-ideal-review-an-eras-expectations-in-miniature-1542456000.

Mooallem, Stephen. “150 Years of Harper’s Bazaar.” Harper’s BAZAAR, Harper’s BAZAAR, 5 Oct. 2017, www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a18658/history-of-harpers-bazaar/.

O’Neil, Patrick W. Tying the Knots: The Nationalization of Wedding Rituals in Antebellum America. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.

Palmer, Heather. Embroidery: Southern Decorative Needlework. VICTORIANA MAGAZINE, 2015, www.victoriana.com/Embroidery/decorative-needlework.html.

Savoy, Lauret. Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape. Counterpoint, 2016.

Wilson, Kathleen Curtis. “Five Generations of Women.” Mar. 1996, kathleencurtiswilson.com/articles/five-generations-of-women/.