Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework

Ellen Miller (1854-1929) and Margaret Whiting (1860-1946) founded the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework in Deerfield, Massachusetts, during the Arts and Crafts Movement. This movement encouraged a return to hand craftsmanship and inspired women who had the skills and initiative to create useful and expressive work within the confines of the home.

In the circa 1900 booklet, The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, secretary Margaret Miller explained that the society started with the intent of reviving traditional colonial embroidery, but was not simply copying the old designs; rather, it was staying “true to the tradition” of producing “original work founded on its inheritance” – as colonial Americans had done, for instance, when they incorporated influences from the China trade, giving their designs “fresh vigor from the Orient.” The two founders made all the designs, adapting the 18th and 19th century patterns and also creating original ones.

The society was also founded to establish a village industry, and it employed as many as thirty Deerfield women to stitch the patterns. They worked with linen fabric and threads dyed with traditional plant dyes and native barks, not from “antiquarian preference,” Miller noted, but because their colors “satisfy the eye” more than “chemically produced dyes.” The society created a variety of items for exhibit and sale: wall hangings, doilies, door curtains, bed hangings, and covers for pillows, tables, bureaus, and chair backs. It officially closed its books in 1926.

Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. View this item in the Online Collection.

Details

Date1896–1926
PlaceDeerfield, Massachusetts
TopicColonial Revival, Arts and Crafts Movement
Clothing, Textile, Fashion, Costume
EraRise of Industrial America, 1878–1899
Progressive Era, World War I, 1900–1928