Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York, Alfred A. Knopf: 2001. ISBN 0-679-44594-3

 

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has a gift for making history accessible, personal, even intimate. In this volume she tackles one of the most prevalent myths of American history, that all colonial housewives were completely self-sufficient in the textile department. Ulrich not only explains how that myth got started, she also tells the real story about colonial textile production.

 

This quote from the dust jacket sums it up better than I can tonight: Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal larger economic and social structures, and, in particular, how early Americans and their descendents made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert identities, shape relationships, and create history.

 

This book came up in conversation during Session Two’s behind-the-scenes tour of the Colonial Wardrobe & Textiles Department. It’s fascinating and reads like a novel. If you’re at all interested in history or textiles or textile history (and you probably wouldn’t be here if you weren’t) do yourself a favor and take a look.

 

Trivia time. Do you know who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”?

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, of course. That quote has become pretty common and is often not attributed. Now if you see it you’ll know who to credit.

 

Here are links to TRELLIS STITCH and SPIRAL TRELLIS STITCH instructions.