Virtual Lecture Series

Seven lectures from the 2024 Penn Dry Good Market are now available as recordings. Whether you could not make it to Pennsburg to see the lectures live or you want to refresh your memory of a lecture you enjoyed, purchase allows you access through July 31, giving you a great chance to hear about new research or to see beautiful examples of handwork.

Consider these packages to save money. To purchase individual lectures and for full lecture descriptions, see below.

Note: Orders that come in over the weekend will be fulfilled at the beginning of the work week.

SEE THEM ALL!!!!

Buy all 7 for $125 and save $50! If you scroll through the listing of lectures below and decide that you want to see them all, use this PayPal link to purchase all seven of the recorded lectures.

Handwork and Craft Package

The following lectures are included in this package:

• “Gingham Embroidery 1890-1990” by Ann Hermes

• “McDonald Sisters from West Virginia Make-do Crafts/Rugs” by Susan Feller       

• “A Place to cultivate her Mind in by Musing”: New Exploration of Anne Emlen’s 1757 Shellwork Grotto” by Kaila Temple with “Waxing Rhapsodic: 19th Century Wax Art and Craft” by Candace Perry

History of Sewing Package

The following lectures are included in this package:

• “The Duty of ‘Plying the Polished Shaft’” by Alden O’Brien

• “Oh Darn! Reevaluating Mended Early American Textiles” by Emily Whitted

Quilters Package

The following lectures are included in this package:

• “Mermaids & Sea Dragons, Slavers & Privateers: Quilted Petticoats and Rhode Island’s Maritime Economy in the 18th Century” by Lynne Bassett

• “Delaware Valley Chintz Quilts” by Lori Lee Triplett

Gingham Embroidery 1890-1990

Ann Hermes, collector of antique quilts and textiles and student of textile history

Cross-stitch embroidery on check gingham fabric is often associated with the mid twentieth century, ca. 1940-1960, in the form of colorful aprons bearing geometric bands as well as trees, cats, dogs, and flowers. These patterns are executed in cross-stitch using the fabric’s check squares as a guide.  In fact, this form of embellishment on aprons, other clothing, and home decor dates to at least the 1890s. Some of the cross-stitched designs used may derive from even earlier crochet and lace making patterns. Today cross-stitch on gingham is sometimes called chicken scratch embroidery, but this term does not appear until the early 1980s. This talk will explore this decorative stitching over 100 years through newspaper articles, patterns, and advertisements.

Sponsored by a Special Friend of the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

McDonald Sisters from West Virginia Make-do Crafts/Rugs

Susan Feller, writer, historian, and artist

The frugal craft skills of many homemakers in the mid-20th century are the focus of this talk. Using appliqué, hand stitching, embroidery, scraps of clothing, and household fabrics, the McDonald sisters from the heart of West Virginia created area rugs and footstools. Because of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, craftsmen in the mountains were promoted, their work sold in regional and national markets. The McDonalds’ rugs ended up exhibited in 1973 at the Pasadena Art Museum in California.

Susan Feller has researched the sisters’ life and work for over a decade. the talk will focus on the process, techniques, and materials Otha and Blanche used and how Susan discovered much of these answers by restoring several rugs.

Sponsored by the Ted Breckel Memorial Fund

Oh Darn! Reevaluating Mended Early American Textiles

Emily Whitted, PhD Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst

What can we learn from a darned stocking, a patched pair of breeches, or a mended bed rug? Examining an abundance of mended items in museum collections as well as diaries, account books, and advertisements, this talk focuses on the historic and interpretative value of repaired early American textiles. 

Sponsored by M. Finkel & Daughter

Mermaids & Sea Dragons, Slavers & Privateers:
Quilted Petticoats and Rhode Island’s Maritime Economy in the 18th Century

Lynne Bassett, Independent Scholar, Author, and Curator

At least 25 petticoats, quilted using an unusual spaced back stitch with an array of animals, sea creatures, human figures, and even ships in full sail and the British royal coat of arms, have survived whole or in part from the mid-18th century. Those with verifiable histories place them in Rhode Island and New London County, Connecticut—a region with an economy deeply embedded in the Triangle Trade of slaves, sugar, and rum. This lecture explores how these magnificent petticoats with their quirky critters represent what 18th-century Newport schoolteacher Sarah Osborn expressed as “the bitters that Lurk under the most splendid appearances.”

Sponsored by Harleysville Bank

“The Duty of ‘Plying the Polished Shaft”

Alden O’Brien, Curator of Costume and Textiles at the DAR Museum, Washington DC

The pretty textiles with obvious artistry hog all the attention: quilts, samplers, embroideries, knitted and netted accessories of beauty and skill, lace and other needle crafts draw our eyes, impress us with their skill and beauty. But we forget much of their context. Women could only turn to the “fancy work” after the “plain work” was taken care of. (The word “fancy” does double duty here, meaning both elaborate or adorned, in our understanding of the word, and in the old sense of “whim” or “preference” or “choice.”)

Obligatory plain sewing took a tremendous amount of most women’s time in preindustrial times: clothing could not be bought ready-made, even sheets and all the household linens had to be sewn at home. Mending and darning, altering and updating, repurposing and what we’d now call “recycling” or “upcycling” were also constant tasks to be faced. Even women who had hired (or enslaved) help with sewing had to organize and supervise the household sewing, and invariably did some of it themselves. No wonder the oft-reprinted Young Lady’s Book warned that “no woman [should] think herself exempt from the duty of ‘plying the polished shaft.’”

Sponsored by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates

Emerging Scholar Presentation:  “A Place to cultivate her Mind in by Musing”: New Exploration of Anne Emlen’s 1757 Shellwork Grotto 

Kaila Temple, Colonial Dames of America Chapter II Curatorial Assistant at Stenton Museum in Philadelphia

Anne Reckless Emlen’s (1720-1816) shellwork grotto box is an object one can easily get lost in. The wonders of its complexity and depth have fascinated Stenton stewards and visitors for over one hundred years. The box represents a small but fascinating category of women’s creative production in colonial Philadelphia and is one of only several such boxes known. Emlen used her materials to replicate nature in miniature, performing a kind of creative alchemy to turn shells into flowers and wax and thread into branches of “coral.” Emlen used many different species of shells, mostly hailing from the Caribbean, to construct the dream-world interior of her grotto. Through its materials and the processes by which it was assembled, Anne Emlen’s grotto provides a window into the lives, education, and artistic pursuits of women; the movement of natural resources in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world and beyond; the human and environmental cost of luxury in the eighteenth century; and the rococo aesthetic.  

With Bonus presentation - Waxing Rhapsodic: 19th Century Wax Art and Craft

Candace Perry, Curator, Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center

Explore art imitating nature with Candace Perry with an illustrated lecture on 19th century wax fruit and flower making, with new research and examples from the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center collection. Enjoyed by schoolgirls and adult women alike, the products of this popular craft once graced the walls and tables of parlors everywhere. They look good enough to eat, you’ll say!

Sponsored by Master Supply Line

Delaware Valley Chintz Quilts

Lori Lee Triplett, Business Manager, Quilt & Textile Collections

Explore a survey of more than 50 quilts from the Delaware River Valley in a four-state area and the influence on a fifth state. The survey provides production groups/workshops, quilt artists, and even dry goods stores. Information about the Sewing Societies of the period and how the quilts were distributed as gifts or sold. Additionally, specific chintz fabrics common to this style of quilts are tracked to reveal new clues regarding their origin. The survey also explores more than 20 mixed album quilts which fit into this grouping both by style (cut-out applique blocks) and/or because they are interconnected by signatures/makers.

Sponsored by Stauffer Glove & Safety