Textiles

The 50,000 objects in the textile collections fall into two main categories: raw fibers, yarns, and fabrics, and machines, tools, and other textile technology. Shawls, coverlets, samplers, laces, linens, synthetics, and other fabrics are part of the first group, along with the 400 quilts in the National Quilt Collection. Some of the Museum's most popular artifacts, such as the Star-Spangled Banner and the gowns of the first ladies, have an obvious textile connection.

The machinery and tools include spinning wheels, sewing machines, thimbles, needlework tools, looms, and an invention that changed the course of American agriculture and society. A model of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, made by the inventor in the early 1800s, shows the workings of a machine that helped make cotton plantations profitable in the South and encouraged the spread of slavery.

This sampler features a footed bowl on a square base, holding a large bouquet of flowers. One flower has been shaded with dark red and orange-red paint over the stitches.
Description
This sampler features a footed bowl on a square base, holding a large bouquet of flowers. One flower has been shaded with dark red and orange-red paint over the stitches. Jane included the inscription:

“These violets scent the distant gale;
They grew in lowly bed,
So real worth new merit gains,
By diffidence o’erspread:
Jane Winter Price
But as the fragrant myrtle wreath,
Will all the rest survive:
So shall the mental graces still,
Through endless ages live.”
To accompany her large bouquet of flowers, Jane Price used stanzas 2 and 9 from a verse accompanying a nosegay found in an English reader published in 1816. A small bouquet of flowers often given as a gift was known as a nosegay. The sampler is stitched with silk embroidery thread on a linen ground with a thread count of warp 25, weft 28/ in. The stitches used are chain, stem, surface satin, cross, outline, herringbone, crosslet, and French knot.
Jane Winter was born on March 17, 1818, to Richard and Catherine Winter Dunnington Price in Charles County, Maryland. She married Josiah Woods McHenry (b. May 14, 1815 in Christianburg, Virginia) on February 27, 1849, in Shelby, Alabama. They moved to Union Springs, Arkansas and had four children - Catherine Price (1850-), Barnabas Middleton (1852-), George Richard (1854-), and Jane Cornelia (1856-). By the 1870 census they were living in Homer, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, and she died there on January 11, 1899.
date made
1828-1835
maker
Price, Jane Winter
ID Number
TE.T12732
catalog number
T12732
accession number
241104
An inked inscription on the lining of Jane’s quilt states, “Jennie C. McHenry from her Mother.” This quilt and several others were donated to the Collection by Miss G. Ruth McHenry, Jane’s granddaughter. It was given to her by her aunt, Kate (Catherine) Price McHenry.
Description
An inked inscription on the lining of Jane’s quilt states, “Jennie C. McHenry from her Mother.” This quilt and several others were donated to the Collection by Miss G. Ruth McHenry, Jane’s granddaughter. It was given to her by her aunt, Kate (Catherine) Price McHenry. Catherine Price McHenry was the daughter of Jane Winter Price, who made this quilt.
Twelve 27-inch blocks were each appliquéd with a large red tulip with buds and dark green leaves and stems. Chains of dark green pointed ovals cover the joining seams of the blocks. The appliqué on this quilt is achieved using blind-stitching. The more often used whip-stitch was used only for the end of the stems and the joining of the buds to the stems. Floral motifs within circles are quilted in the corners of each block. The quilting design was marked in pencil and quilted 12 stitches per inch. The solid red, dark green, and white cottons chosen for this quilt provide a vivid rendition of the “Tulip” pattern.
Jane Winter Price, born in 1818 in Charles County, Md., was the daughter of Catherine Winter Dunnington II (1790 - 1863) and Richard Price (1771-1823). Catherine was married in 1813, and widowed in 1823. In 1838 she, along with her two living children, Jane and George Richard Price, left with others for Ala. On February 27, 1849, Jane married Josiah W. McHenry (b. 1815 in Maryland) in Shelby, Ala. In 1860 they lived in La Pile, Union County, Ark., with their four children, Catherine (b. 1850), Barnabas (b. 1852), George (b. 1854) and Jane C. (b. 1856) and Jane’s mother, Catherine, then aged 70. By 1870 they were living in Homer, La., where Jane died in January 1899. Jane C. was most likely the “Jennie” that is inked on the quilt.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1850-1875
maker
Price, Jane Winter
ID Number
TE.E387832
accession number
188128
catalog number
E387832
Jane Winter Price pieced this example of the “Carpenter’s Wheel” pattern in the second quarter of the nineteenth century and quilted her initials, “JWP,” into a white triangle at the lower edge of the quilt.
Description
Jane Winter Price pieced this example of the “Carpenter’s Wheel” pattern in the second quarter of the nineteenth century and quilted her initials, “JWP,” into a white triangle at the lower edge of the quilt. According to family information, she may have made this quilt during a previous engagement when she lived in Maryland, before the death of her fiancé. “Keate Price McHenry from her Mother” is written in a corner of the lining. Catherine (Kate) Price McHenry was Jane’s daughter, born in 1856 in Arkansas.
Thirty “Carpenter’s Wheel” pieced blocks are set diagonally with alternate white blocks on this elaborately quilted example of mid-nineteenth-century needlework. The blocks are 11½ inches square, and the blue-ground chintz border is 7½ inches wide. The white squares are quilted, 15 stitches per inch, with sprays of flowers and grapes against a background of diagonal lines 1/8 inch apart. Double clamshell quilting is found in the white triangles inside the border. Both the pieced blocks and the border are quilted 9 stitches per inch. The wide border effectively frames the artistic placement of pieced blocks and finely quilted white blocks and triangles.
Jane Winter Price, born in 1818 in Maryland, was the daughter of Catherine Winter Dunnington II (1790 -1863) and Richard Price (b 1771). Catherine was married in 1813, but widowed in 1823. In 1838 she, along with her two living children, Jane and George Richard Price, left with others for Alabama. Jane married Josiah W. McHenry (b.1815) in 1849. In 1860 they lived in La Pile, Union County, Arkansas, with their four children, Catherine (b. 1850), Barnabas (b. 1852), George (b. 1854) and Jane C. (b. 1856) and Jane’s mother, Catherine, then aged 70. By 1870, they were living in Homer, Louisiana, where Jane died in January 1899.
This quilt is among several items that G. Ruth McHenry donated to the Smithsonian in 1961. It had been given to her by her aunt, Kate (Catherine) Price McHenry. Catherine Price McHenry was the daughter of Jane Winter Price, who probably made this quilt before her marriage to Josiah W. McHenry in 1849.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1825-1850
maker
Price, Jane Winter
ID Number
TE.T12697
accession number
238478
catalog number
T12697

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