Author Archives: nichols

What Does Sewing Mean for Women?

Henry Moses’ The Sewing Circle. (1804)

by Grace Nichols

When embarking on this digital archive journey, I took inspiration from “On the Equality of the Sexes”. In Murray’s essay she questions, “is the needle and kitchen sufficient to employ the operations of a soul thus organized?” (773) Throughout her essay she argues that “the needle” is not adequate, and how instead the cultural practices in America limit women’s capabilities. Interestingly, I just read an academic article for another class, “These Threads Capture Shadows”, in which the author explains how engaging in the act of sewing for Jewish women during the Holocaust was not only an intrinsically feminist act but an act of rebellion. Obviously, these differing opinions on sewing have extremely different contexts, but this interplay of how sewing can be stifling and empowering depending on circumstance is what intrigued me.

I first went to the Digital Public Library of America. Ironically, against my intention of finding artifacts from women one of the first I came across was from a man. The archive showed a shoemaker’s account book where he had cataloged his work which entailed sewing and mending shoes. With this first stumble in my search, I moved on finding that a lot of the artifacts related to sewing were actual sewing boxes or tables. The pieces ranged some having high style furnishings such as gold paint and the others being more simple looking similar to an antique bed side table.

Anna Cleveland’s Sewing Case (front)

After searching I decided to settle on an artifact literally titled “Housewife”, a name given by the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database, which I found through the DPLA. This sewing case created by Anna Holmes Cleveland sometime between 1800-1836 served as a place to store needles, thread, and other sewing stables. The case achieves a similar purpose to sewing boxes or tables except for this homemade kit can be rolled up, and therefore is more suitable for traveling. What drew me to this besides the somewhat alarming name which equates being a housewife to merely a sewing kit was the different fabrics used to make the case. Cleveland’s piece has ten separate brightly patterned fabrics for the ten small pockets just on one side. The inside uses a solid black fabric as lining and on the back is one cohesive patterned fabric.

 

 

Cleveland’s Sewing Case (back)

When analyzing this artifact, I could not help but think of why Cleveland used so many fabrics. It seems so much more time consuming to pick out at least 12 different fabrics that somehow go together color scheme wise than to just use one. It is possible Cleveland was just using scrap fabrics, but to put that much effort into a case that not a lot of people will see because it ends up deep in a trunk when traveling suggests to me that Cleveland valued sewing greatly. This conclusion is not meant to undermine Murray’s argument that women are adept to more than the constraints placed on them, but rather is a testament to the cultural framework that Murray suggests.

Heyward-Washington House

By: Grace Nichols

The Heyward-Washington House, built in the early 1770s was once lived in by founding fathers, but now is a house museum full of Charleston artifacts. These artifacts, mainly high style furniture from the late 18th century reflect the material culture of Charleston elite. The tour focused on the patriots and founding fathers who stayed in the house. Thomas Heyward Jr., one of the youngest men to sign the Declaration of Independence lived in the house after his father built it for him. Heyward also participated in the Siege of Charleston against the British and was exiled to St. Augustine for a yearafterwards. The house itself was an extra downtown home for Heyward as many rich plantation owners lived on their plantations full time and had another central downtown home for the convince of entertaining and conducting business. With that purpose in mind, many patriots met in the home including George Washington, who stayed there for a small period when visiting Charleston.

Bookcase The house’s most grand piece of furniture was a library bookcase, considered to be “a masterpiece of its time,” and one of the best examples of early American furniture. This Holmes bookcase was made by Martin Pfeninger using expensive Mahogany and Cyprus wood native to Charleston. With ornate German-esc curvatures and fixtures such as the moveable flowers on top the piece was extremely expensive then and solidified the elite status of the owner.

Another piece of furniture that does not “priceless” stature of the bookcase, but caught my attention was a traveling dresser. At first glance, this dresser looks like a normal one, but it breaks off into 3 separate pieces with handles on the sides that turn the dresser into a traveling trunk. For the purposes of traveling back and forth between a plantation house and a downtown home this piece of furniture works perfectly for rich Charlestonians.

Dresser and Suitcase Trunk

One discrepancy I had with the tour relates to our class discussion we had on Thursday. For my discussion post I relayed how important it is to remember history accurately. To educate history properly, people and certain events should not be glorified, but rather the context must be laid out in a way that also condemns any wrong doings. The Heyward-Washington House tour failed to properly communicate the immense role Charleston had in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. While they did mention slavery, it was not a point they highlighted very much. They focused more on the material culture and figures important to the house’s history (so Heyward, Washington, and two early feminist daughters in the family). It felt that they were trying to lean away from the darker parts of history and highlight figures that made the house’s history more positive.

Conversely, a few weeks ago I went to the Edmondson-Alston House (a house museum in Charleston) for another class, and there they made sure to bring up the role that slave labor played in the house’s history. There, they immediately explained that the house was built using slave labor, something not mentioned at the Heyward-Washington house, but I can only assume that slave labor was used to build the house. They also gave some examples of horrible things the slaves had to do there, and really got into Charleston’s role in the slave trade which included how the slave badge system worked in Charleston. At the Edmondson-Alston House they also had a list of all the known names of slaves that worked in the house. This is the right way to do it, explaining the horrible things rather than glossing over so we can remember history accurately and honoring the people who were harmed. Overall, I did enjoy seeing the Heyward-Washington House. It had very beautiful things inside that showed the wealth of some 18th century people, but I had issues with the lack of talking about the role enslaved people played.

Visiting the Heyward-Washington House

By: Grace Nichols

The Heyward-Washington House, built in the early 1770s was once lived in by founding fathers, but now is a house museum full of Charleston artifacts. These artifacts, mainly high style furniture from the late 18th century reflect the material culture of Charleston elite. The tour focused on the patriots and founding fathers who stayed in the house. Thomas Heyward Jr., one of the youngest men to sign the Declaration of Independence lived in the house after his father built it for him. Heyward also participated in the Siege of Charleston against the British and was exiled to St. Augustine for a year afterwards. The house itself was an extra downtown home for Heyward as many rich plantation owners lived on their plantations full time and had another central downtown home for the convince of entertaining and conducting business. With that purpose in mind, many patriots met in the home including George Washington, who stayed there for a small period when visiting Charleston.

The house’s most grand piece of furniture was a library bookcase, considered to be “a masterpiece of its time,” and one of the best examples of early American furniture. This Holmes bookcase was made by Martin Pfeninger using expensive Mahogany and Cyprus wood native to Charleston. With ornate German-esc curvatures and fixtures such as the moveable flowers on top the piece was extremely expensive then and solidified the elite status of the owner. Another piece of furniture that does not “priceless” stature of the bookcase, but caught my attention was a traveling dresser. At first glance, this dresser looks like a normal one, but it breaks off into 3 separate pieces with handles on the sides that turn the dresser into a traveling trunk. For the purposes of traveling back and forth between a plantation house and a downtown home this piece of furniture works perfectly for rich Charlestonians.

One discrepancy I had with the tour relates to our class discussion we had on Thursday. For my discussion post I relayed how important it is to remember history accurately. To educate history properly people and certain events should not be glorified, but rather the context must be laid out in a way that also condemns any wrong doings. The Heyward-Washington House tour failed to properly communicate the immense role Charleston had in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. While they did mention slavery, it was not a point they highlighted very much. They focused more on the material culture and figures important to the house’s history (so Heyward, Washington, and two early feminist daughters in the family). It felt that they were trying to lean away from the darker parts of history and highlight figures that made the houses history more positive.

Conversely, a few weeks ago I went to the Edmondson-Alston House (a house museum in Charleston) for another class, and there they made sure to bring up the role that slave labor played in the house’s history. There, they immediately explained that the house was built using slave labor, something not mentioned at the Heyward Washington house, but I can only assume that slave labor was used to build the house. They also gave some examples of horrible things the slaves had to do there, and really got into Charleston’s role in the slave trade which included how the slave badge system worked in Charleston. At the Edmondson-Alston House they also had a list of all the known names of slaves that worked in the house. This is the right way to do it, explaining the horrible things rather than glossing over so we can remember history accurately and honoring the people who were harmed. Overall, I did enjoy seeing the Heyward-Washington House. It had very beautiful things inside that showed the wealth of some 18th century people, but I had issues with the lack of talking about the role enslaved people played.