What an amazing piece! Along similar lines, the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, has a two-piece canvas dress covered profusely with ink drawings of Alaskan scenes, including a dog team running around the hem. It belonged to a young Norwegian immigrant woman who ran a hotel in Fairbanks before settling in Seattle. Our research to date indicates it has some connection to the owner's and the Arctic Brotherhood's attendance at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. It would be interesting to know if any listserv members have seen any other, similar garments.

Mary Montgomery
Assistant Librarian
Museum of History & Industry

From: Textile Conservators [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peggy Derrick
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 12:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Identification help

I am hoping  that someone on the listserv has worked with/seen  textiles like the one in the images I am attaching. It is in the collection of the La Crosse County Historical Society, where I work. It was made in La Crosse, WI, in 1887-88 by the ladies of the First Universalist Church, under the direction of Jennie Baldwin Lafflin, originally from Vermont, but who came here with her husband in 1873.The coverlet is natural linen, 78" by 90" including a bobbin lace trim on 3 sides. All the work is in ink and it glorifies the history of La Crosse WI. War heroes, statesmen, churches, businesses, dentists, social clubs of all sorts, business men and women are all included in the lists that cover the surface, as if by sheer force of enumeration the importance of La Crosse would be made manifest.
I would appreciate any information about the history of this sort of textile documentation: I'm sure this is not the only example ever produced. The design seems to follow a format that the artist already knew.
I'm grateful for any information someone might have!


Peggy Derrick, Curator
La Crosse County Historical Society
P.O. Box 1272
La Crosse WI 54602
www.lchsweb.org<http://www.lchsweb.org>