Textiles

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"VOTE FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT NO 1"

Artist/Creator: Annin & Co for the New York State Woman Suffrage Association
Holding Institution: Howland Stone Store Museum, Aurora

This large (10 ½ feet X 9 ½ feet) double-sided canvas and net street banner was made for the 1917 referendum on women’s suffrage in New York State. The failure of passage in 1915 was a huge disappointment, but the New York State Woman Suffrage Association was determined to redouble their efforts and to hold as many public events throughout the state as possible throughout 1916 and 1917. This large banner was made for outside, street use, and speaks to the public acceptance of parades and outdoor gatherings. Rochester, Utica and other upstate cities hosted parades as well as New York City.

It is believed that this banner was used at conventions and parades throughout the state during the 1917 campaigns; documentation efforts are ongoing. The banner is big and bold, and like all suffrage publications and posters, represents the combined efforts of many, many women giving nickels and dimes to support the cause. “Suffrage Sacrifice Week” was not just a poster by Rosie O’Neill, but also an actual statewide campaign in 1916 to energize and personally involve more women in advocacy. The prominent inclusion of the Union label on the banner is in itself an example of leadership’s awareness of the need to extend voice to working women.

The activism of the Howland family quietly supported social justice movements that made a significant difference in their time and serve as an example of how the efforts of a few can make a difference in the lives of many. Emily and Isabel Howland saved suffrage materials, including this street banner, probably because they realized that these items told the story of the long struggle to achieve the vote and the importance of many people working together in an organized way.

The banner also tells the story of changing attitudes. Parades rapidly became accepted after Maud Malone got women marching in New York City in 1908. By 1912 and 1913, Isabel and Emily Howland were marching (or riding in newfangled cars). Originally against parades, Carrie Chapman Catt changed her mind, recognizing that society had begun to accept new roles for women. World War I brought more women into the work force and more advocates for suffrage. Our banner dates from 1917 and like all suffrage materials, helped normalize the idea of suffrage as it urged men to vote.

The story of women's suffrage in New York State is the story of an underrepresented community making their voices heard as loudly as possible. Parades, demonstrations, posters, and street banners were among the many ways in which women told their story of inequality and unjust treatment. Because of its size, this particular banner tells the story in a unique and dramatic way, allowing visitors to imagine marching in the streets of New York, bringing the message to all people everywhere.

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Martha Dyckman's Sampler

Artist/Creator: Martha Dyckman
Holding Institution: Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance, New York

The sampler is a well executed Adam and Eve scene, with a central tree bearing a serpent and standing human figure on either side. In each corner are stylized plants in pots. A serpentine flower design creates a boarder around the central scene. Most of
the entire central section is completely embroidered. “1778” is stitched at the top and “B O R II(sic N) 16 /MARTHA◊DYCKMAN*OCT” is stitched in dark brown threads along the lower edge.

This sampler is historically significant because it is one of the few objects available that are of personal significance to Martha Dyckman. Women during this time were not typically recorded in historical documents, because their social sphere was in the background of the male experience. Women tended to the home and were known by their husbands name rather than their own. For this reason, samplers are one of the few examples we have of the lives of women during the colonial period.

This sampler showcases the tree of life with Adam and Eve on either side, which is one of the biblical stories that have been identified as repeatedly appearing in New York City samplers. These repeating biblical stories appear among families involved in Reformed Protestant churches. Preserving Martha’s sampler in our collection gives the public a chance to connect to a small part of New York City's history. Additionally this object allows the museum to discuss those who did not have the leisure time and privilege, such as enslaved people, to create these decorative pieces, yet were required to have the skills to create and mend clothing and household goods.

The sampler will be displayed as a glimpse into what girlhood looked like for Martha and other girls at that time. Girls were not necessarily afforded an academic education, rather they were encouraged to adopt skills that pertained to the roles they would assume as women, like sewing, homemaking, and entertainment. For Martha, crafting a sampler, which was somewhat limited in the scope of the expression it could convey, might have been an opportunity to express creativity and who she was. The public will be able to see a new perspective on the lives lead on and around the Dyckman Farmhouse. Martha’s sampler will be used to bridge the gap between white middle to upper class families, the experiences of freed and enslaved black girls learning how to embroider, and embroidery as creative political expression.

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El Galeon de Manila

Artist/Creator: unknown
Holding Institution: Hispanic Society of America, New York 

Hispanic Society of America (HSA) has one of the most important collections of Hispanic textiles both nationally and internationally. The Manton de Manila (the Manila shawl) carry great artistic value and cultural symbolism and are extremely labor intensive, embroidered entirely by hand. Their global plurality can be found from the “pashminas” in India’s subcontinent to silk Somalian’s “sarongs” or the wool “babushkas” from the Ukraine. The Nahuatls in Oaxaca, to this day; birth, carry and use “rebozos” as a vital tool for motherhood. Shawls are cherished and passed down from generation to generation and now a staple and are common articles of fashion in the immigrant, Latin American communities that we serve. They are a square seamless silk textile, with rich silk (and sometimes metallic) embroidery and fringes that usually include macrame. They were and are still worn on special occasions, used as a flag on balconies during various festivals, and features as part of the flamenco dance costume. They were also placed on furniture, including pianos, for display, which gained them the name of “piano shawls”.

The Manton de Manila is an object that is central to the material culture of the Hispanic world. It is a large square silk shawl embroidered in silk, with a silk fringe with a macrame section added along the edge. The shawl evolved stylistically from the abundant Chinese embroidered textiles brought to the Americas and Europe via the Manila Galleon. Under the control of the Spanish empire, from the later sixteenth century through the early nineteenth Manila developed as a prominent hub of global commerce. Silk, from undyed yarn to embroidered pieces, was the primary commodity transported via the Galleon, through Acapulco, onwards to Spain. Chinese production of embroidered silks for export was centered in Canton. Over time designs were more and more adapted to the customers’ European taste, thus some of the traditional Chinese motifs such as dragons were dropped in favor of the predominantly floral designs, often including birds as well as stylized oriental scenes with gardens, pagodas and people.

From the end of the eighteenth century European fashion embraced shawls, including the Manton de Manila, peaking in the early to mid-nineteenth century, then dwindling towards its end. However, in Spain, the manton transitioned to lower classes, including gypsies and flamenco dancers, becoming an accessory associated with Andalusia but worn widely as part of the local costume in other parts of Spain, as far as Galicia. The manton is also known to have been part of a costume of women working in the tobacco factories in the second half of the nineteenth century, called “the cigarreras”, of which the most famous (and infamous) one was Carmen, the heroine of Merimee’s drama.

The mantones in the collection of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library are dated between 1800 and 1920s, offering a wide range of embroidery styles and structural variations for research and exhibition. Technically, the manton is significant as an object of needle art that undergoes cultural adaptation and transformation, absorbing influences from China, Latin America and Spain. Further study is needed to gain a better understanding of the materials and motifs employed in the creation of the mantones and the specific cultural shifts that they reflect. The manton is also significant as an inherited object within a family, an object that increases in value as it is passed on from generation to generation or taken overseas and becomes a carrier and ambassador of family history as well as national identity. Many of the mantones in the collection have been donated by immigrants or their families in hopes of preserving their story and their cultural background within a museum setting. Having this collection cared for and displayed in New York helps recognize the diversity of the people who have made New York their home, past generations and present. At the same time, the manton bears testimony to the global trade history as well as a cultural and artistic interchange, all of which have been fostered in New York. Finally, the manton is both static and dynamic: static in that is a type of accessory, with its rules of composition and technique, and dynamic as it lends itself to inspire modern needle artists of various ethnic backgrounds

Textiles