Colonial Revival Piano Scarf, 1916
Mary Waite Allis Hurlburt of Hatfield, Massachusetts embroidered a hundred-year-old sheet—spun by her grandmother and woven by her mother—to commemorate her family’s colonial-era heritage. The text (detail 2, one end of the scarf) honors her family’s home-based textile production in the preindustrial “age of homespun,” while the central floral design copies crewel work by Hurlbut’s grandmother’s neighbor Rebecca Dickinson, whose 18th century bed hangings were well-known locally (detail 3, opposite end, inscription citing Rebecca’s design).
Inscriptions:
Detail 2: Spun by Mary Hastings Wait 1820/Woven by Content Hastings 1824
Detail 3: Designed by Rebecca Dickinson 1763/Embroidered by Mary Waite Allis Hurlbut 1916
Linen with linen and silk embroidery. Lent by Hatfield Historical Museum, Hatfield, Massachusetts