Weavers at Allanstand Cottage Industries in Western North Carolina wove this blue and white, overshot upholstery fabric sample c. 1913. The sample measures 36 inches square and was woven with a cotton ground warp and weft and wool supplementary pattern weft. The pattern is known as a “Double Chariot Wheel.” This was meant to be used as upholstery fabric, inspired by an overshot coverlet pattern.
Allanstand was founded by Frances Louisa Goodrich (1856-1944), a New York, college-educated, Presbyterian missionary, who moved to the Southern Appalachian region to educate the local population. She soon discovered hand-weaving traditions in the region and realized the marketability of these traditional crafts. She founded a cottage industry system with two retail outlets that catered to emerging Colonial Revival design tastes. At her retirement in 1930, she gifted the retail spaces and operations of Allanstand Cottage Industries to the newly founded Southern Highland Handicraft Guild. This sample was collected by the Smithsonian’s first curator of textiles, Frederic Lewton at the Department of Agriculture’s Southern Industrial Education Association retail space in Washington D.C. Upholstery fabric similar to this was used by First Lady, Ellen Wilson to decorate what came be known as the Blue Mountain Room in the Wilson White House.
Location:
Currently not on view
Credit Line:
Gift of Southern Industrial Educational Association
