Politics at Home: Textiles as American History

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courtesy UW Center for Design and Material Culture

press release: Politics at Home: Textiles as American History, open September 1-November 7, 2021 in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery, explores how the making, display, and collecting of textiles have been used throughout American history as expressions of political beliefs, ideals, and affiliations. The exhibition draws exclusively from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, part of the Center for Design and Material Culture (CDMC) in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Human Ecology. Viewed through four themes, “The Federal Home,” “The Progressive Home,” “The Revival Home,” and “The Activist Home,” the exhibit encourages visitors to reflect on political representation in the home, both past and present. Containing over one hundred objects from the late eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries, the exhibition includes quilts, coverlets, and home furnishing fabrics as well as garments, handkerchiefs, and ornaments. These varied textiles define and redefine what “political” meant to their makers, users, and wearers.

Events: Textiles on Campus: A Panel Discussion on the Possibilities of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, Wednesday, October 13 @ 5pm, Fourth Floor, Nancy Nicholas Hall: Politics at Home: Textiles as American History, on view in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery, and Lace from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, on view in the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, both showcase treasures from our world renowned textile collection. This panel features faculty, curators, students, and collection stewards who make this vital resource available to our community. The discussion will focus on how the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection came to be, what is currently in its holdings, how is the Collection used, and what are the possibilities for growing this Collection in thoughtfully. This event is free and open to the public. Please follow all campus safety protocols.

While politics often implies public engagement, it also finds expression within the domestic sphere. Homes may be sites of formation of political beliefs, and spaces in which to communicate these beliefs through choices in home furnishing and personal adornment. At times overt and at other times subtle, the incorporation of particular symbols, emblems, colors, or slogans can transform everyday textiles into political statements. Politics at Home will encourage viewers to think broadly about what politics means and the many ways in which it occurs within the home.

The project developed out of a small 2019-2020 graduate seminar taught by Professor Marina Moskowitz, Lynn and Gary Mecklenburg Chair in Textiles, Material Culture, and Design, and has been collaboratively curated by Moskowitz, Design Studies PhD student Natalie E. Wright, Design Studies MFA student Nora Renick Rinehart, and recent Art History MA graduate Samantha Comerford, with Moskowitz and Wright as lead curators. “Our collections intensive graduate seminar allowed students to learn through the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection and to simultaneously create a public exhibition, an ideal way to apply our collection in service of the Wisconsin Idea,” said Moskowitz.

Associate Professor Sarah Anne Carter, Executive Director of the CDMC, is thrilled by the interdisciplinary impact of the exhibition, “Politics at Home makes a powerful argument: the production, use, and collection of textiles can be a political act, elegantly connecting our textile collection to vital issues at the heart of major intellectual conversation across the university and in our communities.” Exhibition co-curator Wright elaborated, "This exhibit brings together political textiles from across four centuries. Taken together, this combination reveals patterns and layers of unexpected and even uncanny revivals within the home.”

Politics at Home examines domestic political textiles through four spaces, each representing different moments and themes in American history. The exhibition begins with “The Federal Home,” with objects ranging from the late eighteenth to mid nineteenth centuries that demonstrate how home furnishings contributed to the establishment of recognizable national emblems, such as the eagle, and mottos, such as E Pluribus Unum. “The Progressive Home” examines the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries, highlighting textiles that document civic engagement in a variety of political reforms, both at home and abroad. “The Revival Home” presents objects ranging from the late nineteenth-century Colonial Revival through the Bicentennial of 1976, exploring how representations of history can be inherently political. “The Activist Home” explores textiles from the 1930s to the present day, showing ways that both support for and critique of the political status quo can be considered forms of activism.

Politics at Home prompts reflection on how the collecting of textiles, both in the past and today, can constitute political acts. The exhibition encourages dialogue with viewers about political textiles in their own homes, and the ways in which the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection can continue to represent diverse and dynamic American histories.

Politics at Home: Textiles as American History was developed with the generous support of the Anonymous Fund. To learn more about the exhibit and upcoming related programs, visit cdmc.wisc.edu or sign up to receive the latest gallery news and events by email.