The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Kraak, Deborah E.                             

Title:               Textile research papers

Dates:             circa 1990-circa 2000

Call No.:         Col. 966

Acc. No.:        08x164

Quantity:        9 boxes

Location:        35 E-F 1

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Deborah E. Kraak is a historic textile and costume specialist with experience in museum curatorship, teaching, and lecturing.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history at Michigan State University and a master’s degree from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where she focused on Byzantine art.  She also earned a museum training certificate from a joint NYU/Metropolitan Museum of Art program.

 

Ms. Kraak has written articles for various publications, delivered a number of lectures, and has curated several museum exhibits.  Her work has focused on floral designs in textiles, Quaker clothing aesthetics, tapestries, and quilts.  She has worked in a number of museums, including Winterthur Museum, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the J. Paul Getty Center, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  She has also taught in the Cooper-Hewitt master program in decorative arts.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Research files assembled by Deborah Kraak while she was associate curator of textiles at Winterthur Museum.  The main topics covered in these files are Quaker clothing, floral design in textiles, and quilts.  Kraak was interested in how images of flowers were used in designing textiles.  Many of the quilt files are about quilts in the Winterthur Museum Collection.  Included are research notes, drafts and texts of talks and articles, and some correspondence and photographs.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

Three series: I. Quaker clothing; II. Floral design; and III. Quilts. 

A single file on Cistercian art is filed in series II.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are mostly in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Gift of Deborah Kraak.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

Decoration and ornament – Plant forms.

Quakers – Clothing.

Quilts.

Textile design – History.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 35 E-F 1

 

 

Series I: Quaker Dress

 

Box 1:

 

Folder 1:          Article: “English Silks in 18th century Philadelphia” [by Kraak?]

 

Folders 2-3:     Articles about Quakers, including background research

 

Folder 4:          Bibliography on Quakers

 

Folder 5:          Lee-Whitman, Leanna

 

Folders 6-7:     Men’s clothing symposium at University of Delaware, 1994, sponsored by Tidy’s Storehouse

 

Folders 8-10:   Quaker costume article by Kraak       

 

 

Box 2:

 

Folder 1:          Quaker costume at Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Folder 2:          Quaker costume research at Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Folder 3:          Quaker research: Chester County Historical Society

 

Folder 4:          Quaker research: various places

 

Folder 5:          Quakers: individuals and the group

 

Folder 6:          Saunders, Ann: correspondence

 

Folder 7:          Yoder, Don: articles on folk costume

 

 

Series II: Floral Design, and a folder on Cistercian art

 

Box 2:

 

Folder 8:          Bibliography for floral research

 

Folder 9:          Bibliotheque National: correspondence

 

Folder 10:        Botanical research

 

 

Box 3:

 

Folder 1:          Botanical research: notes

 

Folder 2:          Browne, Clare W.

 

Folder 3:          CIETA: article for its bulletin

                                    [Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens]

 

Folder 4:          Cistercian art and architecture (research for article by Kraak)

 

Folder 5:          Colonial Dames

 

Folder 6:          Dandridge, Joseph [English naturalist]

 

Folder 7:          “Eighteenth Century Landscape Architecture and Textile Design”: text of slide lecture

 

Folder 8:          “English Silks in 18th century Philadelphia”: text of slide lecture

 

Folder 9:          Floral fabrics and design

 

Folders 10-12:             Floral research: articles, with one folder of articles chiefly on landscape     

 

 

Box 4:

 

Folders 1-2:     French textile and garden design

 

Folder 3:          Historical Society of Pennsylvania

 

Folder 4:          Kraak: article or talk: “18th Century English Landscape Architecture and Floral Silk Design”

 

Folder 5:          Kraak: article and talk on 18th century silks, printed by Abegg

 

Folders 6-7:     Kraak: drafts of articles and talks      

 

Folder 8:          “Landscape and Silk: 18th century Floral Design”: text of slide lecture

 

 

Box 5:

 

Folder 1:          The Magazine Antiques

 

Folder 2:          Newark Museum

 

Folder 3:          Philadelphia merchant day books

 

Folder 4:          Pineapples

 

Folder 5:          Pompadour, Madame de: seminar

 

Folder 6:          “The Relationship between 18th century English Floral-patterned Silk Textiles and Landscape Theory and Practice”: text of slide lecture, with notes

 

Folder 7:          Rothstein, Natalie: articles on silk

 

Folder 8:          Samplers

 

Folder 9:          Silk apparel at Independence National Historic Park

 

Folder 10:        Veder, R.

 

 

Series III: Quilts

 

Box 5:

 

Folder 11:        Books examined for images

 

Folder 12:        Brackman database

 

Folder 13:        Chinoiserie designs

 

Folder 14:        Chintz appliqué quilts (research by Tara Gleason, 1996)

 

Folder 15:        Database of dated quilts

 

Folder 16:        Dictionary definitions

 

Folder 17:        Empire styles and 1830s

 

Folder 18:        Fabrics: bird motifs

 

Folder 19:        Floral patch

 

 

Box 6:

 

Folders 1-2:     Floral printed fabrics in quilts (includes Pearce and Heaton quilts and camellias)    

 

Folder 3:          French quilts

 

Folder 4:          History of piecing and appliquéing

 

Folder 5:          Indo-Portuguese quilts: research

 

Folder 6:          Indo-Portuguese quilts: Winterthur quilt, accession 1954.0049

 

Folder 7:          Inventories

 

Folder 8:          Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) collection

 

Folder 9:          Liddle, Kim: bibliography

 

Folder 10:        Medallion quilts

 

Folder 11:        Miscellaneous (includes articles about quilts)

 

Folder 12:        Outline and timeline

 

Folder 13:        Palampores

 

 

Box 7:

 

Folder 1:          Peale, Sophonisba: quilt

 

Folder 2:          Printed patchwork fabric and simulated patchwork

 

Folder 3:          “Quilt and its pieces”

 

Folder 4:          Quilt checklist: color entries

 

Folder 5:          Quilt motifs: Eagles

 

Folder 6:          Quilt motifs: Peacock

 

Folder 7:          Quilt patches [fabrics designed to be cut apart for use in quilts]

 

Folder 8:          Quilt references: early Western

 

Folder 9:          Quilt references: 17th century

 

Folder 10:        Quilt references: 18th century

 

Folder 11:        Quilts: photos [not identified]

           

Folder 12:        Quilts in federal-era America, 1783-1820

 

Folder 13:        Resist dyeing

 

Folder 14:        Rose quilts

 

Folder 15:        Rowan, Hamilton [textile printer]

 

 

Box 8:

 

Folder 1:          Smithsonian

 

Folder 2:          Whitework quilts (includes paper by Carol E. Borchert)

 

Folder 3:          Whitework quilts: paper by Susan Gunn

 

Folder 4:          Whitework quilts: Van Norstrand quilt (Winterthur accession 1976.0301)

 

Folder 5:          Whole cloth quilts (includes paper by Nedda E. Moqtaderi)

 

Folder 6:          Women, American: diaries, etc.

 

Folder 7:          Wool quilts

 

Folders 8-11:   Winterthur quilts:  [more in next box]

                                    1954.0065.8 (whole cloth, wool);

                                    1955.0784;

                                    1956.0615 (whitework eagle);

                                    1957.0048;

                                    1957.0048 or 1957.0049 (Agry Vaughn quilt);

                                    1958.0044.1 (tumbling blocks);

                                    1958.0108 (Margaret Nichols’ exotic birds);

1959.0022.8 (stencil quilt);

1959.1497 (Warner-Williams) (files for this quilt continue in next box)

 

 

Box 9:

           

Folders 1-6:     Winterthur quilts:  [more in previous box]

1959.1497 (Warner-Williams) (more files for this quilt in previous box);

1960.0323 (floral trail quilt);

1961.0025 (trophy of arms);

1963.0086 (Bishop appliqué);

1964.0139 (doll’s bed quilt);

1964.1001 (Hewson appliqué);

1968.0005 (peacock);

1968.0766 (Johnson);

1969.0566 (George Washington);

1969.0568 (peacock, EB);

1969.0447 (hydrangeas);

1969.0570;

1969.571 (Baltimore album);

1979.0058.63 (Pickwick)