Ruth McKendry textile collection acquired by museumNineteenth-century weaving tells homespun tale
Gatineau, Quebec, September 26, 2002 — The Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) has acquired an extraordinary collection of handmade textiles collected over a period of more than 40 years by Kingston resident Ruth McKendry, an author and well-known expert on Canadian quilts and textiles. The rich and well-documented collection is one of the most outstanding from eastern Canada.
“The McKendry collection is a major addition to the Museum’s holdings and helps us to interpret a way of life that has all but disappeared from memory,” said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. “These items give us invaluable physical information to help us understand] the economy, social organization and lives of Canadians over a century ago.”
Most of the 1,709 handmade textiles, including blankets, coverlets, clothing, quilts and rugs, are from Ontario and date from the nineteenth century. Whether a hand-woven shawl or a hooked rug of original design, they range from the personal and the lovely to the plain and utilitarian. Rare for such a collection, there are groupings of several works by the same nineteenth-century weavers.
Mrs. McKendry, 82, author of the classic Quilts and Other Bed Coverings in the Canadian Tradition and of Classic Quilts (Key Porter Books), spent decades seeking out the textiles from the homes where they were made. She meticulously documented the origin of each piece, creating a fascinating record of the domestic economy of ordinary households. She has lectured and written extensively on the subject, with a special interest in the place of women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as shown in their domestic arts.
The Museum has purchased the collection from Mrs. McKendry, while she has donated her extensive research notes. The Museum had acquired a collection of 300 early Canadian quilts from Mrs. McKendry in 1979. This latest acquisition will fill a gap in the Museum’s collection of domestic weaving from eastern Ontario and of early nineteenth-century hand-woven clothing.
A dozen of the textiles were unveiled to the media today at the Museum. The remaining 1,700 items will be fumigated (a purely precautionary measure), registered, catalogued and moved into permanent storage in a quality-controlled environment over the coming year. Over the next three years, photographs and descriptions of the items will be added to the Museum’s online catalogue at www.civilization.ca (under the heading “Treasures”).
The Museum’s textile collection previously included about 9,800 items, connected with life in Canada during different periods of history, archaeological finds and cultures from around the world. The artifacts cover a large time-span, from fragments of Viking yarn a millennium old, to twentieth-century clothing such as a hat belonging to the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
FACT SHEETS
Media Information:
Media Relations Officer
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7169
Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7167
Fax: (819) 776-7187
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