Daniel Pursell jacquard-woven coverlet; Ohio
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
name: label: maker
content: Pursell, Daniel
notes: label: Description
content: Daniel Pursell jacquard-woven dark blue and white (natural) wool and cotton coverlet. Figured and Fancy style; Field with 8-lobed medallions (4x4) alternating with roundels depicting Sun or Sunflowers. Double borders with meandering vines and rows of potted plants. Fringes intact. Corner blocks: "Manufactured by D. Pursell Portsmouth Ohio LIBERTY" Undated. Two panels, with a center seam. This is the only Pursell coverlet in the collection with his name in the corner block. Daniel Pursell (1812-1880) wove coverlets in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio. Clarita Anderson and Robert Heisey both mention Pursell in their catalogs of known weavers. He only dated one coverlet that is known, but based on census records we can estimate that Daniel Pursell was weaving in Scioto County from approximately 1840 until he enlisted in the 1st Ohio Light Artillery Battery L in 1861 as a bugler. In the 1870 Federal Census, Daniel Pursell is listed as a paper-maker, having abandoned weaving after the Civil War. In the 1880 Federal Census, Pursell is listed as a drug store attendant in Logan, Hocking County, Ohio. He died shortly after. Pursell appears to have designed his own patterns. It is not clear what kind of loom he wove on or how his business was organized, but he clearly had an eye for design and color and ranks as one of Ohio’s most skilled coverlet weavers.
label: Description
content: According to the donor, the coverlet was likely obtained by the parents of Edward Talbot Barnes. They were originally from England, moved to Virginia and then Ohio, and in about 1872, moved to Missouri (Edward Talbot Barnes was born in Missouri in 1872).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Portsmouth
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Coverlets
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content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Sallie Aldape in honor of Suzanne Barnes Morrison
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0205.01
label: accession number
content: 2018.0205
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0205.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet, figured
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wool, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: Jacquard, double-cloth (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 90 in x 80 in; 228.6 cm x 203.2 cm