Craig Family; Figured and Fancy, double-cloth coverlet panel; 1849; Indiana
date: label: Date made
content: 1849
name: label: maker
content: Craig Family
notes: label: Description
content: This Craig Family, Figured and Fancy, double-cloth coverlet panel features a "Peacocks Feeding Their Young" centerfield pattern and a “Christians and Heathens” side border with the Craig family signature, "Bluebells and Bellflower" top and bottom borders. The panel can be attributed to the Craig Family because of the two dated trademark cornerblocks which feature a courthouse with cupola. The coverlet was woven from two sets of warps and wefts made up of indigo-dyed 2-ply, S-twist, Z-spun wool and bleached 3-ply, S-twist, Z-spun cotton. "Peacocks Feeding Their Young" centerfield pattern features male peacocks feeding young birds in the nest and two female peafowl on a in a confronted position. The arrangement of the centerfield pattern creates an ogival lattice with floral and Grecian urn motif infills. The “Christians and Heathens” side border design had many variations and featured a blend of Neoclassical and Eastern architecture with palms and played to tastes for Eastern exoticism.
label: Description
content: The Craig Family weavers consist of Scottish-born, William Craig, Sr. (1800-1880), Scottish-born cousin, James Craig (1819-1896), William Craig, Jr. (1824-1880), and James Craig (1823-1889) make up the two generations of weavers who intermarried with other Scottish immigrant weaving families, dominating the coverlet market in Floyd, Decatur, and Washington counties in Indiana. It is almost certain that their regional influence extended into Western Kentucky as well. The Craigs were prodigious weavers and entrepreneurs and the number of extant coverlets attest to this fact. Also of interest is a published interview with William Sr.'s granddaughter, Rena Craig Gilchrist found in Indiana Coverlets and Coverlet Weavers (1928) by Kate Milner Rabb. Rena Craig Gilchrist recounted how her grandfather was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1800, moving to South Carolina in 1820 to assume the role of foreman at a Southern cotton goods factory. In 1832 the Craigs and other immigrant weaving families, the Gilchrists and Youngs moved to Mt. Caramel, Indiana. In 1838, the family moved again, further distributing weavers, to Decatur County, Indiana. The Craigs at first wove on their farm just outside of Greensburg, Indiana, but soon sons William Jr. and James ventured out on their own, marrying other weaver’s daughters, and establishing workshops in Greensburg and Anderson. Their coverlet weaving became regionally famous and people were reported as having come from fifty to sixty miles by wagon with woolen yarn for enough coverlets for each child at marriage.
label: Description
content: The Craigs continued to weave until 1860 when William Sr. retired. Cousin James opened a shop in Canton, Indiana. A local resident described his loom as," “different from any other loom I have ever seen in that the threads of the warp were each run through a loop of cords to which were attached leaden weights about the size of an ordinary lead pencil, and I should think from twelve to fifteen inches in length. I do not remember accurately about that. The other end of each cord was attached to a pedal, of which there was a considerable number. A number of cords may have been attached to a pedal, according to the colors and figures being used. This enabled him to depress any of the threads of the warp that he pleased by operating the pedals with his feet, thus opening a space for the passing of the shuttle, of which he used as many as he wished colors in the pattern.” This description suggests that members of the Craig family were using modified drawlooms, possibly what is sometimes referred to a Scotch loom, which was used to weave figured double-cloth ingrain carpet. This is interesting because the introduction of the Jacquard head attachment, which used chains of punch cards, made figured weaving much faster and cheaper in the decades before the Craig family’s foray into coverlet weaving.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Indiana, Greensburg
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Coverlets
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. V. W. Plumpton
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T12174
label: catalog number
content: T12174.000
label: accession number
content: 232964
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet panel, figured
label: Object Name
content: coverlet panel, figured
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: double weave (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: Figured and Fancy (border style)
label: Physical Description
content: "peacocks feeding young", "Christians and Heathens" (center pattern)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)