Nathaniel Young; Figured and Fancy coverlet, double-cloth; 1836; New York or New Jersey
date: label: date made
content: 1836
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This coverlet has a side to side and top-to-bottom mirror image depicting flowers, fruits, cornucopias, and scrollwork, except for the center medallion, which contains the information "Phebe Ann Baylis 1836" embellished with four simple birds on the wing and a pair of rosettes, all framed by a garland of simple stylized flowers. The arabesque leafy border is interrupted on either side by a strangely proportioned urn and scattered eight-pointed stars, along with fruits, flowers, and birds sparsely placed between the center of motif and border. The coverlet is double-cloth containing two sets of cotton and indigo-dyed wool, warp and weft. The coverlet was woven for Phebe Anne Baylis (b. 1828) of Suffolk County, New York in 1836, when she was just eight-years-old. It was common practice for parents to being building up their children’s wedding trousseaus at an early age, and coverlets and other bedclothes were an expected contribution from the family. It was not uncommon for families to place coverlet orders with weavers for all of their children at once. This coverlet is representative of this arrangement.
label: Description
content: According to the 1850 Federal Census, Baylis, at age 22, was living in the household of her 29-year-old brother, Orlando (b. 1821) with her presumably widowed mother, Mehitable (b. 1801) in Suffolk County, New York. The weaver of this coverlet has been the source of much debate over the past thirty years. Nathaniel Young (life dates unknown) was the weaver of this coverlet. His life is a bit of a mystery, but he was likely a Scottish immigrant, first working in the vicinity of New York City and later moving and working in Hudson, Bergen, and finally Morris County, New Jersey. Unsigned Nathaniel Young coverlets are identifiable by the stylized foxglove flower found in the corners of this coverlet, which may appear as a shaded pear to modern audiences. It is unclear whether Young worked for New Jersey’s most famous coverlet weaver David Haring (1800-1889), but the similarity in design and pattern is striking. The details of his life have yet to be fully worked out. He was first described as an itinerant weaver, but the cumbersome nature of the barrel or cylinder loom he would have been using would make this very unlikely. The style and arrangement of the patterns of Young and Haring’s New Jersey coverlets are also linked to those found and made on Long Island, New York, and the existence of this identifiable coverlet may be the missing link connecting those early Long Island coverlets written about by Susan Rabbit Goody with the later coverlets from New Jersey in a similar style.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Coverlets
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T16835
label: catalog number
content: T16835.000
label: accession number
content: 306589
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet, figured
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: double cloth (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: blue, white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: figured and fancy (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton, wool (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 87 in x 72 in; 220.98 cm x 182.88 cm