Craig Family; Figured and Fancy, double-cloth coverlet;1842; Indiana
date: label: Date made
content: 1842
name: label: maker
content: Craig Family
notes: label: Description
content: This blue and white, Figured and Fancy, double-cloth coverlet features a carpet medallion centerfield composed of "Double Cornucopia" medallions flanked by lilies and scalloped diamonds. The coverlet’s side borders are composed of a Greek key design decorated with stylized carnations, irises, and thistles. The top and bottom borders feature the signature Craig family, “Bellflower and Bluebell” pattern. The 1842 dated courthouse with cupola cornerblock trademarks identify this coverlet with the Craig family. The coverlet was originally owned by great-grandmother of the donor, Mrs. Tenant of Shelbyville, Indiana. Being double-cloth, this coverlet has two sets of warps and wefts—one set composed of a wool weft and cotton weft, and the other a cotton weft and wool warp.
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, Decatur
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 Mrs. Irene Ray O'Connell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T13498
label: catalog number
content: T13498.000
label: accession number
content: 256599
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Coverlet
label: Object Name
content: coverlet, figured
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: Figured and Fancy (overall style)
label: Physical Description
content: double weave (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: carpet medallion (center pattern)
label: Physical Description
content: blue, white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton, wool (overall material)