Common Threads: Textiles from the Mennonite Heritage Center, Goschenhoppen Historians, and Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
April 13 – October 31, 2014
Opening Reception – Sunday, April 13, 2:00-5:00 pm
Project Cataloger Caitlin Harvey will present a program about the new online textile catalog and her work with the textiles.
The Mennonite Heritage Center recently participated in a joint textile cataloging project with Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center (Pennsburg, PA) and Goschenhoppen Historians (Green Lane, PA). This exhibit, held concurrently at the Mennonite and Schwenkfelder centers, will feature treasures from all three collections.
The Pennsylvania German textiles in the exhibit represent a distinctive regional culture that produced a wide range of colorful and functional textiles ranging from intricately pieced quilts, woven coverlets and embroidered samplers to homespun linen feed bags and petticoats.
The exhibit at the Mennonite Heritage Center will highlight textiles and clothing from Mennonite communities of eastern Pennsylvania, including both decorative and utilitarian objects. Colorful quilts from neighboring Pennsylvania Dutch communities will be among the items featured from the Goschenhoppen and Schwenkfelder collections. Clothing “plain” and “fancy”, both every-day and “Sunday best”, from area Mennonite families will be another feature of the exhibit. A mid-19th century parlor and a mid-to-late 19th century bedroom setting will present some of the objects in context.
The two-year cataloging project represented in this exhibit was generously funded by the Council on Library & Information Services (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden Special Collections program.