The fabric of their lives: a commemoration of family, friends, and community by three women in Salem County, New Jersey
| Author(s) | Woodman, Sarah Suzanne | |
| Date Accessioned | 2020-07-15T12:15:53Z | |
| Date Available | 2020-07-15T12:15:53Z | |
| Publication Date | 2003 | |
| Abstract | During the 1880s Sallie Harris and her daughters, Kate Harris and Sarah Marion Harris Johnson, of Salem County, New Jersey, collected fabric from family, friends, and community members, which they compiled into four scrapbooks. The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera at the Winterthur Library possesses the scrapbooks, which contain 782 fragments of cotton, silk, wool, and linen from household furnishings and personal garments. The collection includes fabric from China, England, France, India, and America, dating from about 1770 to 1890, although most are from 1820s to the 1880s. ☐ The swatches, to which the Harrises added brief annotations, represent the Harrises’ connections to family, friends, and community members. The Harrises link fabric to 180 individuals in New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Many of the individuals associated with the swatches were members of the Religious Society of Friends, and Baptists and Episcopalians are also represented. Although much of the significance has been lost, the fragments of cloth and their accompanying captions form patterns that, when paired with genealogical research, provide insight into the Harrises’ “emotional universe.” The inclusion of fabric from their sisters, aunts, cousins, and female friends is indicative of the Harrises’ strong network of women, but while the portraying three women whose identities were shaped by their relationships with members of their family and community, the scrapbooks also portray women whose identities were closely tied to their past. ☐ The small fragments of fabric signify the relationships the Harrises cultivated and maintained throughout their lives. Symbolically placing their own lives in the context of the people who influenced them, they used the swatches of fabric to mediate or reinforce self, family, and group identity. Through their scrapbooks, the Harrises constructed and examined their identities in relation to their friends, family, and community in the past and present. | en_US |
| Advisor | Eaton, Linda | |
| Degree | M.A. | |
| Program | University of Delaware, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture | |
| Unique Identifier | 1165358217 | |
| URL | http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/27308 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| URI | https://search.proquest.com/docview/250172355?accountid=10457 | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Scrapbooks -- New Jersey -- Salem County | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Textile fabrics -- Collectors and collecting -- New Jersey -- Salem County | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Textile fabrics -- Social aspects -- New Jersey -- Salem County -- History -- 19th century | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Harris family | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Women -- New Jersey -- Salem County -- Biography | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Salem County (N.J.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Salem County (N.J.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century | |
| Title | The fabric of their lives: a commemoration of family, friends, and community by three women in Salem County, New Jersey | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |