If you attended this year’s conference, we would greatly appreciate your feedback! Please fill out the survey through the link below. Thank you!

2024 WHC Survey

30th Annual Weaving History Conference October 20-22, 2025

The WHC is held virtually over Zoom!

Join us virtually as we dive into another year of fascinating and informative talks by knowledgeable presenters from around the country! Want to know what you have to look forward to? Take a look below at the 2024 presentations below.

Answers to a few common questions:

– Can’t make it to all of the presentations? Not to worry! Everything is recorded and available to attendees for two weeks after the conference ends.

– Only want to attend a certain talk, or one specific day? Can do! Everyone will receive the same Zoom link, which is good for all three days of the conference, and can join and leave at will.

Seeking proposals for the 2025 Annual Weaving History Conference!

We encourage proposals on all topics related to the history of weaving and related fiber arts. Presentations that include diverse speakers, including people of color and LGBTQ+, as well as topics that address historically marginalized communities will be given special consideration. For a look at past topics, please take a look at last year’s presentations below. Questions? Contact Marina at marina@tiartscenter.org.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: August 4, 2025

2025 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION FORM

Please complete the proposal form below:

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2024 Presentations

Click on presentation titles for descriptions.

Monday, October 21

9:00-10:00am

Opening Remarks/Introduction to the Museum

10:00-11:00am

"From Plant to Cloth" -- Gigi Matthews

DESCRIPTION

According to a 2016 report carried out by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, approximately 390,900 types of plants are known to science but very few can be used to make textiles. Find out how stems, leaves, and bark have been ingeniously transformed into cloth around the globe for over 30,000 years, and about new methods of creating sustainable textiles from regenerative farming and also agricultural waste products.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Gigi Matthews’ keen interest in the fiber arts is a result of decades of world travel to over 30 countries. She has taught handspinning to guilds, at MidAtlantic Fiber Association conferences, and the John C Campbell Folk School and has published articles in Ply Magazine and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot. Gigi is on the Board of Directors of the Handweavers Guild of America.

11:00-12:00-pm

"Documenting Textile Equipment Collections" -- Mathilde Frances Lind

DESCRIPTION

As textile researchers, makers, and collectors, we live in a time of opportunity and uncertainty. Digital technology has enabled remote access to collections and research, allowing us to examine items and archival data that were largely inaccessible until very recently. However, there are challenges. The economic pressure on museums, schools, and individual collectors is enormous, and we have seen important institutions fail in recent years, which often results in online data being taken down. Collections are auctioned off, and archives are rehomed to other institutions that are already overburdened and underfunded. Smaller institutions rarely have the capacity to create comprehensive online resources for their collections, and individual collectors may not have the technical expertise to get started. What to do? This presentation gives an overview of some of the conversations in the community of antique spinning wheel collectors around data, accessibility, and safeguarding at-risk collections. We will look at some free or inexpensive resources for cataloguing collections, small libraries, and archives and making them more accessible for researchers. Participants are encouraged to offer insights and ask questions about their own collections and the challenges they face in documentation and planning for the future.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Mathilde Frances Lind is an environmental folklorist who researches the connections between traditional textile crafts and environmental practices. She has made two digital collections of spinning wheels and other textile equipment and is part of a working group trying to create a cohesive database for private spinning wheel collections. Mathilde is the 2024-2025 Kenneth R. Trapp Craft Assistant/Curatorial Fellow at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, where she is documenting a collection of spinning wheels and flax tools, and she is Affiliated Research Faculty at Virginia Tech.

12:00-12:45pm

LUNCH

12:45-1:45pm

"Bertas Flax: A Journey to Flaxtraditions and Flaxstories in Austria" -- Christiane Seufferlein

DESCRIPTION

In March 2021, hand spinner Christiane Seufferlein Austria was given a chest full of flax. The owner was a certain Berta Pumberger Winhager. Her son was looking for a “good place” for his late mother’s cherished bridal chest. Since a chest containing 80 kilos of fiber material would have simply been too much for her own use, the fiber artist began giving the braids away to an international spinning community. After a small article in the local weekly newspaper, many elderly people in the region came forward who also had flax and linen to give away. So Christiane Seufferlein started to visit these people, to record their stories, to learn about flax, about the region and the hard everyday life of farmers. Quickly, the small group of spinners became a group on Facebook and it grew steadily. In the meantime, the group has grown to almost 3000 people from all over the world and the small project has become an official guild dedicated to the care and preservation of the flax craft. In her talk Christiane Seufferlein will give you insight into a tradition that is fast dissappearing, tell stories of flax and life and connects the past with our present via flax and linen.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Christiane Seufferlein is a teacher of traditional textile crafts located in Upper Austria. She is a spinner, natural dyer, fiber enthusiast and she specializes in weaving bands. On top of her teaching assignments, she runs the international flax guild Bertas flax and curates a small museum on weaving and traditional farm life.

1:45-2:15pm

"Fated Twist (Louisville Textile Mills 1889 to 2024)" -- Jenna Richards

DESCRIPTION

A serendipitous strand binds history to present. The story of a Louisville Cotton Mills descent who unknowingly became a yarn spinner. Jenna Richards first learned to spin yarn in 2010 from JoAnn Adams (Sweet Home Spun, Pleasureville Kentucky), and in 2013 learned that her great-grandmother Katherine Osterman, who always crocheted, worked as a yarn spinner at the Louisville Cotton Mills, located in her residential neighborhood. This presentation will utilize images from the University of Louisville archives, images from Kheel Center for Labor-Management at Cornell University (provided by Michelle Amos), and Richards’ personal images taken at the mill site in 2013 (just before the transition to the Germantown Mills Lofts); as well as a variety of historical data resources and personal stories from family members to connect the past to present.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Richards holds an MFA in Fibers from Indiana University, a BFA in Fibers and Ceramics from University of Louisville, and is a Level Two Master Yarn Spinner through Olds College. She currently sits on the Board of Directors and teaches yarn spinning at The Little Loomhouse, and is a 2024 recipient of a Craft Archive Fellowship through the Center for Craft. In 2023 Richards gave a Thread Talk during the Spinning & Weaving Week for Handweavers Guild of America, and was a resident artist at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, The Louisville Free Public Library, and The Little Loomhouse. https://jennaleighrichards.com/

2:15-3:15pm

"Lou Tate and Her Contemporaries 1930s-60s" -- Michelle Amos

DESCRIPTION

Answering a question posed by the Springfield, MA Weavers Guild, “Who are Lou Tate’s contemporaries we would know?” This presentation will give a brief overview of Lou Tate before exploring the professional and sometimes personal relationships between Tate and her contemporaries. Letters from Bertha Grey Hayes, Nellie Sargent Johnson, and 26 personal letters between Marguerite Porter Davidson and Tate will be shown. Other weaving influencers include Dorothy Mayor, (West Virginia), Rose Pero, and Sara Bailey, both of Kentucky will be touched on along with their legacies.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Michelle Amos is the Executive Director at the Little Loomhouse, Louisville, KY and 2024 Archive Fellow, Center for Craft, Ashville, NC. Her ongoing focus is uplifting and telling under-told stories of Kentucky fiber artists, to learn more about her work visit mkamos.com to learn more about the Little Loomhouse visit littleloomhouse.org

Tuesday, October 22

9:00-10:00am

"Things I Have Noticed When Studying Early Weaving Manuscripts, Theories I Have Developed As A Result" -- Elizabeth Tritthart

DESCRIPTION

I have found evidence that the first professional weavers to come to the American colonies were from Germany and they were linen weavers by trade. One of the first books written on weaving is a book on linen weaving it was published in Germany in 1677. Did that book travel with the first weavers and how can one best prove it did or did not? I am studying as many of the early draft books that are available online for research and have discovered in the 17th century there are that there are sections of documentation that display tie-ups, threadings and treadlings, and in earlier pattern books there are no references to these at all. I have wondered why, and have begun to mix and match some and have beautiful useful patterns result.
I have wondered why there usually no more than three colors of inks used in many weavers journals, I have a theory of what the significance is. I would like to share documents that I found online, pictures from some museum collections, samples that I have developed on the computer and some of my recent samples from the drafts I created. I would also like to solicit ideas of when I can look to find examples of the same type of work from the colonial era here in the United States.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Elizabeth Tritthart is a designer of contemporary textiles informed by historical research. She weaves Fine Art using modern handlooms. She holds degrees in both Electronics Engineering and Fine Art – Studio arts. Born on the East Coast, Elizabeth moved to Montana in 1991. She acquired her Fine Art degree from Montana State University – Bozeman in 2006. Her vocation as an engineer lasted for more than 40 years, while she also lived an extraordinary private life as an artist. Elizabeth Tritthart is the historic weaver behind Historic Weaving which creates exclusive handwoven gifts and educational content based on weaving research using early historic pattern books. Her Historic Weaving -Uptown studio offers these items for sale to the public.

10:00-11:00am

"If Books Could Kill: Toxic Textiles in Victorian Bookbinding" -- Melissa Tedone

DESCRIPTION

The Poison Book Project investigates the use of toxic heavy metal pigments in 19th-century, mass-produced bookbindings. This talk will delve into the history of bookbinding cloth manufacture, especially the use of lead, chromium, and arsenic-based pigments to achieve bright, appealing colors, as well as discussing the impact of this industrial legacy on today’s book collectors and libraries.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Dr. Melissa Tedone is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art Conservation, University of Delaware, and Associate Director of the masters-level Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Formerly, she was Lab Head for Library Materials Conservation at Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library, where she and colleague Dr. Rosie Grayburn launched the Poison Book Project in 2019. Melissa holds a doctorate in Slavic literary history from Yale University and an MSIS in book and paper conservation from the University of Texas at Austin. Melissa is an appointed member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance Board of Directors, the lead conservator of the Poison Book Project, and a founding co-chair of the Bibliotoxicology Working Group (BibTox). BibTox is an international cohort of conservators, scientists, librarians, and health and safety professionals working to define best practices for managing potentially toxic library and archives collections.

11:00-12:00am

"Drafts from the Quaker Communities in North Carolina and Southern Indiana: The Osborn Collection, the Drafts of Valina Reynolds Millis, and the Steele Family Papers" -- Patricia Hilts

DESCRIPTION

This group of drafts is important because it reflects the weaving tradition of a particular group of people, the Quakers who settled in North Carolina and southern Indiana. The Osborn collection was amassed in the 1920’s by Arthur Osborn, a Quaker, who was interested in the early pioneer life of southern Indiana. The Steele family drafts were handed down through four generations of Scottish Quaker women. Valina Reynolds Millis lived near Guilford, North Carolina, where she wove coverlets. Pictures of her coverlets survive as well as her drafts. This presentation will compare the drafts in the three collections and will also examine how these Quaker drafts might relate to the much larger collection of drafts brought together by Frances Goodrich in Asheville, North Carolina.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Pat Hilts is a co-founder of the Weaving History Conference and has presented many papers at the meetings. Although her interests in the history of weaving are wide ranging, she is best known for her studies of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century German weaving tradition.

12:00-12:30pm

LUNCH

12:30-1:30pm

"Weaving with AI: The Interweaving Between The Analog and Digital Worlds" -- Alanna Wilcox

DESCRIPTION

This presentation will explore the historical connections between weaving and computing, the interplay of analog and digital worlds in fiber arts, and the incorporation of AI in modern weaving practices. Participants will journey from the historical foundations of weaving and computing to contemporary applications of AI in art, gaining insights into the creative potential of blending traditional techniques with modern technology.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Alanna Wilcox is a seasoned fiber artist, master spinner, and AI artist with a master’s degree in art education. With over 20 years of teaching experience, Alanna brings a unique blend of traditional and modern techniques to her workshops, encouraging participants to explore the intersection of art, technology, and fiber.

1:30-2:30pm

"Silas Burton (1775-1827, Stratford Connecticut) as Weaving Reed Manufacturer" -- Sandra Rux

DESCRIPTION

Much has been written and spoken about Silas Burton as a weaver of striped carpets (Rebecca Arkenburg and Rabbit Goody) and as having perhaps the earliest drafts for “flowered coverlets” (overshot in our terminology; Pat Hilts) but almost nothing on his significant reed making business. This talk uses the record of reed production recorded in his account ledger located at the Stratford Historical Society, contemporary newspaper advertisements and his probate inventory. For example, he lists 23 reeds ordered in 1812 and 46 for 1813. As late as 1827 he sends 10 reeds to son Rodney Burton to sell in his New Haven store and when he died that year had 15 new reeds. While weaving seems to have generated the largest share of his income, reed making increased it significantly. Other questions: Were the customers for reeds home weavers or nascent manufactures or combination? Were customers located in Stratford, other parts of Fairfield County or beyond? What sizes of reeds were ordered—for weaving table linen, carpet, broad cloth, webbing etc. or for use with a fly shuttle? This is the most comprehensive account record for early 19th century reed making in New England that I have found. It provides a wealth of technical details but no information on the tools used. Using the customer information it also helps to define the hand weaving industry in Connecticut on the cusp of power looms in factories.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Sandra Rux received a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and an MA in History from Trinity College, Hartford CT and is a graduate of the Museum Studies program of the Munson Institute, Mystic Seaport Museum. Her business career was with AT&T in New York City. She came to Portsmouth NH in 2005 as the manager for the Portsmouth Historical Society, Warner House and Wentworth-Gardner and Lear Houses and then served as manager and curator for the Portsmouth Historical Society until December 2014. She served as Curator of the Warner House Association (2014-2019) and chair person of the Portsmouth Athenaeum Exhibits Committee (2014-2021). A hand loom weaver herself, she has written about nineteenth-century carpet weaving for the Dublin Seminar and in Corsets, Clocks and Locks, a book about the industrial development of New Haven, CT. More recent exhibits include Three Centuries of Dining at the Warner House and several exhibits at the Portsmouth Athenaeum. Her most recent exhibitiona at the Portsmouth Athenaeum is The Wentworth Takeover: How One Family Dominated Portsmouth and New Hampshire 1715-1775. It ran from April 2023 through July15, 2023. In 2021 Sandra and her husband Alan Haesche moved back to CT. Current research is focused on makers of weaving reeds in the northeast US (1750-1830).

2:30-3:30pm

"Dorothy Liebes and the Structo Loom: The Healing Power of Weaving" -- Elizabeth Schott & Peggy Osterkamp

DESCRIPTION

Dorothy Liebes was the National Director of the Red Cross Arts & Skills Program during World War II. The number of veterans with physical and psychological injuries returning from the theaters of war quickly overwhelmed the professional occupational therapists employed in V.A. Hospitals. Dorothy Liebes coordinated a nationwide corps of professional artists and craftspeople who taught in over 120 hospitals and in 28 different fields from sculpture to bookbinding to plant grafting to photography. And, of course, weaving. At the center of the weaving efforts was the mighty Structo loom. 10,000 were donated by Sears, and 10,000 more were purchased for the project. This presentation will give an overview of the Arts & Skills program by Liz Schott, and a description of the Structo by Peggy Osterkamp.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Liz Schott is working on a biography of Dorothy Liebes. She also mentors new educational leaders, having been one herself for 20 years. She lives with her husband of 40 years in northern California where they own and operate a whale watching tour company. Peggy Osterkamp’s special skill is making the richness of her training and experience accessible to students. In the series, Peggy Osterkamp’s New Guide to Weaving, she presents a wealth of weaving knowledge and research, much of it never available before in the United States. Once an apprentice to Jim Ahrens in a production studio, Osterkamp has introduced hundreds of students to weaving theory and production weaving. She is also a textile scholar, and offers individual and group weaving programs throughout the country.

Peggy Osterkamp will co-present. Her recent blog post on Dorothy’s work with the Arts & Skills Program is here: https://peggyosterkamp.com/2024/07/structo-looms-an-interesting-history/ www.peggyosterkamp.com peggy@peggyosterkamp.com

Wednesday, October 23

9:00-10:00am

"The Corded Petticoat: Transition to a New Fashion" -- Susan Picinich

DESCRIPTION

The corded petticoat was a fascinating transitional garment worn to hold out skirts from the 1820s-1860s. Museum collections and contemporary accounts present varied construction techniques and include at least one patented example. Starting in 1856, wearers often replaced it with the new cage crinoline and later with the bustle. Although sharing some characteristics with quilted petticoats, the corded petticoat was a utilitarian garment which seemed designed for effective, light-weight support, not warmth or beauty. According to historians, including Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in The Age of Homespun, many 17th through early 19th century women spent significant time spinning, weaving, and sewing for their families’ use, especially when imported goods were hard to come by. However, Duncan McNabb, a Canadian professional weaver, made the specialized petticoat material pictured in Keep Me Warm One Night by Burnham and Burnham, a book highly regarded by hand weavers and textile historians. Other museum examples offer evidence of commercial production. I am interested in what we can learn about the intersection of 19th century women’s work at home, local professional weavers who supplied fabric for clothing, and the founding of industrial clothing manufacture. I have recreated an 1830s corded petticoat using my own handwoven reproduction of McNabb’s fabric. I will present my process, the finished petticoat, and evidence of other examples from in-person research at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Genesee Country Village in Mumford, New York.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Susan Picinich is a Professor of Theatre at Towson University in Maryland, teaching costume history, design, and theatre history. Her interdisciplinary background as a theatrical costume designer, professor, pattern maker, and weaver allows her to combine multiple fields of study to reach conclusions about the clothing and makers in early North America. Susan has presented her weaving and research at the Weaver’s Guild of Greater Baltimore, Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association, and the Textile History Forum in Vermont. She holds an M.A. from SUNY Albany and an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan.

10:00-10:45am

"History and Technique of Tablet Weaving" -- Rebekah Marshall

DESCRIPTION

Tablet weaving has a rich archaeological history with evidence of bands dating back centuries. Used as a starting border for the warp weighted loom, it was both decorative and functional for textiles and clothing especially during the early Middle Ages (prior to the introduction of the horizontal loom). Colorful and often complex, they are studied and reproduced for scholarship and for pleasure. Rebekah falls into the latter category and would like to share the history and use of tablet bands focusing on Viking and early medieval Europe. As a weaver, she will also share the process of tablet weaving – a “how to” portion. Like many who may be attending, she uses a hand spindle to spin her wool, dye it with natural dyes, and weave for the love of the art and craft.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Disney’s animated Robin Hood (fox and bear) started my history journey. So, X years ago, I jetted across the great pond to study and receive my masters degree in field archaeology (University of York, England). I focused on archaeological textiles while completing a practicum at the Anglo-Saxon Laboratories and writing my dissertation on organic finds including textiles. This experience married my love of history and textiles, and created a passion that has never waned. I continue that research as a hobby now, and I enjoy reproducing archaeological tablet woven bands for reenactors and others. Though possibly more passion than talent, my reenactor friends are well adorned, and I am never idle.

10:45-11:30am

"Osma Gallinger Tod: Mid-Century Influencer" -- Mickey Stam

DESCRIPTION

According to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Osma Gallinger Tod was at “the forefront of the reawakened American Craft movement in the 1930’s.” She wrote books about weaving and basketry and was the organizer and director of the National Conference of American Handweavers for 20 years. Despite that and her connections to Bertha Gray Hayes and Mary Atwater, Tod has been almost forgotten. This talk will bring her influence in mid-century America and her own weaving career to light.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Mickey Stam is the author of “Innovative Handweaving: A Guide for Study Groups” and recipient of the second level of HGA’s Certificate of Excellence in Handweaving. She has a Master’s in the History of Decorative Arts in America from the Smithsonian/Parsons School of Design and is an active member of the Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin.

11:30-12:15pm

LUNCH

12:15-1:15pm

"Osma Gallinger Tod" -- Francine Jacobson

DESCRIPTION

I would like for enthusiasts of weaving history to know my weaving teacher Osma Gallinger Tod as I knew her in her Coral Gables, Florida studio in the 1970s. I studied basketry and bobbin lace with Osma in addition to weaving. As an artist, Osma was a color genius, creating multicolored warps that read neutral gray. This allowed beginning students to have an immediate weaving experience in any chosen color palette. Osma wrote articles about the design of tools for occupational therapy and several books including The Joy of Handweaving and Earth Basketry. Her daughter Josephine Del Deo was an important collaborator and recognized as a co-author of Rug Weaving for Everyone and Earth Basketry. Osma was a consummate arts educator, creating custom folio study guides for her studio students from the extensive files initially gathered into newsletters for the National Conference of American Handweavers (1938-57).

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Francine Jacobson, MD, MPH. Between a teenaged career in music and embarking on medical school followed by more than 30 years as a thoracic radiologist, I studied weaving, bobbin lace, and Basketry with Osma Gallinger Tod in her Coral Gables, Florida studio. I became active in the South Florida Weavers Guild, serving a term as president. My academic pursuits in radiology have focused on medical image perception and the development of lung cancer screening CT. Suzi Ballenger completed her MFA in Artistry-Fibers at UMass Darmouth and with her husband, maintains a small production studio in an old mill/artist community in Rhode Island. She is a weaver and teaching artist, recipient of many awards and honors and is a past president of the Handweavers Guild of America.

1:15-2:00pm

"Bernat Klein and His Couture Tweeds: The Most Exciting Fabrics Around..." -- Susan Torntore

DESCRIPTION

Bernat Klein (1922-2014) was a globally acclaimed mid-century textile designer in Scotland’s tweed industry. Through the 1960s, Bernat Klein Ltd. produced revolutionary highly-colored and -textured textiles called “couture tweeds” for the haute couturiers of Paris and Milan, and for American designers. His new tweeds included several yarn innovations and his “deconstructed” houndstooth patterns. Vogue proclaimed his luxurious mohair tweed fabrics in the early 60s “the most exciting fabrics around;” he also created the sensational velvet ribbon tweeds in 1964. Producing these tweeds kept him busy re-designing elements of technology in the spinning, dyeing, and weaving mills that manufactured his goods. As a textile visionary and colorist extraordinaire, he is today regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading forces in modernist design in Britain, Europe, and Scandinavia. However, neither Klein nor his fabrics are well-known or recognized in America, ironically one of the largest markets for his couture tweeds. In my paper, I will introduce Bernat Klein and his couture tweeds, discussing Klein’s design process, the fabrics, their manufacturing and use. My talk will be based on research visits to the two major archive and textile collection repositories of his work in Scotland. (Quote from American Vogue, 1962)

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Susan J. Torntore, PhD, is a retired textile and dress historian and collection curator, exhibition designer, educator, author. After retiring in Bellingham WA, she now weaves, teaches weaving, presents textile-related programs, participates in local and regional guilds, and travels. Since 2019, she has been learning to weave twills, traditional tweeds, and couture tweeds, part of a research project on the tweed fabrics used by American fashion designer Bonnie Cashin. Her research has recently expanded to include the couture tweeds of Scottish textile designer Bernat Klein.

A word about the Weaving History Conference…

In order to celebrate, promote and share academic work on the subject of handweaving, the Historic Manuscripts Conference was founded in 1994. The name was changed to the Weaving History Conference (WHC) later to reflect the expansion of the subject of the conference to contain not just academic weaving presentations, but information on all fiber arts. Today the WHC is entering its impressive 28th consecutive year!