Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - March 30, 1986
By Ada McGurk Hodge
Vigo County Historical Society

History looms large
Coverlet instructive about weaving

This coverlet is a recent acquisition of the Vigo County Historical Society. It is made with blue wool and white cotton yarns and is classified as a "Handwoven Double Weave Jacquard Coverlet."

A housewife probably spun the sheep's fleece into yarn, prepared an indigo dye bath and dyed the yarn. The cotton was supplied by the weaver. The spinner had to be experienced because the wool had to be spun to the same size as the cotton to weave a double cloth.

The coverlet is two separate layers of cloth, one blue and the other white, fastened together where the color change occurs in the design. The name "Jacquard" means that the item was woven on a Jacquard loom using cardboard punch cards to establish design.

There are borders on all four sides of this coverlet, which is somewhat unusual. Side borders and a bottom border were more common. The "courthouse" design in the four corners is the mark of the Craig family of weavers of Decatur County. The mark may have been attempt to reproduce the early Decatur County Courthouse built in 1827.

The date--"1842"--indicates that the coverlet could have been the work of William Sr. or his two sons, William Jr. and James, who were teen-agers at this time and helping with the business.

The date 1842 indicates this is an early Jacquard coverlet as the period they were woven was roughly 1835 to 1860. The Craigs were one of the prominent weaving families of Indiana. Many coverlets were woven in their establishment. Today, examples of their work are in major coverlet collections.

This acquisition adds to the collection of Indiana coverlets already owned by the society. It is the first Craig. Other Indiana weavers represented are Adolf, Forrer, Graham, Kean, Sarah and John LaTourette and Muir.

The cardboard rectangles with the punched holes are cards from a Jacquard loom of the Craig family. The cards represent the beginning of the computer age as the Jacquard loom used punched cards to select the design for weaving.

This same type of loom is still used in the textile industry today because its simple design made it easily converted to power. It was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard of Lyons, France, and introduced into the United States about 1824.

It was a device that could be placed on top of the looms the American coverlet weavers already were using and made it possible for them to weave elaborate designs resembling tapestries, printed letters and numbers.

A single card controlled the design for one crosswise thread of weaving.

The four cards--numbered 139, 140, 141, 142--were punched for four threads of a coverlet design. There are eight punches in a row and 40 rows of punches in these cards, making a total of 320 possible punches. The Jacquards were labeled according to the number of holes; these cards are for a Jacquard 320.

The punches direct which warp (lengthwise) threads need to be raised to make the design. Cards were numbered in sequence and tied together. Fifty cards were needed to weave the bottom or top border design; 180 for half of a design as the cards were reversed for the other half-design.

A weaver could put yards of warp threads on his loom, weave a coverlet, change to another set of cards and weave a difference design. Cards could be purchased, the weaver could punch his own cards from books or designs or could make an original design.

Weavers who used these looms were professionals. Most were men. Skill was required to prepare the looms and to keep them working properly.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley has a trial sketch of F. A. Kean, a Vigo County weaver, illustrating now designing was done. The cards and sketch are on display in the Coverlet Case in the museum.

The coverlet featured as this week's historical treasure was donated by Julia Steel Stapleton. The punch cards were donated by Ada McGurk Hodge.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.