Days-of-the-Week Tablecloth
Object Details
- Date
- 1943
- Medium
- linen, cotton
- Dimensions
- 36 5/8 × 52 1/2 in. (93 × 133.3 cm)
- Cite As
- Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Theresa Allen
- Caption
- This partially finished tablecloth reprises housekeeping activities from a coordinating days-of the-week towel set. Ironing and baking appear in colorful cross stitch, while stamped imprints hint at other tasks to be embroidered, including laundry, sewing, grocery shopping, and cleaning. Notably, Sunday’s “rest” design is absent. The scenes create six place settings along top and bottom rectangular borders with floral insets at the corners. The linen cloth is part of a needlecraft kit, a popular creative endeavor in the 1940s, when smaller, single-family homes and new appliances eased the burden of housework for middle-class women. An apron completes the decorative set (2008.0002.0006a-g). Mary Thompson Ford (1861-1960) was both college-educated and a proud homemaker in Jersey City, NJ. Her daughter Blanche Ford Hart (1897-1992) likely embroidered the tablecloth along with the towels and apron.
- Accession Number
- 2008.0002.0006f
- Type
- cloth
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Record ID
- acm_2008.0002.0006f
