More Library of Congress Pictures

Wichita woman and baby with a patchwork quilt

Library of Congress

I mentioned the Library of Congress photograph collection a few weeks ago. I browse through it often for lunch-time entertainment.
Here's the link:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
I do searches for infant or baby, mainly to find some expressions I can use to emphasize a point---see crying princess on the left.
One of the serindipitous findings: lots of pictures of Native American babies in cradle boards and a few in quilts.

Asparoke mother and child

Library of Congress

Salish (Flathead) woman and baby in cradleboard

Library of Congress

I don't know a thing about cradle boards or beadwork or quillwork but don't these look like applique patterns? Same sylized flowers and leaves, similar symmetries. Probably all from the same source---European embroidery designs.

Nez Perce baby in cradle board

Library of Congress

Many of the pictures are late 19th-century but this one is from an 1861 book.

Find pictures of a variety of cradleboard styles at the National Museum of the American Indian by doing a search for cradleboard here:

http://americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections/advanced.aspx

Salish (Flathead) cradleboard about 1880

National Museum of the American Indian

Antique Portraits

Old photographs offer a lot of information about fabric also found in quilts at the time. These three portraits from about 1860 are from the Library of Congress website. Remember you can click on blog photos and they will enlarge (most of the time) so you can see the details.

One of my favorite websites is Flickr's "The Commons", a group of historic photos. Click here to see the Southworth and Hawes set of mid-19th-century pictures of Bostonians, posted by the George Eastman House, a photography museum in Rochester, New York.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/sets/72157606223836462/

Library of Congress Archive

The Library of Congress has a wonderful prints and photographs site that is full of surprising images including this Japanese woodblock print. Click here to see the search page: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html I think I found this by searching for the word sewing. Once the hits come up click on the button Preview Images.