Towel

Status

Not on view

Label Text

At the time of her death in 1802, Martha Washington owned well over 100 towels. Household linens such as sheets, napkins, tablecloths, clothes, and towels often featured embroidered marks indicating the identity of their owner. This towel features a reversible laundry mark "W.n" for Washington.

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Date1759-1802

Medium/TechniqueLinen

DimensionsOverall (H x W ): 26 in. × 24 1/2 in. (66.04 cm × 62.23 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Charles Eliot Furness, Vice Regent for Minnesota and Mrs. Henry W. Rogers, Vice Regent for Maryland, 1915

Object numberW-505

DescriptionSquare linen towel with self fringe, 47 tpi in warp and weft. In both the warp and the weft, two threads dyed blue run parallel to the four edges of the square. The break between the fabric and the fringe is reinforced with a whip stitch at top and bottom. Marked in square [Algerian] eyelet stitch in the upper left corner "Wn."
Published ReferencesMount Vernon Ladies Association, General Washington's Military Equipment (Mount Vernon, Virginia: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1963), 35, figure 27.

MarkingsStitched in (Algerian) square eyelet stitch in the upper left corner: "W. n"

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