Findings: The Material Culture of Needlework and Sewing

by Mary C. Beaudry

Mary C. Beaudry mines archaeological findings of sewing and needlework to discover what these small traces of female experience reveal about the societies and cultures in which they were used. Beaudry’s geographical and chronological scope is broad: she examines sites in the United States and Great Britain, as well as Australia and Canada, and she ranges from the Middle Ages through the Industrial Revolution.The author describes the social and cultural significance of “findings”: pins, needles, thimbles, scissors, and other sewing accessories and tools. Through the fascinating stories that grow out of these findings, Beaudry shows the extent to which such “small things” were deeply entrenched in the construction of gender, personal identity, and social class.

Genres: Nonfiction, Archaeology, Material Culture, Sewing, Fashion, Grad School, History

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2007

Reviews

[Candace]

Not for the casual needleworker - this is an academic-minded book about the archaeological approach to material finds relating to needlework, sewing, weaving, lacemaking, and so on. Beaudry is aiming to give a fuller understanding to those archaeologists who may be uncovering these items and not recognizing their true use, or else, not recognizing the wide variety of needlework activities and how they relate to gender, class, commerce, industrialization. Simply finding sewing paraphernalia at a site and deciding "Women lived here" is potentially missing a lot of extra information made available by the types of needles, pins, additional items and context, etc.

I'm not an archaeologist but I am a needleworker and lacemaker, and I was very interested in reading about the history of these implements I use every day. It's so easy to see our machine made pins and needles and not consider how they were made before the machines came along. Learning about the various cultural implications of needlework beyond the simplistic notion of "women mostly did it" was very interesting.

[Samantha]

If you’re a sewing archaeology girlie you’re going to love this book! It goes into detail about the history’s of sewing implements and the connotations of certain sewing items and gender. A good quick read for us crafting anthro girlies

[Katherine]

You've got to be dedicated to needlework to make it through this, but fortunately I am. It uncovers a hidden world of women who have got through life by nipping, stitching and pinning textiles. Much of this activity has been widely ignored by archaeologists after bigger, more masculine fish: swords, skulls, and so on. So these silent witnesses have a certain charm.

[S]

PINS PINS PINS PINS PINS PINS PINS PINS

This book is about pins.

PIIIIIINS.

Also: Bodkins.

It was a little dry.

[Ishbel]

interesting - chapters laid out in a very easy-to-understand way. i'm partial to chapters 2, 4, and 7. PINS! THIMBLES! good stuff.