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- women's history
- art & art history
- weaving, knitting, textiles
- data visualization
- queer history
- Helen Daniels Young (1894-1983) was a prominent weaver, teacher, author, and collector of coverlets.
- Laura M. Romaine Allen
- Lou Tate
- Atwater, Mary Meigs
- American Handweaving Revival
- Madelyn van der Hoogt
- Daryl Lancaster
- Xandy Peters
- Ruby Leslie
- Deborah Chandler
- Carol Strickler
- Harriet Tidball
- Anna Ernberg
Marguerite Porter Davison
Marguerite Porter Davison (13 Jul 1887–20 Feb 1953) was an American weaver, textile historian, and author. She is most well known for her seminal work, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.[1] She was an active weaver from 1914 until her death in 1953.[2] Her work and philosophy toward weaving was a key transitional step during the American Weaving Revival, helping bridge historical approaches of the past to the 1960s art revolution that recognized weaving as an art form.
Background
Marguerite Porter Davison was born in Monroe, Clermont, Ohio in 1887.[3] Her mother Caroline Pemberton was an artist, and her father Charles Hamilton Porter was principal of a manual and applied arts high school in Cincinnati.[4] She later married to Waldo B. Davison, and they had 4 children.[5]
Education and Collection
Educated at Berea College, Kentucky under Swedish immigrant Anna Ernberg, Davison collected historic and contemporary literature on handweaving and pattern drafts, as well as historic linens.[6] After college she continued to study and collect historic pieces, and her career focused on propelling the craft forward through experimentation with structures, treadling, and materials.
The Laura M. Romaine Allen weaving draft collection was acquired by Davison in the 1940s, and was used as the basis of her second book, A Handweaver's Source Book: a Selection of 224 Patterns from the Laura M. Allen Collection.[7] Unfortunately, Davison suddenly passed from a cerebral hemorrhage on February 20, 1953, before the publication of the book.[2] It was published posthumously later that year.
Allen's collection, in addition to Davison's own collection of Pennsylvania textiles from 1750–1850, was then passed to Helen D. Young, and later, the American Textile History Museum. When the museum closed in 2017 the collection was moved to Winterthur Museum where it is currently housed.[4]
Books
- 1944 A Handweaver's Pattern Book, layouts designed and line illustrations drawn by Charles C. Denzler; photographs by E. Fletcher Brown.
- 1953 A Handweaver's Source Book: a Selection of 224 Patterns from the Laura M. Allen Collection, Marguerite Porter Davison, editor; drawings by Charles C. Denzler.
A Handweaver's Pattern Book
Often referred to as the "Green Book" (due to the green cover) or the handweaver's bible, A Handweaver's Pattern Book is a seminal work in U.S. handwaving revival of the 20th century.[8] It contains over 200 weaving drafts for four-shaft looms. The book was written for countermarch looms, and thus the patterns are woven on the "wrong side" for weavers using jack looms.[9]
Contributions
Davison was in touch with textile historian Lou Tate of Little Loomhouse Kentucky while working on her book in the 1940s.[10]
Editions
Davison originally had a difficult time finding a publisher for A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, due to the scarcity of ongoing war (World War II). She created her own publishing company, Swarthmore Press, and published it herself. There were four printings of this first edition, called the "brown" edition due to the color of the book cover. This edition contains around 214 weaving drafts.[8]
In 1950 Davison revised the book to include over 160 additional patterns and improved notation and readability.[11] This edition had an iconic green cover and dust jacket that gave it the nickname "Green Book" among weavers.[1] The "green book" editions contains over 370 drafts. There were over 30 reprints up until 2007, when Swarthmore Press stopped printing.[8] A 1977 (green) edition of the book can be accessed on the internet archive.
In 2014, Churchill & Dunn Ltd. began printing a copy of the 1940s editions with an orange cover. It does not include all of the revisions and additional patterns found in the "green book" editions.[12]
Impact
Polly Apfelbaum used patterns from A Handweaver’s Pattern Book as the basis of her 2014 art series of the same name.[13]
Carol Strickler dedicated her book The Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns to Davison and Mary Meigs Atwater.[14]
Jamie Hurlburt of Gather Textiles is currently working on a project to reproduce, photograph, and reprint Davison's patterns.[15]
- Davison, Marguerite Porter (1950). A Handweaver's Pattern Book (Revised ed.). Swarthmore Press. ISBN 9780960317202.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - Osburn, Burl N. (April 1953). "In Memoriam: Marguerite Porter Davison". The Pennsylvania Craftsman.
- "Margarite Porter", United States census, 1900; Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio, United States; page 11, line 91, National Archives film number T623. Retrieved on 2011-02-26.
- "The Winterthur Library". findingaid.winterthur.org. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
Marguerite Porter Davison was born in Ohio in 1887, the daughter of Caroline Pemberton and Charles Hamilton Porter. (He was principal of a manual and applied arts high school in Cincinnati; she was an artist.) After high school, Miss Porter moved with her mother and younger siblings to Berea, Kentucky. There, she became assistant to Anna Ernburg, the director of Berea College's Fireside Industries, through which she was working to promote weaving and other handcrafts in the Appalachian Mountains. It was here that Miss Porter began to weave, and here that she met her husband Waldo Davison. Eventually, the Davisons moved to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. She taught weaving in their home and traveled the country giving lectures on hand weaving. She published several books of weaving patterns. She collected coverlets and early Pennsylvania linens. (The coverlets were sold after her death; the linens are now part of the Winterthur Museum collection.)
- "Margarete C Davison", United States census, 1930; Muskogee, Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States; page 94, line 4, National Archives film number T626. Retrieved on 2011-02-26.
- Marzolf, Marion (2006-01-01). "The Swedish Presence in 20th-Century American Weaving". Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings.
- Jatcko, Sara A. (2007). "The love of research and the gift for new weavings": the work, collections, and legacy of Marguerite Porter Davison (Thesis). University of Delaware.
- Dawson, Janet (2024-11-03). "Which version of A Handweaver's Pattern Book should I buy: Green, orange, or brown?". The Handweaving Academy. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Ask Madelyn: Tie-Ups and Marguerite Davison". Handwoven. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
- Richards, Jenna (2025-01-27). "The Women Weavers of the Little Loomhouse". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
Throughout the early 1940s, Tate advised another notable weaver and textile historian, Marguerite Porter Davison, who published what is considered even now to be the bible of weavers, A Handweaver's Pattern Book, in 1944. (The Little Loomhouse archives hold over 20 letters that detail the advice and support Tate extended to Davison.)
- Hurlburt, Jamie (2025-06-10). "How I Became a Marguerite Porter Davison Fan". Gather Textiles. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
- Marguerite Porter, Davison (November 18, 2014). A Handweaver's Pattern Book (Reprint ed.). Churchill & Dunn, Ltd. ISBN 978-1626548428.
- Christensen, Traci (2016-01-04). "Playful Pathmakers | Broad Strokes Blog". National Museum of Women in the Arts. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
- Strickler, Carol (1991-11-01). The Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-934026-67-3.
- "Marguerite Porter Davison Project". Gather Textiles. Retrieved 2026-02-26.