Promised Link on WIOX December 18!

Dear readers and listeners,

I promised a link to that beautiful Christmas song I feature each year, "Brightest and Best," this time a version sung by Jean Ritchie herself along with family members.  It is in the archive at Berea College near where Jean Ritchie now lives.  http://sandbox.berea.edu/specialcollections/ac-vr-001-007-13/

The Ritchie family, from Perry County, Kentucky, in the Cumberland Mountains, preserved a large number of songs and ballads and Jean Ritchie became  a nationally recognized folk singer and performer in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, noted for her accompaniments on the mountain (lap) dulcimer. 

You can look her up in the usual on-line places, but if you want her own view of her roots, read her book, The Singing Family of the Cumberlands. 

I hope you enjoy the Ritchie family Christmas song, and find more of their music to enjoy. 

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  My next radio program, on New Years' Day itself at 7 p.m. on WIOX Radio 91.3 FM and on the internet at WIOX radio.org, will talk a little about New Year's traditions in the Northeast U.S.   See you then!

Ginny Scheer, Folklorist, Catskills Folk conection. 

Delhi Jacquard Coverlets on WIOX Tonight!

 

Conventional overshot coverlet, most likely handwoven in a household, not a factory.

All photos courtesy of the Delaware County Historical Association

 

On Catskills Folk, our biweeky program at 7 p.m. Wednesdays on WIOX 91.3 FM (and WIOXradio.org on the internet), host Ginny Scheer will talk about an historical folk art in Delaware County , the hand weaving of woolen coverlets – specifically the ones woven in Delhi, New York, in the early 19^th century.  Hand weaving was common in Delaware County households in the 1830s, but our county was benefitted by the arrival of a  coverlet weaver from Scotland who used the Jacquard loom to create elaborate double weave coverlet figures when most families had coverlets that were single layers in geometric  patterns.

The Jacquard coverlets that this weaver and subsequent weavers produced were the subject of a study by Shirley Houck and the Delaware Rural Crafts Guild in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in an exhibit in 1982 at the Delaware County Historical Association in Delhi.  At the time 77 Delhi coverlets were known, and since then 57 more have come to light, totaling 134.  DCHA keeps a register of the coverlets and would be happy to hear from anyone who has or knows of coverlets with the word Delhi woven in the corner.

On her program tonight Ginny will talk about the traditional coverlets and the Delhi Jacquard coverlets from the point of view of a weaver and a folklorist.  Take a look at the coverlets illustrated above and below and listen at 7 p.m. to Catskills Folk!

 

 

 Jacquard coverlet woven by John Homes, Delhi, 1834, using a loom

 that lifted individual threads to make the fancy curvilinear patterns..

 

 

Reverse of the 1834 coverlet, above.

Note the colors are reversed.  This coverlet is two layers thick,

 interwoven a the design motifs.

 

 

 

Jacquard coverlet woven by Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1848

Occasionally both handloom and Jacquard loom weavers used red wool yarn.

 

 

Jacquard coverlet in more common blue, woven by Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1848.

 

Note the linked motifs in the border of this Jacquard coverlet

 woven by John Benjamin Phelps II, the son of Asahel Phelps, Delhi, 1854.