Research & resources

Research at the McCarl Gallery

  • In 1986, Katherine Hawthorne and Clarita Anderson embarked on an endeavor to document Jacquard-woven coverlets. Over the years, the two women amassed a database of over 14,000 textiles. Read more here, or click here to go directly to the database on Google Drive.

  • The McCarl Gallery houses the personal research collections of Clarita Anderson, Katherine “Kay” Hawthorne, and Rita J. Adrosko. Read more and access the finding aids here.

  • The Visual Pattern Index is an ongoing effort to create a “field guide” to the commonly recurring motifs and patterns in figured & fancy coverlets. Read more here, or go directly to The Coverlet Index website.

  • The Documentation Project is an effort to create an open access, digital repository of images, stories and information about previously undocumented coverlets in collections across the country. Learn more here or go directly to CatalogIt HUB to view the records.

Where can I see more coverlets?

An extensive list of online coverlet collections has been created during the course of compiling and expanding the coverlet database and pattern index. The link below leads to a working list of coverlets and coverlet collections, which continues to expand as more and more coverlets are located in various online resources. The list indicates how many coverlets are in each linked collection, and whether they are geometric or Figured & Fancy examples. Some collections are dedicated solely to coverlets, while other collections may have only one or a handful of coverlets amongst a variety of other items.

We have also turned that list into a map, to give a better idea of where these collections exist in the real world. Be sure to zoom out and explore - there are several collections on the west coast!

Have a collection or site to add to the list? Please reach out to emily.barth@stvincent.edu with your addition.