Antimacassars

Antimacassars: Then and Now

Single example from one of two pairs of lace chair arm covers. Rectangular with lightly scalloped side and back edges and larger scalloped front edge. Inner rectangle with foliate decoration. Original to Castle Tucker (Wiscasset, ME). photo: Historic New England

Erica Lome, Ph.D. “Necessity is the mother of invention.” This adage certainly applied to many of the domestic objects produced in the nineteenth century that served as creative solutions to everyday problems; and for some women, one of those problems…