Page 25 - JOA August 2020

Erica Wilson:
Erica Wilson:

Sharing Joy Through Embroidery
Sharing Joy Through Embroidery

By Linda Eaton
John L. & Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections and the
Senior Curator of Textiles at Winterthur Museum

ntil relatively recently, scholarship on women’s needlework has and exacting tech-
focused on the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Susan nique. As many
UBurrows Swan, whose book, Plain & Fancy, was first published of her students
in 1977 and reissued in 1995, and Betty Ring’s decades of research for claimed to be sick
Girlhood Embroidery, published in 1993, were among the many books at the time of
and articles that have been influential. her second class,
More recently Paula Bradstreet Richter in Painted with Thread and Erica soon changed
Beverly Gordon’s article, “Spinning Wheels, Samplers and the Modern her focus to crewel-
Priscilla: The Images and Paradoxes of Colonial Revival Needlework” work, which then
in Winterthur Portfolio began to examine 20th century embroidery. proved to be much
Cynthia Fowler has looked at embroidery as an early 20th century art more popular.
form in her recent book The Modern Embroidery Movement. Erica met her
To millions of Mid-century and contemporary needleworkers, Erica future husband,
Wilson has been dubbed America’s First Lady of stitchery. Through the award-winning
her devotion to the craft, Erica found fame as an educator, lecturer, furniture designer
needlework designer, and Vladimir Kagan
television celibrity across (1927-2016) at a
the country and around Erica loved whitework and designed her first Elizabethan Lady costume party at
the world. while at the RSN. The stitched borders created using a number the Architectural
of different techniques are characteristic of the training at the
This is her story. RSN. Erica later created several Elizabethan Ladies in different League in New
techniques that she used to introduce the early chapters in her York – she was
The Beginnings second major book, Erica Wilson’s Embroidery Book. dressed as a poodle.
Erica Wilson (1928- 2015.0047.005.001, Gift of The Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of Winterthur Museum Vladi (as he was
2011) trained at the known) was an
Royal School of integral part of Erica’s business. In addition to Millbrook, Erica also
Needlework (RSN) in taught in the homes of some of her wealthy students and later in her
the late 1940s when it apartment on Park Avenue or in a room at her husband’s manufactory
was based in a grand on East End Avenue and later on 59th Street. She also taught at the
house in Prince’s Gate Cooper Union, now the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
(across the road from She loved to teach and would regret that as her business became more
Hyde Park) in London. successful she no longer had the time. Her long-term friend and
Founded in 1872 by employee, Edith (Edie) Lynch (later Bouriez), an accomplished stitcher,
Lady Victoria Welby, its took over much of her
stated purpose was to Crewelwork sampler, one of the early projects teaching and other aspects
revive the practice of worked by Erica at the Royal School of of the business.
high-quality embroidery Needlework. Their first few projects were
and to provide employ- designed for them. Students had to pay for their Establishing Her
ment to well-educated own materials and most proudly kept their projects Brand
for the whole of their lives.
but impoverished gentle- 2015.0047.004 A, B, Gift of The Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of It was Edie and one of
women. In 1876, the Winterthur Museum Erica’s students from Rye,
RSN exhibited their work, designed by artists like Walter Crane, at the New York, Mary Anne
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where it was a revelation to many Beinecke, who suggested
people, including Candace Wheeler who later would write one of the first that Erica teach embroidery
books on embroidery in America. From then on, the work of the RSN
greatly influenced American embroidery, and many of their graduates, Erica and Vladi loved
Nantucket and spent as much
like Erica, came to North America to teach and still do so today. time as they could there during
After graduating from the RSN Erica taught individual classes there the summer, where Erica would
as well as in her mother’s home and sometimes in the homes of her sail a small Sunfish off the
students. Erica was invited to come to the United States in 1954 by beach. This embroidery depicts
Margaret Parshall (Mrs. Daryl) to teach at her embroidery school in Nantucket harbor.
Millbrook, New York, just north of New York City. Erica remembered 2015.0047.013 A, Gift of
that the first class she taught was on goldwork, a sophisticated The Family of Erica Wilson, Courtesy of
Winterthur Museum
August 2020 23