Margaret C. Whiting
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Margaret C. Whiting (1860–1946), was born in Chester, Massachusetts but lived much of her adult life in Deerfield, Massachusetts. She trained as an artist, and published an illustrated book with Ellen Miller on wild flowers. She ad Miller co-founded the
Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework was founded in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1896 by Margaret C. Whiting and Ellen Miller (artist), Ellen Miller. They formed the society in 1896 as a way to help residents boost the town's econo ...
, where she contributed her skills as a designer and teacher, and provided leadership for the organization. She won a gold medal for her needlework from the 1915 Worlds Fair in San Francisco for its design and color.


Life prior to the founding of the Deerfield Society

Whiting was born in
Chester, Massachusetts Chester is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, situated in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Springfield metropolitan statistical area. The town includes the Chester Factory Village Historic District. The total popu ...
, and went to school in Chicopee and
Holyoke Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...
, Massachusetts. While living in Holyoke, she taught sewing at the Holyoke Women's Club. With her widowed mother and her sister, she moved to Deerfield in 1895, where Ellen Miller's family had lived since 1893. She and Ellen Miller both studied at the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
, and in the summer of 1884, they were students of
Robert Crannell Minor Robert Crannell Minor (1839–1904), American artist, was born in New York City on April 30, 1839. His father, Israel Minor, was a merchant who made a large fortune in the pharmaceutical business. As a young man, Robert Minor worked as a bookkeep ...
, part of the
Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...
school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
of painters. In 1895, Whiting and Miller together wrote and illustrated ''Wild Flowers of the Northeastern States.'' The book contains about 300 drawings, about half of which were signed by Whiting with a "W."


Life from the founding of the Deerfield Society

Antiquarian George Sheldon gave Whiting and Miller access to the collection of early to mid-18th century needlework he was assembling as a part of an assemblage of a broad range of local artefacts. After seeing examples of this embroidery at the
Memorial Hall Museum Memorial Hall Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving the history, art, and culture of the Deerfield, Massachusetts region as well as New England generally. Overseen by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA), it opened in 1880. Antec ...
and pieces in the possession of families in the area, she and Ellen Miller started to document designs they saw. They decided to make a replica of each piece, learning new stitches as needed. Finding that others were Interested in purchasing the works they were making, and being aware of
John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...
's writings about
village industries Henry Ford's Village Industries were small factories located in rural areas of Michigan. Ford developed his Village Industries in part to provide farm workers a stable source of income during the winter months. Philosophy Ford strongly felt th ...
, they decided to form a group of individuals from Deerfield who would create distinctive works in the older style they had discovered in the museum. The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework was founded in August 1896, the first of Deerfield's village industries which coalesced in 1899 to form the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts. Whiting's leadership included finding buyers, arranging for exhibits, and overseeing the production of the embroidered pieces. She, along with Miller, also was involved in designing and embroidering pieces of needlework. While their designs were based on colonial-era pieces, they modernized them, both in functionality and style. Their designs were more formal and less spontaneous that the earlier designs, with a sense of the
Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
aesthetic of the time. Works from the Society, at times including those of Whiting, were exhibited widely, including in New York, Boston, Detroit, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and also in Deerfield itself. The Blue and White Society participated in the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and was awarded a silver medal for both the design and the color of "embroideries of original design." Whiting possessed a gold medal from this Exposition, which might have been won for the Society's pomegranate head cloth. Later in life, Whiting had difficulty with her eyesight and with rheumatism in her fingers, and was not able to continue working with fine threads in delicate embroidery designs. The Society was able to continue during the First World War, despite shortages of materials, time to embroider, and orders, but in 1926 Whiting announced its disbanding. She died in 1946 in Deerfield.


References


External links

* 1895 edition of
Wild flowers of the north-eastern states
' Being 308 individuals common to the north-eastern United States. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons * 1904 edition of
Wild Flowers of the Northeastern States
'


Works cited

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, Margaret C. 1860 births 1946 deaths 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists Embroidery designers American embroiderers Artists from Massachusetts People from Deerfield, Massachusetts National Academy of Design alumni