Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework
(1896-1926)

Ellen Miller (1854-1929) and Margaret Whiting (1860-1946) founded the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework in Deerfield, Massachusetts, during the Arts and Crafts Movement. This movement encouraged a return to hand craftsmanship and inspired women who had the skills and initiative to create useful and expressive work within the confines of the home. In the ca. 1900 booklet "The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework," secretary Margaret Miller explained that the Society started with the intent of reviving traditional Colonial embroidery, but was not simply copying the old designs; rather, it was staying "true to the tradition" of producing "original work founded on its inheritance" - as Colonial Americans had done, for instance, when they incorporated influences from the China trade, giving their designs "fresh vigor from the Orient." The two founders made all the designs, adapting the 18th and 19th century patterns and also creating original designs. The Society was also started to establish a village industry, and it employed as many as thirty Deerfield women to stitch the patterns. They worked with linen fabric and linen threads dyed with traditional plant dyes and native barks, not from "antiquarian preference," Miller noted, but because their colors "satisfy the eye" more than "chemically produced dyes." The Society created a variety of items for exhibit and sale: wall hangings; doilies; door curtains; bed hangings; and covers for pillows, tables, bureaus, and chair backs. It officially closed its books in 1926.