Hands to the Spindle: Texas Women and Home Textile Production, 1822-1880

In nineteenth-century Texas women's hands often created the fabrics their families wore, the blankets used to cover their tired bodies, and the textiles that furnished their homes. Through spinning, weaving, dyeing, and knitting of clothing and linens, women displayed their abilities and their dreams of a better future. These day-to-day activities of Texas women spinners and weavers come to life in award-winning author Paula Mitchell Marks's Hands to the Spindle. The hum of the spinning wheel and the clatter of the loom provided regular accompaniment to the lives of many Texas women immigrants and their families. Producing much-needed garments and cloth also provided an escape from the worries and isolation of frontier life. One early chronicler, Mary Crownover Rabb, kept her spinning wheel whistling all day and most of the night because the spinning kept her "from hearing the Indians walking around hunting mischief". Through the stories of real women and an overview of their textile crafts, Paula Mitchell Marks introduces readers to a functional art rarely practiced in our more hurried times. Photographs of some of their actual handiwork and evocative pen sketches of women at work and the tools and dye plants they used, delicately drawn by artist Walle Conoly, bring the words to life.

About the author

Paula Mitchell Marks is a professor of history at Saint Edward's University in Austin. She has written highly acclaimed books on western history, including Turn Your Eyes Toward Texas: Pioneers Sam and Mary Maverick, also published by Texas A&M University Press.

Product details

• Authors: Paula Mitchell Marks
• Assisted by: Walle Conoly (Illustration)
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.03.1996
• EAN: 9780890966990
• ISBN: 978-0-89096-699-0
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 161 mm x 238 mm x 19 mm
• Weight: 454 g
• Series: Clayton Wheat Williams Texas L; Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Life Series; Clayton Wheat Williams Texas L; Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Life Series
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Guides > Law, job, finance; Humanities, art, music > History; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Management