Museum Exhibition
Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930s
Art Institute of Chicago
September 21, 2019 – January 20, 2020
Over 100 works of photography, decorative arts, painting, sculpture, and textiles evidence the country’s search for, and eventual discovery of, a distinctly American character and vitality during the Great Depression.
Exhibition artworks
Representative work
C. S. Peake
Sampler
1820
Silk embroidery on wool ground backed with linen
50.6 × 35 cm (19 15/16 × 13 13/16 in.)
View artwork at the museumFeatured works
United States
Rug
1775-1825
Wool, plain weave embroidered with wool yarn in outline, running, satin and stem stitches forming uncut pile
93.9 × 173.6 cm (37 × 68 3/8 in.)
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Polly Bedford
Sampler
1791
Wool, plain weave; embroidered with silk floss and silk yarns in back, chain, Cretan, individual back, individual running, Roman, satin, stem, and surface satin stitches; laid work, couching, and Roumanian couching
42.9 × 43.7 cm (16 7/8 × 17 1/4 in.)
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Ebenezer Ross
Lion with Palms (Rug)
1890-1900
Jute, plain weave with wool and cotton yarns, knitted and woven strips forming "hooked" pile; edged with cotton, twill weave
152.8 × 77.3 cm (60 1/8 × 30 3/8 in.)
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United States
Quilt Top
1900/20
Cotton, plain weave; engraved-roller printed; fulled; pieced with cotton, machine stitching; embroidered with cotton in long-armed cross stitches
183 × 213 cm (72 × 83 1/2 in.); Flags approximately: 13.9 × 21.6 cm (5 1/2 × 8 1/2 in.)
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Sally Standish
c. 1799
Cotton, plain weaves; some embroidered with silk in chain and cross stitches; some printed; pieced; edged with cotton, plain weaves; some printed; lined with linen
37.2 × 32.4 cm (14 5/8 × 12 3/4 in.)
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Clarissa Emerson
Sampler
1822/23
Linen, plain weave; embroidered with silk in cross, satin, stem, long and short, chain, upright Gobelin, oblique Gobelin, and feather stitches; laid work and couching; painted
55.3 × 42 cm (21 3/4 × 16 1/2 in.)
View at museum53 documented works in this exhibition
View all 53 documented works