lineage
the lace doily

Three crocheted doilies made at home in Germany, 1925–1940; the maker isn't named. Photo Vitavia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The lace doily

17 traced influences · 4 sources

dig the lace doily

What it took directly

  1. documentedThe doily seen as art comes from The Art of the Doily, a 1975 exhibition in New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal"In 1975, the Center for the History of American Needlework sponsored an exhibition called The Art of the Doily in Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  2. documentedThe Art of the Doily took from curator Rachel Maines's choice of a place where passing women would see their own tradition anew"Curator Rachel Maines chose that location because the women passing through every day would be able to see this female tradition in a new light." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  3. documentedThe 20th-century doily took from Anne Orr's patterns, published from 1915"One of the most popular was Anne Orr, who started publishing her own designs as early as 1915." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  4. documentedThe cotton doily took from mercerization, which made thread stronger, invented in 1844"The mercerization process, which made the thread stronger, was invented in 1844." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  5. documentedCrocheted openwork took from nuns who taught crochet to women starving in the Irish Famine of 1846"Originally a convent art, it was the technique nuns taught to impoverished women during the Irish Famine of 1846, giving the women a sellable product that might keep them and their families from starving." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  6. documentedThe individual table doily took from home economists: a 1916 Kansas State guide said to drop the tablecloth for a doily under each article"The Etiquette and Service of the Table, published in 1916 by the Department of Domestic Science, Kansas State Agricultural College, noted that tablecloths were to be discarded in favor of individual doilies for “each article to be set upon the table." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  7. documentedDoily patterns took from Lucy Maud Montgomery, who designed them to support herself before her writing took off"Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery designed doily patterns to support herself before her writing career took off" Elena Kanagy-Loux, Hyperallergic (April 2024)

What it learned to do

  1. statedElena Kanagy-Loux (lacemaker and textile historian) learned from her mother and grandmothers"Learning to sew, crochet, and embroider from my mother and grandmothers as a child laid the groundwork for my career as a textile historian." Elena Kanagy-Loux, Hyperallergic (April 2024)
  2. documentedDoily-makers learned from patterns in Ladies' Home Journal, newspapers, and thread-company booklets such as Coats and Clark's"Patterns appeared in women’s periodicals such as Ladies’ Home Journal, in newspapers, in dedicated needlework magazines, and in special booklets published by thread companies, including Coats and Clark." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  3. documentedMarge Engelman (doily collector and textile artist) learned from her aunt Margaret, who "crocheted doilies and potholders endlessly""Her early associations went back to an elderly relative, her aunt Margaret, a single, sickly woman who never worked outside the home, “crocheted doilies and potholders endlessly." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork, quoting Marge Engelman

The tradition it sits in

  1. documentedThe openwork doily comes from the Victorian era, when industrial cotton thread was cheap enough for most women"The openwork doily form we think of now was a product of the Victorian era, when cotton thread was industrially produced, and most women could afford it." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  2. inferredThe doily's mid-19th-century rise comes from the Irish crochet lace industry, which grew alongside it"The growth of the popularity of doilies in the mid-19th century paralleled that of the Irish crochet lace industry, which was developed as a means of survival during a famine that killed around 1.5 million people." inferred — Elena Kanagy-Loux says the two grew in parallel; she does not say one fed the other
  3. documentedThe early doily comes from linen damask, like a V&A doily signed in ink by a Jane whose surname can't be read"There is a fringe around each edge, and in one corner is inscribed in ink 'Jane (indecipherable surname) 12.18(?)4'" Victoria and Albert Museum, collection record O361923
  4. inferredToday's doily revival comes from the reappraisal second-wave feminists began in the 1970s"Beginning with the second-wave feminist movement of the 1970s, some women began to look at doilies with a new appreciation." inferred — Beverly Gordon documents the 1970s reappraisal and a comeback in recent years; she does not say one led to the other

Where the whole form comes from

  1. documentedThe doily comes from the doily napkin (1711): a doily was first a fancy napkin"By 1711, his name became associated with the term “doily napkin,” and eventually the word “napkin” was dropped. A doily was originally a fancy napkin." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork (2017, online 2023)
  2. documentedThe word doily comes from Doiley, a London dry-goods dealer on the Strand, late 17th to early 18th century"supposedly from Doiley, surname of a noted late 17c.-early 18c. dry-goods dealer on London's Strand." Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary — note that PieceWork places Doiley in the 16th century
  3. documentedThe word doily comes from Doiley (or Doyley), a 16th-century London cloth merchant who probably sold bobbin lace"Most sources credit it to an actual man, a sixteenth-century London cloth merchant named Doiley (sometimes spelled Doyley), who sold openwork textiles, probably bobbin lace." Beverly Gordon, PieceWork — note that the Online Etymology Dictionary places Doiley in the late 17th to early 18th century

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