Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Katherine Pettit Book of Vegetable Dyes

Item
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • This 63-page book on traditional vegetable dyeing gives an in depth description of the process of vegetable dyeing, including mordants and sources for dye colors. As an artifact, this book also connects three major rural mountain workers and proponents of vegetable dyeing during the Craft Revival period. The book is written by Helen Wilmer Stone Viner (ca. 1891-1978), who worked at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky before moving to Saluda, North Carolina, where she wrote and published this manual in 1946. The book is named for and dedicated to the memory of Katherine Pettit, founder of the Pine Mountain Settlement School and the Hindman Settlement School, who died in 1936. This particular copy belonged to Louise Pitman, an expert in vegetable dyeing, who came to the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1928 and eventually served as director of the school's Handicraft Program. This copy is signed by Viner. Pages 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10 are blank and were not scanned.
Object
?

Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).

  • This 63-page book on traditional vegetable dyeing gives an in depth description of the process of vegetable dyeing, including mordants and sources for dye colors. As an artifact, this book also connects three major rural mountain workers and proponents of vegetable dyeing during the Craft Revival period. The book is written by Helen Wilmer Stone Viner (ca. 1891-1978), who worked at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky before moving to Saluda, North Carolina, where she wrote and published this manual in 1946. The book is named for and dedicated to the memory of Katherine Pettit, founder of the Pine Mountain Settlement School and the Hindman Settlement School, who died in 1936. This particular copy belonged to Louise Pitman, an expert in vegetable dyeing, who came to the John C. Campbell Folk School in 1928 and eventually served as director of the school's Handicraft Program. This copy is signed by Viner. Pages 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10 are blank and were not scanned.