The Industrial Revolution
From Running Stitch - A QSOS Podcast by Quilt Alliance
January 16, 2024 · 29 min · Season 4 · Episode 1
About this episode
This episode explores how the Industrial Revolution transformed quiltmaking from an elite craft to a widely accessible art form.
We're kicking off a new season of Running Stitch, focused on the intersections of technology and quiltmaking. But it's not just about computers and digital sewing machines! In this episode we're going back to the roots of quilt making to discover how our nostalgic ideas about quiltmaking as a pre-industrial craft is just that: nostalgia. In fact, quilting as we know it exists because of the Industrial Revolution. New innovations like the factory-made sewing needles, cotton sewing thread, and eventually the sewing machine, created the environment in which quiltmaking flourished, democratizing the art from a form that only wealthy women could participate in, into one that women across economic classes might enjoy. Our guest is Dr. Rachel Maines, a visiting scientist in the Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a seminar associate at Columbia University. Along with her many articles on needlework and textiles, she is the author of The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction and Hedonizing Technologies: Pathways to Pleasure in Hobbies and Leisure.
People in this episode
Guest: Dr. Rachel Maines
Topics covered
- Industrial Revolution
- quiltmaking
- technology
- women's history
- crafts
- textiles
Keywords
- quiltmaking
- Industrial Revolution
- technology
- sewing machines
- women's crafts
- textiles
- history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Cornell University, Columbia University
Books & works: The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction, Hedonizing Technologies: Pathways to Pleasure in Hobbies and Leisure
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