Embroidery collection on display at gallery

An exhibition of embroidery created over the last 200 years opens Sept. 17 at NC State University’s Gallery of Art & Design.

The exhibition, “Mildred Davis – A Collector’s Eye,” will run through Nov. 22. It displays items from the collection of Mildred Davis, a textiles curator and conservation consultant who has worked at the Tryon Palace in New Bern and at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Va.

The embroidered coverlets, hangings, wraps, shawls, appliques, pillow covers and fragments shown in this exhibit reveal Mildred Davis’ love of embroidery and beauty, the richness of creativity and the desire of needleworkers to make things that are joyful as well as functional.

Gathered over 30 years to demonstrate a spectrum of embroidery techniques to her students, the collection also bears witness to the cultures from which the individual pieces come. A teacher first, Davis was also recognized as an embroidery expert, lecturer, author, curator and museum consultant before her retirement.

Dating from the 1700s and international in scope, Davis’ collection includes a Scottish white on white linen christening blanket from that period and an early 20th century white cotton quilt covered with embroidered images ranging from flowers, fleurs-de-lis, birds and mottos, to a chick hatching from an egg and a crossed set of U.S. and Cuban flags.

Other bed coverings illustrate a wide variety of embroidery techniques. A late 18th century English crewel bed-hanging demonstrates its use in keeping drafts away while creating a striking visual focal point for a room. Victorian appliques, French embroidered cuffs, collars and scarves, and a vividly colored floral shawl from China are among the treasures.

Providing a glimpse of the old South, there is a white-on-white four-poster-bed covering woven and embroidered on the plantation of its original owners. The advent of machine embroidery is shown in blouse panels from the early 1900s made of delicate cotton lawn fabric.

The textiles are complemented by the display of needlework tools from Davis’ collection.

Mildred Davis served as consulting curator of textiles at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Va., and founded the American Institute of Textile Arts at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. After moving to New Bern in 1982, Davis served first as textile consultant for the Tryon Palace Restoration Commission and then as the palace’s curatorial and conservation consultant. She is the author of The Art of Crewel Embroidery and Early American Embroidery Designs, among other books and articles.

The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, can be seen in the Cannon Gallery at the Gallery of Art & Design (formerly the Visual Arts Center), on the second floor of the Talley Student Center. The gallery’s programs are sponsored in part by the North Carolina Arts Council.

For further information, contact the gallery at 515-3503. The gallery is free and open to the public; it’s open noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 2-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.