322 S. Juliana St ♦ Bedford, PA 15522 ♦ (814) 623 1588 ♦ info@coverletmuseum.org
Collections
In addition to coverlets, the museum collections also include barn frame looms, spinning wheels, warping reels, hatchels and other textile production equipment as well as reference materials, original research, "period" weavers' journals, early pattern drafts and more.
The museum welcomes donations of interesting and unusual coverlets, research and reference materials and weaving equipment. Some notable collections, or portions of collections, gifted and permanently located at the museum include materials from:
Martha and John Jack
Jim and Betty Doig
Gerald F. Valenta and Eugene J. Valenta
Kay Hawthorne
Frank Masters Jr. and Elizabeth Gault
Janet Crosson
Tandy and Charles Hersh via Winnie Hersh Coggins
Helene Bress via Tom Knisely
Nancy Hillenburg
Jes Horwath
Carol Strickler
Gay McGeary
Bill Leinbach
Kitty Bell and Ron Walter
Ted and Bonnie Wachhaus
Patty and Robert Clendennen
Jude Fera
and many more*
*The founding collection, from Melinda & Laszlo Zongor, is featured in Coverlets at the Gilchrist: American Coverlets 1771-1889, an exhibition catalog published in 2005 and available at the museum. This collection includes the oldest known overshot coverlet to be dated in the weave (1771). Note: For folks new to coverlets, the Gilchrist catalog includes a special section devoted to coverlet "Basics," offering brief descriptions of figured and geometric coverlets, pattern types, origins and makers, weave structures and more. The National Museum of the American Coverlet welcomes relationships with general interest museums, historical societies and other institutions that presently house coverlets.