Fall 2008, Volume 8 - Issue 1
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Royal-made carpet weaves many historical lessons
BY MELISSA EDLER, '00, M.A. '07
n March 15, 1950, the RMS Queen Mary, one of the grandest ocean liners ever built, left port in Southampton, England, bound for New York with nearly 3,000 passengers and crew and a very unique piece of cargo aboard — a 12-panel gros point carpet in an 18th-century design of flowers and birds — stitched by Queen Mary herself.
"The little-known story of Queen Mary’s carpet deserves to be told, for it sheds light on a number of important historical issues such as post-war women’s activism, Britain’s international role in the post-World War II era, and Anglo-Canadian and Anglo-
American relations," says Dr. Mary Ann Heiss, Kent State University associate professor of history. Over the past few years, Heiss has researched the historical background of the royal-made carpet.
In 1941, Queen Mary, widow of George V, began needle-pointing the nearly one million stitches that would compose the 10-foot by 6-foot, 113-pound carpet. The project took nine years of daily work; she was 83 years old when she finished.
Originally, the majestic carpet was intended to grace one of the royal residences, joining the royal family’s other treasured heirlooms. Instead, Queen Mary donated the carpet to Great Britain, where it crossed the Atlantic in 1950 to begin a 12-week transcontinental tour through the United States and Canada before being sold. The money was used to boost Britain’s foreign exchange coffers at a time when the nation was experiencing a serious dollar crisis. (More dollars were leaving the country than entering it.)
Normally a carpet of its quality and size would sell for about $3,000, but this special needlework was purchased for $100,000 by a patriotic Canadian women’s organization, the Imperial Order, Daughters of the Empire. By sponsoring a nationwide fundraising effort to buy the carpet, the IODE provided a vehicle for hundreds of thousands of Canadians to solidify their own and their country’s ties to Britain.
In addition to generating much-needed dollars for British coffers, the carpet generated U.S. interest in British needlework, leading to additional sales of manufactured products from the island country. According to Heiss’ research, the carpet campaign also encouraged British women to work in textile mills, which were operating greatly below capacity due to a shortage of workers.
Today, Queen Mary’s carpet is housed at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. It was last on display in 2001-02 for the IODE’s centennial celebration.
"At first glance, the story of Queen Mary’s carpet may seem to merit only a footnote in the history books," says Heiss, ìbut it also reminds historians that sometimes the story of one simple object can open valuable windows for research, investigation and discovery."
For more information, visit www.kent.edu/magazine.
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