Jay Gage, Exhibits Curator

Jay Gage, GRHC Exhibits Curator, was textile heritage presenter, June 21, 1998, at NDSU Libraries, featuring woolen and silk shawls, striped plachta/kanapee, and dazzling floral-bordered tschechka shawls made in historic Pavelovskaya-Possad, near Moscow.

Also notice Miller's family's organ accordion displayed, a glimpse of Krasna, Bessarabian heritage transplanted to Strasburg/Krasna, North Dakota, via Michael Miller's father Peter P. Miller.

Textile panorama displayed at NDSU Libraries lecture, June 21, 1998: (left to right)

1) Three floral tschechka shawls dazzle visually with serigraphed analine dyes.
2) Upon wedding dowry/ "mitsift" to the Kempf family of Beresina, young Gottliebina Stolz of Alt-Elft hand-wove this splendid 1883 woolen Blachte. Her fillet-crochet lace was added later to her heirloom Blachte at Jewell, North Dakota, after her 1901 immigration.
3) Black and red silk embroidery enliven this silk shawl's elegance, formerly worn by Phillipine Baumgartner of Strassburg, Kutchurgan heritage at Linton, North Dakota.
4) This woolen striped plachta/"Canapee" shawl worn by Salomina Sommerfeld Unrath of Paris village, donated by her grand-daughter Vi Kreuckenberg Scheilke of Beulah/Krem, North Dakota.

Featuring "Bunte Geschrifte Blachte"/Kanapee, hand-woven in 1883.

Historic Kempf Family textiles with Gottliebina Stolz's bridal dowry textiles, especially her
1) Blachte/Kanapee hand-woven in 1883 at Alt-Elft, Bessarabia. One of her many her rose-bordered
2) Tschechka (floral kopf-tuch/duechle) is shown at top, while a white damask linen
3) "corporal" used for Lutheran Holy Communion in her Batsen-built home from 1902 through 1914 at Jewell, North Dakota. Her son-in-law, Jacob Pahl, wore
4) infant shoes with tassels in 1895, as a first-born son gift from his father, August Pahl, master shoemaker at Leipzig, Bessarabia, before immigrating in 1898 to Kulm and Monango, North Dakota, where he re-established his shoe shop in Forbes. Jacob's daughter Katherina Pahl Gage, used this cordovan maroon, hand-carved
5) leather purse with wild roses and horses motifs, made in 1960 by her first-born son.

Dramatic Tschechka Shawls favored by Bessarabian women.

Detail of pink-red cabbage roses as floral border on fringed white woolen Tschechka shawl, with serigraphed analine dyes used since 1863 at Pavelovskaya-Possad, artisan village near Moscow. Tschehka shawls were treasured by wealthy German women. A comparative photograph (on lower left) shows a similar-appearing woolen Volga German Tschechka shawl (plus blue floral details), courtesy of The Heimat Museum der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart, (GRHC photo of June, 1996)

Treasured Paradise Blanket (Paradies-Decke) from Paris, circa 1907.

This traditional woolen Canapee shawl was hand-woven by young Salomina Sommerfeld, born 1888 in Paris, Bessarabia, as part of her "mitsift"/dowry for her engaged Unrath wedding. As a newly-wed, Salomina immigrated to America in 1908. Her Blachte/Kanapee uses traditional mordant-plant dyes for vermillion red, olive green, Prussian blue and black.

Photo detail (lower left) focuses on a pink floral fillet-crocheted lace from a Kutschurgan Blachte displayed at The Heimat Museum der Deutschen Aus Russland, Stuttgart.

On lower right is close-up detail of Miller family organ accordion used for music and dances in Krasna, Bessarabia and later fondly played in Strasburg, North Dakota.

Glimpses of Bessarabian textile treasures, courtesy of Heimatmuseum der Deutschen aus Bessarabien, Stuttgart.

These photographic details document the vivid "bunte gestrifte" and "bunte karierte" patterns of "Paradies Decken" (paradise blankets) and "Plachta" shawls, as curated by Christian Fiess, Stuttgart. These selected photographs are courtesy of a GRHC textile photographic research project, funded in June, 1996 with curator Jay Gage.

Bessarabian Textiles Reflect "Schwartzenwald"/Black Forest Traditions.

Official 1921 trachten of Bessarabia of yellow-gold with cobalt blue, worn by doll designed by Elvira Reuer, a native of Alt-Arzis.

Visual display features 1858 silk wedding shawl of Margretta Motz of Alt-Posttal, grandmother of Erna Zieglar Saxowsky, who models her mother's (Regina Weiss Zieglar) cotton-gauze wedding dress of 1910 in Tripp, South Dakota.

Also shown, distinctive Schwartzenwald (Black Forest) "Müttern Hutten", with red pom-pons worn only by unmarried members of bridal party.