March 26, 2013, Meeting
March 26, 2013, 7:30 pm
Wolbach
Farm
18 Wolbach Rd., Sudbury, MA
The Culture of Handspinning From Colonial Hearth to
Contemporary Guild
Our Wheels Tell an Amazing Yarn of Our Cultural
Heritage
With Peter Cook
Peter Cook is no stranger to the craft of
handspinning. He actually ‘apprenticed’ for two years to Faith Smith, a
nationally known spinner and weaver in Catskill, Catskill, New York in the late
sixties. His first museum position was as a handspinner at Fort Mackinac, an
eighteenth century British Fortification, in Michigan. During the next twenty-
seven years he was the Director and Chief Curator of the Bennington Museum in
Bennington. Vermont, The Administrative Director of SPNEA now known as Historic
New England, and the Chief Curator of Plimoth Plantation. He is widely
published on textiles, handspinning and the decorative arts. His articles have
appeared in The Magazine Antiques, Early American Life, Dublin Seminar for New
England Folk life and many other National publications. He has been a frequent
consultant on colonial handspinning interpretation at museums in the US,
Canada, UK and Northern Ireland.
In his career, he catalogued the spinning wheel
collection of the Museum of American Textile History. He was a guest lecturer
on American colonial handspinning at the Ulster Folk Museum in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. Peter has conducted handspinning workshops throughout the
mid-west, New England, and Ontario. He now divides his time between teaching in
the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University and his eighteenth
century, Tare Shirt Farm, where he and his wife, Nancy…also a spinner and
weaver, raise historic breeds, collect textiles, spinning equipment and new
friends who share their interests.
Please join Peter for an exciting evening learning
about our spinning heritage.
