Kitchen Towel, Tuesday, Ironing

1943

The embroidered design on this linen towel reserves it for kitchen décor rather than for drying dishes. Stitched in cotton thread on a white towel is a woman in a red apron ironing, the housekeeping task scheduled for “Tuesday.” The towel is part of a days-of-the-week set made from a needlecraft kit, a popular creative endeavor in the 1940s, when smaller, single-family homes and new appliances eased the burden of housework for middle-class women. Behind the woman at the ironing board, red-and-yellow flowers with green leaves grow in a yellow flowerpot at an open window. A matching floral border extends on either side of the window, whose blue gingham valance billows in the breeze. Mary Thompson Ford (1861-1960) was both college-educated and a proud homemaker in Jersey City, NJ. Her daughter Blanche Ford Hart (1897-1992) likely embroidered these towels for use in their family kitchen.