Kitchen Towel, Wednesday, Super Market

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 biking to the “Super Market” to shop for groceries. The housekeeping task is scheduled for “Wednesday” on this towel, 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. Colorful fruits and vegetables fill the bicyclist’s basket, perhaps prompting her smile. She rides a red bicycle in blue checked pants and a yellow top. A large tree with green branches towers above the Super Market, and an American flag waves atop the grey-and-red trimmed building. 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.