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On the occasion of the TRC Gallery exhibition: Textile Tales from the Second World War, we publish a series of blogs about some specific objects in the exhibition. Today we include a short, personal story written by Ms Pien Lambermont, who donated some ration cards ('Stamkaart') from the Second World War to the TRC (TRC 2020.3463a, TRC 2020.3463b, TRC 2020.3463c). These cards were needed in order to obtain ration coupons for food, garments, shoes, etc:

Ration card ('Stamkaart') issued in 1944, belonging to Seraphine (Pien) Lambermont (TRC 2020.3463c).

Reverse of the ration card of Seraphine Lambermont (TRC 2020.3463c).

The ration cards belonged to my parents and myself. I am Pien Lambermont and nowadays live along the Hogewoerd in Leiden [the same street as the TRC], but I spent my childhood, and the war, in the village of Zeist, near the city of Utrecht. On my ration card you can see a symbol that notes that I was frequently ill and allowed extra rations, and my parents were consequently able to buy me shoes twice.

I remember from my illness that I was often unable to keep food down and that I was frequently sick. What I also remember from the war was the enormous effort to obtain food, especially during the last few months of the war. For example, I remember that as children we had to take turns grinding rye in the hand coffee grinder and then making it into porridge. This rye porridge had to cook for a long time and stood on the back of the wood stove for hours, so we could eat it in the evening. I still remember the awful (for me at least) smell that I couldn't handle.

Another reminder is that my mother went three times with either my father or one of my much older sisters on the bike to the Achterhoek in the neighbouring province of Gelderland, to exchange some of their possessions for food. It took days for them to return and I remember that in particular, because I was always afraid that they wouldn't come back. A ray of hope was that I was allowed to sleep in my parents's bed during their absence.

Pien Lambermont, 11 September 2020.

American quilt from the mid-nineteenth century (TRC 2019.2651).As part of the Textile Festival to be held in Leiden from the 12-15th May 2021, the TRC Leiden will be having a quilt and quilting week. This will involve a series of workshops and lectures on the history of quilts and quilting, basic quilting techniques, as well as the investigation of individual quilts.

American quilt historian Linzee McCray, along with Susan Cave, Beverley Bennett and Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood will be presenting the various events.

The TRC activities will run from Sunday, 9th May t/m Saturday 15th May. There will also be the opportunity to explore the planned TRC’s exhibition about the history of the Paisley (buteh) motif and its influence on 19th and 20th century Western textiles and garments.

A metal pilgrim's badge to commemorate the 1933 viewing of the Holy Mantle, Trier (TRC 2020.3574).On the 4th July 2020, we published a TRC Blog about a medieval pilgrim's badge that commemorates the wearer's pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (TRC 2020.3387). It represents a fascinating story about people's lives and Christian beliefs some 500 years ago in Spain and other parts of Europe. Indeed, the story still reflects upon many people's lives to the present day.

In this blog I want to look at another, related item that has just been added to the TRC Collection in Leiden (TRC 2020.3574). It is a pilgrim's badge from Germany. It has the shape of an equal-armed Byzantine cross and is made out of metal. In the centre of the cross there is a disc with the image of a tunic and TRIER 1933 around the edge.

Trier is an ancient city in western Germany with many Roman remains. At some time it was even the residence of a Roman emperor. It is known for its cathedral, namely the Hohe Domkirche (‘High Cathedral’), which is dedicated to Saint Peter. Parts of the cathedral date back to the fourth century AD, making it the oldest church in Germany.

1959 German postage stamp, with a depiction of the Holy Mantle.As with many Catholic religious establishments it houses relics that represent particular events and people, notably saints, important to the Church. In the case of Trier High Cathedral, it has a very special relic, namely a seamless tunic that was believed by many to have been the garment (chiton) worn by Jesus Christ just before his Crucifixion (John 19:23-24). It is also known as the Seamless Robe of Jesus, the Holy Robe, the Honourable Robe and the Chiton of the Lord.

It is a linen garment that has been repaired and added to over the centuries. In particular, it was conserved with rubber in the 19th century (this would never happen nowadays!), so it is now impossible to carbon date it and to give a more accurate date to the object.

Trier, however, is not the only Cathedral that claims to have the Seamless Tunic of Christ. There are other examples, namely in the Basilique Saint-Denys, in Argenteuil, France and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, Georgia.

In 1933 there was a major pilgrim's event in Trier, and the highlight was the veneration of the tunic. This is an event that only happens occasionally. Since the 16th century, for example, it has only been displayed eighteen times, including in 1933 and 1959 - the last time was in 2012. Pilgrims who visited the Trier Cathedral and saw the Holy Robe were given a badge to commemorate their pilgrimage. The TRC in Leiden is very pleased to include an original badge in its collection.

Gillian Vogelsang, 9th August 2020.

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln’s dress, made by Elizabeth Keckley.Sewing has meant many things, from drudgery to inspiration, to many people. For one 19th century woman, it meant freedom. Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907) was born enslaved on a plantation in Virginia (USA). When she was four years old, her mother taught her to sew. At 14 she was sent to work in another state, where she was repeatedly beaten and whipped for her “stubborn pride”.

She was hired out as a seamstress in order to make money for her owner. She saved her money and tried to buy her freedom and that of her young son, but was refused. Finally the family accepted USD 1,200 (about $33,000 dollars in today’s money), and in 1855 signed a deed of emancipation for her and her son. She wrote: “Free! The earth wore a brighter look and the very stars seemed to sing with joy. Yes, Free!” She moved to Baltimore and taught young African-American women her method of cutting and fitting dresses. She then moved to Washington, DC and gained a reputation as an excellent seamstress and modiste.

Pair of engageantes, mid-19th century (TRC 2014.0470a b).The TRC Collection houses some notable types of dress, some of which no longer worn and now completely forgotten. One of these is a type of false sleeve, worn by fashionable ladies until at least the mid-nineteenth century. These were the so-called engageantes.

Engageantes is not a word that is now used on an everyday basis, yet over a 150 years ago, it was an important element in the wardrobe of any fashionable lady in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere. The word engageantes derives from the French word engageant, meaning 'engaging' or 'attaching'. But what are they?

Engageantes are detachable sleeves that were worn underneath the wider sleeves of a women’s bodice or dress. They did not form part of an undergarment such as a chemise, but were independent items. They are sometimes called fake or false sleeves by modern authors, but this is incorrect.

Lady Eleanor Frances Dixie, painted by Henry Pickering, c. 1753. She is wearing elaborate engageantes with three layers of lace. The engageantes reach from underneath the short pagoda sleeves of her bodice.

Fashion face masks for sale at a small shop in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. Photo by Shelley Anderson.Face masks are everywhere. At the beginning of the pandemic the news was full of how sewers and quilters around the world had rallied to produce face masks for medical staff, care givers and others.

Newspapers, including the prestigious New York Times, printed sewing instructions on how to make a face mask from a T-shirt, or from tea towels and shoe laces. Instagram posted photographs of brides wearing lovely satin and lace face masks. Fashion designers, including big names like Dior, were making chic face masks with bows and rhinestones, in a variety of colours to match with different outfits.

In some countries whether to wear a face mask or not has become highly politicized. While Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova has been lauded for her matching face mask and gloves, in the USA some grocery shops refused service to people not wearing masks—while a minority of others refused service to those that did. In Brazil President Bolsonaro was criticized for initially refusing to wear a face mask. He now wears one with his name and photograph printed on it, as do some of his supporters.

On the 10th April 2020, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood wrote a blog about a sampler that had recently been donated to the TRC Leiden. The sampler had been worked in 1872 by Jane Hardy when she was ten years old. She went to Burton Leonard School, in North Yorkshire, England.

More details about Jane Hardy have now been provided by Vivienne Rivis, a local historian, with the help of members of Burton Leonard History Group and the kind permission of Burton Leonard Primary School. The story and the sampler bring to life a girl from Yorkshire who died at a young age, and was long forgotten.

School of Jane Hardy, as it presents itself nowadays along the High Green of Burton Leonard, Yorkshire.

"Jane Hardy was born on or about 29th March 1861, in Burton Leonard, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. She was baptised at the parish church, then St Helen’s, on the 10th July of that year. Her father, Thomas, was a cordwainer or shoemaker, who was born in the village of Skelton, near York, in about 1812. Her mother, also called Jane, was born in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, in about 1825. Jane was their seventh child and was only aged 10 days at the time of 1861 census. Unusually, all the Hardy children were born in Burton Leonard, suggesting the couple settled there before or at the time of their marriage. Two younger children were born after Jane and the couple went on to raise Fred, the child of their eldest son, Edward.

We know nothing more at this time of Jane’s short life, other than that she died in the October quarter of 1880, aged 19. We will order her death certificate in order to find out more about what brought her life to an end at such an early age.

St. Leonard's church at Burton Leonard. The church dates to 1878. Jane Hardy's funeral probably took place inside this church, in 1880.

The description below of the Hardy home and the Burton Leonard school (which is still thriving!) is intended to put Jane’s home and school life in context.

The Hardy home

We believe that the Hardy family lived in a house close to the Hare and Hounds, then one of the village’s three pubs, where their younger son, Thomas, later carried on his father’s trade. Then it would have been a cottage with enough space for a workshop inside or more probably in an outbuilding. It has now been renamed The Manor House and appears through repeated alterations to be a more substantial and genteel dwelling than it was during the Hardy family’s long occupation.

Burton Leonard was known in the early 19th century for its tannery and fine saddlery trade. Nearby Ripon was renowned for making rowels or spurs, an essential piece of horse tack. The Hardy family lived next door to the last saddler in the village, together forming the last vestiges of the leather industry in the village, as the tannery closed before 1900, remaining derelict until the 1980s.

Children in front of the Burton Leonard school, c. 1900. Postcard.Burton Leonard School

Jane was born before the introduction of compulsory schooling in England and Wales (the 1880 Education Act), but, like her siblings, she attended the local school higher up the village on the south side of the high green. The school building and site were owned by its patron, James Brown, a Leeds industrialist who had bought the neighbouring estate of Copgrove.

The School was and is a denominational school of the Church of England, so its curriculum was in part prescribed, and its religious teaching monitored, by the diocese of Ripon. The school was built in early 1800s, probably at the instigation of the local landowning family, the Duncombes of Copgrove. Brown bought the estate from Duncombe’s heir and proceeded to rebuild the parish church, reverting to the old name of St Leonard’s, and to extend the tiny school. Jane may have left school just as the new school room was being completed in 1874, which must have provided many more school places for the children of the village’s workers.

Burton Leonard school as depicted on an old postcard.

The school inspector recorded his approval in October 1874: “I am exceedingly glad to find the enlargement of the building carried out in such a handsome and satisfactory manner.”

We have found no record so far of Jane in the school logbooks that were handwritten by the headteacher, Charles Wilson, who would have taught both Jane and her siblings. Several of the Hardy children are mentioned, however, particularly her younger sister, Sophia, who was frequently absent for long periods. We do not know whether she was sickly, as many of the children in the village were, or simply helping her mother at home, which was also very common.

The headteacher struggled with many challenges when he took over the school in 1869. He found the children had been poorly taught, did not know their scriptures and attendance was often very poor. Not only did the children stay away for feasts, hiring fairs and holidays, they were required to form part of the agricultural seasonal labour force, with tasks ranging from bird-scaring, cowslip picking, hay-making, harvesting, blackberry and potato picking. Girls were kept at home to look after younger siblings or help with cleaning.

Jane Hardy's sampler, worked in 1872 when she was ten years old (TRC 2020.1606).Sewing and Burton Leonard School

Sewing was seen as an important part of the children's education, although Charles Wilson, the father of four daughters who all became teachers, commented rather bitterly in September 1869: “It would be of advantage to the girls to have one lesson with me in the afternoon instead of spending three hours in sewing.” We think the sewing lessons were undertaken by his wife, Jane Ann Wilson, who seems to have taught the infants in the overcrowded school whilst also looking after her own growing family.

On Friday 22 March 1870, “Miss Shiffner brought sewing for all the little girls”. Miss Shiffner was probably Emily, or her sister, who were the nieces of the unmarried school patron, James Brown. Emily Shiffner inherited the Copgrove estate with its patronage of the School from her uncle, and as Lady Bridgeman continued his benevolence towards its pupils until her death in 1927. It seems very likely that the materials for Jane’s sampler, with its bright colours, were provided by Miss Shiffner.

At the next inspection in May 1870 this paid off: “The master and his wife deserve great praise for the work they have done in the school… The needlework is very good indeed.” A change was made in December 1870: “The girls go to their sewing on the first instead of the last part of the afternoon.”

In January 1871, “Thos & Sophia Hardy return to school” suggesting a significant absence. The following week “I find Sophia Hardy and James Geldart have forgotten nearly everything they learnt” suggesting that education was not a high priority in the hardworking Hardy household.

At the annual inspection in May 1871 “The sewing is also good” so Jane‘s sampler, dated 1872, was made when sewing was a key part of the curriculum for girls. However, by the latest date that Jane would have left the school, in October 1875: “The greatest difficulty is with the sewing classes, the parents being determined to send their own work to school. They keep their children knitting for weeks together so no progress can be made with sewing.”

As the 1870s economic downturn and foreign food imports hit British agricultural communities hard, it is no wonder that mothers tried to get the family mending and sewing done by their daughters during school hours. It seems likely Jane in fact left before she was 14.

There were also much more serious challenges to be faced, which now have a strange resonance with our own times. The cramped conditions of the school and the poverty many families must have experienced meant that children were frequently ill with childhood diseases which then could be lethal. In January 1874: “Many have stayed away on account of the fear of infection from scarlet fever...Scarlet fever and bronchitis is continuing to spread in the village.”

Did Jane die of one of these diseases or perhaps another common illness, tuberculosis? As soon as we have more details, we will let you know."

16 April 2020, by Vivienne Rivis in Burton Leonard, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

A printed textile with poppies from the TRC Collection (TRC 2020.1567).