Beverly Gordon

Background & Interest:

Professor Gordon teaches courses in textile and fashion history and appreciation, material culture analysis, world dress, and global perspectives on design and culture. She has been teaching, making objects, curating exhibits, and researching textiles and related aspects of the material world and the designed environment for over 30 years.

Her research interests generally involve the meanings of objects in people’s lives, particularly in relation to women and the domestic environment. This translates to an involvement in the fields of textile and costume history; material culture; and folk, decorative, and design art. She is currently working on a comprehensive volume entitled The Fiber of Our Lives: Why Textiles Matter, and previous books include The Saturated World: Aesthetic Meaning, Intimate Objects, Women’s Lives, 1890-1940 (2006); Bazaars and Fair Ladies: The History of the American Fundraising Fair (1998); Shaker Textile Arts (1980) and Feltmaking: Traditions, Techniques and Contemporary Explorations (1980). Her articles range from studies of individual artists to articles on the history and meanings of quilts, blue jeans, dress-up costumes, beadwork, needlework and crepe paper. Her theoretical explorations include the meanings of souvenirs; the conflation of women’s dress and interiors in the 19th century; the underlying meanings of a “backstage women’s space;” and "The Hand of the Maker: the Importance of Understanding Textiles From the Inside Out."

Gordon is active in inter-college programs including Material Culture, Folklore, and Visual Culture, and is on the Executive Committee of the Arts Institute. Professional service included serving as President of the Textile Society of America for several years.  

Gordon’s graduate students have worked on diverse topics such as Victorian fancywork, knitting, folk dress as cultural identity, Indian baskets, the history and applications of weighted silk, Turkish dowry textiles, the meanings invested in brooms, self-taught artist's environments, and communicating through museum environments.

Graduate Student Research Topics (PhD):

Nature Fancywork: Women’s Discourse with Nature in Late 19th Century America

Lithuanian Folk Costume: A Contested Symbol of National Identity

Characterization and Preservation of Weighted Silk (Advisors: Gordon and Sarmadi)

Graduate Student Research Topics (MS):

General focus on historical/cultural aspects of design (material culture)

WPA Work Relief and Ojibwa Weavers: A Study of the Indian Weaving Unit, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin 1939- 1941

Vietnamese Ao Dai: Modern Traditional Dress

The Values and Meanings of Ceyiz (Trousseau) Textiles for Contemporary Urban Turkish Women

The History and Contemporary Meanings of the Charro Suit

A View of Women through the Written Word: References to Dress by New England Women, 1850-1860

A Profile of Signature Designers in the Interior Textile Products Industry

Sweeping Changes (Brooms as Culture and Art)