Panel (Furnishing Fabric) c. 1876

This is a furnishing fabric panel of unknown date, created by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company. Cocheco was one of several textile mills in New England. It reminds us that textiles, often seen as a ‘feminine’ or ‘domestic’ art, were in fact, at the center of industrial capitalism in the 19th century. This piece shows the degree to which American identity was being forged in those years. Note the integration of classical motifs – the laurel wreath – with an idealized image of the American landscape. These landscapes mask the violent displacement of indigenous people and the exploitation of both enslaved and wage-laborers. This fabric asks us to consider the relationship between aesthetics, labor, and power, and how these dynamics are woven into the very fabric of our lives.