| The objective of this study was to increase the understanding of German from Russia (GFR) immigrants to the U.S.A. by focusing on their textiles. In particular the shawls that were passed through generations of GFR families were studied. The shawls production or acquisition, use, and care were part of women's roles in GFR agrarian families of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This study surveyed the range of shawls used by the GFR and determined what shawls, as material culture, revealed about them.; The project was carried out by locating GFR families who emigrated from Russia between 1870 and 1940 and had shawls passed along in their families. A material culture approach was used which involved the study through artifacts of the beliefs, values, ideas, attitudes and assumptions of a particular community or society at a given point in time (Prown, D. P. 1982, Winterthur Portfolio, p 1-19).; The shawls were physically examined using non-destructive techniques and information was gathered from the families about their shawls. Interviews, written documents, and family photographs provided the histories, memories, and meanings relating to the artifacts. The study included 36 shawls that were grouped into six categories prior to analysis. The McClung Fleming model for artifact study was used to interpret the data (McClung Fleming, E. 1974, Winterthur Portfolio, p 153-173).; GFR women brought both hand woven and factory-made shawls out of Russia. Women whose families originated from the Kogaelnik River Valley in Bessarabia brought brightly colored hand woven striped and plaid shawls. Families with hand woven shawls brought out before 1910 recalled that the women had the skills to process fiber into shawls. Political sentiment in Russia had turned against the German Colonists in 1871. Families living in Russia from the late 1890s on reported that their hand woven shawls were used exclusively in their homes as bed and wall covers and were not worn as shawls. During the political unrest, German women in Russia wore factory-made shawls to visually fit into the dominant Russian culture. The factory-made shawls included complex woven wool, plaid, silk, and worsted wool shawls.*; *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Microsoft Office. |
