Embedded Files
22 November 2026 at 3:30 pm New York time (UTC-5)
An invitation to register for this Zoom webinar will be sent to all current IOLI Members a week before the event.
In 1909, Nettie Asberry and her sister, Martha Townsend, submitted their Battenburg lace opera coat for judging at the 1909 world’s fair in Seattle. Asberry was an early activist for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a committed suffragist; she and her sister were both active in the Black women’s club movement. Their coat was an extension of their firm belief that Black women deserved recognition for their labors and artistry. They felt that beauty and rights should go hand in hand. In this talk, Dr. Mariah Kupfner places this beautiful lace coat in a broader world of Black women’s needlework and activism around the turn of the century. From Nannie Helen Burroughs and Nettie Asberry to Ida B. Wells and Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer, many Black women activists viewed lace as a form of artistry, paid work, expertise, and social signal. They stitched their politics.
Dr. Mariah Kupfner
Dr. Mariah Kupfner
Mariah Kupfner is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Public Heritage and program coordinator for the graduate certificate in Heritage and Museum Practice at Penn State Harrisburg. Kupfner is the author of Crafting Womanhood: Needlework, Gender, and Politics in the United States, 1810–1920 (University of Delaware, 2026), which examines the political resonances and applications of American women’s decorative needlework. Kupfner currently serves as co-chair for the Material Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association and as the faculty advisor for the student fiber arts club at Penn State Harrisburg.
Website: https://www.mariahkupfner.com/
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