Hands in History: Activating Historical Darning Samplers in Hands-on Workshops at Museums

Museum collections contain numerous embroidered treasures that represent cultural heritage and a world rich in stitches, techniques, materials, symbols and stories. Engaging visitors through hands-on workshops can bring this world to life and educate citizens in textile skills, thereby making museum collections active and attractive to visitors in new and meaningful ways. Building on these ideas, this paper will elaborate how a series of hands-on embroidery- and darning workshops at the National Museum of Denmark (NMD) offer a valuable method for making museum collections and objects more relevant to visitors, particularly by facilitating interaction with objects not included in permanent exhibitions. Embroidered artefacts can feel distant to museum visitors due to the preservation criteria that create a physical boundary, limiting both the tactile experience and, at times, even visibility. Additionally, the decline in textile knowledge and skills among the general public creates a cognitive barrier, making it difficult for visitors to fully appreciate the intricate details of such objects, including types of stitches, materials, and hand dexterity. The study of this paper will elaborate on these issues and considerations, through showcasing insights from a specific case study conducted in Denmark as illustrated below:
The collection of Modern Danish History at the NMD comprises 59 darning samplers dating from 1721 to 1891. These samples tell a story of handicraft education in Denmark, the pervasive role of embroidery in the society of the time and the strong ideals associated with textile techniques. The textile repair technique of darning has gained increased attention, possibly as a result of the growing awareness of the climate and environmental impact associated with the production, use, and disposal of textile products. The paper investigates how these historical samples can be engaged as objects of inquiry for a contemporary context, in a workshop series under the NMD event format “Hands in History”. The workshops were conducted at the NMD in April and October 2024. Participants were invited to partake in a two-day event that included lectures, an introduction to the craft of darning, and a contextualization of contemporary perspectives of the samples to ongoing debates about sustainability and circularity of textiles. Hands-on exercises of reproduction of the samples as well as mending of participants’ own garments were guided by the facilitator-researcher, who provided tools and materials, and a booklet of historical darning patterns based on a selected sampler from the NMD’s collection. Additionally, a museum conservator showcased the 1794 sampler, allowing participants to examine the original and experience its delicacy firsthand. Through in-situ observations and informal conversation and a questionnaire distributed among participants at the second workshop, data was gathered on participants' backgrounds, motivations for participation, and assessments of the workshop.
Departing in this, the paper will demonstrate what type of insights were obtained in the interaction between the facilitator-researcher, historical textile crafts embedded in museum collections, participants’ experiences, and wider contemporary perspectives on textile craft.