Hardcover quarto; 37 recto-only typescript pages, bound in navy buckram with gilt stamped cover. Title page dated 1932; 1933 stamped on cover. Typed on thin paper with occasional closed tears/snags at the edges from hasty turning. Faint splash staining to the cover, bleeding to the foredge of the last 10 or so pages, mild rubbing. Overall Very Good.

A wonderful dissertation illustrated with 20 mounted original silver gelatin photographs, 14 printed illustrations clipped from books or magazines, and 4 leaves with quilting designs reproduced from hand drawings. The title pages of each section are adorned with original ink vignettes recalling folk art silhouettes, drawn directly on the paper. Sections cover hooked rugs, laces, rag carpets, knitting, quilts, needlework (including much on samplers), coverlets, home spun and the historical context for American textile production, including the overseas origins and evolution from home-based industry. 

The vernacular photographic documentation is spectacular, often awkwardly composed, out of focus, or catching reflections in the glass. The images are both wonderfully original and a reminder of the lack of formal scholarship and documentation—a contrast heightened by her choice of title, after Walter Dyer’s hugely popular The Lure of the Antique, and her desire to rouse equal enthusiasm.

No institutional affiliation is noted on the document, but the Worthington News (Franklin County, OH) reported that Miss Hutton received her Master’s Degree in Home Economics in June 1933 from Ohio State University, where she had accepted a two-year teaching contract for the duration of her studies. She was married to Stanley Houghton in 1944, then to Harvey Allen Minton in 1961. At that time, she was State Regent for the Daughters of the American Revolution, Ohio Society. The extent of her earlier involvement with the D.A.R. is unknown, but the privilege of her connections helps establish her access to these textiles, many photographed from private collections, and social influence of perspectives on posterity vs utility. 

Hutton engages in a familiar debate about the value of traditional craft versus an aversion for "old things" among the "people of the present, in this day of rush and restlessness." She argues that textiles should be valued as examples of American Folk Art, not "covering the springs as a pad for the mattress," "exposed to all weather in the yard swing" or "buried in the rag bag” (2).

Writing during the Great Depression when it was an economic necessity, her condemnations of utilitarian reuse occupy a similar territory as modern objections to repurposing "vintage" textiles (e.g. 1950s tablecloths cut up for dresses, throws made into pants). Now with an ecological, if not economic, imperative, reuse is celebrated by some as a means of combating "fast fashion" and textile waste, and vehemently criticized by others as cultural destruction.

While she bemoans the rejection of traditional craft in society at large, she does acknowledge a niche resurgence: “Whether it is true that people have been interested in previous years and I have not been sufficiently interested to recognize this, I cannot say; but it seems to me that at the present time there is an increasing love for the old, quaint possessions of our grandmothers that have been handed down. And while it may be true that many still disregard their value, nevertheless, the circle of people with whom I happen to come in contact are keenly interested in their care and preservation” (35).